Moving the Money Glossary · Workforce

Administrative wage garnishment (AWG): an order from a federal agency or the Department of Education, not a court, to withhold up to 15% of disposable pay for a non-tax debt or defaulted federal student loan, behind support orders (Garnishments & Levies).
Approval deadline: the last moment an employer can approve a payroll and still make its check date, computed from the funding speed, the banking calendar and the provider's cutoff (Funding a Payroll).
Cash requirement: everything a provider will pay out on an employer's behalf for one pay run (net pay it sends, taxes and garnishments it remits), collected by the client debit; not gross pay (Funding a Payroll).
Client debit: the ACH debit (or wire) that collects a pay run's cash requirement from the employer's bank account before the provider pays out (Funding a Payroll).
Client funds obligations: the balance sheet liability for money a provider holds to pay clients' employees, agencies and other payees, carried at face while the funds held for them are carried at fair value (Client Funds & Impound Accounts).
Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) Title III: the federal wage garnishment law: disposable earnings, the 25% and 30-times limits for ordinary debts, 50 to 65% for support, and no discharge for one garnishment (Garnishments & Levies).
Disposable earnings: earnings left after deductions required by law (taxes, the employee's Social Security and Medicare, required state contributions and retirement); voluntary deductions are not subtracted (Garnishments & Levies).
e-IWO: the federal child support office's electronic exchange through which employers receive income withholding orders and send acknowledgments (Child Support Withholding).
Exempt amount (levy): the take-home pay an IRS wage levy leaves the employee each pay period, by filing status, pay period and dependents from Publication 1494 (Garnishments & Levies).
Funding speed: the number of banking days between the client debit and the check date (four-day, two-day, next-day, same-day), a credit tier the provider assigns and can take away (Funding a Payroll).
Funding strike: a record of a failed payroll funding against an employer, counted toward lengthening its funding speed or removing it from the platform (When the Debit Fails).
Grantor trust (client funds): the trust structure some providers use to hold client payroll money, with a provider-owned, regulated trust bank as sole trustee (Client Funds & Impound Accounts).
Impound: collecting a client's taxes and net pay ahead of the dates they are owed and holding them in a client trust account until paid (Client Funds & Impound Accounts).
Income Withholding for Support (IWO): the federal standard form (OMB 0970-0154) that orders an employer to withhold child support and says how much, to whom and under which state's limits (Child Support Withholding).
Laddering: investing client funds in slices maturing period by period, so a fixed share is reinvested at current rates and yield lags rate changes (Client Funds & Impound Accounts).
National Medical Support Notice (NMSN): the notice requiring an employer to forward a child's health coverage order to its plan within 20 business days and withhold the employee's premium (Child Support Withholding).
Net pay split: an ordered list of a worker's net pay destinations, each a fixed amount or percentage, with one remainder account, fixed at approval (Direct Deposit, Pay Cards & Checks).
Payroll card account: a prepaid account established through an employer to receive wages, covered by Regulation E's prepaid rule and offered only as one choice among ways to be paid (Direct Deposit, Pay Cards & Checks).
Recovery case: the record of an outstanding balance from a failed client debit, with its retries, block on the next payroll and collection, until resolved by final money or a decision about the loss (When the Debit Fails).
Reverse wire: a debit initiated by an embedded payroll provider against a partner platform's bank account to fund its customers' payroll obligations (Funding a Payroll).
State disbursement unit (SDU): the state office that receives withheld child support from employers, due within 7 business days of payday, and pays it to families (Child Support Withholding).
Unclaimed wages: pay a worker never received (an uncashed check, a returned deposit, a pay card balance) that becomes reportable to a state after its dormancy period (Direct Deposit, Pay Cards & Checks).