Grades

A grade is a seniority band, such as Officer, Manager or Director, that you give to people so that expense policies can apply different caps to different bands. You create the grades once, set a grade on each person's resource record, and then create one expense policy per grade. When someone evaluates a claim, xMatix reads the claimant's grade and applies only the policies for that grade.

Overview

Grades are a short master list. Each grade has a name, an optional code, rank and description, and an Is Active switch.

A grade does nothing on its own. It matters in two places:

• On the person. The Grade field on the person's resource record says which band they are in.
• On the expense policy. Every expense policy names one Grade, and its rules check only claims from people in that grade.

The payroll Employee record also has a Grade field, but nothing reads it. Expense policies use the grade on the resource, not the one on the employee record.

When to use it

Use grades when your written expense policy has different limits for different levels. A common example is a hotel ladder: one nightly cap for officers, a higher one for managers, a higher one again for directors.

You also need at least one grade if you use expense policies at all. A policy must name a grade, and a claimant whose resource has no grade gets no policy checks.

How xMatix handles it

• Matching is by the grade record, nothing else. When Evaluate Policy runs on a claim, xMatix finds the claim's Resource, reads its Grade, and keeps the policies whose Grade is that same grade. It also checks the policy's company, its effective dates, and whether the policy and rule are active.
• Rank, Code and Description are for people. No process reads them. A higher Rank does not give anyone a higher grade's limits, and policies are never combined across grades.
• Is Active does not switch a grade off. The policy check does not look at it, and the Grade pickers on the resource and on the policy still offer inactive grades. A policy that names an inactive grade still applies to everyone who still carries that grade.
• Partner Account is recorded only. The company you set on a grade is not used to match policies. The policy's own Partner Account decides which company's claims it checks. If your organization runs one company, the field is hidden.
• The grade is read when the policy is evaluated. If you change someone's grade, claims evaluated after the change use the new grade. Claims that were already evaluated keep their violations until someone selects Evaluate Policy again.

Prerequisites

• The Expense List app and access to Grade in your security profile (see Permissions).
• A Name field on the New Grade form. The standard form does not have one. See Step 1.
• Access to the Resource records of the people you want to grade.

Procedure

Step 1 — Add Name to the grade form (once)

A grade must have a name, and the name must be unique. The standard Create Grade form has no Name box, so a new grade cannot be saved until you add one. If you try, the save is refused with Name is required.

1. Go to Setup → Design Studio → Entities and open Grade.
2. On the Experience → Layouts tab, open Create Grade with Web Design.
3. Add the Name field at the top of the form and save the layout.
4. If people create grades on the phone, open the same layout with Mobile Design and add Name there too.

The same form opens when you select Edit on a grade, so you can rename grades too once Name is on it. For more about the designer, see Design a form layout.

Step 2 — Open the grades list

Open the Expenses app, choose Settings, and select Grades under Dimensions. You can also open Expense List from the App Launcher and choose Grades.

The All Grade list shows Name, Code, Is Active, Created By, Created and Modified Date. You can search it by name.

Step 3 — Create a grade

1. Select New.
2. Enter the Name, for example Manager. People will see this name in the Grade picker.
3. Optionally enter a Code, a Rank and a Description.
4. Leave Is Active ticked.
5. Select Save.

The grade's record page opens. Repeat the steps for each band.

Step 4 — Give people their grade

1. Open the Platform app and select Resources.
2. Open the person's resource and select Edit.
3. On the Details tab, in the Details panel, choose the Grade.
4. Save.

From now on, any claim with this person as its Resource is checked against the policies for this grade. Setting the grade on the payroll Employee record instead has no effect on expenses.

Step 5 — Create a policy for each grade

Create one expense policy per grade. Each one needs the company as its Partner Account and the grade in Grade. Then add that grade's rules to it. A rule that should apply to everyone, such as a receipt threshold, must be added to every grade's policy. See Expense policies.

Step 6 — Change or retire a grade

• To change the code, rank or Is Active, open the grade. You can edit these fields in place on the record page, or you can select Edit.
• To move people to another grade, change the Grade on each person's resource. Then re-run Evaluate Policy on any draft claims that were already checked.
• To retire a grade, first move its people and its policies to other grades. Then switch off Is Active so that people can tell it is no longer used. Switching it off on its own changes nothing: its policies keep applying to the people who still carry it.

Fields

New Grade form

Grade record page

The header shows the grade's name and its Partner Account, with Edit and Delete. The Key Information panel shows Code, Rank and Is Active. The System Information panel shows Created By, Created Date, Modified By and Modified Date. When you hover over a grade name in a list, the preview shows Code, Rank, Partner Account and Is Active.

Business rules

• A grade needs a Name, and no two grades can share one.
• An expense policy applies to a claim only when its Grade is the grade on the claim's Resource (along with the company, date and active checks; see Expense policies).
• A claimant whose resource has no grade gets no policy checks, because every policy must name a grade.
• Only the grade record counts. Rank, code, description, Is Active and the grade's Partner Account are never compared.
• The grade on the payroll Employee record is not read by expenses or payroll.

Example

A company has three bands and a hotel ladder of 4,000, 6,000 and 9,000 a night.

1. The administrator adds Name to the Create Grade form, then creates three grades: Officer (Code OFF, Rank 1), Manager (Code MGR, Rank 2) and Director (Code DIR, Rank 3).
2. On each person's resource, they set the matching grade. For example, they open the resource of a sales manager and set Grade to Manager.
3. They create three expense policies for the company, one per grade. Each policy gets a CategoryLimit rule on the Hotel category, with Threshold 4,000, 6,000 or 9,000.
4. The sales manager claims a hotel night of 6,500 including tax and selects Evaluate Policy. Only the Manager policy applies, and its rule records a violation for the line. The Director cap of 9,000 is not considered.
5. The sales manager is promoted. The administrator changes their resource's Grade to Director and re-runs Evaluate Policy on their open draft. The violation clears, because the line is now within the Director cap.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox, add Name to the Create Grade form and create two grades, Trainee A and Trainee B. Set Trainee A on your own resource. Create a policy for your company and Trainee A with a CategoryLimit rule of 500 on any category. Raise a draft claim with one line of 600 in that category and select Evaluate Policy.

Expected result: the claim records one violation for the line. Now change your resource's grade to Trainee B and evaluate again. The violation disappears, because no policy exists for Trainee B. Change the grade back afterwards.

Quick reference

• Grades live under Expenses → Settings → Dimensions → Grades.
• Add Name to the Create Grade form before creating the first grade.
• Set the grade on the person's Resource, not on the payroll Employee record.
• One expense policy per grade; claimants with no grade are never checked.
• Rank, Code and Description are labels only; rank never inherits limits.
• Is Active does not switch a grade off. Move its people and policies first.
• Grade names must be unique.

Permissions

What you can do with grades follows the entity access in your security profile. The standard System Admin and Standard User profiles have full access to Grade and include the Expense List app. Without access to Grade, you cannot open the list or pick a grade. Without the Expense List app, the Grades list is not on your menus.

Setting a grade on a person needs edit access to Resource. Creating a policy for a grade needs access to Expense Policy; see Expense policies.

Configuration

• Menu. Grades are in the Expense List app, in the Dimensions group. In the Expenses app, Settings opens this list app.
• Forms. Grade has three layouts under Setup → Design Studio → Entities → Grade → Experience → Layouts: Create Grade (the New and Edit form, on web and mobile), Grade View (the record page) and Grade Preview (the hover preview). Add Name to Create Grade, as in Step 1. To show Description on the record page, add it to Grade View.
• List view. The All Grade view decides the list columns. You can add columns such as Rank in the view settings.
• Partner Account picker. The grade's Partner Account picker lists only accounts marked as your own companies.
• Where grades are used. The Grade field on Resource (Details panel) and the required Grade on Expense Policy. See Expense policies.

Common problems

"Name is required" when saving a new grade

The standard New Grade form has no Name box, and a grade cannot be saved without a name. Add Name to the Create Grade layout (Step 1), then create the grade again.

"Name '…' already exists"

Grade names are unique across the organization, including grades set up for other companies. Use a different name, or reuse the existing grade.

Evaluate Policy finds nothing for one employee

Check the Grade on the claimant's resource. It must be filled in and must be the same grade as the policy's. A grade set only on the payroll Employee record does not count. Also check that the claim's Resource is that person. After fixing the grade, select Evaluate Policy again.

A deactivated grade still applies its limits

Is Active is not read by the policy check. To stop a grade's limits, move its people to another grade, or switch off its policies' Is Active on the policy record.

A senior employee got a junior grade's cap

Policies match the grade record, not the rank. The person's resource carries the junior grade, or the senior grade has no policy with that rule. Set the right grade on the resource, and make sure every grade's policy carries the rules that should apply to it.

Common questions

Does a higher rank inherit the limits of lower grades?

No. Rank is a number for your own ordering, and nothing in xMatix reads it. Each policy names exactly one grade, and evaluation applies only the policies whose grade is the claimant's grade. So a Director gets the Director policy's rules and nothing from the Manager policy. If several grades should share a rule, add that rule to each grade's policy. Keeping the ranks in order still helps administrators read the list, especially when you have many bands.

Which Grade field do I fill: on the resource or on the employee?

Fill the one on the resource. Expense claims name a resource as the claimant, and the policy check reads the grade from that resource. The payroll Employee record has its own Grade field, but expenses and payroll both ignore it. You can fill both if your HR reports use the employee one, but keep them the same so that people are not confused.

Can grades differ by company?

Not for policy purposes. A grade's Partner Account is recorded but not used: any grade can be chosen on any resource and any policy. Names are unique across the organization, too. To give two companies different caps for the same band, keep one grade and create one policy per company for that grade, each with its own Partner Account and rules.

What happens to past claims when I change someone's grade?

Nothing straight away. Violations already recorded on a claim stay as they are until someone selects Evaluate Policy on it again. Evaluation reads the grade at that moment, so a claim re-evaluated after the change uses the new grade's policies. Evaluation never runs by itself: submitting, approving and posting do not re-check a claim.

Related topics

• Expense policies and violations
• Expense categories, grades and limits
• Submit and approve expense claims
• Resources — the people who do the work
• Employees
• Configuring Expense Management
• Grade — entity reference