Payroll Glossary - P

Paperless Payroll: The elimination of paper in the payroll process through technology and employee self service.

Participating Depository Financial Institution (PDFI): A financial institution that can accept direct deposits and transmit or receive entries.

Paycards: Stored value debit cards that are funded by employers with employees. net pay. Employees can access their net pay by using the cards to make purchases or withdraw cash.

Payroll Card: “accounts” for purposes of coverage under Regulation E, and include those accounts directly or indirectly established by an employer to which EFTs of the consumer’s wages or other compensation are made on a recurring basis. (Definition courtesy of The Federal Reserve).

Payroll Debit Card: A debit card that is funded with wages earned by an employee on a recurring basis. See payroll card

Payroll Outsourcing Provider: See payroll processor

Payroll Payment Voucher: A document that provides the same information as a check stub for electronic payments.

Payroll Period: The period of service for which an employer pays wages to its employees.

Payroll Processor: A commercial establishment that payroll is outsourced to.

Payroll Register: A report listing and summarizing the compensation paid and deductions taken from each employee's wages for the payroll period.

Payroll Service Bureau: A company that provides payroll outsourcing services

Payroll Tax: Any tax levied by a government agency on employees wages, tips or other compensation.

Payroll Tax Filings: All payroll tax reports, deposits, forms, information returns, status reports, etc. required by a government agency on employees, employee wages, tips, other compensation.

PDFI: Participating Depository Financial Institution.

PEO: Professional Employer Organization.

Per Diem: A flat daily rate of reimbursement for business expenses (e.g., meals, lodging, and incidentals) incurred by employees while traveling overnight on business.

Percentage Method of Withholding: One allowable method for calculating federal income tax withholding from an employee's wages, most often used when the calculation is automated.

PIN: Personal Indentificarion Number used for security on ATM or payroll debit cards.

POS: A merchants system to collect electronic payments at the Point Of Sale.

Positive Account Employer: An employer whose state unemployment tax contributions are more than the benefits charged to its unemployment reserve account.

Power-of-Attorney: The person who has authority to execute documents on behalf of the grantor of the power.

Power-of-Attorney Form: A document normally a standard form giving power-of-attorney to someone.

Preliminary and Postliminary Activities: Time spent by employees to get ready for work or to get ready to leave work, which is generally not compensable time unless the activities are essential to the employee's principal work activity.

Premium Pay: In a payroll context, it can have two meanings. It can be the extra pay above an employee's regular rate of pay that is paid for working overtime hours. Or it can be a special pay rate for work done on weekends, on holidays, during undesirable shifts, or for doing dangerous work.

Pretax Deduction: A deduction taken from gross pay that reduces taxable wages.

Private Delivery Service (PDS): A private sector company that delivers packages. If their services are designated. by the IRS, materials delivered to them by a taxpayer for delivery to the IRS are considered postmarked on the date the delivery to the PDS is recorded on their database or marked on the package.

Private Letter Ruling (PLR): A ruling provided by the IRS when requested by a taxpayer who wants to know how the tax laws apply to a particular factual situation. The ruling applies only to the taxpayer requesting it, and cannot be relied on by other taxpayers.

Professional Employer Organization (PEO): An employee leasing firm that arranges with clients to lease their employees back to the client and handle all payroll and human resources functions for the client.

Public Sector Employer: An employer that is a state or local governmental unit (e.g., county, town, village) or a political subdivision of such a unit (e.g., school district, sewer district).