Geographies
Geographies represent the physical locations where your organization employs people. They drive working day calculations, default currency assignments, and location-based cost adjustments across all of Flowstate's financial forecasting.
Why Geographies Matter
Different countries have different public holidays, which directly affects the number of working days in a year. Working days feed into daily rate calculations, which in turn affect every cost projection in the platform. A UK-based employee with 8 bank holidays has a different daily cost than a US-based employee with different federal holidays, even if their annual salaries are identical.
Beyond holidays, geographies let you apply cost multipliers to reflect regional cost-of-living differences and automatically assign default currencies to people based on where they work.
Configuring Geographies
- Navigate to Settings > Geographies
- Click Add Geography
- Enter the geography name, country code, and optional fields (region, timezone, default currency, cost multiplier)
- Click Save
Create one geography for each country or region where you have employees, contractors, or open vacancies.
TIP
Use descriptive names that combine city and country (e.g., "London, UK" or "San Francisco, US") if you have multiple locations within a single country with different cost profiles.
Data Model
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
name | string | Display name for the geography (e.g., "London, UK") |
countryCode | string | 2-character ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., "GB", "US", "DE") |
region | string | Optional geographic region (e.g., "Europe", "North America") |
timezone | string | Optional IANA timezone identifier (e.g., "Europe/London") |
defaultCurrencyCode | string | Optional 3-character ISO 4217 currency code (e.g., "GBP") |
costMultiplier | number | Location-based cost adjustment factor (default: 1.0) |
isActive | boolean | Whether the geography is available for assignment (default: true) |
sortOrder | integer | Controls display ordering in lists and dropdowns (default: 0) |
How Geographies Are Used
Geographies are assigned to three entity types:
- Employees (
LiveEmployee.geographyId) -- determines working days and default currency - Contractors (
LiveContractor.geographyId) -- determines working days for cost calculations - Vacancies (
LiveVacancy.geographyId) -- determines projected costs for open positions
Working Day Calculations
The countryCode field drives public holiday calendar lookups. Flowstate uses country-specific holiday data to calculate the number of working days in any given period, which feeds into:
- Daily rate = annual salary / working days per year
- Monthly cost = daily rate * working days in month
- Forecast totals = sum of monthly costs across the planning horizon
Example: A UK geography (countryCode: "GB") accounts for 8 bank holidays per year. A US geography (countryCode: "US") uses a different set of federal holidays. This difference changes the daily rate even when annual salaries are identical.
WARNING
Setting an incorrect countryCode will cause Flowstate to use the wrong holiday calendar, leading to inaccurate daily rate calculations. Always use the correct ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the country where the person is based.
Default Currency
When defaultCurrencyCode is set on a geography, new employees assigned to that geography automatically inherit the currency. This saves time during onboarding and ensures consistency. You can always override the currency on individual employee records.
Cost Multiplier
The costMultiplier field applies a location-based adjustment to costs. The default value of 1.0 means no adjustment. Set it higher (e.g., 1.5) for high-cost-of-living areas or lower (e.g., 0.8) for lower-cost regions. This multiplier is factored into cost projections alongside salary and exchange rate data.
Best Practices
- One geography per country minimum -- create at least one geography for every country where you have people
- Accurate country codes -- double-check ISO 3166-1 codes; they drive holiday calendar accuracy
- Use cost multipliers sparingly -- they are a blunt instrument. For fine-grained cost differences, adjust individual salaries instead
- Deactivate unused geographies -- set
isActivetofalserather than deleting geographies that are no longer in use, to preserve historical data integrity
Required Permissions
Managing geographies requires the settings_entity_config_* permission set.
Related
- Locations API Reference -- create, update, and delete geographies via the REST API
- Getting Started: Employees -- how employees are assigned to geographies
- Getting Started: Cost Attribution -- how geography feeds into the cost calculation chain
- Configuration: Exchange Rates -- currency conversion for multi-currency teams