HRM setup

Define the lists every other HR page depends on: departments, designations, fiscal years and pay-related master lists. This page also covers the other HR setup screens: the setup checklist, data import, HR reminders, custom fields and the Developer API.

Contents: Who can use it · The screen · Tasks · Setup checklist · Data import · HR reminders · Custom fields · Developer API · Other setup pages · Example · FAQ

Who can use it

Staff with the matching setting permission for each list (departments, designations, fiscal years, and the cost center, business unit and grade lists). You only see the tabs you can open. The other setup screens have their own permissions and plans, listed in their sections below.

Where: HR → HRM setup.

HRM setup with its tabs.

The HRM setup screen

The page has one tab per list. The button at the top right changes with the tab: Add Department, Add Designation, Add Fiscal year, and so on.

Tab	What it holds
Department	A tree of departments. Every employee belongs to one. Click a row to see its employees; the pencil edits, the trash icon deletes
Designation	Job titles. The level decides reporting chain and salary band
Fiscal year	The yearly period used for leave balances and tax year figures. Shows the dates and "days remaining". The eye icon opens the year: days gone so far, the current quarter and its four quarters, counted from today's date
Cost center	Budget owners that people and their cost are booked to
Business unit	Lines of business your company reports by
Grade	Grades and pay bands, with an optional minimum and maximum pay

Department, cost center, business unit and grade forms ask you to pick one or more branches, or leave empty for every branch. Branches decide who can see the record.

Step-by-step tasks

Add a department

1. Open the Department tab and click Add Department.
2. Enter the Department name, for example "Network Operations".
3. Choose branches, or leave it empty for all branches.
4. Click Create Department.

Add a designation or grade

1. Open the tab and click Add Designation (or Add Grade).
2. Enter a name. Set the Level (higher means more senior).
3. For a grade, optionally set Minimum pay, Maximum pay and Pay frequency. Pay uses your organization currency if you leave the currency empty.
4. Save.

Add a fiscal year

1. Open Fiscal year and click Add Fiscal year.
2. Enter the name, Start Date and End Date, then Create Fiscal Year.

Setup checklist

What to set up first, ticked automatically when the data is there. Needs the setup checklist permission; adding sample data needs its Sample Data permission. Where: HR → Setup checklist (the page is titled HR setup).

The steps are: Add your legal entity, Install its country pack, Set up a holiday calendar, Create a leave policy, Add shifts, Create a pay group and Add your people. Each shows Done or To do; click Open (or Import people) to go to the right screen. The bar on top shows how many steps are done.

Sample data. To look around before your real data is in, click Add sample data. It adds eight demo people (their names end with "Sample"), this year's leave balances and a demo holiday calendar. Demo data never counts as set up. Click Remove sample data before adding your real people; only the demo records are removed.

Data import

Bring people, leave balances and bank accounts in from a spreadsheet or your old system. Each kind of import has its own permissions (Upload And Check, and Commit); the page needs the import history permission. Where: HR → Data import.

1. On the Import tab, choose what to import: Employees, Leave balances (entitlement and days taken), Opening leave balances (days carried in at go-live) or Bank accounts.
2. Optionally click Excel template or CSV template, and pick Use a saved mapping for a file from a system you imported from before.
3. Choose the file (Excel or CSV, up to 20 MB and 50,000 rows, headings in the first row) and click Upload and continue.
4. In Match your columns, choose which column holds each field, or Not in my file. Required fields must be matched.
5. For employees, set Role for new people, When the person already exists (Leave them as they are or Update the columns that are filled in), the Date format, and whether to email each new person a link to set a password. Optionally Save mapping for next time.
6. Click Check the file. This is a dry run: nothing is written. Tiles show what Will be added, Will be updated, is Already there or has problems, with the reason per row. Download list gets every problem.
7. Click Import N rows. Rows with problems are left out; fix them in your file and import it again, since rows already imported are skipped.

History lists past imports and their result. Saved mappings lists and deletes mappings. Export downloads the HR lists (employees, departments, designations, branches, holidays, leave types, shifts). Imported bank accounts start unverified, so payroll does not pay them until checked.

HR reminders

Tell HR, managers and employees about approaching dates, and choose the wording. Needs the reminder rule or notification text permissions. Where: HR → HR reminders.

Reminder rules tab: click New rule and fill in Rule name, Which date (for example contract end date, probation end date, birthday, work anniversary, document expiry date), Days before (0 means on the day), Send from (hour), Who is told (The employee, Their manager or HR), Delivery (One message each or Daily digest) and Channels (In the app, Email, SMS, WhatsApp). Legal notice stops people from switching the reminder off. Use the switch on each rule to turn it on or off. The Built in contract rule can be edited but not deleted. A reminder goes out once for each date.

Notification texts tab: click Edit on a text to change its Subject and Message per Language code. Click a variable to insert it. Back to default restores the original wording.

Custom fields

Add the sections and fields your employee form needs, and choose which built-in fields are mandatory. Needs the custom field permissions. Where: HR → Custom fields.

1. On Employee fields, click Add section, enter the Section name, keep Show this section on, and optionally limit it to Countries, Legal entities or Worker types.
2. In the section, click Add field. Enter the Label, choose the Type (Text, Long text, Number, Date, Dropdown, Yes or no, File, Lookup, Phone), optional Help text, Placeholder and Required.
3. Set the type's Rules (lengths, pattern, number range, date range, options, file types) and under Audience and privacy choose who it applies to and Private to.
4. Save. The fields appear on the employee profile under Additional information.

Each field has a fixed key that payroll formulas and integrations use. A field people have filled in is archived instead of deleted, and its type cannot change. On Mandatory fields, switch on the built-in fields a person cannot be added without, use Limit to to narrow who must have them, and click Save.

Developer API

Connect payroll, attendance or HR software so employees stay in step with 9bx. Needs the Developer API permissions (List Connections and Activity, Set Up and Change Connections, Create API Keys, Run Sync and Fix Errors). Where: HR → Developer API.

Click New connection and set up the Webhook (their software sends changes to 9bx), optionally the API (9bx reads their API on a schedule) and the Rules (how records match existing employees, the Default role for new logins, what happens when they delete someone). Open a connection to see its key, Field mapping, Settings, Webhook calls, API reads and Errors. A sync never deletes an employee; at most it makes them inactive.

Other setup pages

• Teams and locations: see Org chart.
• Employee IDs and probation: see Employment changes.
• Automations: see Automations.

Example scenario

Padma Net Support sets up departments "Customer Support", "Field Operations" and "NOC" for all branches, then designations "Support Agent" (level 1), "Team Lead" (level 2) and "Network Engineer", and one fiscal year "FY 2026-27" from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. HR imports 120 staff from the old payroll spreadsheet; the check finds 3 rows with an unknown department, which are fixed and imported again. HR adds a rule to tell managers 30 days before probation ends, and a custom field "TIN circle" in a "Statutory details" section.

Tips

• Create fiscal years ahead of time. Leave policies need one.
• A department with employees should be edited, not deleted.
• Create departments and designations before importing employees; the import refuses a department or designation it cannot find.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

I do not see a tab. You lack permission for that list.

A department will not delete. Departments in use may be protected. Move its employees to another department first.

Add sample data fails. Add a role first: the demo people need one.

The import says a department or designation is unknown. The file must give the code or name of a record that exists in 9bx (capital letters do not matter). Add it, or correct the file.

Related pages

Employees · Leave · Payroll setup · Holidays · Shifts