Definitions of the core concepts used throughout these docs. Hover over any underlined term anywhere in the docs to see its definition - click it to jump here.
Case
A named data-entry template, e.g. 'Employee New Entry' or 'Company Onboarding'. A case is made up of Case Fields; you report one by submitting a Case Change with values for those fields.
Case Change
Any change in a company or employee situation - hire, salary change, bonus, sickness, termination, etc. Also called an event. You report what happened; Ason applies the correct payroll logic.
Case Field
A single input field within a Case, e.g. an employee's first name or entry date.
Read more about New CaseChanges →Company Case Change
A case change reported at company level, e.g. onboarding data, insurance policies, bank details.
ELM
Einheitliches Lohnmeldeverfahren - Swissdec's uniform standard for transmitting payroll declarations (OASI, withholding tax, family allowances, etc.) directly to authorities and insurers.
Read more about swissdec.ch →Employee Case Change
A case change reported at employee level, e.g. entry, salary, personal details.
ESS
Employee Self Service - the portal where employees access their own payroll data (payslips, personal data, etc.).
Frontend
Ason's open-source, ready-to-use payroll UI (React-based) - freely forkable and customizable as the starting point for your own payroll frontend. See Build your own solution for how to run it locally.
Read more about AsonAG/frontend on GitHub →Moment
A Case Field time type for variable data tied to a single point in time, e.g. hours worked on a day, or a one-off bonus. Reported with matching start and end dates. Multiple values within the same payrun period are summed - e.g. a CHF 500 bonus on May 2 and a CHF 380 bonus on May 16 both count toward the May payrun period, totaling CHF 880.
Read more about New CaseChanges →Outputs
Payslips, payroll journal, posting documents, Swissdec declarations and more - generated automatically.
Payouts
Can be triggered at any time within a period - advance payments, corrections and final payments.
Payroll
A company within a tenant, with its own regulations, employees and payroll periods (sometimes called an Organization Unit).
Period
A Case Field time type for master data that stays valid from a start date until superseded, e.g. an address or IBAN. Reported with an open-ended start date.
Read more about New CaseChanges →Regulations
The country-specific payroll ruleset (e.g. Swissdec) a payroll follows - also referred to as Payroll Logic. Covers national, cantonal and best-practice rules, kept up to date automatically with daily updates as laws change. Additional logic such as collective labour agreements, ERP interfaces, or custom contract types is available on request.
Results
Always up to date. Changes, retro calculations and corrections are calculated immediately - there is no separate payroll run.
Swissdec
The Swiss standard for certified payroll software. Ason is fully Swissdec-certified, so its calculations and declarations are pre-verified and accepted directly by authorities and insurers.
Read more about swissdec.ch →System User
A service account for backend-to-backend calls: a permanent Zitadel machine-to-machine token, generated by Ason and handed to you directly, not something your backend requests itself via OAuth2. Used to call the Ason API without a user session.
Read more about Authenticating from a Backend →Tasks
Automatically created from case changes. Guide users through what to do next - missing data, checks, approvals.
Tenant
The top-level container for one or more companies (sometimes called an Organization). Roles and access rights are managed here.
Videos
Videos of the frontend are available on the Ason Embedded Payroll YouTube channel.
Read more about Ason Embedded Payroll YouTube channel →