Payroll & HR terms, in plain English.

An extra month's pay, commonly paid at year-end as a bonus.

Feedback on one person from their manager, peers, reports and themselves.

A grid placing people by performance and potential.

An addition to basic pay, such as housing or transport: may be taxable or exempt.

A secret that lets another system call an application's API.

Handing your approvals to a colleague while you are away.

One place where managers review and decide leave, loan and expense requests.

How long a step may wait before approvers are reminded and the request is escalated.

Finalising a payroll run; locks the period and makes the figures immutable.

A deduction that couldn't be fully recovered this month, carried forward.

Recording when employees start and finish work.

The file or list instructing the bank to pay each employee's net pay.

The core fixed component of pay, used as the base for several statutory calculations.

An employer-offered benefit such as HMO, with a cost split.

A fingerprint, face or card reader that records clock-ins.

Additional pay for performance or at a set time, taxable as income.

The reference a claim or cash advance picks to charge spend to a budget.

One row of a budget: an amount for a period, cut by location, department, type and category.

An approved increase to a budget line, which raises Revised but never Original.

Moving budget from one line to another through approval.

Reviewing ratings across a team so the same standard applies to everyone.

Money given to staff up front for work spending, cleared later against expense claims.

An employee request to update their own details, approved by HR.

Spend held for requests still in progress, compared with spend that has happened.

The old blanket personal relief, abolished by the Nigeria Tax Act 2025.

Signing an employment contract electronically, on both sides.

A staff savings scheme with automatic payroll contributions.

Tracking when a professional licence or certificate runs out.

An organisation-defined field added to records without code.

A request from a person to see, correct or erase their personal data.

Any amount removed from gross pay, whether statutory or voluntary.

The order deductions are taken in when net pay cannot cover them all.

Turning an approved run into a bank payment batch, then a NIBSS file, then reconciling.

Letting employees draw pay they've already earned before payday.

Total PAYE divided by gross pay: the real percentage of pay lost to tax.

A rule that gives each new employee the next number in a set format.

A portal where staff view payslips and make requests themselves.

Employee Net Promoter Score: how likely staff are to recommend working here.

A spending cap per category and period: soft (warning) or hard (blocked).

A request to be reimbursed for money spent on work.

The one-off settlement calculated when an employee leaves.

The employer's annual PAYE return filed with the state tax authority.

The company bank account a payroll payment batch is paid from.

Restricting clock-in to approved work-site locations.

A lump sum paid to an employee on exit, often based on length of service.

Total earnings before any deductions: basic plus all allowances.

An audit log where each entry carries a fingerprint of the one before, so tampering shows.

Sending a request to the head of the department it belongs to.

Software that manages employee records and HR processes.

Industrial Training Fund levy: 1% of annual payroll for qualifying employers.

Assigning courses, tracking progress and recording certifications.

Paying out unused leave days as cash, usually at exit.

An employee request for an official letter, such as employment confirmation.

Credit extended to an employee, repaid via payroll deductions.

Separation of duties: the person who runs or creates something can't also approve it.

What an employee actually receives after all deductions.

A contribution of 2.5% of basic salary to the National Housing Fund.

Health insurance: 5% employee / 10% employer of basic, for employers with 10+ staff.

The bulk-payment CSV your bank expects to pay everyone in one upload.

An approval step only its named approver can decide, such as a CEO sign-off.

Employer contribution (1% of payroll) to the Employees' Compensation Scheme.

Managing an employee's exit cleanly and compliantly.

The written job offer a candidate accepts before they are hired.

Objectives and key results: goals paired with measurable results.

Bringing a new hire into the organisation and its systems.

Day-to-day operating spend, and capital spend on assets that last for years.

Original is the budget as first published; Revised is the budget after approved changes.

A pay frequency and its periods, deciding when a group of staff is paid.

A single earning or deduction: basic, an allowance, a loan, or PAYE.

A one-off or recurring earning or deduction outside the salary structure.

The span of dates one payroll run covers, such as a calendar month.

Pay As You Earn: income tax deducted from salaries at source and remitted to the state tax authority.

A payment company, such as Paystack or Flutterwave, that sends transfers for you.

The process of calculating and approving pay for a period.

An itemised statement of an employee's pay and deductions for a period.

Mandatory retirement savings: typically 8% employee + 10% employer of qualifying pay.

Basic + Housing + Transport: the base pension is calculated on.

A structured review of an employee's performance: often a cycle with self and manager ratings.

The variables that change pay for one period only: days, absence, overtime and more.

The Pension Fund Administrator and the employee's Retirement Savings Account number.

An employee's recorded confirmation that they have read a policy.

Advisory anomaly checks before a payroll run: missing bank account, zero net, big swings.

The trial period before a new hire is confirmed permanent.

Adjusting pay for a partial period worked.

Peer-to-peer appreciation tied to company values.

Paying withheld statutory amounts to the relevant authority.

A deduction of 20% of annual rent paid, capped at ₦500,000, introduced by NTA-2025.

An approved request to fill a vacancy.

Back pay owed when a pay change is dated into a period already paid.

A ready-made set of roles for a common way of working, added in one step.

Month-end close: locks the current period and opens the next.

Record of processing activities: the register of how personal data is used.

The plan of who works which shift on which day.

A lump sum paid ahead of payday and recovered from future salary.

A reusable template of pay elements and amounts assigned to employees.

A standard for creating and removing user accounts automatically from your identity provider.

A standard format for e-learning packages that report progress back.

Two employees exchanging a rostered shift, with approval.

Signing in with your company identity instead of a separate password.

A request to spend from a budget line before the money goes out.

Paying one salary across two or more bank accounts.

A deduction required by law: PAYE, pension and NHF.

The identifiers payroll needs: Bank Verification Number, National ID, Tax ID.

Named internal successors for the positions the business relies on.

An employee's annual statement of pay received and PAYE deducted.

Income left after statutory deductions and reliefs, on which PAYE bands are applied.

The share of available time spent on productive or billable work.

Someone paid per hour, per day or per piece rather than a fixed salary.

A comparison of the current run against the previous one to catch anomalies.

A message an application sends to your system the moment something happens.

Tax deducted at source from a contractor's pay instead of PAYE.