The Compensation costs tab is designed for HR admins. It focuses on analyzing actual payroll data using the payroll summary you upload, so you can see exactly what your company paid and where that spend sits.
This article explains how payroll concepts are categorized, how to filter and group the data, how to upload your payroll summary, and how to export the result.
Where to find the Compensation costs tab
To access it:
- In your sidebar, go to Financial planning in the Finance section.
- Select the Compensation costs tab.
How payroll concepts are categorized
In this tab, your payroll concepts are categorized and summed under the following categories:
- Earnings – Fixed salary
- Earnings – Benefits in kind
- Earnings – Others
- Earnings – Variable
- Deductions
- Company contribution
- Summarized values
- Uncategorized
Summarized values. The concepts under this category are not summed, as they are already the result of operations.
Uncategorized. All predefined concepts are linked to the rest of the categories automatically. Your custom concepts appear temporarily under Uncategorized until you link them to the right category via Settings > Compensation > Payroll concepts configuration.
Filters
Click Filters to narrow the view down to the payroll data you want to analyze. Six dimensions are available, and they can be combined — both the table and the graph respond to all of them.
Each dimension opens a searchable, multi-select list. Select the values you need and click Apply Filters, or Clear filters to start over. Once applied, the Filters button shows how many dimensions are active and each selection appears as a chip beneath it — remove one with its ✕, or use Clear selection to drop them all.
Payroll concept
Payroll concepts are the individual lines that make up your payroll summary — including any custom concepts you've linked in your settings.
This filter does more than narrow the data down: it changes what the graph plots.
- By default, the graph shows Company cost.
- When you select payroll concepts, the graph switches to plotting those instead.
You can select up to three concepts at a time. Each one is drawn as its own line, in its own colour, with its own total displayed above the graph — so you can follow three concepts side by side and see how each has evolved over the period.
- Example: How have base salary, company cost and incentives moved over the year? Select those three concepts and the graph plots one line each, with the period total for each above it.
Other filter dimensions
The remaining five dimensions scope which employees' payroll data is included:
- Legal entity — each legal entity configured in your company account.
- Cost centre — if cost centres are set up in Factorial.
- People — employee, their manager, or any group of employees.
- Role — the roles from your Job catalogue, expandable to select specific levels within a role.
- Workplaces — physical office or remote locations.
Date filters
The figures in the tab are shown for a period you choose. The period selector sits at the top right of the tab and shows the period currently applied — for example 2026.
- Click the period selector to open it.
- Under Selected by, choose the granularity you want: Month, Quarter or Year.
- Pick the period you want from the grid. Use the ‹ › arrows above the grid to move through the available range (for example 2020 → 2029).
- Click ‹ › either side of the period selector to step to the previous or next period without reopening the picker.
The granularity you pick here also sets the intervals shown in the graph and the table.
Period comparison is available in the Employee costs tab only. See Employee costs in Financial Planning & Analysis.
Group by
Use the Group by option to change the visual breakdown in the table. It doesn't change the data, only how it's presented for reporting.
Group by applies to the table only, not to the graph.
Upload payroll summary
The data in this tab comes from your official payroll summary, so it stays empty until you upload one.
- In the Compensation costs tab, click the Upload summary button at the top right.
- This is a shortcut where you can upload the official payroll summary to populate the dashboard with real, detailed salary data.
Export
Same behavior as in the Employee costs tab: based on your selected filters and grouping, Factorial generates a .xlsx Excel file and sends it to your Factorial email.