Building a merit matrix or pay guidance

Give managers a starting point for every employee’s increase. You need the System Admin or Total Rewards Admin role, and a cycle in the Setup phase — see Creating a cycle. The matrix prices best with a performance review and pay bands in place — see Performance reviews and Importing pay bands.

The merit matrix is a suggestion a manager sees on every row, never a cap. The limits a manager must stay within are the guardrails, which sit below the matrix in this same section — see Setting guardrails for managers.

Answer how guidance is set

Open the cycle, choose the Setup tab, and select Edit on 3. Guidance. Answer How is guidance for this cycle set?, one of:

• Merit matrix — each employee’s guidance comes from their rating on the cycle’s review and their compa-ratio. In a cycle that plans ranges, it is a range, from a low to a high.
• Performance — each employee’s guidance comes from their rating alone. No pay band is read, and none is taken at launch.
• Flat — every employee’s guidance is the same percentage: the merit funding pool’s own funding rate, or its amount divided by the planned population’s payroll. No pay band is read, and no performance review either. See Creating funding pools.

A cycle that plans ranges is a Merit matrix or Performance cycle in a workspace where guidance ranges are on, or one launched that way. A Flat cycle never plans ranges. Every other cycle plans one percentage per cell, and each part of this page that describes ranges applies only to a cycle that plans ranges.

The choice saves as soon as you make it. A new cycle starts with the question unanswered: no matrix shows, the section summarizes as Not set, and the launch summary lists it as a blocker that opens this section — see Verifying everything before launch. Switching away from Merit matrix or Performance while you have typed but not saved a cell asks you to confirm first, because it reloads the grid from its last save.

Once the cycle launches, the answer freezes: it reads as plain text, marked that it froze at launch.

Flat guidance

A Flat cycle shows no grid and no performance review picker — every eligible employee’s guidance is the same percentage, read from the merit funding pool: its funding rate, or its amount divided by the planned population’s payroll. Fund the pool on 2. Budget — see Creating funding pools — before the cycle can launch; an unfunded pool shows no percentage here and the launch summary lists it as a blocker.

On the worksheet, every row’s guide is this percentage, with no Default badge — a Flat cycle names no matrix column to default from. The guide, the apply arrow and the budget meter work exactly as they do on a Merit matrix or Performance cycle.

Pick the review the cycle plans on

The matrix’s rows are the workspace’s performance review — its rating options, in the order you gave them, plus a reserved Not rated row last. A new cycle defaults to the latest review; change it from the Performance review picker above the grid. Repointing it always asks you to confirm first, because it discards every percentage you’ve saved on the grid, not just an unsaved edit.

With no performance review in the workspace yet, the picker is replaced by a notice linking to the import page, and the grid is the Not rated row alone.

Once the cycle launches, its review and rows freeze: the picker becomes plain text, marked that the review froze at launch, and the grid keeps pricing every employee from the rows it launched with even if the review is later renamed or its options changed. See Performance reviews for renaming a review or editing its options.

The grid starts filled from the budget

Until you save the matrix for the first time, a cycle with a merit funding pool opens its grid already filled, priced so the cycle’s projected spend lands on the pool. A notice above the grid says the percentages are a draft: nothing is stored until you select Save, and you can change any cell first. Saving a filled grid lands on the audit trail like any other save.

Each filled cell’s midpoint is its rating’s weight × its compa-ratio column’s weight × one scale factor, rounded to 0.25% and capped at 100%. In a cycle that plans ranges, the cell’s range is then set around that midpoint, at the range width described below; in any other cycle, the cell is that midpoint:

• Rating weight — 2 for the review’s first, best option down to 0 for its last, evenly spaced between, so a five-option review weighs 2, 1.5, 1, 0.5 and 0. The Not rated row has no weight and stays empty. The weights read the review’s order, so order its options highest first — see Performance reviews.
• Compa-ratio weight — < 80% 1.3, 80–100% 1.1, 100–120% 0.9, > 120% 0.6, and No pay band 1.0. Under the Performance basis, only the No pay band column fills.
• Scale factor — the merit funding pool divided by the sum, over every planned employee, of their base pay × their cell’s two weights.

When nobody planned sits in a cell with weight — everyone is unrated, say, or on the lowest rating — the scale factor is the pool as a percentage of eligible payroll instead, and the notice says so. On a review with an odd number of options, the middle rating weighs exactly 1, so its No pay band cell’s midpoint is exactly that percentage. On a review with an even number of options no rating weighs 1: the two middle ratings sit either side of it — on a four-option review, at 4/3 and 2/3 of that percentage. A pool set as an amount converts to that percentage. With no merit funding pool, the grid stays empty. The weights are fixed; you can’t change them.

Range width. In a cycle that plans ranges, the Range width field beside Reset Guidance sets how far each range runs either side of its midpoint, in points. It starts at 1 point, so a midpoint of 3% fills as 2% to 4%. It is saved with the matrix, so the next fill uses it, and 0 gives a low equal to its high. A range that would run past 0% or 100% is cut at that bound and keeps its midpoint, so it is narrower on that side.

The draft fills again when you change the merit funding pool or switch the review, as long as nothing is saved. After the first save, the grid never fills on its own again.

To start over, select Reset Guidance at the foot of the grid: it replaces every cell with a fresh draft from today’s pool and employee data, unsaved, as a range in a cycle that plans ranges. If you have typed a cell since the grid last loaded, it asks you to confirm first. Reset Guidance needs a merit funding pool, and is gone once the cycle launches.

Build the grid

1. Open the cycle, choose the Setup tab, and select Edit on 3. Guidance.
2. Enter a percentage in each cell, from 0% to 100% — or, in a cycle that plans ranges, a low and a high, each from 0% to 100% — or adjust the filled draft.
3. Select Save at the foot of the section.

Each row is one of the review’s rating options, or the reserved Not rated row. With the Merit matrix basis, the columns are compa-ratio bands — < 80%, 80–100%, 100–120% and > 120% — and a fifth column, No pay band, prices anyone no pay band reaches. With the Performance basis, the No pay band column is the only one.

In a cycle that plans ranges, each cell is a range, and its low and high are saved together. Clear both to leave a cell with no guidance; a low and a high of 0% is a range of 0%. In any other cycle, a cleared cell gives no guidance, and a cell holding 0% is guidance of 0%. A cell with only one end set, a low above its high, or an end outside 0% to 100% is refused until it is fixed, and Save stays disabled while any cell has an error.

The Not rated row

Anyone the cycle’s review doesn’t rate plans from the Not rated row, in whichever column their compa-ratio (or, under the Performance basis, the single column) reaches. The row shows how many employees are unrated, and a note when that row isn’t priced yet — leaving them with no merit percentage at launch. This never blocks launch.

Watch what it costs

The grid prices itself as you type, before you save, from today’s employee data. Every cell shows how many people it reaches and what they cost, even a cell you have not filled in — a blank cell reads 0 people · $0, at the same height as its filled neighbours. In a cycle that plans ranges, each range is priced at its midpoint. The summary shows the total Projected at launch against the merit funding pool, marked over by or under by the difference. Below the grid you see how many people are planned and how many would have no guidance.

The grid also points out rows that reach nobody, and a rating option nobody eligible holds today. None of these stops you saving.

Warnings for a cell that contradicts its neighbour

As you fill in the grid, a yellow border flags a cell priced higher than a neighbour that usually pays less — a lower rating, or a compa-ratio bucket further above range. Hover or focus the cell to read which neighbour it is compared against. In a cycle that plans ranges, a range is compared by its midpoint, and the tooltip names both midpoints. Two checks run:

• Down each compa-ratio column, a cell must not price higher than the nearest filled row above it.
• Along each row, a cell must not price higher than the nearest filled compa-ratio bucket to its left.

Both checks skip a gap — an unfilled cell between two filled ones is never read as a 0% — and skip the Not rated row and the No pay band column, since neither compares against a rating or a position in range. A warning is never a block: it stays on the cell while the pattern does, and you save a grid carrying one exactly as you save one without.

A red border is a different thing: it marks a cell with an end outside 0–100%, and Save stays disabled until you fix it.

Set one employee’s guidance by hand

When one employee should be guided to a different number than the cycle gives them, set it yourself. An override replaces the matrix guidance or the Flat percentage for that employee only, on any of the three bases. You need the System Admin or Total Rewards Admin role, and you can’t override your own record.

1. Open the cycle, choose the Setup tab, and select Edit on 3. Guidance.
2. Under the planning question, find the employee in Guidance overrides. Search by name, or switch on Overridden only to list just the employees you have already overridden. The table shows each employee’s rating, the compa-ratio band on a Merit matrix cycle, the guidance the cycle computed, and your override. A figure the cycle can’t state shows a dash, and hovering the dash says why.
3. Enter a low and a high in the Override fields, in a cycle that plans ranges, or one percentage in the Override field in any other cycle, and, if you like, a note saying why. The override saves when you leave the row or press Enter — it doesn’t wait for Save on the section.

The computed guidance stays beside your override, so you can read one against the other. The count beside the table shows how many overrides the cycle holds out of the 250 it allows.

An override saves either way. On a cycle that plans ranges, it is checked against the merit guardrail’s hard bounds only: a low or a high outside a hard bound carries a warning on its row that names the bound and the end that crossed it. On any other cycle (Flat, or one that doesn’t plan ranges), the percentage is measured against the merit guardrail as before: a yellow warning outside the soft range, and a red warning outside the hard range.

To remove an override, select the clear button on its row. If the override has a note, you confirm first, because the note goes with it. The employee goes back to the guidance the cycle computes.

The note is for you and your colleagues on the audit trail. It never appears on a worksheet: a manager sees only that the guide was set by an admin — see Reading the guidance and guardrails. Each set and clear is recorded on the audit trail as a Guidance override.

Import guidance overrides

To set or clear many employees’ overrides at once rather than one row at a time, open the cycle, choose the Setup tab, select Edit on 3. Guidance, and drop a .csv file on Import overrides, or select it to browse. The file’s columns are in the Import field reference. You can import overrides before or after launch, until the cycle is finalized or cancelled.

The file opens on its import page for you to review before anything changes. It shows how many overrides the file sets, how many it clears, how many rows already match what the employee has, and how many rows it skips. Each skipped row is listed with its reason, such as No employee with this work email is planned by this cycle, a percentage that is not a number from 0 to 100, or your own employee record. Each row that passes a bound of the merit guardrail is listed too, and it still applies. On a cycle that plans ranges, that means a hard bound. See Setting guardrails for managers.

Select Approve and import to apply every set and clear at once, or Reject to change nothing. You approve the file whole, never row by row. Skipped rows write nothing, and an employee the file does not name keeps the guidance they have. Each employee whose override changes gets one entry in the audit trail, marked as coming from the import, and the Guidance overrides table shows the new figures.

A cycle holds at most 250 guidance overrides. A file that would take the cycle past that is refused whole, when it is checked and again when you approve it.

After launch, on a cycle that plans ranges, an imported override moves the employee’s guidance range on their worksheet row, and never their merit percentage. On any other cycle (Flat, or one that doesn’t plan ranges), a row on a worksheet still in progress or returned that no one has set by hand also takes the override as its merit increase.

A cycle with no guidance

An empty or partly filled matrix never stops a cycle launching. Two warnings sit above the matrix in 3. Guidance, and each is also a line in the Launch summary:

• The merit matrix has no guidance configured or Some employees will start with no guidance, which reads n employees have no matrix recommendation in the summary. It lists the empty cells with how many employees each holds, and Fill these cells tints them on the matrix and takes you to the first. Those employees’ rows show No guidance on the worksheet.
• Some employees hold no rating, which reads n employees hold no rating in the summary. It says how many employees the cycle’s review leaves unrated and whether the Not rated row is priced. While it is not, Price the Not rated row takes you to the row’s empty cells. Once the row is priced the notice turns blue and the summary drops the line.

Launch proceeds either way. See Verifying everything before launch.

After launch

The planning basis fixes at launch. The matrix does not: while the cycle is planning or in approval, you can change it in the 3. Guidance section, save it, and select Send matrix to worksheets. The dialog previews how many rows it updates and how many it leaves alone, and Send matrix applies it only to worksheets still in progress or returned, and only to rows no one has set by hand. It never reopens a worksheet, and it leaves alone every row whose guidance you set by hand: the dialog counts them as skipped. On a cycle that plans ranges, each row it reaches takes its cell’s new low and high, and their midpoint; its merit percentage is never changed. Overrides keep working after launch — see Changing a cycle after launch.

Guardrails below the matrix

The merit matrix is guidance, not a limit. Below it, the Guardrails card in the same 3. Guidance section holds the limits on each employee’s increase for Merit, Promotion and Bonus, behind a Use employee-level guardrails switch that a new cycle starts with off. On a cycle that plans ranges, the Merit row’s soft range is each employee’s guidance range, so only its hard bounds are entered there. It saves with the section and is not part of the grid. See Setting guardrails for managers.