---
title: Compensation types and payroll items
description: Manage the compensation types offered in employee records and link Illizeo’s payroll items to your payroll software’s codes.
url: "http://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/payroll-compensation-types/"
updated: "2026-11-11"
category: "Payroll / Compliance & exports"
---

# Compensation types and payroll items

Compensation types are the salary components you offer in employee records: monthly or hourly salary, bonuses, premiums, indemnities, allowances, benefits in kind, deductions… Each carries an external code that is passed on in the exports. Payroll items, for their part, link Illizeo’s time quantities (overtime, night hours, on-call duty…) to your payroll software’s codes. This article explains how to manage both. It is intended for administrators and payroll managers.

## Before you start

- Both pages are in **Settings › Salary & Payroll**: **Compensation Types** and **Payroll items**.
- They require the **Compensation types — CRUD** permission: at the Access level you read, at the Execute level you create and edit. The default Administrator and Payroll Manager roles have it.
- The Settings menu also requires the **Settings — Access** permission.

## Types supplied by Illizeo

The list on the left sorts types into two groups. **ILLIZEO** holds the types supplied with the product: expense reports, objective-based bonus, one-off bonus, advance, loan, monthly salary, hourly salary, 13th, 14th and 15th month, advance deduction, overtime and premiums (night, Saturday, Sunday, public holidays), bridge hours, on-call duty… The custom group holds the ones you create. Their names appear as they were set up in your workspace.

- An Illizeo type carries a banner saying it is supplied by Illizeo and cannot be deleted; its name and external code are set by Illizeo. You can add an internal note to it.
- The **Off** label and the grey dot indicate a deactivated type.
- Some types are linked to a module: an expense reimbursed through salary, an objective-based bonus from the Performance module, or hours paid by the Attendance module enter payroll under their type.

![Compensation types page: list of the 19 Illizeo types (13th, 14th and 15th month marked Off) and no custom type; detail of the one-off bonus type, not deletable, external code 2000003, Premium type.](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/paie-15.en_-scaled.png?resize=800%2C597&quality=80&ssl=1)
The list of types and the detail of a type supplied by Illizeo.

## Creating a custom type

1. Open **Settings › Salary & Payroll › Compensation Types** and click **Add**.
2. Enter the name (required) and the external code: the identifier passed on in accounting exports.
3. Choose the type: **Allowance**, **Benefit in kind**, **Bonus**, **Premium**, **Indemnity**, **Fixed salary**, **Hourly salary**, **Supplement** or **Deduction**.
4. If needed, set the start and end dates of validity, and a default amount (leave it empty if the amount varies): it pre-fills the entry in the employee record.
5. To reserve the type for part of the workforce, choose offices, departments or teams.
6. Add an internal note for administrators, check that the type is active, then save.

To start from an existing type, open it and use the duplicate button at the top right (**Duplicate**). A custom type is removed with **Delete**; if it is already in use, deactivate it instead.

## Linking payroll items to your payroll software

The **Payroll items** page links each Illizeo payroll item to your payroll software’s item code. The attendance “by payroll item” export sends these codes with quantities (hours, days, count), never amounts.

1. Open **Settings › Salary & Payroll › Payroll items**. Each item is shown with its label, its identifier and its unit: for example overtime (hours), night hours, Sunday hours, flat-rate days worked (days), on-call category 1 (count).
2. For each relevant item, enter your payroll software’s **Code** and, if you wish, the **Label in your payroll (optional)**.
3. Click **Save**.

![Payroll items page: each item (normal hours, overtime, night hours, Saturday hours…) with its identifier, its unit, and the Code and Label in your payroll fields.](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/paie-16.en_-scaled.png?resize=800%2C370&quality=80&ssl=1)
Payroll items and their code in your software.

Labels help you spot what remains to be done: **To map** flags an item requested by a module (“Cited by…”) that has no code yet, and **Same code as another item** a code entered twice. Without edit rights, the page is read-only and an item without a code shows **Not mapped**.

## Treatment per country

When your workspace has a payroll calculated by Illizeo (Swiss payroll, Moroccan payroll…), a type’s detail also shows a **Treatment per country** block: it says how each payroll handles this type on the payslip (**Country standard**, **Set by you**, **Outside this payroll**). This setting is described in each national payroll’s articles.

## Good to know

- A type’s external code is passed on as is in the exports: align it with your payroll chart before the first month.
- An inactive type is no longer offered for entry; items already entered with it remain. The entry itself is made in the employee record: see [Entering an employee’s compensation](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/payroll-employee-compensation/).
- Payroll items carry quantities only: amounts (salaries, bonuses, payments) go through compensation types.

## Frequently asked questions

### I cannot rename an Illizeo type.

Its name and code are supplied by Illizeo. Create a custom type if you need another label or code.

### A type is not offered in an employee’s record.

Check that it is active, within its validity dates, and not reserved for other offices, departments or teams.

### Where do I enter the code of my “night hours” item?

In **Payroll items**, not in compensation types: hours are sent as quantities.

### *Similaire*