The admin review stage is available to admins only. During this stage, you evaluate managers' proposed compensation decisions, assess the budget impact, and ensure alignment with your organisation's pay philosophy before finalising changes. You must complete all tasks in the review stage before you can move the cycle to communication.
Run an impact analysis
Before reviewing or adjusting any compensation decisions, run an impact analysis. This combines all compensation decisions from the cycle with historical data to give you a complete view of the proposed changes.
The impact analysis reveals:
Effects on employee expectations and satisfaction.
Changes to compensation ratios across your organisation.
Overall budget utilisation and distribution.
To run the impact analysis:
Go to Cycles and open the relevant cycle.
Click the Review tab, then click Review compensation.
Click Begin impact analysis.
Wait for the analysis to complete. This may take a few minutes, depending on your data size.
📌 Note: The export options on the analysis are not available until you run the impact analysis. If you cannot see them, click Begin impact analysis to generate the analysis first.
Understand budget analysis and outlier analysis
Once the impact analysis completes, two analytical views are available: Budget Analysis (BA) and Outlier Analysis (OA).
Analysis | What it shows |
Budget Analysis | Monitors budget utilisation across your organisation by comparing actual base pay expenditure against planned allocations. Tracks remaining budget capacity for each team to ensure financial targets are met. |
Outlier Analysis | Reviews how closely pay decisions align with system recommendations, with detailed breakdowns by gender and ethnicity. Helps identify potential bias in decision-making and supports equitable pay practices. |
Click the Budget Analysis or Outlier Analysis tab in the analysis panel to switch between views.
Review and adjust compensation decisions
Once the impact analysis is complete, you can review all manager-submitted compensation decisions and make adjustments where needed. If you defined a holdback budget during cycle setup, this becomes available to you during the review stage, giving you flexibility to make additional adjustments.
In the Review tab, review the Budget and Equity sections.
Click Show details to expand a section.
To review a specific task in detail, click View task to open the manager's view.
To see a full breakdown of flagged decisions for base pay, bonus, or equity, click Open breakdown.
Make any necessary adjustments using the available budget, including any holdback funds.
⚠️ Important: Document your reasoning for any adjustments you make — you will need to provide justification for changes.
Export an analysis
You can export the budget analysis or outlier analysis as a file to share with senior stakeholders outside Pay Planner. Three formats are available:
Format | What's included |
Full budget analysis or outlier analysis as a PDF document. | |
PowerPoint — full analysis | Complete analysis as a PowerPoint presentation. |
PowerPoint — visuals only | Key charts and visuals as they appear in the expanded view. |
To export an analysis:
In the analysis panel, click the Budget Analysis or Outlier Analysis tab depending on which analysis you want to export.
Click the download icon in the top right corner of the analysis.
Select your preferred format:
Download analysis as PDF — export the full analysis as a PDF document.
Download analysis as PowerPoint — export the complete analysis as a PowerPoint presentation.
Download visuals as PowerPoint — export the key visuals only as a PowerPoint file.
Finalise the review
Once you have completed your review and made any necessary adjustments, you can close the review stage and move the cycle to communication.
Click Start communication.
Confirm that you want to proceed, then click Start communication again to open the communication stage.