Approver

A role that approves a form for action, or a transaction for payment. Some workflows might require several approvers.

Affinity Common Services (ACS)

ACS is a shared software service that comprises standard routines. It allows the same routines to be used by multiple applications. For example:

The routine 'Create a Timesheet' is used by both Clever Timesheets and Self Service Leave.
The routine 'Get Reports To' is used by multiple applications.

Affinity Integration Framework

The Affinity Integration Framework was developed to optimise the way we develop, deploy and maintain interfaces for our clients. The framework is made up of standard software tools that are used for:

Mapping and transforming incoming data, and creating Affinity records.
Extracting and mapping data, and creating client-specified records and files.
Scheduling interface jobs.
Supporting our standard web API.
Importing and exporting to and from SFTP folders.

Application Programming Interface (API)

APIs allow two computer systems to interface directly, without the need for a UI or files. The advantage over files is that APIs transfer transactions/records as and when required. Affinity Employer Services provides the Affinity Web API to our clients so that their systems can send data directly to Affinity. For example:

SAP Success Factors sends employee details to Affinity.
IDT time clocks send timesheets to Affinity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for a vast array of technology. There is no single definition, and even researchers disagree. Generally, AI is a field of computer science that focuses on creating and training machines to perform intelligent tasks.

Bug

An error, fault or flaw in any software application. Bugs can produce unexpected results or cause a system to behave in ways it was not designed to.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Business intelligence is the accumulation, analysis, reporting, budgeting and presentation of an organisation's business data. The goal of BI is to improve visibility of operations and finances to better manage the business. Affinity Employer Services provides a standard comprehensive reporting database to support our clients' business intelligence efforts. Clients can either connect directly to the database, or import an extract (provided by us) into their own data-warehousing system.

Business rule

A business rule is a statement that tells you whether or not you can do something, or gives you the criteria, conditions and calculations required to produce an outcome.

Chatbot

The most common way people experience artificial intelligence is through chatbots. These work like an advanced form of instant messenger, answering questions and formulating tasks from prompts.

Chatbots are trained on a lot of data, and are adept at finding patterns and imitating speech, but they don’t interpret meanings.

Client

A person or organisation that consumes Affinity products and services.

Configuration/config

A configuration is a change that users can make to software that affects how it behaves. Configuration changes are typically presented as options or settings in a tool or a screen provided within the software. It's OK to use 'config' too.

Customisation

A customisation is a change made by a developer to software for a specific client.

Date-effective (adjective)

Date-effective describes something that gives users the option to choose the date when a change will be applied. In an Affinity context, a range of things can be described as date-effective, such as fields, forms and interfaces.

The date when a change becomes effective can be today (this is the default behaviour if no date is chosen), in the past or in the future.

Regardless of when the database change takes effect, the effective date will be recorded in the relevant history (e.g. rate, employee, occupancy).

Effective date (noun)

An effective date is the date when a change takes effect. This can be a past, present or future date, and may differ from the date when the change occurred or was recorded. In an Affinity context, date-effective functionality lets users make a change to a system field such as pay rate or address, and have it come into effect on the same date or a different date.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

XML is an interface file format that our clients may use or request.

Final approver

A role that completes a workflow by actioning the final approval.

Financial year end

The end of the financial year for an organisation. Many organisations align their financial year end to their tax year end, but they can apply to the IRD/ATO to use separate dates. Be aware that clients can loosely use one term to mean the other.

Form

A form started (initiated) by Clever Forms users.

Form template

A form template created by users with Clever Forms designer access.

Generative AI

For decades, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has largely been used for analysis, allowing people to spot patterns and make predictions by assessing huge sets of data.

But advancements in the field have led to a boom in generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence that can make things. The technology can create words, sounds, images and video, sometimes at a level of sophistication that mimics human creativity. It backs chatbots like ChatGPT and image generators like DALL-E.

Help

Any end-user assistance that is delivered in an online format, including traditional web-based help, AI/chatbots and context-sensitive popups. The formal name for comprehensive product is Affinity Help Centre and Self-Service Help Centre.

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

JSON is a human-friendly way of formatting data that’s transferred between systems. We use it in our standard web API, some internal messaging, and for storing business rules. Most web APIs use JSON as the default data format because it’s simple, lightweight, and flexible.

Message queue (MQ)

A message queue is a temporary storage facility that queues messages for other processes. It's an alternative to storing records in a file or communicating them electronically. A good example of a message queue is email.

Messages are sent and queued but only delivered to the recipient when they open their email client to receive the messages. If they don't check their email for three days, the messages are not lost, they’re just in the queue. In an Affinity context, ‘messages’ are records and transactions, such as changes to masterfile fields and timesheets.

Natural Language Generation (NLG)

Natural Language Generation (NLG) is a technology that turns data into plain-English. In other words, the technology can look at our data and write a story from it. NLG systems start with a set of ideas locked in data and turn them into language that, in turn, communicates them.

Night Runner

Night Runner is a service that manages scheduled jobs that need to be automatically run on a daily basis. These jobs perform a range of tasks, including checking for and processing:

Date-effective changes.
Updates made to the BI reporting database.
STP and Payday files.

Procedure

A prescribed way of carrying out a process or part of a process. A process describes:

Who is responsible for each part of the procedure.
When each part of the procedure takes place.
The specifics that apply to each step in the procedure.

Process

A series of related tasks or methods that together, turn inputs into outputs. A process consists of three elements:

An input, such as materials or information.
A process and sub-processes.
An output.

ProServer

The name of our pay processing server. Note the spelling and use of CamelCase.

Secure File Transfer Protocol/File Transfer Protocol (SFTP/FTP)

SFTP/FTP is an option that we provide to our clients. Its main purpose is to securely and automatically transfer files between a folder located on an Affinity Employer Services server and a folder located on a server belonging to our client. Once in place, transfers happen automatically. At their end, clients can choose to move files manually or automatically via a service.

Tax year end

Tax year end is the official end of the tax year as defined by the ATO in Australia (30 June) and the IRD in New Zealand (31 March). Many organisations align their tax year end to their financial year end, but they can apply to the IRD/ATO to use separate dates. Be aware that clients can loosely use one term to mean the other.

Update

The process that updates data between Affinity and ProServer.

Update files

The process that sends data and files from ProServer to Affinity.

Affinity common language