Glossary
Workforce terms, in plain English.
The words that come up when you recruit, check, pay and bill a workforce in the UK.
- Agency Worker Regulations (AWR)
- UK regulations from 2010 giving agency workers rights from day one, and equal basic pay and conditions after 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer. Read more
- Assignment
- A worker placed with a client at a site, in a role, on agreed pay and charge rates. Timesheets, pay and invoices follow from it.
- CIS300
- The monthly CIS return a contractor files with HMRC, listing payments and deductions for each subcontractor.
- Client-held
- A system built around the client, who sees every assignment, instruction, check, payment and invoice in one controlled view.
- Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)
- The HMRC scheme under which contractors deduct money from payments to construction subcontractors and pass it to HMRC. Read more
- Credit note
- A document that reduces or cancels an invoice that has already been issued, keeping the record complete.
- Domestic reverse charge
- A VAT rule for many construction services between VAT-registered businesses, where the customer accounts for the VAT instead of the supplier.
- Employment status
- Whether a person is legally an employee, a worker or self-employed. It decides how they are paid and what rights they have. Read more
- Geofence
- A virtual boundary around a site. A check-in from a phone only counts inside it. Read more
- Gross payment status
- A CIS status that lets a subcontractor be paid without deductions.
- Hirer
- The business an agency worker is supplied to and works for day to day.
- Identity Service Provider (IDSP)
- A certified provider that can carry out digital identity checks for right to work, for British and Irish citizens with valid passports.
- Key information document
- A document employment businesses must give agency workers before agreeing terms, setting out pay, deductions and who employs them.
- Margin
- The difference between what the client is charged and what the work costs, for an assignment, site or client.
- PAYE
- Pay As You Earn: the system employers use to deduct income tax and National Insurance from employees’ pay and report it to HMRC.
- RAMS
- Risk assessments and method statements: the documents that set out the hazards of a task and how it will be done safely. Read more
- Real Time Information (RTI)
- The way employers report PAYE pay and deductions to HMRC each time they pay employees.
- Right to work check
- The check an employer must make, before work starts, that a person is legally allowed to work in the UK. Read more
- Statutory excuse
- Protection from a right to work civil penalty, gained by making a correct check before employment and keeping the record.
- Subcontractor
- A business or self-employed person paid by a contractor to carry out construction work.
- Timesheet
- The record of hours or days worked in a period, approved before pay and billing. Read more
- Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
- A 10-digit number HMRC issues to individuals and businesses for self assessment and CIS.
- Verification (CIS)
- The online check a contractor makes with HMRC before paying a new subcontractor, which returns the deduction rate.
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