Glossary
Irish Software Compliance Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the Irish-specific terms that drive software choice. Revenue regimes, GDPR mechanics, SEPA, eTenders, EU AI Act, all linked to the vendors and categories they affect.
66 terms, last reviewed 2026.
Tax & Revenue
Revenue Commissioners regimes and tax-return mechanics that any Irish accounting or payroll software must handle correctly.
Accounts Payable (AP) automation
aka AP automation, supplier invoice automation, purchase invoice automation
Software that automates the supplier-invoice side of the ledger: capture of incoming supplier invoices, auto-coding to nominal and VAT, approval workflow, and payment posting. Distinct from expense management, which handles employee-initiated spend.
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Corporation Tax (CT1)
aka CT1, Irish Corporation Tax return
The annual Corporation Tax return filed by Irish resident companies through ROS. Trading income is taxed at 12.5% (or 15% for large groups in scope of Pillar Two); passive income and certain non-trading profits are taxed at 25%.
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Income Tax Return (Form 11)
aka Form 11, Irish self-assessed return
The annual self-assessment income tax return for self-employed individuals, company directors with material interests, and taxpayers with non-PAYE income. Filed through ROS by 31 October (or mid-November via ROS Pay and File extension).
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PAYE Modernisation
aka PMOD, Real-Time Payroll Reporting
Ireland's real-time payroll reporting regime, introduced by Revenue on 1 January 2019. Every payroll run must submit data to Revenue on or before the date employees are paid.
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Receipt capture (OCR)
aka OCR receipt capture, receipt scanning software, receipt automation
Software that ingests a photographed, emailed or scanned receipt and uses optical character recognition to extract structured fields - supplier, date, net, VAT rate, VAT amount, currency - so the receipt can be posted to accounting software without manual keying.
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Receipt-to-VAT stack
aka receipt-to-VAT pipeline, spend-to-VAT-reclaim stack, expense-to-VAT stack
Vendors.ie term for the integrated four-layer workflow that moves an Irish SME from a business spend transaction to a Revenue-compliant VAT reclaim line without manual data entry: card or bank feed, receipt capture, VAT extraction, and accounting integration.
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Relevant Contracts Tax (RCT)
aka RCT
A withholding tax that principal contractors deduct from payments to subcontractors in construction, forestry and meat-processing. Rates are set by Revenue at 0%, 20% or 35% based on the subcontractor's compliance record.
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Revenue eInvoicing
aka Irish eInvoicing, B2B eInvoicing
The mandatory structured electronic invoicing regime being rolled out by Revenue, aligning Ireland with the EU ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) package. Invoices must be issued in a machine-readable format (UBL or CII) and transmitted via the Peppol network.
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Reverse Charge VAT (construction)
aka Construction VAT Reverse Charge, RCV
A VAT rule specific to Irish construction services: where both parties are RCT-registered, the subcontractor invoices net of VAT and the principal accounts for the VAT in their own VAT3 return.
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ROS (Revenue Online Service)
aka ROS, Revenue Online
Revenue's secure portal for businesses, agents and large filers. Used to file VAT3, Form 11, CT1, RCT notifications, PAYE submissions and to access Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs).
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VAT3 return
aka VAT3, Irish VAT return
The periodic VAT return filed with Revenue via ROS. Most Irish businesses file bi-monthly; small traders can apply for four-monthly or annual filing. An annual Return of Trading Details (RTD) accompanies the final period.
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Payroll
Statutory payroll concepts that drive PAYE Modernisation, sick leave, pensions and benefit-in-kind in Irish payroll software.
Auto-Enrolment (My Future Fund)
aka AE, My Future Fund, Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System
Ireland's workplace pension scheme, branded My Future Fund. Live since 1 January 2026, administered by NAERSA. Eligible employees aged 23 to 60 earning over EUR 20,000 are automatically enrolled, with contributions deducted at source by payroll software.
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Benefit-in-Kind
aka BIK
Tax charged on non-cash perks (company cars, vans, accommodation, low-interest loans) provided to Irish employees. BIK is added to gross pay and taxed via PAYE.
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Employment Detail Summary
aka EDS, P60 replacement
Annual statement employees download from Revenue MyAccount showing total pay, tax, USC and PRSI for the year. Replaced the P60 from 2019 onward under PAYE Modernisation.
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NAERSA
aka National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority, Central Processing Authority, Auto-Enrolment authority
The statutory body that runs Ireland's Auto-Enrolment workplace pension scheme (My Future Fund). Identifies eligible employees, issues Auto-Enrolment Payroll Notifications, and collects contributions from employers. Operationally live since 1 January 2026.
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PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance)
aka PRSI
Ireland's social insurance contribution deducted at source by payroll. Most employees are on Class A1, with employee PRSI at 4.1% and employer PRSI at 8.9% (lower rate) or 11.15% (higher rate) from October 2024 rates.
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Statutory Sick Pay
aka SSP, Irish SSP, Sick Leave Act
Mandatory paid sick leave for Irish employees, introduced by the Sick Leave Act 2022. Phased in from 3 days in 2023, rising to 10 days from 2026 onward.
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Universal Social Charge
aka USC
Irish payroll tax on gross income deducted at source by employers via PAYE and reported in real time under PAYE Modernisation. Bands, rates and exemption thresholds are set in the annual Finance Act.
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Employment Law
Irish statutory employment frameworks (WRC, working time, remote working, equality, whistleblowing) that shape what HR software must record and enforce.
Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect
aka Right to Disconnect, RTD, WRC Code of Practice on Right to Disconnect
WRC Code of Practice giving Irish employees the right to disengage from work outside normal hours, in force since 1 April 2021. Admissible in WRC and Labour Court proceedings.
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Employment Equality Acts
aka EEA, Employment Equality Act 1998, Equal Status Acts
Irish anti-discrimination regime covering employment. Prohibits discrimination across nine grounds, requires reasonable accommodation for disability, and is enforced through the WRC.
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Employment Permits System
aka Employment Permits, EPOS, Critical Skills Permit, General Employment Permit
Department of Enterprise system that issues nine types of employment permit allowing non-EEA nationals to work in Ireland. Online via the Employment Permits Online System (EPOS).
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Organisation of Working Time Act 1997
aka OWT, OWTA, Working Time Act, Working Time Regulations
Primary Irish statute governing maximum weekly working hours, daily and weekly rest periods, breaks, Sunday premiums, public holidays and annual leave for most employees.
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Payment of Wages Act
aka POWA, Payment of Wages Act 1991, Tips Act
Irish statute governing how wages must be paid, the right to a payslip, lawful deductions, and (since 2022) the rules on tips, gratuities and service charges.
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Protected Disclosures Act
aka PDA, Whistleblower Act, Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022
Irish whistleblower protection regime. Employers with 50 or more workers must operate a formal internal reporting channel. Workers who report wrongdoing are protected from penalisation.
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Right to Request Remote Working
aka RTW, Remote Working Act, Work Life Balance Act 2023
Statutory right for Irish employees with six months service to formally request remote working. Created by the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.
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Terms of Employment (Information) Act
aka TEIA, Day 5 Statement, Written Statement of Terms
Irish statute requiring employers to provide a written statement of core employment terms within five days of starting, and a fuller written statement within one month.
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Unfair Dismissals Acts
aka UDA, Unfair Dismissals Act 1977
Irish statutes setting out when a dismissal is presumed unfair, the fair procedures employers must follow, and the WRC remedies of reinstatement, re-engagement or compensation up to two years' pay.
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Workplace Relations Commission
aka WRC, Workplace Relations, Irish WRC
Ireland's statutory body that resolves employment disputes, inspects workplaces and adjudicates complaints under most employment, equality and industrial relations legislation.
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Banking & Payments
SEPA, Open Banking and authentication standards that define how Irish accounting and banking software move money.
AML (Anti-Money Laundering)
aka anti-money laundering, AML compliance, CTF, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing
The legal and procedural framework that banks and electronic money institutions must operate under to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. AML compliance is a condition of holding a banking or e-money licence from the Central Bank of Ireland.
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Central Bank of Ireland (CBI)
aka CBI, An Banc Ceannais na hEireann, Central Bank
Ireland's financial regulator and gatekeeper for banks, payment firms, e-money issuers, MiFID investment firms and insurance providers. Maintains the public CBI register and operates the Fitness and Probity regime for senior staff at regulated firms.
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ECB rate
aka ECB reference rate, European Central Bank exchange rate, euro reference rate
Daily mid-market euro exchange rates published by the European Central Bank at 16:00 CET. The benchmark used by fintechs like Wise to price FX conversions and by Irish businesses to verify how much their bank marks up currency conversions.
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Electronic Money Institution (EMI)
aka EMI, e-money institution, e-money issuer
A specific Central Bank of Ireland authorisation that permits a firm to issue electronic money (prepaid balances, e-wallets, cards) and provide payment services. EMIs cannot take deposits and customer funds are safeguarded, not insured.
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Expense reconciliation
aka expense matching, spend reconciliation
The process of matching employee or company card spend against receipts, bank statements, and accounting entries to confirm that all business expenditure is properly categorised, approved, and recorded before a VAT return or audit.
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Fintech
aka financial technology, fin-tech, FinTech
Software and platforms that deliver financial services - banking, payments, lending, insurance, wealth - through technology rather than branch-based incumbents. In Ireland, fintech firms are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
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FX margin
aka foreign exchange margin, FX spread, currency conversion fee
The markup a bank or fintech platform charges above the interbank mid-market exchange rate when converting currencies. A 2% FX margin on a USD 10,000 payment costs the Irish business EUR 200 compared to converting at the mid-market rate.
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Irish bank feeds
aka bank feed, Open Banking feed
An automated daily connection between an Irish business bank account and accounting software, removing CSV uploads. Modern feeds run over PSD2 Open Banking APIs; older feeds use Yodlee or Plaid screen-scraping.
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Irish IBAN
aka IE IBAN
International Bank Account Number issued by Irish-based banks. 22 characters starting with IE, includes a 6-digit sort code and 8-digit account number. Required for SEPA payments.
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KYB (Know Your Business)
aka KYB check, business verification, corporate due diligence
Identity and beneficial ownership checks that banks and e-money institutions must complete before onboarding a business. Irish SMEs encounter KYB when opening a Revolut Business or Wise account - CRO registration, directors, and UBO are verified.
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Merchant Category Code
aka MCC, MCC code, card category code
A four-digit code assigned by Mastercard and Visa to every merchant based on the type of goods or services they sell. Spend management platforms use MCC codes to auto-categorise card transactions and enforce per-category budget controls before purchase.
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Multi-currency account
aka foreign currency account, multi-currency wallet
A business account that holds balances in multiple currencies simultaneously, allowing Irish SMEs to receive, hold, and pay in USD, GBP, EUR and other currencies without converting each time.
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Neobank
aka challenger bank, digital bank, online-only bank, app-based bank
A digital-first, app-led account provider with no physical branches. Some hold full credit-institution licences; many operate as Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) or under EU passporting rather than Irish bank authorisation.
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Open Banking (PSD2)
aka Open Banking Ireland, PSD2, Account Information Services
EU regulatory framework that lets authorised third parties access bank account data (AIS) and initiate payments (PIS) on the customer's behalf. The basis for live bank feeds and payment-initiation tools.
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Open Banking in Ireland
aka open banking, Irish open banking, PSD2 open banking
The PSD2-mandated regime under which Irish banks expose regulated APIs that authorised third-party providers (TPPs) can use to read account data (AIS) or initiate payments (PIS) on a customer's consent.
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Payment Institution (PI)
aka PI, PSP, payment service provider, authorised payment institution
A Central Bank of Ireland authorisation that permits a firm to provide one or more payment services under PSD2 - account services, payment execution, card acquiring, money remittance, AISP, PISP - without being an EMI or credit institution.
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PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2)
aka Payment Services Directive 2, PSD II, Directive (EU) 2015/2366
The EU directive governing payment services and payment service providers across the EEA. Transposed into Irish law by SI 6/2018 (European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018). Created the open banking and Strong Customer Authentication regimes.
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PSD2 SCA exemption (B2B / secure corporate payment processes)
aka secure corporate payment processes exemption, Article 17 SCA exemption, corporate card SCA exemption, RTS Article 17 exemption
Article 17 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389 (the PSD2 SCA RTS) exempts dedicated corporate payment processes from per-transaction Strong Customer Authentication, where the payer is a business and not a consumer.
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SEPA Credit Transfer
aka SCT, SEPA bank transfer
Standard EUR-denominated bulk payment scheme used to pay suppliers, salaries and Revenue liabilities from Irish business bank accounts. Settlement within one business day across SEPA.
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SEPA Direct Debit
aka SDD, SEPA DD
The standardised Euro pull-payment scheme covering all SEPA countries. A creditor with a Creditor Identifier and a signed mandate can debit the debtor's account in any participating bank using a pain.008 XML file.
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SEPA Direct Debit Business-to-Business (SDD B2B)
aka SEPA DD B2B, SDD B2B, SEPA B2B Direct Debit
The SEPA Direct Debit scheme variant for business-to-business collections. Faster settlement than SDD Core and no eight-week refund right once the debtor's bank has authorised the mandate, making it the standard for predictable B2B receivables.
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Strong Customer Authentication
aka SCA, two-factor authentication for payments
PSD2 requirement that electronic payments use two of three authentication factors: knowledge (PIN), possession (phone or token) and inherence (biometric). Applies to Irish card and bank payments.
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Virtual card
aka virtual debit card, digital card, single-use card
A card number, expiry date, and CVV issued digitally without a physical card. Spend management platforms issue virtual cards per employee or per vendor to enforce budget controls without waiting for a physical card.
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Data & GDPR
GDPR machinery: where data lives, who supervises, and the contracts and assessments required to send data outside the EEA.
Data Processing Agreement
aka DPA, Article 28 contract, Data Processing Addendum
Mandatory contract under GDPR Article 28 between a data controller and a data processor. Sets out subject matter, duration, processing purposes, and required security measures.
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Data Protection Commission
aka DPC, Irish DPC
Ireland's national data protection authority. Lead supervisory authority for many large US tech companies headquartered in Dublin under the GDPR's one-stop-shop mechanism.
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Data Residency (EU vs US)
aka data localisation, EU data centres, data sovereignty
Where customer personal data is stored and processed. Storing inside the EU/EEA simplifies GDPR compliance; processing in the US triggers transfer-mechanism obligations under Schrems II.
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Data Transfer Impact Assessment
aka DTIA, Transfer Impact Assessment, TIA
Documented assessment of whether a non-EEA jurisdiction provides essentially equivalent protection for personal data, required after Schrems II for transfers under SCCs.
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Standard Contractual Clauses
aka SCCs, EU SCCs
Pre-approved contractual templates issued by the European Commission for transferring personal data outside the EEA. The default fallback when no adequacy decision applies.
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Industry Codes
Identifiers that classify and verify Irish businesses for grants, procurement and counterparty checks.
Companies Registration Office
aka CRO, CRO number
The Irish state authority that registers and maintains records of all companies, business names and limited partnerships. Issues the CRO number used as a primary legal identifier.
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NACE Code
aka NACE Rev. 2, industry classification code
EU statistical classification of economic activities. Each business has a primary 4-digit NACE code that identifies its sector. Used by CRO, CSO, Revenue and grant authorities.
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Procurement
Public procurement infrastructure relevant to software sold to Irish state buyers.
AI Compliance
EU AI Act risk classification and the obligations that fall on Irish deployers of AI systems.
AI Act Deployer Obligations
aka Article 26 obligations, AI Act user obligations, deployer duties
The duties an Irish business takes on when it deploys a third-party high-risk AI system. Distinct from the provider obligations carried by the AI vendor, and often overlooked when buyers assume the vendor handles all compliance.
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AI Risk Categories
aka AI Act risk tiers, AI risk classification
Four-tier risk classification under the EU AI Act: unacceptable-risk (banned), high-risk (regulated), limited-risk (transparency), minimal-risk (unregulated). Determines a system's compliance burden.
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DPC Guidance on AI
aka Data Protection Commission AI guidance, DPC AI blog
Published positions from Ireland's Data Protection Commission on how AI and large language models interact with GDPR. The closest thing to an official Irish AI rulebook for SMEs.
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DPIA for AI
aka Data Protection Impact Assessment for AI, AI DPIA, Article 35 DPIA
A documented assessment under GDPR Article 35 that an Irish controller must complete before deploying an AI tool likely to result in high risk to data subjects. The DPC treats most AI deployments as triggering this obligation.
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EU AI Act
aka AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
EU regulation on artificial intelligence, in force from 1 August 2024. Bans some practices, regulates 'high-risk' AI systems, and imposes transparency obligations on general-purpose AI models.
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GDPR Article 22
aka Article 22, automated decision-making restriction, ADM restriction
The GDPR provision that gives data subjects a right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Constrains how Irish employers and lenders can use AI to make decisions.
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Schrems II Data Transfer
aka Schrems II, C-311/18, Schrems II ruling
The 2020 Court of Justice ruling that struck down Privacy Shield and forced Irish controllers to assess US surveillance risk before sending personal data to US-hosted AI tools, even with Standard Contractual Clauses in place.
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