Core Payroll Terminology

• Gross Pay: Total earnings before taxes and deductions.
• Net Pay: Take-home pay after taxes and deductions.
• Pay Frequency: How often employees are paid (weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly).
• Pay Stub: Statement of earnings, deductions, and net pay for a payday.
• Pay Date / Check Date: The date employees are scheduled to receive funds.

Employee Management

• Exempt Employee: Not entitled to overtime under FLSA (typically salaried roles that meet duty tests).
• Non-Exempt Employee: Entitled to overtime for hours over the FLSA threshold.
• Payroll Subgroup: A group of employees paid with a shared payroll schedule, FEIN, or related setup in BerniePortal.
• Overtime Factor: Multiplier on an employee's profile used to calculate the overtime rate (for example 1.5).
• Masquerade: Signing in as another user context (for example as an employee or employer) when your access allows it.

Employee Documentation

• W-4: Federal withholding form that drives FITW. See also Understanding Federal Withholding (FITW) on Employee Paychecks.
• W-9: Form used to collect a contractor's TIN for 1099 reporting.
• State Withholding: State-specific withholding form when the state requires one.
• Direct Deposit: Authorization for electronic wage deposit to a bank account.

Processing Payroll

• Payroll Edit Screen: Where you enter or change hours, earnings, and deductions for a pay period before review.
• Payroll Summary Screen: Screen after Save & Review, with totals and Download Preprocess Register.
• Earning: Compensation for the period (regular wages, overtime, bonuses, PTO, commissions, and similar).
• Overtime: Extra pay when a non-exempt employee works beyond the applicable overtime threshold. Time Settings control when hours become overtime; the overtime rate can use a project weighted average when Time Projects are on the run—see How Time Projects Affect Overtime Pay.
• Time Project: A Time and Attendance job or cost code employees select when clocking in. Each project is paid as an Hourly rate or a Piece rate. Project hours and rates can appear on a payroll Configure screen. Setup: Time and Attendance Overall Settings.
• Piece Rate: Pay type for a Time Project. The employee is paid a set amount once for each clock-in on that project (one clock-in = one piece), no matter how long the punch lasts. Clocked hours are still tracked for overtime and averages.
• Variable: Compensation label on Configure when an hourly employee has more than one hourly project row, or any piece-rate project (including only one).
• Weighted Average Rate: Hours-weighted blend of an employee's Time Project rates on a regular payroll run—(rate × hours for each project), added together, then divided by total project hours. For piece-rate rows, the rate used is the average hourly rate (piece earnings ÷ clocked hours). Used as the base for the overtime rate when project rows are present and minimum wage protection does not raise pay. See How Time Projects Affect Overtime Pay.
• Minimum Wage Protection: Time subgroup setting (available when the employer has Time and BerniePortal Payroll). Across a pay period, if the employee’s average project hourly rate is less than their regular hourly rate, payroll pays the regular hourly rate instead. PTO is not included in that average.
• Deduction: Amount taken from pay (taxes, benefits, retirement, garnishments). Pre-tax deductions lower taxable wages; post-tax deductions do not.
• Garnishment: Court- or agency-ordered deduction. See How Child Support Orders and Garnishments are Handled.

Compliance and Reporting

• Preprocess Register: Preview report before submit — earnings, deductions, taxes, deposits, and totals.
• Payroll Ledger: Detailed payroll accounting report used for reconciliation and GL reporting.
• Year to Date (YTD): Cumulative totals from the start of the year through the current date.
• Quarterly Filing: Required wage and tax reports each quarter. Summaries for payroll clients appear under employer Documents — see Viewing Quarterly Tax Reports.
• W-2 / 1099: Year-end wage and contractor forms. See Year-End Payroll: W-2 and 1099 Processing.

Adjustments and Corrections

• One-Off: Off-cycle payroll run (commissions, bonuses, corrections, certain final pay). One-off runs do not use the project weighted average for overtime rate.
• Void / Reversal: Cancel or pull back a payment. See About Payroll Reversals and Voided Checks.
• Manual Payment / Manual Check: Payment recorded outside the normal automated calculation path. See About Manual Checks.