Raises and promotions as employment-record events

A raise changes pay. A promotion changes role, and often pay. Both are dated employment-record events with an effective date — not a chat message, not a cake, and not performance-management software. How to record a change that should apply later stays on future-dated contract changes. The directory that must show current title and manager is Dayzen employee management. The trail that holds the events is Dayzen employee lifecycle, which includes raise and promotion proposals. Dayzen PMS is a Project Management System for delivery work. It is not performance management, not an appraisal product, and not this topic. Do not describe HR or this workflow as PMS.

Not legal advice. Not a nationwide increment cycle. Your compensation policy and appointment terms own eligibility. This page owns the record shape.

Two event types, one discipline

Raise (increment, compensation change without a role change): the person’s designation and reporting line stay the same; named pay fields change on an effective date. Variable-pay changes can be raises if you treat them as contract facts. A one-time bonus you do not put in the monthly structure may be a payroll adjustment instead — label it so you do not pretend CTC moved.

Promotion: designation changes, often department or career level, often manager, often pay. If you only change the business card title and leave the HRMS designation, you did not promote in the record. If you only change pay and call it a promotion in the all-hands, you recorded a raise and narrated a promotion. Pick the event that matches the facts.

You may record both on the same day when a promotion includes an increment: either one promotion event that carries the new structure, or a promotion plus a raise if your process splits approval. What you must not do is two conflicting structures and one vague email. Renewal, transfer, confirmation, and intern conversion are other event types; do not force them into “promotion” because the proposal screen was nearby. Confirmation stays on the probation article. Conversion stays on intern conversion. This page names raise and promotion so those words stop meaning “any good news.”

Dayzen lifecycle supports raise and promotion proposals. A proposal is not in force until approved and effective. Directory current state remains employee management’s job.

What every event must carry

• Person (existing employee ID — never a second profile because “the promoted name is different”).
• Event type: raise or promotion (or both, explicitly).
• Approval date and approver role.
• Effective date (may be future; mechanics on the sibling article).
• Before/after for each field that changes: designation, department, manager, location/entity, pay structure or CTC and components.
• Letter template if you issue one, generated from those fields.

Missing before/after is how you cannot audit what payroll used last year. A PDF in a drive with no event is how two HR people disagree in March. Chat “done” is not before/after.

This is not appraisal, and not Dayzen PMS

Managers may use reviews, ratings, or project delivery to decide whether to propose a raise or promotion. The employment record still needs the event. Scoring, OKRs, 360 tools, and “people PMS” products are out of scope. Dayzen does not provide performance appraisal or OKRs as a product on this path.

Dayzen PMS means Project Management System: tasks, delivery, project execution. It is easy to confuse the acronym with “performance management system.” They are not the same. Do not log a promotion in a project board and call the HR record optional. Do not send employees to PMS to find their new CTC. Delivery work stays in PMS. Employment events stay in lifecycle. If a project promotion in client language has no HRMS designation change, it is not this event until you make it one.

Do not describe HR operations as PMS. Do not say “update PMS for the increment.” Say update the employment record, then the directory will show the new title when it is effective.

Payroll, letters, org — three consumers

Payroll consumes the structure from the effective date. Dayzen payroll calculates from that structure (including statutory components you configured). It does not file returns or pay the bank. A raise that misses the cutoff for this cycle is either future-dated into the next structure or an adjustment you choose to run — do not silently edit a closed payslip because the CEO announced early. Announcement date ≠ effective date ≠ payment date.

Letters consume the same fields. Employment letter templates in lifecycle should print the new title and pay you stored, not a parallel Word draft with rounder numbers. If the letter is ceremonial (“congratulations”) with no numbers, still keep the event numbers in the HRMS.

Org and directory consume designation and manager. Employee management is the live tree. A promotion that changes manager is a reporting-line change; if it should not apply until next month, future-date it. Skip-level announcements do not move the tree.

Proposals, approvals, and who may promise

A manager may propose. Compensation or HR may need to approve budget. The employee should not hear a number that the record cannot hold. If your process allows a verbal yes, the clock to create the proposal should be short enough that the verbal and the event cannot drift by a month.

Mass increment cycles: many raises, same effective date (often 1 April or your issued date). That is still N events, not one spreadsheet cell. Lifecycle proposals scale better than a column of CTCs with no employee IDs. Spot promotions off-cycle still need the same fields; “off-cycle” is a reason tag, not an excuse to skip effective date.

Refused proposals should end as refused, not as eternal pending. Pending forever is a second raise rumour.

Who may see a pending raise is a confidentiality choice you issue: HR and compensations always; the manager who proposed; the employee only when you intend them to know. A directory that shows the new designation to the whole company before the effective date is not confidentiality — it is an early apply. Keep current title current. Tell the people who must budget or roster, not the lunch table.

Attendance scheme, leave policy, and work location often stay put on a pure raise. On a promotion they may change. If they change, put those fields on the same event (or a linked transfer) so you do not raise pay in lifecycle and move location in a chat. Unchanged fields should be explicit “no change,” not blanks that invite someone to type last year’s rumour.

Failure modes

Symptom	Event mistake	Fix
Title on email signature, old designation in HRMS	Promotion announced, not recorded	Promotion event; directory follows effective date
Pay moved, still “executive”	Raise called promotion	Record raise; or add promotion if role truly changed
Payslip this month, letter next month	Click date vs effective date	Sibling: future-date; align letter
Two employee rows	New ID for new title	Same ID; see duplicate employee records if it already happened
Project board “promoted”	PMS delivery used as HR	PMS is project management; create lifecycle event
Appraisal score pasted as CTC	Treated as performance product	Decision may use notes; event holds money and role
Manager queue wrong for three weeks	Reporting applied on announcement	Future-date manager change

Related events you should not swallow

Probation confirmation can include a raise. Still record confirmation as confirmation. If designation also changes, add promotion or put designation on the confirmation event — but do not skip confirmation because promotion felt bigger.

Intern to employee is conversion, not a junior promotion, even if the new title sounds like a first job. Conversion article owns that seam.

Transfer with the same pay is not a raise. Transfer with a new title may be promotion, transfer, or both under your vocabulary. Be consistent in the event type so reports mean something.

Correction of a typing error in CTC is not a raise. Use a correction path so increment history stays honest.

A clean raise or promotion

1. Proposal: type, person, before/after fields, requested effective date.
2. Approval recorded (not only spoken).
3. Lifecycle event created. If effective is later, use future-dated processing — do not wait to create the event.
4. Letter from the event. Directory still current until effective.
5. On effective date: employee management shows new title/manager; payroll structure matches.
6. No project-management status used as a substitute. No second employee ID.

Raise is pay. Promotion is role (and often pay). Both are dated events on the employee. Dayzen lifecycle has those proposals. Dayzen PMS is project management for delivery — not this. Future-dated mechanics live on the sibling page. Chat is not an increment.

Keep employee lifecycle as proposals and the employment trail. Keep employee management as the current directory. Keep future-dated contract changes as the clock. Keep appraisal methodology and project delivery in their own houses. The operating test: a year later you can answer what changed, on which date, who approved, and which structure payroll used — without opening a congratulatory Slack thread or a project board named after the person.