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A salary structure is a reusable pay template. It gathers the salary components that make up a complete pay package — basic pay, allowances, deductions and the statutory items — and decides, for each one, whether it is a flat amount or a formula. You build a structure once (say “Teaching Staff 2026” or “Management”), then assign it to each employee from a date, plugging in that person’s base pay. The structure plus the assignment is what a payroll run uses to compute every payslip. This page covers building a structure in the builder, the formula editor and its code picker, how statutory items appear as read-only pills, the draft → submitted lifecycle, and assigning a structure to an employee. You’ll find this at: /settings/erp/finance/payroll-structures (list) — the old /payroll/setup/structures redirects here. Create at /payroll/setup/structures/new, edit at /payroll/setup/structures/:id.
📷 Screenshot: the Salary Structure Builder with earnings and deductions sections and the formula editor — to be added.
Multi-business: a structure belongs to the selected business. Confirm the business switcher first.

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The structure lifecycle (docstatus)

Like most posting documents in Hitaji 360, a structure carries a docstatus: You can only assign a structure that is Submitted and active. A draft can’t be assigned, and a submitted structure is locked — you must Cancel it (and build a new version) to change the lines.

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Building a structure

From the list, choose New (or open an existing draft). The builder has:
  • Name — e.g. “Teaching Staff 2026”
  • Frequency — Monthly, Bimonthly, Weekly, Daily, or Hourly
  • Currency — ISO code (e.g. UGX)
  • Attendance-based payment days — optional; derive paid days from attendance rather than the calendar

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Earnings and deductions

Add component lines into the Earnings and Deductions sections. For each line you pick a component, then choose how its value is set:
  • Fixed amount — type a number, or
  • Formula — write an expression (see below).
A line cannot have both an amount and a formula — the builder makes you choose one. (A per-line value overrides the component’s own default.)
📷 Screenshot: adding an earning line and choosing fixed-amount vs formula — to be added.

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The formula editor and code picker

When a line is formula-driven, the editor offers a code picker so you don’t have to memorise variables. The built-in codes are: The picker also lists every non-statutory component’s abbreviation so you can reference, say, BASIC * 0.4 or HRA + TRANSPORT. Statutory components are deliberately excluded from the picker — you can’t build a formula on top of PAYE/NSSF/LST because those are computed last. Formulas support arithmetic, comparisons, &&/||/!, the ternary cond ? a : b, and min, max, abs, round, floor, ceil.

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Statutory items appear as read-only “auto-calculated” pills

When you add a statutory component (PAYE, NSSF, LST) to a structure, it shows as a read-only pill labelled “Auto-calculated at run time” — there is no amount box and no formula box. The builder strips any value off the line, and the backend rejects any inline amount or formula on a statutory line. The statutory engine supplies the figure during the run using the income-tax slabs and configured rates. This is intentional and keeps statutory maths consistent for every employee.
⚠️ Watch out — double pro-ration: if a line both depends on payment days and uses a formula that references another already-prorated component, the system blocks it, because the amount would be prorated twice and underpay the employee. Keep the formula referencing the full-value component and let pro-ration apply once.

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Saving and submitting

Save keeps the structure as a Draft. When the lines are right, Submit moves it to Submitted so it can be assigned. To revise a submitted structure, Cancel it and build a fresh version.

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Assigning a structure to an employee

A structure does nothing until it is assigned to an employee’s contract. Assignment is where the per-employee numbers live — most importantly the base pay. You assign from the employee’s Compensation card (see Employee profile and Employment records & contracts), which opens the Salary Structure Assignment modal. Submitting the assignment automatically closes any earlier overlapping assignment for that contract (it stamps an end date), so an employee always has exactly one active assignment on any given date. The active assignment as of the run date is what determines whether the employee appears in a run and how their pay is computed.

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Permissions

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Behind the scenes — how a slip is computed

During a run, for each employee the engine:
  1. loads the active assignment (giving base, currency, any tax-slab override),
  2. evaluates each earning line (formula or fixed amount), accumulating gross,
  3. evaluates each deduction line,
  4. then asks the statutory engine for PAYE / NSSF / LST (which ignore any structure value), and
  5. produces the payslip: gross − total deductions = net pay, plus employer contributions.
Each component’s GL mapping drives where its amount posts. The full debit/credit posting is on Running payroll → Behind the scenes.