Appendix A — HR glossary

Plain definitions of the terms this course uses, alphabetically. The chapter in brackets shows how Operentra handles each one.

Term	Meaning
Accrual	Leave earned gradually (monthly, quarterly or by days worked) rather than given all at once (Chapter 45).
Acknowledgment	An employee's confirmation that they received their salary or read a document, recorded with date and time (Chapters 59, 76).
Adjustment	A one-off addition to or deduction from one month's pay (Chapter 56).
Allocation	The leave days a person is entitled to in a fiscal year (Chapter 47).
Appraisal	A periodic review of an employee's performance against set competencies (Chapters 68–69).
Attrition	People leaving the organisation over a period, often as a rate (Chapter 90).
Audit trail	A record of who did what and when, kept for accountability (Chapter 91).
Basic salary	The core of pay on which many other components and statutory amounts are calculated (Chapter 51).
Carry forward	Unused leave moved into the next year under a policy limit (Chapter 47).
Clearance	The checklist of returns and sign-offs before a leaver's final settlement (Chapter 82).
Component	One line of pay, an earning or a deduction (Chapter 51).
Confirmation	The end of probation, when an employee becomes permanent (Chapter 24).
Cost to company	Everything the employer pays for a person: gross pay plus employer contributions (Chapter 50).
Data subject	The person personal data is about; an employee, for HR records (Chapter 92).
Deduction	An amount taken from pay: tax, contributions, loan instalments, absences (Chapter 54).
Designation	A job title (Chapter 9).
Employer contribution	An amount the employer pays on top of salary, such as social security or a provident fund share (Chapter 61).
Encashment	Paying out unused leave days in cash (Chapter 49).
Erasure	Permanently deleting a person's data on request where the law allows (Chapter 92).
Final settlement	The last payment to a leaver: remaining pay, leave encashment, gratuity, less deductions (Chapter 82).
Fiscal year	The twelve months a company's leave and payroll year runs over (Chapter 10).
Gratuity	A lump sum paid on leaving after a qualifying period, where the law or contract requires it (Chapter 62).
Gross pay	Pay before deductions (Chapter 54).
Headcount	The number of people employed at a point in time (Chapter 90).
Increment	A raise in salary, usually yearly or after a review (Chapter 57).
Least privilege	Giving each person or system only the access they need (Chapters 14, 96).
Leave policy	The rules for a leave type: quota, accrual, eligibility, carry forward (Chapter 45).
Net pay	Pay after deductions; what reaches the employee's account (Chapter 54).
Offboarding	The process of an employee leaving (Part 13).
Onboarding	The process of bringing a new employee in (Chapter 32).
Overtime	Hours worked beyond the shift, usually paid at a higher rate (Chapter 39).
Payroll run	One month's pay calculation for the workspace, from draft to locked (Chapter 55).
Payslip	The statement of one person's pay for a period (Chapter 59).
Probation	A trial period at the start of employment (Chapter 24).
Pro rata	In proportion to the time worked, such as a joiner's first month (Chapter 54).
Provident fund	A retirement fund built from employee and employer contributions (Chapter 61).
Regularisation	A correction to an attendance day, requested and approved (Chapter 39).
Reporting manager	The person an employee reports to, who approves their requests (Chapter 19).
Sandwich rule	Counting days off that fall between two leave days as leave (Chapter 44).
Self-service	Employees handling their own requests and records in the portal (Part 14).
Separation	The end of employment: resignation, termination, retirement and others (Chapter 81).
Shift	The working hours and days off an employee is scheduled for (Chapter 35).
Statutory	Required by law, such as income tax or social security (Chapter 8).
Subject access request	A person's request to see the data held about them (Chapter 92).
Tax slab	A band of income taxed at one rate (Chapter 63).
Tenure	Length of service (Chapter 90).
Withholding	Tax taken from pay by the employer and paid to the authorities (Chapter 63).