Glossary: UC and Campus Terms and Acronyms

UC and Campus Glossary

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Application Support Center (ASC): help desk support for CalTime.

Accrual Types: vacation and sick hours earned by employees.

Blu: employee portal allows you to authenticate and navigate to various campus systems related to people, buying and finance.

By Agreement (BYA/BYN): Title codes are 'by agreement' when there are no specific salary ranges associated with that title code and when incumbents in those positions might be paid a wide range of salaries based upon specialization (coaches). BYA is eligible for retirement; BYN is not-eligible for retirement.

CalTime: automated timekeeping system.

CALmessage: the campus' official Web-based broadcast messaging system, providing email notifications to faculty and staff, who have an email address in the CalNet Directory, from authorized administrators. It is used to electronically distribute Campus Administrative Memos and to notify of updates to campus delegations and policies, records management and various other University business functions.

Campus Shared Services (CSS): new centralized model for human resource and payroll planned for 2013.

CalNet ID: all employees must have a CalNet Id in order to use systems that require authentication and is the login or user name for most systems; it is also the extension before @berkeley.edu in your email address.

CalNet Central Authentication Service (CAS): a central facility providing CalNet Kerberos web proxy authentication on behalf of cooperating web applications and web servers.

Chart of Accounts (COA): The set of fields used in the financial system to track the nature and stewardship of expenses and allocations, as well as other financial activity and balances of the campus. The COA is made up of seven chartfields called a chartstring: Business Unit, Account, Fund, Org, Program, Project (optional), Flexfield (optional).

Chief Administrative Officer (CAO): senior administrative leader in academic units.

Control Unit Administrator (CUA): senior administrative leader in administrative units.

Department Benefits Counselor (DBC): administer benefits to the faculty and staff in campus departments.

Department Human Resource Manager (DHRM): administer human resource actions (hiring, separations, etc.) in campus departments.

Description of Service Code (DOS): used in PPS to identify different types of hours (REG, OTP, SDF, etc.) and can effect years of service, retirement, FICA, prorating, etc.

Exempt: FLSA status, exempt employees only reports exceptions, and only in full days. Not eligible for overtime, differentials, etc.

Exception Pay: "Salaried" employees that get paid a fixed amount per month based on distributions and percentages in HCM – non-exempt are eligible for OT.

Factor Accrual: The Factor Accrual System calculates credit earned for each month based on the actual number of hours of pay status for that month. Since calendar months vary in total working hours, credit would vary from month to month. Credit is earned in partial hours. (Example: 9.69 vacation hours earned one month, 10.62 hours the next; rather than 10.00 hours for each month.)

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is a U.S. federal law governing minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor, and recordkeeping requirements. FLSA requires that non-exempt employees be paid time and a half for time worked over 40 hours in a work week. Among other things, it classifies exempt and non-exempt positions (that is, exempt from the overtime provisions of FLSA) by the types of duties the employee performs and salary threshold. Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA): FMLA requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees for the following reasons:

  • For incapacity due to pregnancy, prenatal medical care or child birth;
  • To care for the employee's child after birth, or placement for adoption or foster care;
  • To care for the employee's spouse, son or daughter, or parent, who has a serious health condition; or
  • For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the employee's job.

Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA): Social Security payroll taxes are collected under the authority of FICA and the payroll taxes are sometimes even called FICA taxes.

Footprints: web-based customer support tool/help desk ticket system.

Graduate Student Instructor (GSI): academic student title.

Graduate Student Researcher (GSR): academic student title.

Human Resource Center (HRC): shared services unit that serves the staff and student employees in the Chancellor's Office, Administration & Finance, Information Services & Technology and the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Human Capital Management System (HCM): software application for tracking workforce and employee data, and managing job recruitments.

IST Enterprise Application Services: supports the systems for payroll, time and labor, human capital management and the Blu portal.

Kronos: Commercial Time and Attendance software used for CalTime.

Leave Without Pay (LWOP): Personal Leave or Work-Incurred Disability Leave.

Management Services Officer (MSO): non-academic title, exempt, usually handles business functions for a unit.

Non-Exempt (NE): FLSA status, positive time employee who reports exceptions in hours and is eligible for overtime, differentials, etc.

Non-Exempt Exception (NE/E): an exception time employee who reports exceptions in hours and is eligible for overtime, differentials, etc.

Operational Excellence (OE): Operational Excellence is a multi-year, multi-project effort to make the operations of UC Berkeley more efficient so that the University may direct more resources away from administrative expenses and toward teaching and research.

OPTRS: Online Positive Time Reporting System is a subsystem of PPS used for reporting positive time and vacation and sick leave accrual/usage.

Overtime (OT): hours worked in excess of the normal shift during the full-time daily or weekly assigned schedule.

Payroll Personnel System (PPS): payroll system used by UC campuses, designed and updated by the Office of the President. PPS holds payroll, benefits data, and leave accrual.

Pay Cycles:

  • SM - Semi Monthly
  • MO - Monthly "Pay Current" – All exception – pays on the 1st
  • MA - Monthly "Arrears" – All positive pay – pays on the 8th
  • Bi-Weekly - Every other week, 80 hour cycle
  • XX - Supplemental

Pay Through Dates: The period of time that is being paid. Also referred to as "pay period" May be different than the pay period (SM, MO, MA, XX) as defined by PPS, but processed at the same time.

Payroll Schedules: calendar deadlines for getting hours and leave into the payroll system.

Positive Pay: Hourly employees who are paid only for hours worked, plus holidays, etc.

Projections: Paying hours before they are worked due to payroll deadlines.

Reader: usually graduate students but may be qualified undergraduate students when graduate students are not available. They may not be assigned teaching duties.

Residential and Student Service Programs (RSSP): pilot group is cluster of departments within the Division of Student Affairs which provides housing, dining, residential & academic support as well as campus dining, child care, and catering and conference services.

Shift Differential (SDF): is auxiliary pay given for specific circumstances in addition to an employee's base salary.

Table Based Accrual: monthly accrual (e.g. 10 hrs per month assuming worked full schedule - regardless of how many days in a month). If an employee works less than full time the accrual is reduced based on tiers defined in the accrual table. (Example: 90% - 100% earns 10 hours, 80% - 90% earns 9 hours)

Time & Attendance: term to broadly recording time and leave.

Time Management System (TMS): developed in-house by IST, used by some units in the HRC.

Tutor: Graduate students may serve as Tutors, but qualified undergraduates may also be appointed as Tutors. It is preferable that Tutors be students, but this does not preclude the appointment of qualified persons who are not students. Tutors do not perform teaching duties assigned to GSI series.

UCPath: UC systemwide initiative to replace the existing Payroll Personnel System (PPS), introduce a new HR information system (HCM), and create a systemwide shared services center.

Universe: timekeeping system currently used by pilot group, RSSP.

Vacation Accrual Maximum: The maximum or accrual cap is the amount designated for the employee's category, pay status, and years of qualifying service by Personnel Policies for Staff Members, the Academic Personnel Manual, or the union contract. In most cases the maximum allowable accrual is two times the employee’s accrual for one year.

Work-Study: is a federally subsidized hourly wage job program, if a department pays a student $10/hr., it costs their budget a net of $5/hr.

Worker's Compensation: is a state-mandated benefit for employees with work-related injuries and illnesses, awarded without regard to who is at fault. Employers are required to provide benefits in case of injury, illness, death, or aggravation of a pre-existing condition resulting from employment.

Working Smarter Initiative: UC Office of the President multi-year efficiency initiative for administrative operations, UC Path is one project.