Bonuses & Commissions

HCM → Bonuses records one-off payments to employees (bonuses, commissions, spot awards and retention payments) and who signed each one off.

Awarding a bonus

Only HR (HR managers and HR admins) can award bonuses.

1. Go to HCM → Bonuses and click Award Bonus.
2. Search for the Employee.
3. Pick the Type and enter the Amount (£). The amount must be greater than zero.
4. Optionally add a Period (for example Q3 2026), a Reason and Notes.
5. Click Award Bonus. It's saved as pending.

You can edit or delete a bonus while it's pending.

Approving or rejecting

Click a bonus to open it. Someone in HR can then add an optional decision note and click Approve or Reject.

• Nobody can approve their own bonus.
• A decision can only be made once.
• Approving posts the bonus to the ledger: a journal entry debits Bonuses & Commissions and credits Accounts Payable. If today falls in a closed accounting period, that journal is skipped.
• An approved bonus can't be edited or deleted. Rejected bonuses can still be deleted.

Important: bonuses are not added to payroll runs automatically. Pay an approved bonus through payroll or accounts payable yourself.

Who sees what

HR sees every bonus. Everyone else sees only their own bonuses, read-only.

The count cards at the top filter the list. The Awaiting approval and Approved cards also show the total value.