The Comp Review Planning feature is where Admins set up and manage compensation reviews in Kamsa.
Below are the steps to setup and run a smooth compensation review.
1 | Create a Comp Review
To create a new Comp Review:
Go to the Comp Review Planning page
Click Create New Plan
Enter info for the Comp Review, including:
Title for your compensation review (e.g., “Mid-Year Comp Review Cycle”)
Start Date and End Date
Under the Planned Reviews section, toggle on the type of reviews you’d like to cover under this Comp Review plan - e.g., Salary Review and/or Equity Review
Create separate Comp Review plans if you’d like to assign different Comp Reviewers for Salary Review vs. Equity Review. You can have more than one Comp Review active at a time.
Select the performance rating scale used in your organization (if applicable).
Click the Create button.
Next, you'll need establish your budget, eligibility criteria, and increase guidelines.
2 | Set Eligibility
Kamsa uses eligibility rules to determine which employees are included in the compensation review, which directly impacts the overall budget.
If you're running salary and equity reviews at the same time, be sure to set separate eligibility rules for each.
Salary Eligibility
Where to Set Eligibility
In the Comp Review Management page, go to Apply Eligibility.
How Eligibility Works
By default, all employees are considered eligible.
You can exclude employees by setting rules.
Employees excluded via eligibility rules will:
Be excluded from the budget
Be included as view only in the comp review
Be non-editable for proposed comp changes (unless made eligible)
Show a note explaining why they were ineligible
Common Eligibility Criteria
You can apply these filters under each eligibility section. All options work as exclusion rules, meaning those selected will not be eligible:
Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
Date of Hire | Exclude employees hired on/after a specific date Example: If Date of Hire > Date is after > [Date] anyone hired the day after the selected date will be ineligible. |
Date of Last Increase | Exclude employees who had an increase on/after a certain date |
Employment Type | Exclude Contractors, Part-time, etc. |
Employment Status | Exclude employees on Leave of Absence |
Exemption Status | Exclude based on exempt/non-exempt classification |
Department / Country | Exclude specific departments or countries |
Job Family / Job Level | Exclude roles based on family or level |
Manager | Exclude specific managers and their reporting lines |
Market Data Cut | Exclude based on mapped market cut |
Compa-Ratio | Exclude those under/over a % threshold |
Target Commission Amount (Total Cash) | Include only employees with target amounts matching your input |
Total Cash Compa-Ratio (Total Cash) | Filter by compa-ratio threshold |
Applying and Reviewing Rules
Select your filters and click Apply.
Kamsa will display a list of ineligible employees.
You can grant exceptions:
Click individual names to toggle them back to eligible (marked green).
Use the “Still Eligible” section to manually re-include employees.
Target Commission Eligibility
Kamsa’s Comp Review recommendations for Target Commission and Total Cash increases are for maintaining the market Pay Mix for eligible employees.
You have the option of allowing Comp Reviewers to propose increases to selected employees’ Target Commission amounts during a Comp Review using the steps below:
Within the Comp Review Management page click Apply Eligibility (located on the left side of the page, under Salary Review)
Under the Target Commission Eligibility section, click the Apply button
Next, select a Category you want to use as a criteria to filter and select those you want to be eligible for Target Commission increases.
The most common Category to use is Job Family (this will update employee eligibility for those employees with a matching Kamsa Job Family within the Employee Data page):
Select Job Family from the Category drop-down
Select as many job families as you’d like (e.g., Account Executive, Inside Sales, Solutions Engineering, etc.)
Click Apply
Equity Eligibility
Where to Set Eligibility
In the Comp Review Management page, go to Apply Eligibility and then hit Apply Eligibility again.
How to Set It Up
Under the Equity Review Eligibility section, click the Apply button
Next, select Date of Hire from the Category drop-down menu.
Select the “Date is after” from the Filter drop-down and enter a date (e.g., 01 Jan 2023) as the Value for employees who were hired after this date to be marked ineligible.
Click Apply.
Next, you have the option of creating another layer of rules using the Additional Equity Review Eligibility.
Under the Additional Equity Review Eligibility section, click the Apply button
Next, select a Category you want to use as a criteria to filter and select those you want to be ineligible. The most common Category to use is Date of Hire
Select the “Date is after” from the Filter drop-down and enter a date (e.g., 01 Aug 2023) as the Value if you want any employees who were hired after this date to be marked ineligible.
Once you’ve entered all eligibility rules, click Apply.
A list of the ineligible employees (based on the eligibility rules) will appear. Click Apply to accept.
Optional: To grant eligibility exceptions and change ineligible employees to eligible, you can click on their name to mark their name green as eligible.
You can also click Make Eligible under the Still Eligible for Equity Review section and click any names, turning them green, for those you want still eligible for the Comp Review.
Kamsa will calculate the Equity Review budget once employee grant data is uploaded within the Equity Review tab.
3 | Add Performance Ratings & Promotions
Adding Performance Ratings and Promotions before starting a review gives Kamsa what it needs to calculate the most precise compensation review budget.
Upload Type | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
Performance Ratings | Aligns merit increase guidelines by rating + compa-ratio. Missing ratings default to “Unknown Rating.” Budget is locked once the review starts. |
Promotions | Applies promotion increases and adjusts salary/equity budgets accordingly. Only promotions uploaded pre- or mid-planning impact the budget. |
Performance Ratings
Performance ratings — along with base salary compa-ratios — help Kamsa calculate recommended salary increase guidelines and the overall compensation review budget.
Customizing Performance Ratings
You were prompted to select a performance rating scale when you created your comp review. If you need to change the scale (3-point, 4-point or 5-point), you can update that in Comp Review Management by selecting the pencil icon and then scrolling down to the bottom of the pop-up modal as shown below:
If you'd like to customize your performance rating labels you'll need to do that in the Company Profile page.
In the Company Profile page:
Click Edit Company Profile,
Select Customize Naming.
Once there, you can input any naming convention you'd like.
As the final step, click Save Changes.
How to Upload Performance Ratings
In the Comp Review Management page, click Upload Performance Ratings to download the template. The template includes the following columns:
Employee ID
Employee Name
Performance Rating
Rating Effective Date (when the manager gave the rating)
After filling in the template, upload the file into the same Upload Performance Ratings modal by clicking Upload File.
Once uploaded, the performance rating icon will be shaded green with a checkmark as shown above.
Why It Matters
You can choose to base merit increase guidelines on:
Compa-ratio only (used for employees with "Unknown Rating")
Or Compa-ratio + Performance Rating (recommended for more precise budgets)
Uploaded ratings are factored into the budget for Salary and/or Equity Reviews.
But changes made after the review starts won’t affect the budget, so make sure the data is accurate before starting.
Employees without a rating will default to the “Unknown Rating” guideline.
Budget Calculations
For Salary Review Budgets, Kamsa uses:
Country
Base salary compa-ratio
Uploaded performance rating
Uploaded promotion
For Equity Review Budgets, Kamsa uses:
Job level
Job group (e.g., Technical or Non-Technical)
Uploaded performance rating
Uploaded promotion
Country
Promotions
Promotions can be entered manually in Kamsa by the Comp Reviewer.
If you've already collected promotion decisions, you can also upload a promotions file. Uploading a file allows Kamsa to apply your promotion increase guidelines, which helps generate a more accurate budget.
How to Upload a Promotions File
Go to the Comp Review Management page.
Click Upload Promotions to download the template.
Add the Employee ID and Employee Name for employees you know will be promoted.
Upload the completed file into Kamsa.
The Promotions button will turn green once uploaded.
Hover to see the upload date.
Budget Impact of Promotions
Promotions uploaded before or during a review in Planning or In Progress status will affect the compensation review budget.
Promotions added manually after the review has started (inside the review screen) will not impact the budget.
Uploaded promotions trigger:
Automatic “Promotion = Yes” toggle in the review
Auto-filled New Kamsa Job Match (next level up in the same job family)
Updated Market Base Salary based on the new job level
Admins and reviewers should always double-check the job match — especially for moves to manager roles or different job families.
💬 What If I Don’t Know Promotions Yet?
If you don’t have the list of promotions:
You can enter a Promotion Budget (% of Payroll) by country.
Kamsa will distribute this budget across all Comp Reviewers.
But whenever possible, upload known promotions — this ensures you’ve budgeted accurately and avoids surprises.
4 | Set Budget
If your company has a target budget, enter it in the Actual Budget field. Kamsa will calculate the Salary Budget based on your merit, promotion, and market adjustment guidelines — along with the eligibility rules you've already set.
If the calculated budget is higher than your actual budget, you can adjust any of the guidelines. Kamsa updates the budget automatically as you make changes.
5 | Edit the Default Salary & Equity Guidelines
Guidelines in Kamsa help shape your compensation review by setting the standard increases for salary and equity decisions. They define how much to budget for merit increases, promotions, market adjustments, and equity grants — all based on factors like performance ratings, compa-ratios, and location.
By setting these guidelines, you give comp reviewers a consistent starting point and ensure your overall budget aligns with your compensation strategy. You can customize each guideline to fit your goals, and Kamsa will use them to generate recommended increases and calculate your salary and equity budgets in real time.
Salary Guidelines
For the salary budget calculations and recommendations shown to comp reviewers during the comp review, you’ll need to confirm the percentage increase guidelines you'd like to apply based on performance ratings and promotions.
To edit the defaults go to Edit
Merit Increase Guidelines
Kamsa uses Merit Increase Guidelines to calculate both individual salary increase recommendations and the total salary increase budget based on real-time market benchmarks — by role and level, across job families and locations.
These guidelines are based on each employee’s country, compa-ratio, and, if provided are tailored to your performance rating scale and budget (see example below). This gives managers a consistent starting point, reducing decision fatigue and supporting fair, equitable pay decisions.
By default, Kamsa provides recommended salary increase guidelines by country.
You can adjust these guidelines as needed to align with your budget.
How Merit Increase Guidelines Work
1. Compa-Ratio
Compa-ratio compares an employee’s current salary to the market rate for their job.
A compa-ratio of 100% means their pay is right at market.
The typical competitive range is 85%–115%.
Below 85% = under market; above 115% = over market.
2. Performance Rating (Optional)
If you choose to use performance ratings and would like them factored into your budget, upload them using the Performance Ratings template.
Kamsa will then apply salary increase guidelines that consider both the employee’s performance rating and compa-ratio.
This allows for a more tailored and accurate budget calculation.
Market Adjustment: Bringing Employees Up to Market
The Market Adjustment feature lets you add budget specifically to raise employees with a base salary compa-ratio below 85% up to at least 85%.
How to Use Market Adjustment
Go to the Comp Review Management page.
Toggle the Market Adjustment switch to ON.
Enter a Max Market Increase % for each country.
This sets a cap on how much an employee’s salary can increase to reach 85%.
Example: Entering 10% means Kamsa won’t recommend more than a 10% raise, even if the employee is far below market.
If you want to raise employees to 85% regardless of cost, enter a high cap (e.g., 100%).
How It Impacts the Budget
Once a Max Market Increase is entered, Kamsa includes the cost to bring below-market employees up to 85% in the Calculated Salary Budget.
For employees below 85%, Kamsa compares:
The Merit Increase
The Market Adjustment
The larger of the two is applied as the recommended increase.
Promotion Grant Guidelines
Promotion Budget (% of Payroll):
The total amount set aside for promotions, as a percentage of your company’s eligible employee payroll.
Promotion Increase (% of Salary):
The default salary increase recommendation applied to each promoted employee. This % will be used to calculate their new base salary.
Equity Guidelines
For the equity calculations and recommendations shown to comp reviewers during the comp review, you’ll need to confirm the percentage of equity grant guidelines you'd like to apply for promotions, equity refreshes, and new hire grants.
Promotion Grant Guidelines
Kamsa offers two ways to calculate promotion equity grants during an Equity Review:
Option 1: New Hire Grant Guideline for New Role MINUS Unvested Shares (Default & Most Common)
This method calculates the promotion grant by subtracting an employee’s unvested shares from the new hire grant guideline for their new role.
How to apply this approach:
Go to the Promotion Grant Guidelines section.
Click Edit.
Select "New Hire Grant Guideline for New Role MINUS Unvested Shares".
Click Save Changes.
Kamsa will calculate the recommended equity grant based on:
The employee’s new role (Job Group and Job Level)
Minus their unvested shares
Option 2: Set a % of the New Hire Grant Guideline for New Role
This method lets you apply a fixed percentage of the new hire grant guideline for the new role, regardless of unvested shares.
How to apply this approach:
In the Promotion Grant Guidelines section, click Edit.
Select "Certain % of the New Hire Grant Guideline for New Role".
Enter your desired percentage.
Click Save Changes.
Kamsa will then calculate the promotion grant based on:
The new hire grant guideline for the employee’s new role
Multiplied by the percentage you entered
Uploading Equity Grant Data
Before promotion grants can be calculated, you must upload current equity data:
In the Comp Review Management page, click Upload Equity Data.
Download the template and fill in:
Employee ID
Options Grant Amount
Grant Date
Unvested Shares
Upload the completed file to Kamsa.
Once uploaded, and once your promotion grant guidelines are selected, Kamsa will generate Recommended Options Grants for promoted employees.
Setting Equity Grant Guidelines by Performance Rating
To set equity grant guidelines based on performance ratings, go to the Equity Review section of the Comp Review Management page and click Edit.
Enter the % of the new hire grant guideline you want to apply for each performance rating. Kamsa will use these percentages to calculate the Recommended Options Grant for each eligible employee.
For example, based on the table shown:
Employees rated 2, 3, or 4 will receive 25% of the new hire grant guideline.
Employees with a rating of 1 will receive 0%.
Employees without a rating will receive 20% (using the “Unknown” category).
Kamsa calculates the recommended grant using:
The % entered for the employee’s rating
The Equity Grant Guidelines for their Job Group, Job Level, and Country
Note: The performance rating scale in this table comes from your Company Profile settings.
To use ratings in your Comp Review, upload a Performance Ratings file via the Comp Review Management page.
New Hire Equity Grants
Kamsa uses market benchmarks and your estimated per share value to calculate New Hire Grant Guidelines for each job group, level, and country. These guidelines power the recommendations shown throughout the equity review — including for promotions, refreshes, and performance-based grants.
To set your New Hire Grant Guidelines:
Go to Equity Guidelines in the Comp Review setup.
Enter grant values by Job Group, Level, and Country (including any country-level discounts).
These values will auto-fill into the equity recommendation logic used during the Comp Review.
Most clients use the midpoint of Kamsa’s suggested range for offers and internal grants. You can work with Kamsa’s team to update or validate these guidelines based on your equity strategy and hiring plans.
6 | Assign Compensation Reviewers or Run a Comp Reviewer Without Inviting Managers
Before launching your comp review, make sure your Comp Review Flow is set up correctly. This determines who will be responsible for entering pay decisions in Kamsa.
In the flow, you can assign or reassign reviewers, limit who can review (e.g., VPs only), or override the default manager assignments. Once it's set, Kamsa uses this structure to guide how pay decisions are made across your team.
By default, Kamsa assigns each manager as the reviewer for their direct reports. You can update this to:
Limit reviewers to certain levels (e.g., only VPs and above)
Assign someone else — like an Admin, HRBP, or exec — instead of the direct manager
Assign or update reviewers
Go to the Comp Review Management page
Click the Comp Review Flow tab
Click Edit
Then either:
Use Assign All next to a leader to reassign an entire team
Or click on a name in the Comp Reviewer column to update individuals
Complete a Compensation Review Without Inviting Managers
If you want to run a compensation review without notifying or involving any managers as reviewers, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Compensation Review Flow
Start by navigating to the Comp Review section in Kamsa.
2. Assign Yourself as the Reviewer
You can assign all employees to yourself by clicking "Assign All" for each applicable leader.
3. Preserve the Executive Chain (Optional)
If you want to leave the executive chain (e.g. from your role up to the CEO) intact but avoid sending them notifications:
Keep them assigned as reviewers.
No action is required if they already have access to Kamsa — they won’t receive any new invites or notifications.
4. Manually Reassign Remaining Reviewers
For any remaining leaders or reviewers still assigned by default (based on org hierarchy), manually update their reviewer to yourself.
Select "Edit" to change the reviewer listed beside the individual employees, where needed.
This step ensures you're the sole reviewer across the org, except where intentionally excluded (e.g., CEO-level).
7 | Finalize and Launch Your Review
Once you’ve set your eligibility rules, increase guidelines, and reviewer assignments, it’s time to check your budget and kick off the compensation review.
Reviewing Your Setup
The Budget Summary is your last stop before launch. This is where you review the total budget, see how it’s allocated across reviewers, and start the review when you're ready.
What the Budget Summary Page Shows
The Budget Summary page gives you a full view of the compensation review budget — including both salary and equity.
Here’s what you’ll see:
A list of all Comp Reviewers and their assigned budgets
Budget calculations based on:
Merit increase guidelines (by country, compa-ratio, and performance rating, if used)
Promotion increases
Market adjustments (if enabled)
Eligibility rules
You’ll also see the Overall Salary Budget, which updates based on any changes to your guidelines or eligibility settings.
What You Can Do from This Page
View Flow: Open a visual diagram of the Comp Review Flow to confirm reviewer assignments and approval setup
Preview Reviewer Details: Click any reviewer’s name to see their specific budget and review data
Export Budget Data: Download the summary for internal review or recordkeeping
Start the Comp Review: This will:
Send login invites to reviewers who don’t yet have access
Allow Owners/Admins to begin editing pay decisions in the Comp Review
After the Review Begins
Once the review is live, Admins can:
Invite and / or launch the comp review to comp reviewers
Track which reviewers are over or under budget
Monitor progress and see who hasn’t started or submitted their review
Click View Reviews on the Comp Review Management page to check each reviewer’s status and review content
This page gives you full visibility into your comp review setup and lets you launch with confidence.
Invite Reviewers to Kamsa (If Needed)
If your review includes Comp Reviewers entering pay decisions, you’ll need to invite them to Kamsa before launching the review. If you’re managing all decisions yourself or with a small team, you can skip this step.
Step 1: Grant Kamsa Access (Before Launch)
To give reviewers access to Kamsa:
From the Review Budget Summary on the Comp Review Management page, select the Start Comp Review button.
Add their email address
Click Give Access next to each name — or use Give Access to All
Reviewers will get an email to set up their login (expires in 48 hours). If it expires, they can use Forgot password? on the login screen to reset.
At this stage, they’ll only be able to view:
The Career Paths & Levels page
The Comp Review Waiting Room
They won’t be able to access the actual review until you launch it.
Step 2: Launch the Review (Optional)
When you’re ready to begin:
Click Send Invite next to each reviewer — or Launch to Comp Reviewers at the top to launch all at once.
This gives them access to their assigned reviews and allows them to start entering comp recommendations.
💬 What Email Notifications do Reviewers Get?
Comp Reviewers get an email notification when the Admin invites them into Kamsa (by clicking the "Start Comp Review" button from the Budget Summary page) where they’d get an email notification to set up their username/password (Note: Only those who currently do not have access to Kamsa would get this email notification).
Once the Admin clicks the "Send Invite" button from the Budget Summary page, Comp Reviewers then receive an email notification to let them know they can now go into Kamsa's Comp Review to enter pay decisions.
Start the Comp Review
Once all assignments are correct, click "Start Comp Review".
This puts the review into edit mode.
No invites will be sent — you're now able to input and edit comp data directly.
Edit Compensation Reviews
Go to "View Reviews" and click the "Edit" button.
From there, you can enter salary adjustments, promotions, and notes as needed.
8 | Approve and Close Out the Comp Review
Once all leaders have entered their salary decisions, it’s time to review and close out the Comp Review. (Note: Admins can complete the review even if some reviewers haven’t submitted.)
Steps to Finalize the Review
Enter the CEO’s Proposed New Base Salary
Go to the CEO's row and enter a value — even if it's their current salary (this field can't be left blank).
Click Approve Reviews
This opens the Comp Reviewer Status page, where you’ll see budget usage by reviewer.
Check for Missing Salaries
If any reviewer skipped a Proposed New Base Salary for an employee, Kamsa will flag those employees.
Even if no raise is being given, a value must be entered to confirm the decision was reviewed.
Approve Review
When ready, click Approve Review.
Comp Reviewers will now see all final, approved salaries, promotions, and updated titles in their review view.
Apply Changes to Employee Data
Click Apply Changes, choose the effective date for increases, and save.
This logs the changes in both the Employee Data and Employee Profile pages.
💬 Can Comp Reviewers view final salaries after they have completed their Comp Review?
Yes, once a Comp Reviewer has completed their Comp Review, and all the necessary next level of management approvers have approved the Comp Review, any new salaries and titles (i.e., due to promotions) get applied to the Employee Data page and all Comp Reviewers receive an email notification that the Comp Review has been completed. Then, Comp Reviewers can log into Kamsa to view the final results of the Comp Review.