Siebel Incentive Compensation Administration Guide > Employee Balances and Payment Releases >

Employee Balances and Payment Release Overview

Siebel Incentive Compensation maintains balances for each employee. A balance is the difference between an employee's Payments to Date and Earnings to Date, computed during a Calculation Run.

Employee balances are important both to the employee and to the compensation administrator. The employee closely monitors balances to compare them with earnings statements and released payments. The compensation administrator reviews the balances, corrects them as needed, and releases payments based on the balance details.

There are several events that may prompt changes to an Employee Balance after it is calculated.

• True-up calculations. Many employers compensate employees based on a Year-to-Date or True-up program, meaning that, while calculation runs occur monthly, the specific attainment is tracked from January to December and is accumulated throughout the year. To compensate properly without repaying for the same attainment, the previous period's compensation must be subtracted from the current pay. The true-up reconciles the calculation.
• Negative balance carry-forward. In some cases, an employee's earnings balance may be negative for a period. This can occur if an order is returned after the employee has already received compensation for it. The compensation amount must be restated in the employee balance details and carried forward to the next period, because the subtraction may result in a negative balance.
• Retroactive plan changes and transactional adjustments. Organizations frequently change compensation plans (including quotas, rates, and caps). As a result, measurement periods often must be recalculated, and earnings for the period must be restated. Organizations also make adjustments to orders or invoices, creating reverse transactions that must be executed in a previous period, requiring a restatement of earnings for that period.

As an administrator, you can run true-up and retroactive calculations as needed, maintaining balances for each employee. Using the Payment Release feature, the you can create, adjust, and release payments to employees, and review the updated Employee Balances.