UCPath introduces new terminology. Consult the glossary below for terminology changes, common acronyms and new terms that will be used to describe human resources and payroll elements. Refer to the crosswalk of select terms for changes in key terminology between current systems and UCPath.
Term/Acronym![]() |
Definition/Description | May Also Be Called | Example |
---|---|---|---|
WOS |
Without Salary |
||
Workforce Administration |
Workforce Administration (WFA) is a module in UCPath to be used by human resources administrators at UC locations and at the UCPath Center to manage an employee's lifecycle. WFA allows users to track and manage job related data, including managing pay and compensation, benefit eligibility programs, position and employee data, payroll, and human resources status. |
WFA |
|
VLA |
Vacation Leave Accrued |
||
Verification of Employment |
Confirmation of employment at UC for personal purposes such as loan and lease applications. For third-party verifications, this service is provided by The Work Number (TWN) and can be requested via UCPath. Employees can also obtain a document of verification for themselves directly from the UCPath Center. |
VOE |
|
Union Code |
The Union Code identifies an employee's affiliation to a specific bargaining unit. |
Collective Bargaining Unit (in PPS) |
|
UCSF GL BU |
See Business Unit. |
||
UCRS |
University of California Retirement System |
||
UCRP |
University of California Retirement Plan |
||
UCPath online |
Web portal for the University of California's UCPath system. |
||
UCPath Employee ID |
System-generated unique identifier for all employees across all UC locations. Employees will see their UCPath Employee ID on their paystubs and in UCPath online. UCSF employees, contingent workers, and affiliates will continue to maintain a UCSF Employee ID used for local system access. |
UCPath Empl ID (in MyReports), PeopleSoft EMPLID, EMPL ID, Person ID |
|
UCPath Center |
The UC systemwide shared services center in Riverside, CA. The Center will consolidate routine transaction processing and employee support for some tasks in the areas of payroll, benefits, absence management, compensation, and workforce management. |
UCPC |
|
UAAL |
Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability |
||
TWN |
The Work Number, the vendor that provides employee verification services for UC. |
||
TRS |
Time Reporting System |
||
Title Code |
PPS term; see Job Code. |
||
Tier N Application |
An application that currently consumes PPS data. |
||
Ticket |
See Case. |
||
TCS |
Title Code System |
||
TAM |
Talent Acquisition Management |
Recruiting (in menus) |
|
Supplement |
A defined contribution plan available to selected employees participating in the Defined Benefit plan who are subject to a new, lower covered compensation limit (the 2016 CCLs) associated with the defined benefit plan. |
||
Single sign-on |
UCPath will leverage the UCSF MyAccess sign-on process for authenticating access to UCPath. Duo pulse will be required for access to UCPath when connecting from outside the UCSF network. |
SSO |
|
Salary Cost Transfer |
A reversal of payroll expenses (salary and benefits) charged to an original chartstring and a re-posting to a new chartstring. |
SCT, Direct Retro |
|
Salary Admin Plan |
A Salary Administration Plan is composed of faculty with similar clinical, teaching and research responsibilities. The characteristics of the group (type of activities, potential for income, etc.) are used to determine the salary scale upon which the group's members' additional base (X-prime) will be calculated. All members of a salary administration plan share the same salary scale. |
Academic Programmatic Unit Salary Scale or APU |
|
Reports To |
Each position in UCPath will report to another position. The Reports To field will hold the position number of the supervisor/department chair to whom the position reports. The incumbent of the Reports To position will be able to view information for their direct reports. |
||
PY |
Payroll |
||
PPS |
The 40+-year-old system that will be replaced by UCPath. Currently within UC, there are 11 versions of PPS, each with data definitions and policies/rules applied differently. |
Payroll/Personnel System |
|
Position Management |
Position Management is a module in UCPath that defines and standardizes information for approved positions with or without an incumbent. |
||
Position |
A filled or vacant role in a department. Position attributes include Department, Job Code, Salary Admin Plan, Grade, FLSA, FTE, and Reports To. Each position is assigned a unique Position Number. |
||
PIN |
Personnel Information |
||
PEPRA |
California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 |
||
Payroll Processing Calendar |
Identifies payroll processing deadlines and pay dates for a calendar year. |
||
Pay Confirm |
The process to confirm and process payroll in UCPath. |
Pay compute (in PPS) |
|
PATH |
Payroll, Academic Personnel, Timekeeping and Human Resources |
||
OTC |
Over the Cap; see Cap Gap. |
||
Off-Cycle Pay |
Any payment that is not paid on the employee's regular "on-cycle" (monthly or biweekly) pay cycle. |
||
OE |
Open Enrollment |
||
OASDI |
Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance |
Social Security Tax |
|
Multiple Components of Pay |
Multiple Components of Pay apply to any employee whose total monthly salary includes X (annual salary), Y (negotiated additional compensation) and Z (additional/other compensation). |
MCOP |
See the MyReports Compensation Types quick reference for the list of DOS Codes and Descriptions that roll up into the X (Annual Salary), Y (Negotiated Additional Compensation), Z (Additional/Other Compensation), OCX (Over the Cap of X), and OCY (Over the Cap of Y) Compensation Types. |
MCOP |
See Multiple Components of Pay |
||
Location (Position) |
A field at the Position level that indicates where a Position is located. |
||
Location (Funding Entry) |
Displayed on Funding Entry screens. Carries the original PPS location number used to identify the UC campuses. |
The Funding Entry Location for UCSF is 02 |
|
Life Event |
A change in the status of the employee, such as birth of a child, death of a spouse, marriage or divorce. |
no PPS equivalent |
|
Leave Administration |
See Absence Management. |
||
Labor Ledger |
Series of UCPath tables that store payroll expense distribution data (Salary, Fringe, Liabilities) at two levels (FAU Summary and Employee/Job/Transaction/FAU Detail). The data is made available to locations via DDODS. Labor Ledger data is used to build financial journals for posting to the local Financial System, and for reporting and reconciliation purposes. |
||
Job Earnings Distribution |
The Job Earnings Distribution is the process that distributes earnings by earn codes on the job record by percentage or amount. |
JED |
|
Job Code |
Job codes are used to define job titles and related classifications, including job families, FLSA, compensation rate ranges and steps and EEO compliance categories. Job codes are different from positions. All employees will be assigned a job code; however, positions can be tracked without an incumbent. Positions track details for a specific job in a specific department location, union, and funding source regardless of whether an incumbent exists. |
Title Code (in PPS) |
For example, a job code may represent the administrative assistant title, and that job may have different administrative assistant positions – one in Human Resources and another in Finance. |
Job |
The employee assignment an individual is hired to perform. The Job contains information unique to the employee such as step, compensation rate, and multiple components of pay (e.g. off-scale). The Job is tied to a particular Position and inherits certain attributes of the Position. |
Job Record |
|
IRS Covered Compensation Limit |
401(a) (17) non-grandfathered fiscal year Covered Compensation Limit for employees entering UCRP on or after July 1, 1994. |
IRS CCL |
|
Initiator |
UCPath role for Approval Workflow assigned to the individual who will initiate transactions in UCPath. |
||
IDM |
Identity Management |
||
HR Department |
The department associated with an employee's primary job record. Used in MyReports and other downstream systems to associate an employee with a primary department at UCSF. HR Department is not a field in UCPath. Similar to Home Department in PPS. |
||
HR |
Human Resources |
||
Home Department |
PPS term; see Department. |
HR Department |
|
HCM |
Human Capital Management |
||
GTN |
Gross to Net code; see Deduction Codes. |
||
GL Business Unit |
See Business Unit. |
||
GAEL |
General, Automobile and Employee Liability |
||
Funding Source |
Funding Sources within UCPath are reflected as chartstring combinations that are used to create journal entries when interfaced to the general ledger within the financials system. |
FAU (in PPS) |
|
Funding Entry |
The process of entering chartstring(s) into the custom Funding Entry (Department Budget Table) pages to indicate distribution of costs for earnings and benefit/fringe expenses. |
||
FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) |
Full-Time equivalency is the percentage of full-time that a worker should normally work in a job. UCPath calculates FTE based on the scheduled standard hours entered for the employee divided by full-time standard hours. |
Appointment Percentage (PPS) |
|
FMLA |
Family Medical Leave Act |
||
FLSA |
Fair Labor Standards Act |
||
Fed OASDI/EE |
Employee paid Federal Social Security tax |
OASDI (in PPS) |
|
Fed MED/EE |
Employee paid Federal Medicare tax |
Medicare (in PPS) |
|
FAU |
Full Accounting Unit. UCOP terminology for the UCSF concept of chartstring(s) used to describe the combination of chartfield values required for every UCPath FIN transaction. |
Chartstring |
|
ERIT |
Employee-initiated Reduction In Time |
||
EOY |
End of Year |
||
Employee ID |
See UCPath Employee ID. |
||
Employee Class |
An employee categorization field in UCPath used to identify the appointment type. |
Appointment Type |
Examples include: Academic faculty, Academic Health Science Trainee, Academic Non-Faculty, Academic Student, CWR Academic, CWR Staff, Career, Contract, Floater, Limited, Partial Year Career. Per Diem, Rehired Retiree, Rehired Retiree – Academic Recall, Student. |
Employee |
In UCPath, an 'Employee' is defined as an individual hired into a specific job requiring pay reportable on a W-2; has terms of employment that are specified by an offer letter, employment contract or verbally (including WOS appointments); and is subject to FLSA regulations. |
||
EIAS |
Endowment and Investment Accounting System |
||
EEO |
Equal Employment Opportunity |
||
Earnings Code |
The UCPath system utilizes Earnings Codes to categorize payroll expenditures. |
Earn Code, DOS Codes (in PPS), ERNCD, ERN CD |
|
DOS Code |
PPS term; see Earnings Code. |
Description of Service Code |
|
Direct Retro |
See Salary Cost Transfer. |
||
Department Budget Table |
UCPath records that store funding sources for distribution of earnings, employer-share deductions, and employer-share fringe expense. The tables are populated at conversion, and subsequently through departmental Funding Entry and part of Commitment Accounting. Stored by Fiscal year and Department. |
||
Department |
The department associated with a Position in UCPath. |
||
Defined Contribution |
Defined Contribution/Choice plan available as an alternative to the Defined Benefit plan and its supplement. |
DC |
|
Defined Benefit |
Traditional pension similar to Tier 2013. |
DB |
|
Deduction Codes |
Deduction Codes include pre and/or post tax reductions from gross pay (i.e., medical premium, parking, United Way), as well as employer contributions to benefits and are used by the UCPath Payroll process to calculate net pay |
Gross to Net Codes (GTN) |
|
Data Distribution Operational Data Store |
The UCPath Central Operational Data Store that contains data across all locations including UCSF. |
DDODS |
|
CWR |
Contingent Worker |
||
Cutover |
The project phase during which a location transitions from the legacy/source system (i.e. PPS) to UCPath and future state business processes. Cutover includes employee data conversion, manual entries, final PPS payroll processing, initial transaction entry, initial UCPath payroll processing and user security/access provisioning. |
||
CRM |
Customer Relationship Management |
||
CPS |
Corporate Personnel System |
||
Contingent Worker |
In UCPath, a 'Contingent Worker' is defined as a worker with an affiliation to the University that does not meet the IRS employment definition of an 'Employee,' is assigned to a campus department and manager, is paid for time worked via accounts payable for compensation not reportable on a W-2, and is not eligible for UC benefits or entitlements. The worker may concurrently hold an employee relationship. |
CWR |
Examples include: Volunteer, Contractor, Staff Intern, Temp Agency Staff, Unpaid Student Facilitator, Visiting Postdoctoral. |
Composite Benefit Rate |
Instead of charging departments and funds based on the actual individual benefits costs of each employee, UCSF will begin charging a fixed percentage of an employee's salary. Percentages will be determined by employee groups (i.e. faculty versus staff versus postdoctoral scholars). These percentages by employee group are commonly referred to as Composite Benefit Rates (CBRs). |
CBR |
See Budget and Resource Management's Composite Benefit Rates website. |
Company |
All UC entities are identified as a single Company and consolidated under one federal tax ID to enable systemwide consolidation of employee information for reporting. |
UCS=University of California Systemwide |
|
Commitment Accounting |
Module in UCPath used to manage funding distributions for payroll expense and to tie Funding Sources to Positions regardless of whether an incumbent exists. |
CA, Appointment Distributions |
|
Combination Codes |
UCPath field that is essentially a shortcut for the underlying chartfield elements that make up a chartstring. A combination code represents a chartstring or FAU. UCPath combination code is NOT the same as the UCSF speedtype. |
||
Collective Bargaining Unit |
PPS term; see Union Code. |
Union Code |
|
CEMLI |
Conversions, Extensions, Modifications, Localizations and Interfaces |
||
CCL |
Covered Compensation Limit |
||
CBR |
Composite Benefit Rate |
||
Case |
An online ticket/request opened in UCPath when UC employees and managers request help. Used to track service requests from the staff at the UCPath Center. |
Ticket/Request, ask UCPath Center |
|
Cap Gap |
The difference between the capped salary rate and the full total negotiated salary (distributed salary) rate that an employee receives. The Cap Gap typically must be charged to a non-federal and/or discretionary funding source. |
OTC |
|
Business Unit |
In UCPath, each UC campus and medical center is identified by a Business Unit which is used to segregate information for configuration, reporting and system security access. During Funding Entry, chartstrings used to create funding distributions use the full range of UCSF Business Units established in PeopleSoft financials. |
GL Business Unit, UCSF GL BU |
SFCMP=UCSF Campus SFMED=UCSF Med Center See the Inquiry Reports on the Controller's Office website for a full list of UCSF Business Units. |
BN |
Benefits |
||
Benefit diversion |
PPS term; see Redirect. |
||
AYSO |
At Your Service Online |
||
AWE |
Approval Workflow Engine |
||
APU |
Academic Programmatic Unit Salary Scale; see Salary Admin Plan. |
||
Approver |
UCPath role for Approval Workflow assigned to the individual responsible for reviewing and approving/denying transactions locally. |
||
Approval Workflow Engine |
Tool used to automate routing of workforce administration, commitment accounting, and related transactions for approval(s) prior to being committed to UCPath. Systematically routes transactions in UCPath to designated roles (e.g., funding approver role) for review and approval at UCSF. |
AWE, no PPS equivalent |
|
Appointment Type |
PPS term; see Employee Class. |
||
Appointment Percentage |
PPS term; see FTE. |
||
AP |
Academic Personnel |
||
Academic Programmatic Unit Salary Scale |
See Salary Admin Plan. |
APU, Salary Admin Plan |
|
ACA |
Affordable Care Act |
||
Absence Management |
A module in UCPath that UC leave administrators will use to plan and manage absence events (including extended leaves) and calculate vacation, sick time and paid time off (PTO). Absence Management is UC's single system of record for all paid time off. |
AM, Leave Administration, no PPS equivalent |
|
2016 CCL - non- coordinated |
Covered compensation limit based on California PEPRA cap for employees not subject to OASDI entering UCRP on or after July 1, 2016. |
||
2016 CCL - coordinated |
Covered compensation limit based on California PEPRA cap for employees subject to OASDI entering UCRP on or after July 1, 2016. |
||
1994 CCL |
401(a) grandfathered fiscal year Covered Compensation Limit for employees entering UCRP prior to July 1, 1994. |