Glossary
Cadre uses a small set of words with exact meanings. They come from the product’s requirements and appear on screen in the same form, so a word here means the same thing wherever you meet it in the app.
A grid used in calibration that places each person by their final performance score (low to high, left to right) and their potential (high to low, top to bottom). A person appears on it once they have both a final score and a potential rating from their manager.
Adjustment
Section titled “Adjustment”A correction to pay made in a later payroll run, for a mistake found after a run was locked. A locked run is never edited, because it is the record of what was paid. See Adjustments.
Attainment
Section titled “Attainment”How far an actual result reaches its target, as a percentage. A KPI has a threshold, a target and a stretch level. Scores can go above 100%, and attainment is capped at the stretch level. See Scoring and grades.
Benefits in kind
Section titled “Benefits in kind”Things an employer gives an employee other than cash, such as accommodation or the use of a company car. They are never paid. Their taxable value, worked out by Cadre under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, is added to income for PAYE only, and not to gross pay, pension or NHF.
Calibration
Section titled “Calibration”The step in a performance or review cycle where HR and managers compare results across people and agree final ratings, so that one manager’s “meets expectations” means the same as another’s. See Calibration.
Check-in
Section titled “Check-in”A regular one-to-one meeting between a manager and one of their direct reports, with a shared agenda, shared notes and agreed actions. Each side can also keep a private note that only its author can ever read. See Check-ins.
Client
Section titled “Client”At an agency, an organisation the agency supplies workers to or runs payroll for. Each client has one or more worker groups. See Clients and worker groups.
Competency
Section titled “Competency”A behaviour or ability the organisation expects, such as communication or leadership, described at each level of the proficiency scale. Job roles can expect competencies at a level, and review forms can rate them. See Competencies and skills.
Cost allocation
Section titled “Cost allocation”At an agency, how the cost of a payroll run is split between the client worksites the workers were at. A worker redeployed during the month is split by calendar days.
Earned wage access
Section titled “Earned wage access”Letting employees receive part of the pay they have already earned in the month before payday. In Cadre it is called Get paid early or early pay. The advance is offered and priced by Noddit Lending, not by Cadre or your employer, and is taken back from the next payroll run after tax. Each organisation decides whether to offer it. See Earned wage access.
Engagement
Section titled “Engagement”One period of work between a person and an organisation: when it started, when it ended, who the legal employer, payroll operator and worksite are, and the job, pay and manager that go with it. A person who leaves and later returns has two engagements, and one person can have engagements with several organisations.
Four-eyes
Section titled “Four-eyes”The rule that an action which moves money or cannot be undone needs two different people. In Cadre, the person who submits a payroll run can never approve it, and salary payments are checked and put up for release by one person and released by another. It holds even when one person has several roles.
Goal set
Section titled “Goal set”A person’s individual goals for one performance cycle, handled together. It goes from draft to submitted to approved, or is returned with a comment for changes. Only approved goals count towards the score. See Goals and KPIs.
Grade scale
Section titled “Grade scale”The bands that turn a performance score into a grade, and what each grade leads to. Every new organisation starts with an editable seed scale: Exceeds (100 and above), Meets (85 to 99), Developing (55 to 84, with a coaching plan) and Below (under 55, with a formal performance improvement plan). See Scoring and grades.
Gross pay
Section titled “Gross pay”A person’s total earnings for the pay period before any deduction.
The Industrial Training Fund. An employer’s contribution based on its payroll, owed by employers with at least the minimum number of employees set by the ITF Act. Nothing is deducted from employees for it. See Pension, NHF, NSITF and ITF.
A key performance indicator: a measurable result with a threshold, a target and a stretch level. Organisations keep a KPI library, and goals can include KPIs with weights. See Goals and KPIs.
Thanks or recognition that a member gives to one or more colleagues, with a message and, optionally, one of the organisation’s company values. Kudos can be public, in the organisation’s feed, or private, seen only by the giver, the recipients and their managers. See Kudos.
Legal employer
Section titled “Legal employer”The organisation that employs a person in law: it pays them and is responsible for their PAYE, pension, NHF, NSITF and ITF. Statutory obligations always follow the legal employer, never the payroll operator. For an ordinary employer, the legal employer, payroll operator and worksite are the same organisation.
Locked
Section titled “Locked”The final state of a payroll run, after it has been approved. A locked run can never be changed. Payslips, statutory schedules, the bank file and the journal are produced from it. Any correction is an adjustment in a later run.
Manager
Section titled “Manager”Anyone with at least one current direct report. It is not a role anyone is given: having a direct report is what makes you a manager, and a manager acts on their own reporting line only. See Roles and permissions.
Net pay
Section titled “Net pay”What a person takes home for the pay period: gross pay less every deduction.
The National Housing Fund. A deduction from an employee’s basic pay that the employer remits to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. See Pension, NHF, NSITF and ITF.
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, which runs the Employees’ Compensation Scheme. An employer’s contribution on its total payroll. Nothing is deducted from employees for it.
Own staff
Section titled “Own staff”People an organisation employs for itself, as opposed to third-party workers an agency places at clients. Reports count the two apart at an agency.
Parallel run
Section titled “Parallel run”A payroll run calculated for comparison only, while you still pay people another way. It pays nobody, can never be approved or locked, and its payslips and schedules are marked “PARALLEL RUN — NOT FOR PAYMENT”. Use it to check Cadre’s figures against your current payroll before you switch. See Parallel run.
Pay As You Earn: personal income tax that the employer deducts from each employee’s pay and remits to the tax authority of the state where the employee lives. Cadre works it out from current Nigerian law, cumulatively over the tax year. See PAYE.
Pay component
Section titled “Pay component”A named kind of earning or deduction, such as basic, housing or transport, that makes up a person’s pay. See Set up pay.
Pay period
Section titled “Pay period”The calendar month a payroll run pays for.
Payroll operator
Section titled “Payroll operator”The organisation that runs the payroll, which is not always the legal employer. Under service model B an agency operates a client’s payroll, but the client stays the legal employer and every statutory schedule carries the client’s registrations.
Payroll wallet
Section titled “Payroll wallet”The account a legal employer’s net salaries are paid from when it pays salaries through Cadre. Cadre never holds the money. See Pay salaries.
Pension
Section titled “Pension”Contributions under the Contributory Pension Scheme (Pension Reform Act 2014): an employee contribution deducted from pay and an employer contribution, both paid to the employee’s PFA into their RSA. An employee can also make voluntary contributions. See Pension, NHF, NSITF and ITF.
Pension Fund Administrator: the licensed company that manages an employee’s pension savings. Each employee chooses their own.
Placement
Section titled “Placement”At an agency, a candidate placed directly with a client, who becomes the client’s own employee (service model D). The agency earns a one-off fee, invoiced when the person starts. See Placements.
Proficiency
Section titled “Proficiency”A level on the organisation’s own scale for how well someone shows a competency or skill. The seed scale runs from 1 Foundational to 5 Expert and can be edited.
Rate set
Section titled “Rate set”The statutory rates Cadre maintains, such as tax bands and contribution rates, dated so that each pay period uses the rates in force for it. Organisations do not edit them.
Redeployment
Section titled “Redeployment”Moving a seconded worker from one client worksite to another without ending their employment or breaking their payroll. See Seconded workers.
Register
Section titled “Register”The table of everyone in a payroll run, with each person’s gross pay, deductions, net pay and employer cost. See The payroll register and journal.
Remittance
Section titled “Remittance”Paying a statutory amount you deducted or owe, such as PAYE or pension, to the body it is due to, and recording that payment in Cadre with its date and reference. A recorded remittance cannot be changed. See Remittances.
Review cycle
Section titled “Review cycle”A round of performance reviews, such as annual, mid-year or probation, built from a review form, with self, manager, peer and upward feedback as the organisation chooses. See Review cycles.
Retirement Savings Account: an employee’s own pension account, held with their PFA and identified by their pension PIN.
One payroll calculation for one legal employer and one pay period. A run starts as a draft that is calculated, then goes into review when it is submitted, is approved by a second person and is then locked. At an agency there is a run for each client. See Run payroll.
Seconded worker
Section titled “Seconded worker”Someone an agency employs and places to work at a client under service model A. The agency is their legal employer and pays them, and the client is their worksite. See Seconded workers.
Service model
Section titled “Service model”How an agency works with a client, set for each worker group:
| Model | Name in Cadre | Legal employer | Runs payroll | Agency earns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Outsourcing | Agency | Agency | A margin on the cost, billed to the client |
| B | Payroll bureau | Client | Agency | A processing fee |
| C | Administration only | Client | Client | A retainer or admin fee |
| D | Placement | Client | Client | A one-off placement fee |
An agency’s own staff are not under a service model. See How agencies work.
Something a person can do, from the organisation’s skills catalogue, rated on the proficiency scale. People rate their own skills, and a manager or HR can validate them. The skills matrix shows a team’s skills side by side.
Statutory schedule
Section titled “Statutory schedule”A list produced from a locked run of each person’s amount for one statutory obligation, such as PAYE or pension, under the legal employer’s registrations. The amount you then have to remit comes from it.
Support session
Section titled “Support session”A read-only visit by Cadre’s support team to your organisation, only as your organisation allows. Everything it opens is recorded in Settings, then Support access.
Third-party worker
Section titled “Third-party worker”At an agency, someone working at a client under service model A, B or C, as opposed to the agency’s own staff.
Tax Identification Number. Each employee and each employer has one. Cadre shows only its last four characters in the audit log.
Variance
Section titled “Variance”The comparison between a run and the previous locked run for the same legal employer: who joined, who left, and whose net pay changed by more than a threshold you choose. Check it before submitting a run.
Worker group
Section titled “Worker group”At an agency, a set of workers at one client who share a service model, a legal employer and a payroll operator. One client can have several worker groups under different models.
Worksite
Section titled “Worksite”The organisation where a person actually works. For a seconded worker it is the client; for everyone else it is usually their own employer. Cost allocation, billing and worksite reports follow the worksite.
Writing assistant
Section titled “Writing assistant”An optional helper for people writing performance reviews: it suggests clearer, more specific or more constructive wording for text they have written. It is off unless the organisation switches it on, and each writer chooses whether to use it. See Writing assistant.