Glossary of Terms

1996

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Academic Appointment: An appointment for the nine-month period corresponding to the appropriate academic calendar. This is a special kind of cyclic appointment. This type of appointment
is not used for classified staff.

Account: Budget-project combination which defines a specific economic activity. The account is used as the key for the Master Account Table and may be used to derive the remaining elements of the coding (e.g., fund, appropriation, program).

Account Entity: A primary entity which provides financial resources for a position.

Accrual: When there is a difference between what is allocated per pay cycle versus what is expensed, an accrual occurs. This term of accrual is somewhat misnamed and would be better understood if it were termed ‘allocation adjustment’. An accrual is a flow of dollars from an operating account, typically to a reserve account. An accrual occurs when there is a difference between what is planned and what has actually happened.

ACH: Automated Clearing House. An agency which acts as an electronic transfer center. Used by payroll for direct deposit of employee payments. (Commonly used as a reference term for the direct deposit system.)

ACS: Administrative Computing Services. That portion of Systems and Computing which works with on campus units on their system development and production needs.

Adjustment Worksheet: Form used for one-time deductions (DS transactions), refunds (RF transactions), hour balance adjustments (HA transactions) and dollar balance adjustments (DA transactions).

Advice: Report to employees whose pay is direct deposited showing gross pay, reductions, deductions, contributions, net pay, selected year-to-date totals and bank account number.

AIS: Administrative Information Systems. Terminal control for accessing on-line systems at Washington State University.

ALC: Annual Leave Cashout. Earnings type used when paying terminal annual leave hours above 240 for classified staff on separation. These earnings are not subject to PERS deductions.

Allocation: The process by which Washington State University specifies where the state allocated dollars are to be expended.

P-PRTRMS.PA

REV. 03/13/96

ALP: Annual Leave Payoff. Earnings type used when paying the first 240 hours of terminal annual leave for classified staff. These earnings are subject to PERS deductions.

Annual Appointment: An appointment for twelve months (with provisions for annual leave in the case of non-classified staff).

Appointment Entity: A transactional entity which manages the relationship between employee and position.

Appointment Forms: Personnel forms which establish, change, maintain or conclude the employee/employer relationship between an employee and WSU for the performance of specific duties at an agreed-on rate of compensation and other considerations.

Appointment Splits: When specific appointment elements are changed, the target appointment end date is set to the day prior to the action effective date, retaining the original appointment information as history. A copy of the original appointment is created with its begin date equal to the action effective date. This allows for appointment history to be automatically created. The new appointment carries the changed information.

Appointment Status: An indicator of the condition of the appointment (e.g., active, inactive, temporary, probationary, etc.).

Appropriation: A state appropriation is legislative authorization to incur expenditures for specific purposes and limited as to time and amount from designated resources. All other appropriations are categorizations for internal funds management. Appropriation is indicated by a two-digit numeric code appended to fund.

Appt ID: Appointment ID. The key used to link appointment with employee and position.

Appt Status: Abbreviation for appointment status. (See Appointment Status.)

Assg ID: Assignment ID. The key used to link assignment with position and account.

Assignment Entity: A transactional entity which manages the relationship between position and account.

Backup: A copy taken of a file in order to insure recoverability of that file in case of a later update failure or data loss. The copy provides an accurate file representation if a rebuild of the file is necessary.

Base Value: This is the expected annual allocation for the start of the next fiscal year. A mid-year PID of 100/month would cause an allocation adjustment of $600 and a base value adjustment of $1200.

Batches: Groupings of similar transactions which are submitted to data entry for input to the computerized payroll system. Three types of batches are processed: 1) Data Base Maintenance (BATCH transaction), 2) Payroll Worksheets (BA transaction) and 3) Time Reports (BT transaction).

Benefit Factor (BF): The multiplier to be used to deduct the proper Optional Life Insurance deductions from the last paycheck before the non-paid appointment for summer benefit coverage for cyclic and academic employees. The multiplier includes the current pay cycle factor.

Benefit Factor Date (BFD): The date to use in conjunctions with the Optional Life Deduction Factor to calculate the Optional Life Insurance deduction to ensure continuous life insurance during the non-paid appointment of cyclic and academic employees.

Benefit Override Begin and End Dates (BOD): The begin and end dates assigned to cyclic and academic employees between which the system’s normal benefit procedures are overridden in order to run summer benefit processing.

Benefit Override Table: A user-maintained table in WYLBUR which is used at the time of payroll calculation by CPY855, Accounting Interface, to charge employee benefits to a unique account. Allows for the proration of benefits in accordance with salary disbursements to be overridden so that another account bears the benefit expense.

BSH: Base Scheduled Hours. The hours scheduled to be worked in the pay period.

Budget: Numeric code for a recognized function within the institution. Used by payroll to charge expenses and designate responsible unit.

BV: Budget Verification. A former name for the Payroll Expenditure Audit Report (PEAR).

CA-7: Computer Associates-7. A job scheduling package installed in May 1989 at ACS to control and monitor administrative computing programs.

CACO: Central Address Change Office. This office maintains a comprehensive computer name and address file of university departments, personnel and associates which includes faculty, students, staff, parents, alumni and friends of WSU.

CACOTRAN: The transaction process and file for the name/address changes extracted from the Name and Address File changes made by CACO.

CAN: Cancellation. A transactional input document processed to cancel a check. (Uses transaction types C1, C2 and C3.)

Carry Forward: When a change is made to an appointment, the same elements in future appointments with the same keys (SSN, PSN-ID) are changed. This applies to both appointments in the APPOINTMENT storage and to appointments represented by transactions in the queue.

Cash Advance: The advance of approximately eighty percent of expected earnings to an employee instead of a Hand-drawn Check. The advance is processed through the Controller’s Office. The dollar amount of the advance is recovered on the following check by a one-time deduction.

Check Digit: A one-character code appended to the end of a data element number which is used by the system to verify the accuracy of the element number. This code is derivable from the element number. Check digit may also be applied to funding source, but at the current time, this feature is not being used (all funding check digits are assigned a zero value).

Check Register: A list of all canceled, hand-drawn, and current payroll checks processed on the payroll, including the direct deposit total check and all vendor checks. Includes payee name, social security number when applicable, net amount and check number.

Check Register Index: A list of current pay cycle checks and advices and prior period cancellations, overpayments and hand-drawns processed on that payroll. The index includes employee name, department number, social security number, PAR page, net pay and check/advice number.

CICS: Customer Information Control System. The normal terminal control system for accessing on-line administrative systems at WSU.

Classified Staff: All employees under the jurisdiction of the Higher Education Personnel Board as defined by RCW 28B.16.

CMS: Conversational Monitor System. An interactive processor which operates within VM/370. It provides a variety of tools for use on a terminal (e.g., file creation, editing, etc.).

Coding: The grouping of fund, appropriation, program, sub-program, budget, object and project.

Come-up File: A card file sorted by pay cycle which indicates the need for future activity (i.e., a “tickler” file).

CPT: Calculated Payroll Transactions. Name given to the former payroll system output.

CPY: The Administrative Computing Service’s prefix for Controllers/Payroll cyclic processing.

CREF: College Retirement Equities Fund.

CTP: Compensatory Time Off.

Cutoffs: The dates established for processing documents (e.g., receiving, batching, mailing, etc.). The dates by which certain activities must be performed.

Cyclic Year Position: A position scheduled to work for less than twelve full months each year, due to known, recurring periods in the annual cycle when the position is not needed.

Data Element: The smallest logical piece of information stored in a computed file. This piece of information is referenced by a data element number.

Data Entry: That unit of the Computing Center which enters batch data into the computer system.

dBase III Plus: A data base program used for various applications on the PC.

Declining Balance: The balance owing on a deduction which is taken in installments.

Deduction: A gross-to-net element amount which is subtracted from gross earnings. This amount does not reduce the Federal Income Tax subject gross.

Deductive: That which is deducted without reducing the Federal Income Tax subject gross.

Direct Deposit: The electronic transfer of payments to any bank in the U.S. which is a member of an automated clearing house. (See ACH)

DIS: Department of Information. A State of Washington data processing unit located in Olympia.

Dispatch: The unit within the Computing Center which distributes local printed computer output.

Disposition (of payment): A code which identifies whether the employee desires payment by check or through direct bank deposit.

Distribution: Payroll Master File parallel of the HEPPS Expense Assignment. It provides funding information, etc. for payroll expense charges.

Distribution (of payment): Code which specifically identifies the pickup points (e.g., dorms) of checks AND earnings statements.

Docs to Alpha: A holding file for documents which have been processed but do not require data entry. These documents are awaiting alphabetical merging into other completed documents for the pay period.

DRS: Department of Retirement Systems.

Dynamic Maintenance: A process to automatically define values for certain fields not entered through user input. Dynamic maintenance transactions are created based on selected HEPPS data and any transactions created during the maintenance process or existing in the queue. An example is EMP-EMPLOYMENT-STATUS-CD: dynamic maintenance “looks” at all appointments as of the effective date of the maintenance activity, and defines the employment status as ACTIVE if active appointments exist or SEPARATED if there are no active appointments.

Earnings Type: A three-character unique description used to identify the category of earnings (e.g., REG is used for regular pay).

ECR: Effort Certification Report. A form used to report the effort of salaried employees whose salaries are at least in part charged directly to sponsored agreements, attributed to any activity for purposes of allocating indirect cost, devote effort to departmental administration and/or contribute effort for cost sharing purposes. (Also, one term for referring to the now renamed PECR.)

EDB: Employee Data Base. The VSAM file that contain the majority of the employee data required to support the payroll system. (Also referred to as the Payroll Master File.)

EDC: Entity Data Change. A change or addition to entity data processed by the payroll office and input on an Entity Data Change Form or from a Temporary Employment Appointment Form.

Edits: The listing, count and error reports generated when payroll transactions are verified against the Payroll Master File and certain edit routines to validate the accuracy/logic of the input information.

EEO-6 Code: The code which categorizes the primary occupational activity of each job class as defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The maintenance of this code is required by law.

Effort %: This is the percent of appointment that the position will support.

EIC: Earned Income Credit. An advance-of-filing refund of Federal income tax based on expected earned income, filing status, non-excludable income, maintenance of a household and at least one dependent child. (See specific requirements on the Earned Income Credit Advance Payment Certificate (W-5).)

Employee Entity: A primary entity which encompasses collected data on those individuals who perform services for the university which can be controlled by the university as employer.

Employee Types: Those terms which categorize an employee’s type of service (e.g., classified staff, faculty, graduate assistant, etc.).

Employment Security Department: The office which handles social security and unemployment for employees of the state of Washington.

Encumbrance: Estimated charges obligated but not yet disbursed for salaries and employee benefits. These estimates are based on start dates, end dates, FTE’s, earnings types and benefits indicators input from Personnel Action Forms and Employee Benefits Enrollment Forms into the payroll system and translated to the accounting system. (Encumbrances can also be incurred for other university obligations.) That subset of projected payroll expenses that is fed to account.

Entity: A subject that we collect or maintain data about.

Entity Data Change: (See EDC.)

Entity Storage: The physical file which contains the data collected pertaining to an entity.

ETD: Employment to Date. Selected dollar and hour balances computed since the start of employment with WSU or since start-up of the balance, whichever is most recent.

ETRF: Expenditure Transfer Request Form. The form used to request that expenditures be transferred between funding sources. This should be used to request transfers when they do not reflect continuing changes in funding source nor adjustments to effort previously certified on an Effort Certification Report.

Exempt: Former common reference name for Administrative and Professional personnel. Actually includes all employees “exempt” from the provisions of the Higher Education Personnel law and Higher Education Personnel Board rules.

Exempt Status (98/99): The status pertaining to exclusion from Federal Income Tax. Code 98 indicates a W-4-Exempt on file for exemption from FIT. Code 99 indicates no tax liability is anticipated (e.g., working outside the US or on limited retirement supplementation).

Exemptions: Another term for withholding allowances from Federal income tax.

Expense Assignment Actions: A modified form of the Position Action Form which is used to change only expense assignment account coding. This coding is used for charging payroll expenses.

Expense Transfer: The transferring of identifiable direct charges for payroll expenses and, optionally, related employer costs from one funding source to another. (Uses transaction types E1, E2 and E3.)

Extract: The process of pulling transactions out of a holding file into an active transaction file, usually by date control.

Faculty: Teachers, researchers, public service professionals and administrators responsible for directing and achieving the primary missions of the university, excluding employees within the administrative and professional personnel classification.

Fed Med: Federal Medicare.

Federal Tax Marital Status: The marital status shown on the W-4 form for Federal income tax withholding purposes. This may not be the actual marital status as in the case of married but withholding at the higher single rate. Here, the actual marital status is married while the Federal tax marital status is single.

FICA: Federal Insurance Compensation Act. (See social security.)

First Half: The payroll period which begins on the first day of the month and terminates on the fifteenth of the month.

FIT: Federal Income Tax.

FLSA: Fair Labor Standards Act.

FTE: Full Time Equivalent. The percent of a full-time assignment (of duties) that an employee will work in an appointment to a position over a specified period of time. This value is derived from the definition of a full-time work load.

Fund: An accounting entity which carries limitations and restrictions on the use of the associated resources and identifies the source of monies (e.g., state, local, federal).

Fussers: Common name for the WSU Campus Directory.

Generation: One of a set of related data sets which all contain functionally similar data. Each set is given a unique number for access.

Grads: Shortened term for graduate students.

GTN: Gross-to-Net. The gross-to-net process calculates net pay by subtracting reductions and deductions from each employees’ gross pay. Gross-to-net elements indicate which reductions and deductions should be taken.

HCA: Health Care Authority.

HDC: Hand-drawn Check. A manually calculated and prepared payroll check. (Uses transaction types H1, H2 and H3.)

HEP Board: Higher Education Personnel Board. The governing board for all higher education classified staff employees. The board determines rules for all actions pertaining to classified employees and determines which positions are exempt from HEP Board rules.

HEPB: Higher Education Personnel Board. (See HEP Board.)

HEPPS: Higher Education Payroll/Personnel System. The acronym used to describe the management team working on the implementation of the WSU Human Resources Management System which consists of Payroll, Personnel, Position Control, Central Database and Data Maintenance.

HEPPS Data: Elements in HEPPS storages required for Human Resource management.

HEPPS Entities: Entities required to meet the business requirements of Human Resource Management. Primary entities (e.g., EMPLOYEE, POSITION) stand alone without other entities. Transactional entities (e.g., APPOINTMENT, ASSIGNMENT) link stand alone entities. Employees are appointed to positions which are assigned accounts.

HEPPS Storages: The data files necessary for storage of HEPPS entities.

HEPPTRAN: The transaction process and file for data changes and additions to the HEPPS storages which are input by the Payroll Office staff on EDC’s and/or TEA’s.

Hold Cards: Cards filled out by Payroll staff to indicate that a payroll check or advice is to be retained for the Payroll Office and not distributed in the usual manner.

Holding File (for transactions): Queued storage of transactions awaiting update to a file. These transactions are extracted from the file by the use of some criteria, usually effective date. (Also known as the transaction queue.)

Hourly: Those employees who work on a unit basis of pay with hour as the unit.

In-Core Update: In-Core update allows you to see the effect of all transactions in the queue for an employee and related appointments, or position and related assignments, as of the supplied effective date.

Job Class: A category of duties and responsibilities as defined by WSU or the HEPB. (Also known as title description.)

Job Group: A grouping of jobs within an EEO-6 classification that have similar job content, wage rate and promotional opportunities.

Journal Voucher (JV): A document used to create or change transactions in the accounting system.

L and I: Labor and Industries.

Leave Reports: Form used to record leave activity for faculty and administrative and professional personnel.

LOTUS 1-2-3: A spreadsheet program used for various applications on the PC.

LTD: Long Term Disability Insurance.

LV: Leave Without Pay Transaction.

LWOP: Leave Without Pay.

Mail Codes: Another term for distribution (of payment). It identifies the pickup point of the check or the bank of deposit.

Mail Request: A form used instead of postage bar codes to mail large numbers of first or third class letters, first class letters weighing more than one ounce, foreign mail, parcels, etc. (on the yellow request form) or special service mailing such as certified, special delivery, insured, registered, express, etc. (on the yellow request form).

MANTRAN: The transaction process and file for manually processed payroll transaction batched as Payroll Worksheets and Time Reports.

Manual Check: A manually calculated and prepared payroll check. Also known as a Hand Drawn Check (HDC).

Map: The visual representation of employee information stored on the Payroll Master File. Two forms of maps are used by payroll: 1) regular map format and 2) employee “dump” map format.

MAT: Master Account Table. A file of active and inactive university accounts including allowable expenditure objects for the account; employees granted expenditure authority for the account; termination date of the account; allowable account, program and fund combinations; and responsible area, department and unit of the account.

Medical Aid: Medical expense payment provision for employees injured on the job.

Medicare: Medical expense payment provision for people sponsored by Social Security.

MHE: Man Hour Equivalent. Former term used to indicate Staff Hour Equivalent (see SHE).

Microfiche Types: 1) PAR, payroll audit report for that pay cycle only; 2) YTD Expense, gross pay and contribution expenses for the year-to-date; 3) Map, visual display of employee information stored on the Payroll Master File in regular format; 4) Budget Statement, standard budget statement detail used to reconcile payroll holding accounts.

MILTEN: The name of the terminal control system for WYLBUR.

MM: Man Month. Former term used to indicate Staff Month (see SM).

MTD: Month to Date. Selected dollar and hour balances computed since the start of the calendar month and zeroed after the second half pay cycle each month (e.g., medical aid hour MTD).

NATURAL: NATURAL 1.1 and NATURAL 2.0.

Non-resident: Any person in this country on a visa which is not issued as a resident alien or immigrant type.

OASI: Old Age Survivors Insurance.

Object: A two-digit code which identifies expenditure type (e.g., 00 = salary , 01 = wage, 07 = employee benefit, etc.).

OBS WYLBUR: On-line business systems.

OFM: Office of Financial Management (Olympia).

ONB: Old National Bank. Former name of U. S. Bank of Washington.

Operating Fee Waiver: That portion of tuition payments, excluding activity fees, contributed on behalf of qualifying graduate assistants.

Originating Bank: The bank which starts the direct deposit process. The first banking institution which handles the direct deposit tape/reports and forwards these on.

Outlying Stations: Research stations funded by WSU which are located outside the Pullman area.

OVP: Overpayment. A transactional input document processed to recover an excessive payment. (Uses transaction codes O1, O2 and O3.)

PAF: Personnel Action Form. The form required to initiate or change appointment/payment of all salaried employment, faculty timecard employment, courtesy appointments and non-service payments. (Also see appointment forms.)

PAR: Payroll Audit Report. A list, by employee, which details their payroll computation (e.g., time, type of pay, gross pay by funds, amount of each reduction/deduction/contribution, adjustment activity, disbursement activity, balances, etc.).

Payroll Documents Calendar: The schedule specifying due dates for payroll related documents by pay cycle.

PAYTRAN: The transaction process and file for Payroll Master File data maintenance processed by the Payroll Office.

PEAR: Payroll Expenditure Audit Report. Report of the current pay period payments and any retroactivity for preceding pay periods.

PECR: Payroll Expenditure Control Report. A former name for the PEAR.

Pending File: A file of documents or manually processed input forms awaiting further information or paperwork before completion.

Perquisite: Additional non-salary compensation for an employee. Given a dollar value for benefits calculations (e.g., room, board).

PERS: Public Employees Retirement System (I and II).

PERTRAN: The transaction process and file for data changes and additions from the Personnel On-line System which are to be applied to the Payroll Master File.

Phone Authorization Code: A code used to charge long-distance telephone tolls to the appropriate university accounts. This code provides a cross-reference to the detail information needed for the monthly Telephone Usage Report.

PID: Periodic Increment Date. The date upon which a classified staff employee is scheduled to move to a higher salary step within the range for his/her current class. The PID process is the mechanism by which these increases are formatted into payroll, personnel and position control transactions for update to the appropriate files.

Piece: Those employees paid on the basis of dollars per units completed with units completed equal to the number of pieces.

PISD: Personnel Information Systems Division. A State of Washington data processing unit located in Olympia.

Position Actions: The forms used to show on-going changes to positions. These forms are to indicate changes to positions which are intended for the duration of the position based on currently available information.

Position Control: A part of the WSU Human Resource Management System known also as HEPPS. This section manages units of human and financial resources known as positions.

Posn Entity: Position entity. A primary entity which describes a uniquely identifiable set of duties and responsibilities and its concurrent financial resource requirements.

Posn ID: Position ID. The key used to link position with appointment and assignment. Also referred to as position number.

Prenote: The test phase of an individual’s direct deposit start-up in which bank account information transactions, but no money, are sent through ACH channels to destination banks. This information is either accepted as correct or rejected as in error.

PROFS: Professional Office System by IBM. An on-line system for managing calendars, scheduling events, composing and sending correspondence, etc.

Program: Part of a code which signifies the various operating functions within the university (e.g., instruction, administration, research). Program is the numeric portion of the full code. (See also Sub-program.)

Project: Local numeric code classification which is a subdivision of a recognized institutional function indicated by the budget.

Projected Accrual: If we allocated future pay cycles and then compared projected payroll expense, we could generate projected accruals and use this as a planning tool.

Projected Payroll Expense: An estimate of future costs of salaries and benefits. This differs from encumbrance because we can calculate project payroll expense for all employee-appointment-position-assignment-account, yet we may only feed a subset of these projected payroll expenses to accounting. We also summarize benefit encumbrances by employee type in accounting, while they are not summarized as a Projected Payroll Expense.

R and I: Retirement and Insurance Office.

RA, Research Assistant: Matriculating students, either graduate or undergraduate, whose primary responsibilities are related to research.

RA, Retroactive Adjustment: Gross pay adjustment which applies to a prior pay period. RA is the transaction type of this adjustment.

Range: A pay scale for specific job classifications.

RCW: Revised Code of Washington.

Recovery: The process of regaining an excessive payment. A recovery is entered into the payroll system as an overpayment. (See OVP.)

Reduction: A gross-to-net element amount which is subtracted from gross earnings and also reduces Federal income tax subject gross.

Reductive: That which is deducted while also reducing Federal income tax subject gross by an amount equal to the amount of the deduction.

Replacement Check: A manually prepared check issued as a substitute for a lost or stolen check.

Revolving Fund: A subsidiary payroll system for payments made outside the normal scope of the HEPPS payroll system which are required due to a more urgent payment schedule. Dollar balance postings are made through the regular HEPPS payroll system for W-2 purposes. Accounts Payable reimburses the subsidiary funds accounts for payments made.

SA: Staff Assistant. Matriculating student, either graduate or undergraduate, whose primary responsibilities are related to public service and/or administrative assistance.

Safeguard Report: A list generated out of the Direct Deposit process which indicates when more than one employee is direct depositing to the same bank account.

Salaries: Fixed compensation periodically paid to employees for regular work. (Object 00 expenses.)

SCAN Distribution Listing: The listing of SCAN sheets printed in campus zip code order for distribution purposes.

SCANS: The common name used to refer to the Unit Pay Report forms. A scannable sheet used to report hours or pieces worked for positive pay employees, including monthly employees with variable BSH.

Schedule and Control: The unit of Administrative Computing Services which is responsible for scheduling and running production jobs/processes and distributing resulting reports.

SDB: State Database. WSU Payroll Office acronym for on-line database located in Olympia which Payroll maintains for all employees and retirees on State health and dental plans.

SEBB: State Employees Benefit Board, formerly named SEIB.

SEBB Feed: The terms used to describe the nightly transmission of employee health and dental attribute changes from the State Database to the Washington State University HEPPS System.

Second Half: The payroll period which begins on the sixteenth of the month and terminates on the last day of the month.

SEIB: State Employees Insurance Board.

SH: Staff Hour. One person’s full-time effort for one hour.

SHE: Staff Hour Equivalent. The percent of a full-time staff hour (SH) that an employee will work in an appointment over the period of an hour.

SM: Staff Month. One person’s full-time effort for one month.

SME: Staff Month Equivalent. The percent of a full-time staff month (SM) that an employee will work in an appointment over the period of a month.

Snapshot: A copy of the pay affecting HEPPS data at a point in time, reformatted to the ISI VSAM record layout.

Snapshot (Partial): Replacement of pay affecting APPOINTMENT information in VSAM, for an employee when triggered by a change in HEPPS. EMPLOYEE attributes are not snapshot, but each change to a pay affecting EMPLOYEE attribute in HEPPS causes an ISI X1 transaction to be created in a PERTRAN batch.

Snapshot (Full): Replacement of all pay affecting information in VSAM for affected employees. Any change to a pay affecting EMPLOYEE, APPOINTMENT, POSITION, or ASSIGNMENT data element will cause the VSAM record for an employee to be rebuilt from HEPPS.

Social Security: An insurance plan, relating to life insurance and old age pensions, offered/required by the Federal government to specified groups of the population, on a contributory basis.

SRA: Supplemental Retirement Annuity. A type of TDA.

SS Card: Social Security Card. The card issued by the Social Security Administration, showing the individual’s name and Social Security number.

SSN: Social Security Number. The unique number assigned by the Social Security Administration to each individual’s Social Security account. This number is necessary for employment.

State Data Base (SDB): State Database. WSU Payroll Office acronym for on-line database located in Olympia which Payroll maintains for all employees and retirees on State health and dental plans.

STD: Semester to Date. Selected dollar and hour balances computed since the start of the semester and zeroed before the start of the next semester (e.g., work study earnings STD).

Step: A one-character code identifying the horizontal position of the employee on the pay range of their appointment.

Sub-fund: (See appropriation.)

Sub-object: A two-digit alpha code to further breakdown object into more detailed categories.

Sub-program: Part of the code which signifies the various operating functions within the university (e.g., instruction, administration, research). The alpha portion of the code. This portion of the code also indicates the agency for grant and contract funding sources. (See also Program.)

Subject Gross: The gross pay dollar amount which forms the basis for a reduction/deduction/contribution based on gross earnings.

Summer Benefits: Health insurance contributions paid and life insurance deductions taken to provide employees with continuous insurance coverage during their cyclic or academic leave periods.

Supplemental Pension Tax: Part of the Medical Aid contribution by WSU.

TA: Teaching Assistant. Matriculating student, either graduate or undergraduate, whose primary responsibilities are related to teaching.

TDA: Tax Deferred Annuity.

TEA: Temporary Employment Appointment form. The form used to establish or change the appointments for temporary, occasional employees. This form carries the transaction types/information which feeds PAYTRAN and HEPPTRAN.

TIAA: Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association.

Time Report Forms: Used to report attendance, leave and overtime for classified staff.

Time Report Transactions: Transactions generated from the information on a Time Report or Leave Report.

Timecards: Shortened term for Faculty Timecard Appointments.

Timesheet Index: The alphabetical listing of employees paid from SCANS cross referenced to SCAN Sheet process number.

Timeslip: Shortened term for a Temporary Employment Appointment.

Title Code: A code specifying a category of duties and responsibilities as defined by WSU or the HEPB (also known as job class code).

Transaction File: A computer file which only contains transactions (e.g., a PAYTRAN generation, the transaction queue, etc.).

TRS: Teachers Retirement System. Name used as the common reference to Washington State Teachers Retirement System (see WSTRS).

Tuition Deductions (096): Tuition deducted from the paychecks for Research Assistants and Teaching Assistants being paid from Schedule B. These deductions are taken from eight paychecks during each semester to cover the student’s operating fee.

Tuition Remission: Synonymous term for Operating Fee Waiver. (See Operating Fee Waiver.)

TX: Transaction type used to enter positive pay activity for the current period into the automated payroll process. Time is recorded against an employee’s appointments.

UC: See Unemployment Compensation.

UCS: University Computing Services. Former name of Administrative Computing Services.

UNAF: University Name and Address File.

Undergrads: Shortened term for undergraduate students.

Unemployment Compensation: A tax to reimburse the pool for payments made for unemployed former WSU employees eligible for such compensation.

Update: The process by which transactions are applied to a data file to cause changes and/or additions to that file.

VSAM: Virtual Storage Access Method. Payroll files are in VSAM.

Visa Types: The types of endorsements given by an authorized representative of a country to foreigners wishing entrance to the country for various purposes. The type of visa indicates the desired purpose and carries with it certain restrictions pertaining to various activities such as employment.

WAC: Washington Administrative Code.

Wages: Compensation paid to employees on an hourly or piece basis. (Object 01 expenses.)

Withholding Allowances: Allowable exemptions from Federal income tax for self, spouse, age, blindness and dependents.

WSECU, School: Washington School Employees Credit Union.

WSECU, State: Washington State Employees Credit Union.

WSTRS: Washington State Teachers Retirement System.

WSU-5: Former name of the Temporary Employment Appointment Form.

WYLBUR: Interactive text editor and remote job entry/fetch system.

W-2 Forms: Wage and Tax Statement. The form used to report wages, tips, other compensation, withheld income and social security taxes, and advance earned income credit payments to the IRS, the Social Security Administration and the employee.

W-2P Forms: Statement for Recipients of Annuities, Pensions, Retired Pay, or IRA Payments. Report to the IRS, the Social Security Administration and the recipient of retirement supplementation payments.

W-4 Forms: Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. Required by Federal law to be on file with the Payroll Office before any salary or wage payments are made.

X-1: The transaction type which will handle any general data maintenance change up to seven characters in length.

X-2: The transaction type which will handle any general data maintenance change up to thirty characters in length.

YTD: Year to Date. Selected dollar and hour balances computed since the start of the calendar year or since start-up of the balance, whichever is most recent (e.g., withholding covered gross YTD). These balances are zeroed before the start of the next calendar year.

Zip Code, Campus: The plus four zip code of each campus mail stop, which is also used for internal campus mail distribution.

Zip Code, Plus Four: A four-digit extension of the postal zip code which provides more consistent postal service through more accurate sorting of mail and more consistent delivery.

Zip Code, Postal: A five-digit numerical code which identifies areas within the US and its territories for purposes of simplifying mail distribution.

1 of __: Indicates the first half pay cycle of the month appearing in the blank. This is used on documents to indicate processing cycle worked.

2 of __: Indicates the second half pay cycle of the month appearing in the blank. This is used on documents to indicate processing cycle worked.