Glossary

Unified Glossary

Accumulator	The accumulation of a set of pay element values is an Accumulator. It consists of one or more pay elements. Accumulation is done based on the mathematical operators defined for each pay element, in the Accumulator. The mathematical operators are “+” or “-“. The user can specify the period for which the accumulation must be performed. The Accumulation options provided in the system are Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly and Till Date
Accrue at the beginning of the period	This indicates that the leave has to be accrued at the beginning of the accrual period. E.g., if the employee’s leave accrual period starts on 01 Jan 2002 and if ‘Accrue at the beginning of the period’ is checked, the entitlement units will get accrued on 01 Jan 2002 . If this is not checked it indicates that the leave is accrued only at the end of the accrual period.
Assignment	The work allocated to an Employee in a specific function is called Assignment.
Assignment Number	An Employee might hold multiple assignments in an organization. Each assignment is given a unique identifier called Assignment Number.
Advance Earned Income Credit	Payment by an employer based on an employee's claim to entitlement to the earned income credit. Advance earned income credit payments are treated as additional taxes on the tax return.
Arrears Set	Arrear set is an entity where various pay elements, qualified for arrears are identified for arrears computation. Arrears computation is done for an Arrears Set. Pay Elements, eligible for arrears are identified for a user-entered range of process periods. One Arrear set can be defined for one payset only.
Attendance type	Attendance type is an entity through which attendance is recorded in the payroll process. The mode of data entry of the attendance has to be specified while defining it.
Allow Negative Balance	This enables employees to avail negative balance.
Automated Enrollment	Automated enrollment is used in cases when the user wants to enroll employees into a plan based on certain pre-defined events.

Benefit Calendar	A Benefit Calendar is typically the Annual or Fiscal calendar using which various computations and statutory requirements can be handled.
Benefit Association Group	Benefit Association Group is the group formed on a certain basis like Grade, Grade Set, Department, Work Place, Employment Unit or Job that has a different premium rate. This is used mainly to give different premium rates on the basis of job or employee group.
Benefit Objects	The three tiers of Benefits are collectively referred to as Benefit Objects. They are Benefit Programs, Benefit Plan Type and Benefit Plans.
Benefit Program	Benefit Program is the top tier of the Benefit Object Definition. The various attributes mapped to the Benefit Year are primary participant eligibility profiles, dependent eligibility profiles, Benefit Years, Waive Reasons, currency for premium payment, calculation rules (for salary, age, service months and actual hours) and applicable org units.
Benefit Plan Type	Benefit Plan Type is the middle tier of the Benefit Object Definition. It inherits all the attributes of the parent Benefit Program. If required, some of the attributes can be changed for a specific Plan Type, but this change will only affect that particular Plan Type and the Plans defined under it, and not to the other Plan Types under the same program. For every Plan Type, it is mandatory to map a Plan Category.
Benefit Plans	Benefit Plan is the last layer of the Benefit Object Definition. In this layer, all the Plan Category specific and enrollment specific details are given. Among other things, the important entities mapped to the plan are Provider for the Benefit Plan and the Rate table.
Benefit Plan Category	Benefit Plan Category is the basis on which the Plan details are given. Ramco Benefits supports five plan categories, i.e. Savings Plan, Health Plan, Disability Plan, Life And Accidental Death / Dismemberment and Flexible Spending Account.
Benefit Provider	Benefit Provider is typically the external organization, which provides the various Benefit Schemes to employees of an organization based on the terms and conditions between the provider and the employer. The provider covers the employee in various plans and in turn the employee pays premium to the provider via the employer.
Benefit Group	When the Premium contribution of a plan depends on the enrollment of another plan then such plans form a Benefit Group. So in a Benefit Group, the user mentions all the plans for which the contribution depends on the enrollment in some other plan in the same group.
Business Unit	Business Unit could be a logical division of the organization. A Company could have multiple Business Units, or a Company can be a Business Unit by itself.

Common for All	This will make the employee and his dependents eligible for the reimbursement item. The Employee and dependents if enrolled together will be eligible for the eligibility value defined for the reimbursement item. For example, if the eligibility value defined is Rs.10,000 then, the employee along with the dependents enrolled will be eligible for Rs.10,000.
Common for Dependents	This will make dependents eligible for the reimbursement item. All the dependents enrolled together will be eligible for the eligibility value. For example, if the eligibility value defined is Rs.10,000 then the dependents are eligible for Rs.10,000 altogether.
Carry forward Limit	The maximum limit that can be carried forward to the next reimbursement calendar.
Contact Type	The contact type of the provider organization like registered office, main office, corporate office, regional office etc.
Claim ID	The claim ID series assigned for a particular reimbursement group or stand-alone reimbursement item.
Carry forward Rule	Rule name for the definition of carry forward value computation.
Cafeteria Plans	The term “Cafeteria Plan,” also referred to as a “Section 125 Plan,” is the most commonly used description for Flexible Benefit Plans (covered under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code). A Cafeteria Plan is a flexible employee benefit plan that enables the employee to choose from a menu of certain fringe benefits and pay for all these benefits with pre-tax dollars. These are accounts funded by the employer, employees or both.
Collective Bargaining Agreement	It is a Bargaining agreement between unions and the management and can be used when the eligibility depends on the employee’s membership in the union. The unions on which the different eligibility is dependent are mapped to the Bargaining Agreement.
Course	The basic unit of Training which can be grouped to form Modules.
Competency gap	Differences in the competencies which an employee is supposed to possess and what he/she actually possesses.
Competency, Class and Element	Competency can be defined as the sum total of many dimensions like Skills, Knowledge, Attitude required to effectively perform an assignment. Competency could be represented in various such dimensions called Competency Classes. Every Competency Class has Competency Elements associated with it. Elements are uniquely identifiable constituents of a Competency.
Compensation	The Base salary for the employee’s assignment.
Compensation Frequency	Frequency of compensation is the periodicity of payment of compensation to employees Compensation frequency is a matrix wherein various measures of time and their conversion factors are recorded. A company has one compensation frequency.
COBRA	COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Federal law requires that employers sponsoring group health plans with more than 20 employees offer their employees and their families the opportunity for a temporary extension of health coverage (called "continuation coverage") at group rates, in certain instances, where coverage under the plan would otherwise end.

Dependent Eligibility Profile	A dependent of the employee can be enrolled in a plan only if he is eligible for enrollment. Dependent Eligibility Profile is the definition of such criteria that has to be collectively fulfilled by the dependent of the employee in order to be eligible for enrollment.
Disability Plan	Under this plan, the company pays the cost of its disability plans that are designed to provide salary continuance in the event that eligible employees become disabled or are unable to work for a period beyond 14 calendar days. The short-term disability plan may provide temporary salary continuance to employees who are totally disabled for a shorter period, i.e. up to 180 days. The long-term disability plan may provide temporary salary continuance to employees who are totally disabled for a longer period, i.e. more than180 days.
Department	A Department is a Function or Section of the Organization where similar work is performed. It could also be a group formed to undertake a task.
Dependent Care FSA	This plan allows employees to pay for qualified dependent care expenses without taxes being withheld.

Eligibility	Eligibility is the value for a particular Reimbursement Item or Reimbursement Group.
Eligibility Nature	Eligibility Nature is the various combinations in which the eligibility is defined for the employee as well as his dependents.
Eligibility Nature	Eligibility Nature is the method in which the Eligibility can be distributed between the Employee and / or his dependents.
Encashment Rule	Rule name for definition of encashment value computation.
Eligibility Profile	An employee can be enrolled in a plan only if he/she is eligible for enrollment. Eligibility Profile is the definition of such criteria that has to be collectively fulfilled by the employee in order to be eligible for enrollment. Eligibility profiles are defined separately and in Benefit Object Definition, one or many eligibility profiles can be mapped to the objects.
Employment Taxes	All the taxes that are not directly dependent on the income of the employee but are derived from other factors related to Employment are covered under Employment Taxes.
Enrollment	"Training Administrator’s registration of trainees to a schedule".
Evaluation Setup	The various criteria based on which trainees will be assessed.
Employment Unit	Employment Unit is the Organization Unit where the employee is assigned a job. An Employment Unit could be a location, a facility or any other level at which jobs can be differentiated by the Organization.
Employee File	Basic information like Employee’s Name along with Title, Date & Time of joining, Employee Type and Company .
Employee – Payset mapping	Employees are mapped to a payset. An employee is mapped to a payset for an assignment and a range of process periods. For an assignment – employment unit - a process period, an employee can be mapped to only one payset as primary payroll. Employee would be paid the base salary in the payset in which he/she is mapped as primary payroll.
Employee bank master	The bank detail of the employee to which her salary is deposited is known as employee bank.
Employee Entitlement	The units of leave (either in days or hours) allotted to an individual for a particular leave type and leave period.

Family Coverage Category	Family Coverage Category is the definition of the type of family, based on which the premium of the employee will vary. A repository of family coverage categories is made on the basis of number of dependents. At the time of defining the plan for the category of health plan, various family coverage categories are made applicable to the plan and at the time of enrollment, the appropriate family coverage category is made as the default for an employee, based on which his/her premium will be computed.
FSA Plan	The basics of all Flexible Spending Account Plans is the pre-tax premium feature. Employers establish these plans so that employees have the opportunity to deduct their group insurance premiums prior to taxes. FSA Plans can be broadly classified into two types, Health Care FSA and Dependent Care FSA.
Federal EIN	The EIN is a nine-digit number issued by the IRS. The digits are arranged as follows: 00-0000000. It is used to identify the tax accounts of employers and certain others that have no employees.
Form W-2	The form which employer sends to the employees and the IRS at the end of the year to report the employee’s annual wages, taxes withheld, and other information.
Form W-4	The form which employee files with the employer so that the employer can calculate the amount of tax to withhold from the employees pay. Employee can file a new Form W-4 anytime the tax situation changes and can choose to have more or less tax withheld.
Federal Income Tax Withheld	The amount withheld from an employee's wages and submitted by the employer to the IRS as an advance payment of the employee's federal income tax.
FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act)	The law that provides for social security and Medicare benefits on the earned income. This program is financed by payroll taxes imposed equally on the employer and the employee.
Faculty	Employees or people external to the organization who will be handling a particular course.
Filing Status	The filing status is an important factor in determining the standard deduction and tax rate and whether the person must file a return. The typical five filing status types are Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household, and Qualifying Widow (er).

Grade	Various job layers that exist in the organization can be defined as Grades.
Grade Set	Grade Set is a classification or grouping of employees in the Organization.
Gross pay	The total earnings calculated for the employee for a process period before deductions, statutory or otherwise is known as gross pay.
Garnishment definition	Garnishment is a legal procedure through which earnings of an individual are required to be withheld by an employer for the payment of a debt. Most garnishments are made by court order. Garnishment is a legal deduction specific to the US.

Health Plan	Medical, Dental and Vision Plans can be covered under the Medical Plan category. Medical Plans cover services such as hospitalization, surgery, prescription drugs, X-rays, etc. Dental Plans cover the dental services including orthodontia and restorative care. Vision Plans include eye exams, lenses and frames, etc.
Health Care FSA	This plan allows employees to reduce their salary to pay for expenses not covered by their insurance such as co-pays, eyeglasses, contact lenses, crowns, root canals, deductibles, and co-insurance.

Income Tax

It is the main source of revenue for the federal government and many states as well as locals. The tax is based on the income. An individual is allowed certain deductions, allowances, and credits to reduce your tax, based on laws made by the Congress.

Job	The work an employee performs in an Organization.
Job Level	Job Level represents the relative standing of an employee in the organizational hierarchy. Job Levels are attached to Jobs.

Life / Accidental Death & Dismemberment Plan	Life insurance Plans provide financial security to the families of employees. Life and AD&D plans can be business travel accident plans, basic life insurance / AD&D, supplemental life or dependent life insurance.
Leave Type	Leave Type in an organization can be Casual Leave, Sick Leave etc. The units of leave type will be in days or hours. All the organizational policies and conditions of leave management - to setup and administer leave are depicted in the Leave Type.
Leave Calendar	The Leave Calendar specifies the period for which the leave needs to be Administered, for a set of Leave Types and Grade Sets. This Leave Calendar can be set for any period of time. Employees are allotted leave for this period.
Leave Application	This enables an employee to take off from work, based on the policies of the organization.
Leave Alteration	This enables an employee to alter the leave details, that is, either modify or cancel the leave that is already authorized.
Leave Encashment	This enables an employee to encash the leave that is not availed.
Leave Regularization	There can be changes to employee’s shift details, holiday / weekly information etc., even after the employee has applied leave for a specific period. Recalculation of the leave units based on these changes and updating the balance accordingly is Leave Regularization.
Leave Carryover	This is a process of transferring leave balance of an employee from the previous period to the current period, based on some business rules of the organization.
Leave Adjustment	This is a process of increasing or decreasing the Entitlement Units, carryover Units, Encashed Units or Availed Units of an employee, for a given Leave Type.
Leave Authorization	Authorization of leave requested by an employee. Authorization is also needed for any amendments in leave application or leave cancellation after the leave has been authorized.
Leave Balance	Leave balance is derived as, Entitled Units + Carry Over Units – Availed Units– Encashed Units (+/-) Adjusted Entitled Units (+/-) Adjusted Carry Over units (+/-) Adjusted Availed Units (+/-) Adjusted Encashed Units.
Local Type & Local	Business processes could be based on Country or State, within a Country or City/Town in a State. Such layers of Address definition below a state are termed as ‘Local Types’. For example, the City/Town of each State could be a local type. The cities in the state would be defined as Locals . For e.g., City would be a local type. in the state New York, New York City would be a Local .

Minimum take home pay (MTHP)	Minimum take home pay refers to the minimum amount that needs to be paid as net salary to the employee. In certain situations due to deductions the net pay may become very less. The system may be configured so that it does not go below a certain level. This is known as MTHP. This may be needed for statutory obligations.
Maximum Balance Units	The maximum leave units that can be available for a Leave Type at any point of time.
Module	A logical grouping of Courses.

Net pay	The total earning of an employee for a process period after all deductions is known as net pay.
Non-regular Employee	Employees who are not in the permanent rolls of the Organization would be so categorized.

Organization Strata and Element

There could be many strata in any organization like, Company, Business Unit and Department. The Organization’s Hierarchy could be built using Organization Strata (layers) and Organization Elements attached to each Stratum. Organization Elements can be attached to each Organization Stratum. For example, Strategic Business Unit (SBU) could be an Organization Stratum. Organization Elements in this Stratum could be Consumer Products Division, Industrial Products Division, etc.

Parent Group	It is the group under which some set of sub groups will be attached, so that the parent group will have an upper limit and the sub groups will maintain their individual upper limits.
Prorata Rule	The rule name for definition of Pro rata computation logic.
Premium Period	Premium period is the period for which the Benefit Premium is to be processed. This period can be of any duration. For example, a month, a week, a fortnight, three months and the like depending on the frequency of Benefit processing. The Premium Periods are defined under a Benefit Calendar.
Program	A logical grouping of Modules and Courses.
Post Training Evaluation	Assessment of the employee on the Job after completion of Training.
Post Training Evaluation Setup	The various criteria based on which employees will be assessed on the Job after completion of Training.
Position	The "Position" is a predefined slot in an organization and it is a combination of a Department and Job.
Position Control Id	Each Position Control ID is a predefined slot for a Department and Job. An employee is assigned to each Position Control ID. Even if the employee is transferred, the Position Control ID remains and is available for assignment to another employee.
Primary Assignment	This is the primary work allocated to the employee.
Postal Service Area	Postal service area is the group of zip codes that have different premium rates. This is mainly used in cases where the premium is dependent on the zip codes.
Payroll	A payroll is an entity that specifies the nature of processing that needs to be done. Example: Regular Payroll, Over Time Payroll, Bonus Payroll etc. Payroll is always attached to a Calendar, so that the actual dates of processing can be specified at a later point in time. In Ramco Payroll, multiple payrolls can be attached to a payroll calendar.
Payroll Calendar	An organization may have many payrolls running. To accommodate multiple payrolls Ramco Payroll brings in the concept of a Payroll Calendar. A Payroll calendar has a period unit attached to it. Period unit is defined in Payroll General Information Component. This period unit can be a day, week and the like depending upon the frequency of pay processing. The user can also define the maximum and minimum number of period units.
Process Period	Process period is the period for which pay is to be computed and paid. This period can be of any duration. The process periods are defined under a Payroll Calendar. A payroll calendar can have multiple process periods. Each process period has a “from” and “to” date. The process period number is automatically generated by the system. The system does not allow any gaps between the ‘to date’ of one period and ‘from date’ of the next period. Each process period is attached to a Financial Year and Financial Period. Financial Year and Financial Period are defined in “Organization Setup” component.
Payment mode	The mode through which the salary payment is made for an employee is known as payment mode. It can be of Bank-Transfer, Bank-Cheque, cash,Bank-DD,Bank-Others.
Pay Element	A pay element is a component of the total pay packet of an employee. Pay elements can be classified into eleven different types viz. earnings, reimbursement elements, loan deductions, fund deductions, tax deductions, statutory deductions, benefit deductions, other deductions, arrears earning, arrears deductions, non payable but accountable & leave encashment. For Example: Base Salary, House Rent Allowance etc.
Payset	A Payset is a logical grouping of employees who have more or less the same algorithm used for calculating their pay. Paysets are meant for such logical grouping of employees. A payset is defined under a Payroll. A Payroll can have multiple paysets under it. This entity enables the logical grouping of employees having similar pay elements and/or similar pay element value. The user can also specify a minimum take home pay for each payset.
Payset – Pay Element Mapping	An element is attached to a payset through Payset-Element Mapping. An element can be attached to multiple paysets. This mapping is done for a range of process periods. Each element attached to a payset is given a priority. This priority is taken into account during Payroll Processing.
Period Unit	Period unit refers to a unit of time. Period unit can be can be a day, week etc., The basic period unit for the system is hours. All other period units have a conversion factor, which states there measure with respect to the basic period unit. System defined period units are “Hour” and “Day”.
Payroll processing	This is the process through which the amount to be paid to the employees are calculated. The payroll processing calculates various pay element values for employees mapped to the payset and records it within the system.

Quick Codes	Quick Codes are preset values for certain process variables, which facilitate easier usage of these values in required processes. For e.g. Employee Reason for Separation is a process variable. It can have values like Retirement, Disciplinary Action, Resignation, etc.
Quick Leave	Quick Leave enables employees to avail leave without authorization.
Qualification gap	Differences in the qualifications which an employee is supposed to possess and what he/she actually possesses.

Reimbursement Parameter	The claim amount of some reimbursement items is computed on the basis of certain inputs provided by the claimant. These inputs are called Reimbursement parameters. For Example, ‘Mode of Travel’ and ‘Distance Traveled’ can be the parameters for a Reimbursement Item, ‘Local Conveyance’.
Reimbursement Group	A reimbursement group is a grouping of reimbursement items into one group, with an upper limit assigned for the group. The items under the group, however, maintain their individual upper limits.
Reimbursement Calendar	A reimbursement calendar is the time frame for which the eligibility rules and regulations for availing a reimbursement item are applicable. It can span across a period of time like months, years etc.
Regulatory Region	Any region governed by a common law may be termed as a Regulatory Region.
Rehire	The hiring of an employee who was earlier part of and then separated from the organization.
Rate Table	Rate Table is the tabular representation of the Premium Rates on the basis of Employment and Personal criteria of the employees. A Regular rate table is where the criteria are hard coded and a variable based rate table is where the user can configure the rate table as per the organizations needs.

Self	This will make only the employee eligible for the reimbursement item. For example, if the eligibility value defined is Rs.10,000 then, the employee is eligible for a reimbursement of Rs.10,000.
Separate for Employee & Common for Dependents	This will make the employee as well as his dependents eligible for the reimbursement item. The Employee will be eligible for the eligibility value defined for the Reimbursement Item, and his dependents will be eligible for the eligibility value. For example, if the eligibility value defined is Rs.10,000 then, the employee is separately eligible for Rs.10,000 and the dependents together are eligible for Rs.10,000.
Separate for Employee & Separate for Dependents	This will make the employee as well as his dependents eligible for the reimbursement item. The employee will be eligible for the eligibility value defined for the Reimbursement Item and the individual dependents enrolled will be eligible for the eligibility value. For example, if the eligibility value defined is Rs.10,000 then, the employee is separately eligible for Rs.10,000 and each dependent is eligible for Rs.10,000.
Separate for Dependents	This will make each dependent eligible for the reimbursement item. Individual dependents enrolled will be eligible for the eligibility value. For example, if the eligibility value defined is Rs.10,000 then, each dependent is eligible for Rs. 10,000.
Sanction%	It is the percentage of claim value, which will be sanctioned for the item.
Savings Plan	Such plans are designed to build employee’s financial assets for the future. Savings Plan, covers retirement plans like 401K plans. Such plans encourage employees to save for their retirement years on a before-tax basis.
Scale	Scale refers to a Pay Scale. Scales are defined with Upper Limits, Lower Limits and Increments and a Currency. When the Amount exceeds the Upper Limit , then a new slab comes into effect.
Secondary Assignment	These are an Employee’s additional assignments, in addition to the Primary Assignment.
Separation	The termination of an employee’s services from the organization.
Security – Payroll / Payset	Ramco payroll provides payroll & payset security. For performing any operations of a payroll or a payset, the user must have the security permissions provided for the respective payroll and / or payset. Without the Security permissions, the user will not be able to perform these operations.
Salary accounting	The salary accounting process generates the financial entry of the computed pay of employees for posting to various accounts in finance book to which the pay elements are mapped. On Authorization of salary accounting the financial entries are posted to the finance book.
Salary payment	The process through which payments are made to the employees who are mapped to the payset is known as salary payment. The necessary details for making the payment according to the payment mode of the employees are posted to release payment component for making the payment.
Statutory	This indicates that the leave type is statutory
Supporting Documents Need	This indicates that supporting documents like Medical Certificate etc are mandatory to avail leave.
Standard Deductions	A base amount of income not subject to tax. It is dependent on the filing status.

Treatment of Balance	The remaining balance at the end of the Reimbursement calendar is carried forward, encashed or lapsed. This is known as Treatment of Balance.
Tax Year	A Tax Year is the calendar period for which all the Tax Computations are made.
Training Budget	Allocation of funds for the Training to be conducted.
Training Plan	A tentative draw up of the Programs, Modules and Courses which will be conducted over a period of time.
Training Calendar - Internal	"List of the Programs / Modules / Courses scheduled for employees, along with the faculty, venue, date and time".
Training Calendar - External	"List of the Programs / Modules / Courses scheduled for external trainees, along with the faculty, venue, date and time".
Tax Agency	A Tax Agency is the entity authorized to collect the Taxes, e.g. Internal Revenue Services (IRS) for federal taxes.

Union

Unions existing in the Organization can be defined and certain information relating to them like Office bearers, Address, Committees and Local Groups can also be defined.

Venue

Venues are the actual places where the Training will be conducted. Venues could be internal or external to the organization.

Waiting Period	Waiting period is the waiting time before which the employee can be eligible for enrollment in the plan. A waiting period can be given in days or months from a particular date or from any reference event like hire date, confirmation date, separation date etc.
Withholding Reciprocity	Withholding Reciprocity agreements generally exist between the States and Locals to avoid double taxation for the Employee, when the employee stays in one State/ Local and works in another State/ Local. Different conditions can exist in the Reciprocity Agreements.
Withholding	Taxes that are taken out of an employee’s wages or other income before he/she receives them, and deposited in an IRS account.
Work Location	Employee’s Place of Work can be defined in Ramco Employee Induction, along with Address and other related attributes. Each Employee would be attached to a Work Location, when he / she is given an assignment.
Withholding Allowance	An allowance an individual claims on the Form W-4 for employer to use in calculating the amount of income tax to withhold from employee’s paycheck. The more allowances a person claims, the less income tax will be withheld.