Canada
United States
Bahamas
Jamaica
Trinidad & Tobago
Antigua & Barbuda
Barbados
AnguillaGlossary.
The Workzoom HR and payroll glossary: 80 HRIS terms defined in plain English, grounded in how Workzoom actually runs.
01
HR
- HRIS A Human Resource Information System, or HRIS, is the central database of record for every employee's profile, position, compensation, and...
- HCM Human Capital Management (HCM) is the umbrella term for software that runs the full employee lifecycle: hiring, onboarding, payroll,...
- HRIS vs HRMS HRIS (Human Resource Information System) is the database of record for employee data. HRMS (Human Resource Management System) adds workflow...
- Single employee record A single employee record is one record per person that HR, payroll, workforce, and talent all read from and write to, instead of separate...
- Effective dating Effective dating stamps every change to compensation, position, or employment status with the date it takes effect, not the date entered....
- Position control Position control separates the budgeted job from the person filling it. Pay rules, benefits eligibility, security access, and reporting...
- Employee self-service Employee self-service is a portal where employees view and update their own HR data instead of routing requests through HR. In Workzoom, it...
- Benefits administration Benefits administration manages employee enrollment, eligibility, contributions, and reconciliation across health, dental, life, disability,...
- Open enrollment Open enrollment is the annual window when employees can change benefit elections without a qualifying life event. It compresses a year of...
- The four Workzoom suites The four suites organize into a single shared system: HR (the required foundation), Workforce managing time and attendance, Payroll...
02
Workforce
- FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) measures workforce size in standard-hour units. One employee working a 40-hour week is 1.0 FTE; two half-time...
- Headcount Headcount is the raw number of employees on payroll, regardless of hours worked. Headcount is a simpler measure than FTE but is misleading...
- Manager self-service Manager self-service gives a people manager the tools to run their own team: approving time off, reviewing schedules and timekeeping,...
- Time and attendance Time and attendance is the capture and validation of when employees work. It includes clocking, scheduling, breaks, overtime, and approvals....
- Biometric clocking Biometric clocking authenticates employee identity at punch time using a fingerprint or facial scan. It prevents buddy punching, the...
- Buddy punching Buddy punching is when one employee clocks in or out on behalf of a coworker who is not present, inflating recorded hours. It is a common...
- Scheduling Workforce scheduling is the process of assigning employees to shifts, locations, and tasks against demand and availability. It covers...
- Workforce management Workforce management covers scheduling, time and attendance, and time off in one place, so the hours an employee works and the hours they're...
03
Talent
- Onboarding Onboarding is the process of bringing a new hire from offer acceptance to a fully productive employee. It covers paperwork such as statutory...
- Offboarding Offboarding is the structured exit of an employee: final pay, statutory separation documents, equipment recovery, access revocation, exit...
- Performance review A performance review is a structured evaluation of an employee's work over a defined period: annual, semi-annual, or quarterly. Modern...
- Succession planning Succession planning identifies and develops internal candidates who could fill key roles when current holders leave, retire, or move on....
- Talent management Talent management covers the hire-to-develop side of the employee lifecycle: recruiting and applicant tracking, a talent pool that stores...
- ATS An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) manages the hiring pipeline from job posting through offer acceptance. Modern ATS tools include resume...
- LMS A Learning Management System (LMS) delivers, tracks, and reports on employee training and certification. Compliance industries (healthcare,...
04
Payroll
- Overtime Overtime is the wage premium paid once an employee's hours cross a statutory or contractually agreed threshold, calculated on the regular...
- Direct deposit Direct deposit pays employees by electronic transfer straight into a bank account instead of a paper cheque, clearing through the national...
- Pay stub A pay stub is the per-period statement showing gross wages, each statutory deduction, employer contributions, and net pay for that payday....
- Payroll processing Payroll processing is the complete sequence that converts approved time records, salary changes, new hires, and terminations into confirmed...
- Statutory deduction A statutory deduction is a withholding an employer must take from employee pay each period under legal obligation and remit to a government...
- Remittance Remittance is the transfer of withheld statutory deductions to the government authority owed them, distinct from the form that reports the...
- Garnishment A garnishment is a court-ordered or agency-ordered deduction from employee wages, used to enforce child support, tax debt, or an unpaid...
- Gross-to-Net Gross-to-net is the full payroll calculation that turns gross earnings into the amount an employee takes home, applying every statutory...
- Retroactive Pay Retroactive pay is compensation owed for work already performed but paid at the wrong rate, usually following a backdated raise, a delayed...
- Off-Cycle Payroll An off-cycle payroll is any pay run processed outside the regular schedule, used for termination pay, a missed or incorrect payment, a bonus...
- Payroll Year-End Payroll year-end is the annual close where an employer reconciles the year's pay runs, verifies employee data, and produces statutory...
- Payroll Register A payroll register is the detailed record of a single pay run, listing every employee with their gross earnings, each deduction,...
05
Benefits
06
Caribbean
- PAYE (Jamaica) PAYE is Jamaica's Pay As You Earn income tax, withheld from wages every pay period and remitted to Tax Administration Jamaica. Chargeable...
- NIB (Bahamas) NIB, the National Insurance Board, is the Bahamas's social security scheme. Employers contribute 6.65 percent and employees 4.65 percent of...
- NIS (Jamaica) Jamaica's National Insurance Scheme draws 3 percent from both employer and employee on insurable earnings up to a JMD 5,000,000 annual...
- NHT NHT, Jamaica's National Housing Trust, requires employers to contribute 3 percent and employees 2 percent of gross emoluments, with no...
- Education Tax Education Tax is a Jamaican payroll levy of 2.25 percent from employees and 3.5 percent from employers, calculated on statutory income,...
- HEART/NSTA Trust HEART/NSTA Trust is Jamaica's employer-only training levy: 3 percent of total monthly payroll, owed only once that month's payroll clears a...
- S01 The S01 is Jamaica's monthly employer remittance return, consolidating five statutory deductions, PAYE, NIS, NHT, Education Tax, and HEART,...
- TAJ Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) administers PAYE and Education Tax, sets the annual PAYE threshold, and runs the compliance calendar every...
- C10 The C10 is the Bahamas National Insurance Board's monthly contribution schedule, listing each employee's insurable wages alongside the 4.65...
- Insurable earnings Insurable earnings are the portion of gross wages a social-security scheme is allowed to assess, up to a ceiling set by each country's own...
- NIS (Trinidad and Tobago) NIS in Trinidad and Tobago is National Insurance, a combined 16.2 percent statutory contribution split 5.4 percent employee and 10.8 percent...
- Health Surcharge (Trinidad and Tobago) The Health Surcharge is a flat weekly levy in Trinidad and Tobago, deducted from employees and remitted by the employer alongside PAYE to...
- PAYE (Trinidad and Tobago) PAYE in Trinidad and Tobago is income tax withheld by the employer and remitted monthly to the Board of Inland Revenue. A TTD 90,000 annual...
- NIS (Barbados) NIS in Barbados is National Insurance and Social Security, administered by the National Insurance Office, funding pensions, sickness,...
- PAYE (Barbados) PAYE in Barbados is income tax an employer withholds and remits monthly to the Barbados Revenue Authority, calculated in two marginal bands....
- Social Security (Antigua and Barbuda) Social Security in Antigua and Barbuda, administered by the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board, requires a 9.5 percent employer...
- Medical Benefits (Antigua and Barbuda) The Medical Benefits Scheme in Antigua and Barbuda is a matched contribution: 3.5 percent from the employer and 3.5 percent from the...
- Social Security (Anguilla) In Anguilla, Social Security contributions are set at 11.5 percent of insurable earnings from 1 January 2026, split equally between employee...
07
Canada
- CPP CPP is the Canada Pension Plan. CRA collects contributions, while Service Canada administers benefits. For covered employment in 2026,...
- EI Employment Insurance (EI) is the federal program funding income replacement for job loss, sickness, and parental leave, through a premium...
- T4 A T4 reports remuneration paid and payroll deductions for the calendar year. Issue it when CRA’s reporting conditions apply, including when...
- ROE A Record of Employment records insurable hours, earnings and the reason for an interruption of earnings. The employer issues it under...
- CRA The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is the federal authority that administers payroll source deductions across Canada: income tax withholding,...
- CPP2 CPP2 is the second tier of the Canada Pension Plan, a federal contribution collected by the Canada Revenue Agency on earnings between the...
- QPP (Quebec) QPP, the Quebec Pension Plan, is Quebec's own parallel retirement program that fully replaces CPP for Quebec employees, administered by...
- QPIP (Quebec) QPIP, the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, is Quebec's own program covering maternity, paternity, parental, and adoption leave benefits, with...
- Employer Health Tax Employer Health Tax is a provincial payroll tax charged to employers on total remuneration paid in a given province, with Ontario, British...
- Workers' Compensation (WSIB / WCB) Workers' compensation in Canada is a provincial no-fault insurance system funded by employer premiums, administered by WSIB in Ontario and...
- Vacation Pay Vacation pay in Canada is a statutory entitlement set by each province's employment standards legislation, calculated as a percentage of...
- Statutory Holiday Pay Statutory holiday pay is the wage an employee receives for a public holiday they do not work, set by provincial employment standards...
- Form TD1 Form TD1, the Personal Tax Credits Return, is how a Canadian employee tells their employer which tax credits to apply when calculating...
08
UK
- HMRC PAYE HMRC PAYE is the United Kingdom's Pay-As-You-Earn income-tax withholding system. UK employers report every pay event in real time via Real...
- Auto-enrolment Automatic enrolment is the UK statutory duty requiring employers to enrol eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension and...
09
United States
- Form W-2 Form W-2, the Wage and Tax Statement, is the annual form a US employer issues to every employee reporting gross wages, federal and state...
- Form 941 Form 941 is the Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return, filed four times a year with the IRS to report federal income tax withheld from...
- FICA FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, is the US payroll tax funding Social Security and Medicare. It is two separate taxes...
- FLSA The Fair Labor Standards Act is the US federal law setting minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labour standards. Its...
- Form W-4 Form W-4, the Employee's Withholding Certificate, is how a US employee tells their employer how much federal income tax to withhold from...
- Form I-9 Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, is the US form every employer must complete for each new hire to confirm identity and...
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