---
title: "Position details / Working patterns"
slug: "position-details"
updated: 2026-06-23T08:05:16Z
published: 2026-06-23T08:05:16Z
canonical: "help.cintra.co.uk/position-details"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.cintra.co.uk/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Position details / Working patterns

> [!NOTE]
> **Note**: If your organisation doesn't use positions, this step in the new/edit employee screen will not be available. Depending on your system setup, not all the fields described below may be available to you.

- If you are adding a new employee, positions are added in the **Position details** tab.
- If you are editing an employee, positions are found in the **Employment & position** and **Working patterns** tabs.

Each employee should be assigned one or more positions which are used to determine salary, work patterns, contracted hours, etc.

When you **add** or **edit** a position, each position has the following information:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/fc2cda72-4645-4b36-96bf-60439ec11f11/Images/Documentation/image-Y3GCM6CT.png)

- **Position ID**: Select an ID from the list. The **Position** and **Job Title** fields will be completed automatically. If you don’t know which Position ID to pick, speak to your Bureau / Cintra iQ administrator.
- **Start date** (editing employee only): This defaults to the start date specified in the **Employment details** tab, but can be changed.
- **End date** (editing employees only): If the employee is no longer in the position, enter the date they finished.
- **Additional role?** In some public sector and education payrolls, different pension arrangements apply to a role, depending on whether the role is the primary one or an additional one.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/fc2cda72-4645-4b36-96bf-60439ec11f11/Images/Documentation/image-7TKO9DCE.png)

- **Uses pay spine?** A pay spine defines a salary structure in an organisation and contains multiple pay grades, each with multiple spine points. If you select **Yes**:
  - **Spine Point Salary Paid As**: Select whether the spine point salary is paid as salary, hourly salary, or extra time.
  - **Grade/Spine Point**: Select the employee's current pay grade for this position. Selecting a grade will change the spine points.
  - **Auto Increment** (editing employees only): Select **Yes** if the employee can move to the next spine point (and salary) automatically.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/fc2cda72-4645-4b36-96bf-60439ec11f11/Images/Documentation/image-SRE5YWWS.png)

- **FTE Entry Method**: If the employee doesn't follow standard working hours and you need to enter their FTE manually, select *Direct entry*, otherwise select *Based upon contract hours*.
  - FTE is used to calculate accurate salary and leave, particularly for employees who don't work full time.
- **Work Pattern**: If you're not sure which working pattern this employee will be following, speak to your Bureau or Cintra iQ administrator.
- **Contracted weekly hours**: This figure is used to calculate the FTE.
- **Full time weekly hours / Full time weeks**: These are taken from the position and cannot be edited directly.
- **Contracted days per week**: This figure is used to calculate the FTE
- **Contracted weeks per annum**: This figure is used to calculate the FTE.
- **FTE**: If you selected Direct entry above, select the FTE factor (between 0 and 1). Otherwise, this will display the FTE using the formula below:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/fc2cda72-4645-4b36-96bf-60439ec11f11/Images/Documentation/image-08ZRTFEF.png)

Click **Add Position** to assign further positions to the employee.