Employee field guide

The Employee master connects people operations, payroll, leave, projects, approvals, expenses, permissions, and cost allocation. It contains sensitive personal data, so each field needs an owner, purpose, visibility rule, and retention decision. Use Demo Retail Group LLC and employee EMP-004281 while practising.

Identity fields

Open People → Employees → New.

Field	Example	Purpose and impact
Employee code	EMP-004281	Stable payroll and audit key
Legal name	Maya Rao	Payslip and statutory identity
Preferred name	Maya	UI and communication
Date of birth	1991-04-22	Statutory or benefit rules
Nationality	Indian	Compliance and reporting
National ID	Masked	Identity verification; restricted
Tax ID	Masked	Payroll filing
Personal email	maya@example.com	Private communication
Work email	maya.rao@demo-retail.example	Login and notifications
Phone	Masked	Contact and emergency use
Status	Active / leave / terminated	Workflow and access

Personal identity fields are not needed in general ledger reports. Mask them in lists and exports; allow access only to authorised People or Payroll roles.

Employment fields

Employment detail records legal company, branch, department, job, grade, manager, location, start date, probation end, contract type, end date, work schedule, cost centre, and project eligibility. Effective dates are essential: a transfer on 1 October should not rewrite September payroll.

Field	Demo value	Impact
Company	Demo Retail Group LLC	Payroll and ledger scope
Branch	DXB-MAIN	Tax and reporting
Department	Sales	Cost allocation
Job	Account Executive	Approvals and grade
Grade	G6	Salary and limits
Manager	Sales Director	Approval routing
Start date	2024-03-01	Service and leave accrual
Contract	Full-time	Payroll policy
Work schedule	40 h/week	Attendance and overtime
Cost centre	Retail channel	P&L allocation
Effective from	2026-10-01	Version boundary

An employee cannot approve their own salary change, leave exception, expense, or termination. Separation of duties is configured by role and manager hierarchy.

Payroll fields

Payroll detail includes pay frequency, base salary, allowances, deductions, bank account, payment method, tax category, social-security class, overtime rule, benefit plan, and effective dates. Components should be versioned and mapped to expense, liability, tax, and cost dimensions.

For AED 18,000 monthly salary, housing AED 4,000, transport AED 1,000, and pension deduction AED 900, the payroll run displays gross, taxable base, deductions, net pay, employer cost, and allocation. A salary change becomes effective in the selected period only after approval.

Bank details require verification status, verified date, source, and effective date. A new account remains pending; it cannot be used for payroll until independent verification.

Leave and attendance

Leave fields include policy, balance, accrual, request dates, half-day flag, reason, approver, attachment, status, and payroll impact. Attendance records date, schedule, clock-in/out, absence code, overtime, location, and source. A leave request approved after payroll cut-off creates a controlled adjustment, not an unexplained salary change.

For 30 annual leave days, OSERP calculates opening balance, accrual, approved, taken, pending, carry-forward, and closing balance. Negative balance requires policy and approval. Medical or personal documents use restricted retention.

Expenses, projects, and approvals

An expense claim records employee, date, merchant, category, amount, currency, tax, receipt, project/WBS, cost centre, advance, and approval. A travel expense in USD is converted using transaction rate and settles through payroll or payable policy.

Timesheets record employee, project, WBS, activity, date, hours, billable flag, rate, and supervisor. A consultant charging 60% to HOSP-2026 creates project cost; remaining time may be overhead. Unapproved hours cannot be billed or included in project forecast.

Access and privacy

Access fields include user link, role, company scope, branch scope, MFA status, last login, activation date, and termination date. Employee status change should trigger access review. Termination disables login at approved effective time while retaining payroll and audit history.

Sensitive fields include national ID, bank, salary, medical, disciplinary, and emergency data. Define field-level read/write/export permissions, encryption or vault reference, retention period, and access audit. AI or analytics exports should use pseudonymous employee IDs unless approved.

Lifecycle and accounting

Lifecycle statuses are draft, pending approval, active, leave, suspended, notice, terminated, and archived. Each transition stores user, timestamp, reason, effective date, and evidence. Rehire creates a new employment segment or version according to policy; it should not erase prior service history.

Payroll posting debits salary, allowance, employer contribution, and allocated project expense; credits payroll payable, tax, pension, and other liabilities. Payment clears payroll payable. Cost allocation must reconcile payroll subledger to GL by company, department, cost centre, and project.

API mapping

API payloads should use immutable employee ID, external ID, legal company, effective employment segment, role, department, and masked or tokenised sensitive values. Use idempotency for imports and never expose raw bank or national IDs in logs.

{"externalId":"HRIS-004281","companyId":"company_uae","employeeCode":"EMP-004281",
 "employment":{"departmentId":"sales","jobId":"account_exec","startDate":"2024-03-01","effectiveFrom":"2026-10-01"},
 "pay":{"frequency":"MONTHLY","baseSalary":"18000.00","currency":"AED"},
 "costCentreId":"retail_channel"}

Practice checklist

Create an employee, approve a salary change, assign a department, submit leave, record a timesheet and USD expense, run payroll, allocate cost to project and department, verify bank change, terminate access, and reconcile payroll to GL. Explain every field’s owner, format/precision, effective date, permission, privacy class, status, journal, API ID, and audit event. Then attempt to export salary data without permission and approve your own expense; prove both controls reject the action.

Related: HR screens, Payroll, Journal Entry field guide, Treasury banking day, and API cookbook.