Employee Compensation History

Activate User's Guide
Version
2026.1
ft:lastEdition
2026-02-02
Employee Compensation History

Use the Employee Compensation History wizard to upload historical employee compensation information or add Reason Codes to your existing DayforceEmployment Status records.

You can view this data inDayforce on the Employment Status tab of the Employment, Compensation, and Policy Settings section of the employee's People record.

Note: You can run this data load more than one time.

Note: Activate uses HR Version 2.0 (NextGen) when loading data during configuration. To simplify the import, First Name and Last Name are excluded when not required.

Before you begin

Employees included in the Employee Compensation History template must exist in Dayforce and meet the minimum requirements, like a hire date, a work assignment, and employment status data.

Note: Employee data can be loaded using the Getting Started wizard, Load Your Data > Employees, or the Clean Up Data for Parallel or Go Live wizards.

Key concepts

The employee compensation information includes the following: Employee Identifier, First Name, Last Name, Pay Class, Pay Type, Hourly Rate/Annual Salary, Status, Reason Code, and Effective Start Date.

The values for the following fields were loaded with the Getting Started and Build Dayforce wizards and might have also been updated directly in the environment. Accepted values for these fields are specific and based on the current Dayforce environment.

  • Pay Class
  • Pay Type
  • Status
  • Reason Code

Note: See your Implementation Consultant for the accepted values for your configuration. You can find this information on the following pages in Dayforce under HR Admin: Employment Status Reason, Marital Status, Pay Class, and Pay Type.

Using this wizard

The previously loaded employee information shows in an editable grid with the compensation-related fields that need to be populated. You can enter information directly in the grid or you can download the Compensation History template, populate it, and then upload the data. When you edit the data in the grid, Activate shows any applicable validation warnings or errors. If warnings or errors are shown, review and update the data in the grid or upload a corrected template to correct them.

Enter required changes in the template to ensure that future uploads are accurate. If you make edits directly in the grid, click Save and download the updated file for record keeping purposes.

Errors, warnings, and messages

The rules set up in Dayforce generate any Error or Warning indicators shown above the grid's column headings.

  • Errors prevent you from continuing with the Wizard.
  • Warnings are informational and indicate potential problems that you need to be aware of.
  • Messages are informational and identify a deviation from the rules.

To refer to the errors, warnings, and messages while you correct the data, click Download Errors File.

To correct the errors, messages, or warnings, do one of the following:

  • Update the information directly in the grid.
  • Click Download Errors File to download the list and then upload an Excel file containing the corresponding corrections.

Whether you edit the data directly in the grid or upload the file, Activate shows validation warnings or errors to indicate problems with the data. To review and correct any warnings or errors that display, either edit the records in the grid or upload the corrected information in a template again.

Enter any required changes in the Excel document to ensure that future uploads are accurate. If you make edits directly in the grid, click Download File and save the updated file for record keeping purposes.

Tasks

To complete and upload the Employee Compensation History template:
  1. In Activate Central, click Load Your Data and the Load Your Data wizards are shown.
  2. Click one of the following:
    • Employee HR Data Hub and then click Employee Compensation History.
    • Employee Compensation History.
  3. On the Compensation History Data page, click Download.
  4. Select the location where you want to save the template document.

    The file names of templates that you download from Activate begin with a prefix that is the Namespace that you’re logged in to. The same is true for the file names of ZIP files when you download multiple templates at the same time.

  5. Open the CompensationHistoryDataTemplate.xlsx template on your computer.

    Note: You can also download an empty Employee Compensation History template from the Download Template Files page.

  6. On the CompensationHistory tab, complete all of the columns with the data for all employees in the organization.

    Note: The Activate release version shows in cell B3 on the Instructions tab of the template. This information helps you later determine the version of Activate you were using when you downloaded the template.

    Note: Instructions for populating the fields are in the Employee Compensation History Data Template Fields section (below) and on the Instructions tab of the template.

  7. Click Save and close the template.

    You can use any file name for the template you upload. The file must be an Excel or CSV (Comma-Separated Value) document and contain the data in the required format.

    Important: Don’t change the name of the tab in the template. Activate uses the tab name to validate that the correct template is being uploaded. In addition, don’t change the column headings.

  8. On the Compensation History Data page, click Upload.
  9. Go to your completed Compensation History template in the location where you saved it.
  10. Click Open.

    Activate validates the uploaded file.

    Note: When you upload an Excel file, Activate includes the name of the uploaded file into the name of the XML file it generates and loads to the Dayforce File Server. The format of the generated XML file name is <NamespaceName>_<Import Type>_<file name provided>_YYY-MM-DD_HHMM. This information makes it easier to audit files later.

    Note: If the uploaded file has errors, a Validation Failed message shows in red at the bottom of the page. You must correct the errors in the file on your computer and upload the file again.

    Reason code validation

    Activate validates the Reason Code field values in the loaded file with the “Change Reason is Mandatory” setting in Dayforce based on the following field settings:

    How Activate validates the Reason Code values
    Change Reason is Mandatory
    Any fields to mass assign
    When field will be effective
    Carry Forward

     

    Then....

    Yes

     

     

     

    		Except “Reason Code”

     

    Any

     

    No

    • Fields selected to mass assign are updated to the values selected in the Wizard only on the specific point of time.

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code are set to “New Assignment.”

    • Employee records (from Dayforce) with an existing Reason Code retains the existing Reason Code.

    Yes

    • Fields selected to mass assign are updated to the values selected in the Wizard from the specific point of time and after.

    • Employee records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code have their Reason Code set to “New Assignment.”

    • Employee Records (from Dayforce) with the existing Reason Code retain the existing Reason Code.

    With “Reason Code”

     

    Any

     

    No

    • Fields selected to mass assign are updated to the values selected in the Wizard only at that specific point in time.

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with a NULL/EMPTY Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    • Employee Records (from Dayforce) with existing Reason Code have their Reason Code set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    Yes

    • Fields selected to mass assign are updated to what values were selected by the user in the wizard on the specific point of time and after

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    • The Reason Code for employee records (from Dayforce) with existing Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    No

     

     

     

    		Except “Reason Code”

     

    Any

     

    No

    • Fields selected to mass assign should be updated to what values were selected by the user in the wizard only on the specific point of time

    • Employee Records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code retain the existing Reason Code.

    • Employee Records (from Dayforce) with the existing Reason Code retain the existing Reason Code.

    Yes

    • Fields selected to mass assign should be updated to what values were selected by the user in the wizard from the specific point of time and after

    • Employee Records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code retains the existing Reason Code.

    • Employee Records (from Dayforce) with the existing Reason Code retains the existing Reason Code.

    With “Reason Code”

     

    Any

     

    No

    • Fields selected to mass assign should be updated to what values were selected in the Wizard only at that specific point in time.

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with existing Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    Yes

    • Fields selected to mass assign will be updated to the values selected in the Wizard at the specific point in time and after.

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with NULL/EMPTY Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

    • The Reason Code for Employee Records (from Dayforce) with existing Reason Code are set to what is selected in the Wizard.

  11. Click Next.
To review and confirm the data:
  1. Review the information shown in the grid.
  2. To make updates to data on the page:

    • To insert a new row in the grid, click the row where you want to insert it and click New.

    • To delete a row, click the row and click Delete.

    • To download the error message list and save it to your computer, click Download Errors File.
    • To correct errors in the grid, click in the field containing the error. Click Tab to move to the right and Shift+Tab to move to the left in the row. Use the scrollbars on the right side and bottom of the grid to go to other areas of the grid.

    • To save information in the grid to your computer, click Download File and save it to the location you want.

    • To upload the file from your computer, locate the file and click Upload File. The data in the file shows in the grid.

    • To remove changes that you don’t want to save, click Refresh.

  3. When the data is complete, click Done & Install. When you leave the page, the selected values stay in the grid.
To install compensation information

When the compensation information is complete in Activate, you must load the data into Dayforce.

  1. After making any necessary corrections, on the Compensation History Review page, click Load.

    The Load page opens with a list of the steps to complete and an estimate of how long the installation usually takes. During the installation, the current step in the process is bolded so you can monitor the progress.

  2. Click one of the following:

    • Add Email and enter your email address to receive an email when the installation process ends, instead of waiting for it to finish.
    • Next when the installation is complete.

    Activate Central opens with the name of the Wizard now shown in green text and a green checkmark to the left of the wizard’s name. The current day, date, and time of completion are included, along with your name as the user who completed the wizard. The environment in which the installation was applied (Stage, Config, or Train) also shows.

    Note: If you want to add more information, click I want to add more. See Executing a Rollback When Using the “Add More“ Feature in the Payroll Wizards.

Results

Fields populated in Dayforce

The data uploaded from the Employee Compensation History Data template populates the fields in Dayforce:

  • On the Employment Status tab of the Employment, Compensation and Policy Setting page (People icon > Employment > Employment, Compensation and Policy Settings, Employment Status tab) in Dayforce.

  • On the Employee Record > Work > Work Assignments > Expand Assignment Record > General tab, in the Periodic Salary fields.

Note: Select an employee if you haven’t already done so.

Note: Click All to see the historical stack of status records.

Dayforce fields populated by the Employee Compensation History Data template
Field in Template Field in Dayforce Page in Dayforce
Employee Identifier Numeric identifier next to the employee name Employee (People icon)

 

 
First Name Employee First Name
Last Name Employee Last Name
Effective Start Date Effective From

People icon > Employment > Employment Settings, Employment Status tab

 

 

 

 

 

 
Status Employment Status
Reason Code Reason
Pay Class Pay Class
Pay Type Pay Type
Annual Salary Annual Salary
Hourly Rate Base Rate

Periodic Salary

Periodic Salary

People icon > Work > Work Assignments > Expand Work Assignment Record > General tab
File generated by the Compensation History wizard

After completing the Employee Compensation History wizard, a single import file is automatically generated and placed on the customer's FTP site.

HR Import

  • FTP Subdirectory: Import/HRImport
  • Filename: <Namespace> HRImport <DateTime>.xml
For an example illustrating how Activate translates the template data to XML, click here.
Copy 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<EmployeeImport>
    -<Employee>
        <XRefCode>953735</XRefCode>
        <FirstName>Mona</FirstName>
        <LastName>Frederick</LastName>
        -<EmploymentStatus>
            <PayClassXrefCode>FT</PayClassXrefCode>
            <PayTypeXrefCode>SALARIED</PayTypeXrefCode>
            <EmploymentStatusXrefCode>ACTIVE</EmploymentStatusXrefCode>
            <EffectiveStart>2013-01-01</EffectiveStart>
            <BaseRateSalary/>
            <PayGroupXrefCode>CANADA_BI_WEEKLY_2016_01_01</PayGroupXrefCode>
            <PeriodicSalary>4500</PeriodicSalary>
        </EmploymentStatus>
    </Employee>
</EmployeeImport>

Next steps

Complete the next wizard, as appropriate.

Employee Compensation History Data template fields

All templates have the same basic structure:

  • Instructions tab: Helps you understand the purpose of the data and complete the fields in the template.
  • Data tab: Contains headers for the data to be included in the template. The headers remain the same, but you can change the column order. If you add more columns, Activate ignores them.

All number ranges in the templates include the numbers at both ends of the range.

For information on the fields in the template, click here.
Employee Identifier (Required)
Field information for the Employee Identifier field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed

1

 Alphanumeric. Unique value between 1–9 characters.

The employee's unique identifier as it was used in previous templates or as it already exists in Dayforce.

Note: Upon upload of the template data, Activate converts any lowercase alpha characters found in the Employee Identifier field to uppercase.

3241245
000000006
abc123499

For this import, the Employee Identifier, First Name, and Last Name help users identify employees when completing the template.

This required field is used to validate that the data being loaded is assigned to the correct employee record. The values provided must match exactly to an existing employee recordinDayforce.

First Name (Required)
Field information for the First Name field
Order Data Type Description Example Why This Is Needed
2 String1 between 1–64 characters.

Legal first name of the employee.

The value provided must match exactly to an existing employee recordinDayforce.

Note: Activate‘ compares the First Name and the Last Name with the Employee Identifier in Dayforce. If they don’t match, Activate shows an error message that states that the data is being loaded incorrectly and to check the source data.

 Joe

For this import, the Employee Identifier, First Name, and Last Name help users identify employees when completing the template.

This required field is used to validate that the data being loaded is assigned to the correct employee record. The values provided must match exactly to an existing employee recordinDayforce.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Last Name (Required)
Field information for the Last Name field
Order Data Type Description Example Why This Is Needed
3 String1 between 1–64 characters.

Legal last name of the employee.

The value provided must match exactly to an existing employee recordinDayforce.

Note: Activate‘ compares the First Name and the Last Name with the Employee Identifier in Dayforce. If they don’t match, Activate shows an error message that states that the data is being loaded incorrectly and to check the source data.

 Smith

For this import, the Employee Identifier, First Name, and Last Name help users identify employees when completing the template.

This required field is used to validate that the data being loaded is assigned to the correct employee record. The values provided must match exactly to an existing employee recordin Dayforce.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Pay Class (Required)
Field information for the Pay Class field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
4

String1 between 1–64 characters.

Accepted Value:

See your consultant.

This information is known inDayforce as the employee's pay class. It indicates whether the employee is currently a Full-time employee (FT) or Part-time employee (PT).

See your consultant for the complete list of accepted values.

PT
FT
Contractor
Pensioner 		Part of an employee's overall status record. This information helps to group employees as part-time and full-time to make the qualifications into benefit plans, time and pay calculations.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Pay Type (Required)
Field information for the Pay Type field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
5

String1 between 1–64 characters.

Accepted Value:
See your consultant.

This information is known inDayforce as the employee's Pay Type. Indicate whether the employee is currently an Hourly or Salaried employee.

See your consultant for the complete list of accepted values.

Hourly
Salaried		 Part of an employee's overall status record. This information helps to group employees as hourly and salary to make the qualifications into benefit plans, time and pay calculations.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Hourly Rate/Annual Salary (Required)
Field information for the Hourly Rate/Annual Salary field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
6 Numeric. Specifies the hourly rate or annual salary of an employee. This value should match the value selected in the Hourly/Salaried field. If the employee is marked as Hourly, then an hourly rate is expected. If the employee is marked as Salaried, then their annual salary is expected. DayforceActivate expects an hourly rate of less than 100 and a salaried rate greater than 10000. 10.50 (if Hourly)
45000 (if Salaried)

The employee's pay is a key part of Dayforce. It’s used to calculate the employee's gross pay to determine their net pay, analyze true schedule cost, manage pay grades, and determine employee cost of certain benefit plans.

Status (Required)
Field information for the Status field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
7

String1 between 1–64 characters.

Accepted Values:
See your consultant.

 This field indicates whether the employee is an Active, Inactive, or Terminated employee. In Dayforce, this is known as the employee's Employment Status. Active
Inactive
Terminated		 Part of an employee's overall status record. This information helps to group employees to assist the qualifications into benefit plans, time and pay calculations.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Reason Code (Conditional)
Field information for the Reason Code field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
8

String1 between 1–128 characters.

Accepted Values:
See your consultant.

Indicates a reason why the Pay Class, Pay Type, Hourly Rate/Annual Salary, or Status field values changed for the employee as of the Effective Start Date provided.

This field is required when the Client Property “Changes Reason is Mandatory” is enabled.

Merit
Promotion
Change in Pay Type
Transfer

The Reason Code provides additional detail to the historical reasoning behind an employee status change inDayforce.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Effective Start Date (Required)
Field information for the Effective Start Date field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
9 Date. Excel right-justified date format or Excel text format yyyy-mm-dd.

Indicate the date when this compensation change came into effect. This information is known in Dayforce as the Employment Status Effective Start.

This record can't be dated after the primary status record, which was provided on the Employee Data or Fresh Start Date templates.

Date formatted cells:
09/24/2015
24/09/2015

Text formatted cells:
2015-09-24

The date here is used to record previous historical compensation records for employees inDayforce.
Periodic Salary
Field information for the Periodic Salary field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
10 Numeric. Editable only when a salary pay type is selected 4500 You can use the Periodic Salary field to specify the salary amount an employee receives regularly, for example, monthly.
Pay Group
Field information for the Pay Group field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
10 String1 between 1–128 characters. Accepted Values: See your Consultant. The pay group of this historical record, if different than the employee's currently effective pay group. USA_WEEKLY Enables employee records to reflect the correct historical pay group assignments for reporting and payroll reconciliation.

1 Special characters accepted in the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Commonly encountered issues

You must assign the reason codes “Comp Change” in Dayforce or you’ll get the following error: “Reason Code value isn’t in the list.”