Eligible Employees
Overview
The Eligible Employees section determines who is included in the comp cycle at all. If someone is eligible, they appear in the cycle and their pay will be reviewed. If they are ineligible, they are not in the cycle in any capacity.
How the Rules Work
The page defaults to all employees being eligible. The rules you configure here are about filtering people out, not filtering people in. Each rule you add removes a subset of employees from eligibility.
Built-In Exclusion Options
ChartHop provides several pre-built rule types:
- Start date on or after a specified date (e.g., exclude anyone who started on or after January 1, 2026)
- Last raise date on or after a specified date — this pulls from the Raise Date field, which is based on any cash comp raise (base + variable). Note: this is not customizable directly, but see the Custom Filter section below.
- Employment type — exclude part-time, contract, intern, etc.
- Department, team, or location — remove entire groups from eligibility
As you configure rules, the eligible/ineligible list updates in real time.
Custom Filter
In addition to the built-in options, there is a custom filter field that accepts any CQL expression. This is where you can handle anything the built-in rules don't cover.
Example: Exclude anyone who does not have a comp band assigned.
You can also combine multiple conditions in the custom filter — for instance, filtering by base raise date specifically, or combining tenure with raise date logic. The custom filter essentially allows you to express any eligibility rule the built-in options can't.
Note on the Raise Date field: The built-in "last raise" rule uses the raiseDate field, which reflects any cash comp change. If a customer wants to filter based only on base comp raise date, they should use the custom filter with baseComp.lastRaise.date instead.
Previewing the Eligible / Ineligible List
At the bottom of the screen is a table showing all employees and their current eligibility status. You can:
- Toggle between eligible and ineligible views to see exactly who falls into each bucket
- Search for a specific person to check their status
- Click "View on Data Sheet" to open the filtered list in a full data sheet view — useful for adding columns and exporting the list for stakeholder review and sign-off
Include & Exclude Overrides
Once your rules are set, there will almost always be exceptions. Rather than rewriting your rules to carve out individual cases, use the two override boxes:
- Include Specific People — regardless of the rules, anyone added here is eligible
- Exclude Specific People — regardless of the rules, anyone added here is ineligible
Think of these as "I don't care about the rules" overrides. They make it easy to handle one-off exceptions without touching the broader configuration.
⚠️ Important: Switching Someone Between Lists
If someone is in the Exclude box and you want to make them eligible, you must:
- Remove them from the Exclude box and
- Add them to the Include box
Simply removing them from Exclude is not enough — it will not automatically make them eligible. Once someone is on one of these lists, you must explicitly move them to the other.
Post-Launch Behavior
Once the cycle is launched, the bulk eligibility rules are locked and cannot be edited. This is intentional — a misconfigured bulk change on a live cycle could accidentally make hundreds of employees ineligible.
If eligibility changes are needed after launch:
- Pause the cycle
- Use the Include or Exclude boxes (these remain editable even after launch)
- Add the employee to the appropriate box
- Resume the cycle
The bulk rule settings will be read-only, but the individual override boxes will still function throughout the cycle's life.
What Happens When an Eligible Employee Terminates Mid-Cycle
This is a common scenario and the behavior is entirely governed by the org data reference date.
- If the termination is effective after the reference date: The cycle ignores it. The employee remains in the cycle as if they are still active, because as of the reference date they existed in the org.
- If the termination is effective on or before the reference date: The cycle automatically pulls them out, because as of the reference date they did not exist in the org.
What to Do When Someone Terms After the Reference Date
By default, they stay in the cycle. The customer has two options:
- Leave them in — this is sometimes intentional. If budgets are calculated as a percentage of eligible salaries, removing a termed employee also removes their budget contribution. Some customers prefer to keep them in so that money stays in the pool.
- Remove them — pause the cycle, add the employee to the Exclude box, then resume.
There is no automatic removal in this case — it requires a deliberate decision and action from the cycle owner.