Promote or transfer an employee

A promotion changes the employee's designation and salary from an effective date; a transfer changes branch and department. Check the payslip of a month in which a promotion starts part way through.

HR & payroll Employees
3 min read
Updated October 20, 2026

For HR officer Payroll officer Administrator

On this page

The idea
Promote an employee
Transfer an employee
What it means for pay

The idea

The employee record always shows the current designation, branch and department. A promotion or a transfer does not overwrite the old one; it adds a new row with an Effective date and keeps the old one as history. Payroll reads the designation in force in the pay month.

Open Promotion and transfer. Two tabs are for employees: Employee promotion and Employee transfer. Companies with elected members also see Promotion (Elected) and Party change (Elected).

Promote an employee

Press Add on Employee promotion
Who
HR officer
Where
Promotion and transfer › Employee promotion
What changes
A form opens with the Name and the Previous designation shown.
Choose the new Designation and the Effective date
What changes
The new designation cannot be the same as the current one: the screen says "Promoted designation and current designation are same." Give the Effective date the new designation starts on.
Say how the salary is set
What changes
Salary based on is the designation setting (use the table on Payroll setup › Designation salary) or the individual setting (type the Basic salary here).
Choose what to carry over
What changes
Copy allowance brings the employee's own allowances to the new designation. The old ones stop on the effective date.
Save
What changes
The employee's current designation becomes the new one from the Effective date.

Worked example: promoting an accountant from the first day of a pay month

The company promotes an accountant to senior accountant. Before saving, HR checks that the senior accountant designation has a row on Designation salary that is effective from that pay month, for example a Basic salary of 36,000 (Designation salary and grades).

On Promotion and transfer › Employee promotion › Add:

Field	What HR enters
Name and Previous designation	Shown by the form: the employee and Accountant
Designation	Senior accountant. Choosing Accountant again is refused: "Promoted designation and current designation are same."
Effective date	The first day of a pay month
Salary based on	The designation setting
Copy allowance	Ticked, so the employee's own allowances move to the new designation

After Save, the employee's current designation is Senior accountant from the Effective date, and the Accountant allowances stop on that date. Pay already generated for earlier months is not changed. HR then opens Payroll details and checks the employee's Deduction list, which is not copied (An employee's payroll details).

Transfer an employee

On Employee transfer press Add, choose the employee, Transfer to (branch), Transfer department and the Effective date. The employee's current branch and department change, and the employee's login moves to the new branch too.

What it means for pay

From the pay month after the effective date, the salary, allowances and deductions follow the new designation (How a payslip is worked out).
Allowances and deductions set by designation follow the designation. Those set for the employee belong to one designation: if you do not copy them, the employee starts the new designation with the designation's items.
Pay already generated for earlier months is not changed.