Glossary for Financials

100% account
The statement account defined as the denominator when calculating percentages.
abandoned
A disposal type, which records that an asset has been discarded.
accelerated cost recovery system
A set of rules established in 1981 in the United States governing allowable deductions, on income tax, for the use of tangible income-producing property. ACRS is mandatory for tangible long-lived property placed in service after 1980 and before 1987. ACRS uses the cost of the asset to determine the asset class and recovery period.
Acronym: ACRS
accelerated depreciation
To depreciate an asset by an extra amount in a specific year. Accelerated depreciation reduces the depreciation time.
accelerated method
A depreciation method in which an asset's cost is depreciated more quickly at the beginning of its life than at the end.
Accon Interface
Companies in Belgium use a particular software to declare their annual balance to the National Bank of Belgium. This third party program is called Accon or Accon Interface.
account
accounting scheme
A scheme of accounts to which the results of certain events are posted. The accounting scheme consists of ledger accounts, structured in a parent-child hierarchy.
accounting system
The base to calculate surcharges. In the Cost Accounting module, both the full cost and variable cost can be charged.
account matching authorization scheme
A company-specific set of authorization restrictions that can be linked to account matching users.
account matching properties
A company-specific set of properties with matching information linked to a ledger account.
See: automatic account matching criteria set
account number
Consists of a natural account (12 characters) and up to twelve dimensions (6 characters each dimension) in LN. The dimensions are user-defined.
accumulated depreciation
The total depreciation recognized and recorded for an asset since its acquisition. Accumulated depreciation is subtracted from the original cost of the asset to provide the net book value.
activity
The process of performing a specific task in a company. Activities are used for the allocation of cost amounts, quantities, or percentages to a cost object. In LN the activities are the dimensions of one dimension type.
activity-based costing (ABC)
  • A cost-allocation process that uses multiple cost drivers to predict and allocate costs to products and service.
  • An accounting system that collects financial and operational data on the basis of the nature and extent of business activities.
actual costs
The real cost amounts that are booked in the general ledger. To control the actual costs, you can compare budgeted costs.
Antonym: budgeted amounts
Antonym: budgeted costs
actual discount amount
The sum of all the discounts actually deducted during a certain period.
actual late payment surcharges
The sum of the late payment surcharges that were actually deducted.
additional costs
Extra costs charged by the invoice-from business partner which create a difference between the invoice amount and the order amount or the goods received amount. For example, storage costs, freight costs, and insurance costs.
adjusted current earnings federal tax book code
An identifier for an asset that belongs in an Adjusted Current Earnings (ACE) Federal Tax Book. ACE is the recalculation of income for purposes of computing an adjustment to Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) as required by United States federal tax code for assets placed in service after 1989.
adjustment
A modification to an actual budget that has the Final status. Adjustments are associated with the budget as a whole and not with any individual budget line. Unlike extensions, where any additional costs can be passed to the project customer, adjustment costs are absorbed by the project company and do not affect customer invoicing.
adjustment
A modification to a purchase invoice transaction that was posted to the General Ledger. An adjustment is included in a correction document.
adjustment transactions
Correction entries to be made on financial statement values.
advance installment
advance payment/receipt
A paid or received amount, which cannot be allocated to an invoice or any other document. After an invoice has been created, the advance payment or receipt can be allocated to it. Unlike an unallocated payment/receipt, you can calculate tax on a advance payment/receipt.
advance receipt request (ARR)
A request to pay (a part of) the sales amount before the goods are sent to a sold-to business partner.
Synonym: prepayment
Synonym: advance installment
advances granted to personnel
An account that records debit advances and credits them to salaries from which the advances are deducted.
aging analysis
Aging analysis classifies the open invoices on the basis of their age.
AGL
Advanced General Ledger
allocated cost
The indirect costs incurred in the purchase of an asset. For example, when you buy a car, the price of the car, the license, and the insurance are direct costs. The costs you incurred while shopping for the car and taking time off to collect it are indirect costs. In some cases, the government requires you to capitalize these indirect costs for tax purposes.
allocation key
A key that specifies a set of dimensions and percentages, serving as destination for percentage allocation relations. The key can be applied for a defined allocation source, to create allocation relations.
allocation relation
A relation by means of which a budgeted or actual amount is charged to, for example, another department.
allocation rule set
A set that offers various possibilities to build the allocation relation. You can build allocation relations by using allocation keys, default allocation relations or consumption rules.
allowed costs
A flexible cost budget per cost center and reference unit, that depends on the actual output performance of the reference unit. This applies to a performance-dependent planning: In case of a performance-independent planning without reference units the allowed costs are the same as the planned fixed costs.
alternate account
An account to which you can transfer amounts with a different sign (debit/credit value) compared to the linked statement account.
Example

The Short Term Debts statement account, defined as a credit account, was set up as the alternate account for Cash, which was defined as a debit account. The total value of the ledger accounts linked to the Short Term Debts statement account is 10000.

Value of ledger accounts linked to CashPrinted on statement for CashPrinted on statement for Short Term Debts
1000 Debit100010000
3000 Credit13000

 

alternative depreciation life
The number of years that the assets in the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) group accounts can depreciate using alternate depreciation methods such as the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) preference calculation. Some tax authorities require you to use the alternative depreciation life, which is only available for group accounts with the MACRS account type.
alternative depreciation life
The number of years the assets in the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) group account can depreciate using the standard depreciation expense allowed by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Federal tax regulations. Alternative depreciation life is available for group accounts with a MACRS account type.
alternative minimum tax
The types of depreciable property are identified for which depreciation should be recalculated to compute a taxpayer's Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which will reduce the tax advantages available under regular tax rules for depreciation. The difference between the standard tax depreciation amount and the AMT depreciation amount is the amount of the AMT adjustment. AMT rules have been devised to ensure that at least a minimum amount of income tax is paid by corporate and high income non-corporate taxpayers, essentially a recapture mechanism to reclaim some of the tax breaks primarily available to high income taxpayers in an attempt to maintain tax equity.
amortization
The systematic reduction or writing off of an amount, such as an account balance, over a specific number of time periods. Amortization is a form of depreciation. Amortization is the recovery of certain capital expenditures, including goodwill and other intangible assets. Amortization is not available for expenditures for which a current business deduction may be claimed, or those which are capitalized and depreciated.
amount paid
The total amount paid of all the partial payments that were actually made for a certain order.
amount received or paid
The total amount actually received or paid during a certain period. The amount does not include any anticipated amounts.
annuity
A special depreciation method based on an annual instalment calculation formula. Annuity only applies to a calculatory book (it does impact the asset's value).
anticipated payment
A payment that is not entirely executed yet, or is on its way to be executed.

These anticipated payments can be created:

  • Automatically, for example when a check is generated by the automatic payment procedure.
  • Manually, for example, when a check is written.
Antonym: anticipated receipt
anticipated payment
anticipated receipt
anticipated receipt
A receipt that is not completed yet.

Anticipated receipts can be created:

  • Automatically, for example, in case of direct debit.
  • Manually, for example, when a check is entered.
Antonym: anticipated payment
asset
The actual pieces of property, plant, or equipment that are uniquely utilised and used by an organization for a defined life time.
asset acquisition
The process of recognizing an asset. When an asset is acquired it has been fully invoiced, paid, and received. Acquired assets can be depreciated. An acquired asset has already been capitalized.
asset adjustment
A transaction that makes changes to asset values that can no longer be directly changed after the asset is capitalized. Adjustments are typically used to correct clerical errors or to reclassify the asset's life, depreciation method, or cost. You can adjust an asset at any point in the asset's life cycle as long as it is not disposed or removed from capitalization.
asset book
A book that has been attached to an asset. You use books to record depreciation and other transactional data for your organization's assets. For each book you create, you specify whether assets associated with the book will depreciate or not. An asset can be associated with several books, and depreciate differently or not at all in each book.
asset capitalization
A way to recognize that an asset is in service and is eligible to depreciate. In order for an asset to be capitalized, it must first be acquired.
asset class
A unique identifier for the tax code class for the assets in the vintage or group account. The class determines the available life range for asset-depreciation range (ADR) assets or the actual life for modified accelerated cost-recovery system (MACRS) group assets. The life set in the ADR book for all assets in the account must be the same as the life set for the account.
asset depreciation
The ability to recover, over time, the expense or cost of an asset that is in use. Depreciation permits you to either match expenses with revenues or reduce tax liabilities by using a mathematical formula defined as a depreciation method. An asset can be depreciated on the asset or asset book level. During asset depreciation LN depreciates the asset or asset book you specify according to the accounts indicated in the asset distribution. Asset depreciation is run on a book by book or asset by asset basis. Mass depreciation occurs on a book or company for a group of assets or group of assets or asset books, while single depreciation occurs one asset or asset book at a time.
asset depreciation range
A series of depreciation regulations defined by the United States IRS applied to certain assets placed in service after 1970 but prior to 1981. The ADR does not apply to assets first placed in service before 1971, or to property placed in service after 1980 if depreciable under ACRS or MACRS, or in a year in which an ADR election was not made. ADR is one of several different types of mutually exclusive regulations that can apply to an asset. The primary characteristic is that upper and lower limits are set by the United States IRS for asset lives. A depreciation period used initially in the election year cannot be changed by either the United States IRS or the taxpayer during the remaining period of use of the asset.
asset disposal
A transaction that is applied to remove the values stored on an asset's related books. A disposed asset remains in the Fixed Assets module until the specified retention period, but it will not depreciate. There are several types of asset disposals that can be recorded against an asset (such as sale, donation, etc.). The impact on reporting varies according to the type of disposal.
asset distribution
An asset's distribution indicates the depreciation expense to specific companies and expense accounts, and their related dimensions. Distributions also store related location(s), accounts through either the integration mapping scheme or the transaction template, and the quantities or percentage costs for the distribution line.
asset group
A broader level of grouping than an asset category. Used to classify your organization's assets for reporting and inquiry.
asset life
An asset's expected useful life; this determines how long the asset will be depreciated.
asset number and asset extension
The asset number and asset extension create a unique identifier for the asset in the selected company.
asset transaction
A record generated to record an event for an asset, its related books, and distributions. Transactions are stored for assets that are adjusted, capitalized, depreciated, disposed, and transferred.
asset transfer
A transaction that is applied to move part or all of the values stored on an asset's related books as a result of a change in owner, location, or responsibility.
assigned approver
The person or department that is responsible for removing a hold reason from a registered invoice and release the invoice for further processing.
audit
The process of performing a number of checks.
audit trails
A chronological sequence of audit records, each of which contains evidence directly pertaining to and resulting from the execution of a business process or system function.
automatic account matching criteria code
A list of fields that determines the matching criteria, including a priority sequence in order to match on different combinations of fields.
See: automatic account matching criteria set
automatic account matching criteria set
A company-specific set of priorities with matching criteria that can be linked to an account matching priority to enable automatic matching.
See: account matching property
automatic payment
average days outstanding
The sum of the outstanding amounts each one multiplied by the number of days between the invoice date and the end date of a period, divided by the total outstanding amount.
average number of days overdue
The sum of all the amounts received or paid, each one multiplied by the number of days between the due date and the receipt date or payment date, divided by the total amount received or paid in a certain period.
average receipt period or payment period
The sum of all the amounts received or paid, each one multiplied by the number of days between the invoice date and the receipt date or payment date, divided by the total amount received or paid in a certain period.
averaging convention
A way to determine the beginning and end of an asset's recovery period. The recovery period determines how much an asset depreciates (and indicates the respective tax deduction) in the first and last year of service.
balance sheet
A statement of assets, liabilities, and equity at a given date.
bank charge
The costs a bank charges to process the transactions. The bank charges can depend on the type of transfer, for example, whether the transfer is between different banks or between branches of the same bank. In addition, the bank charges can vary for different ranges of transaction amounts.
bank identifier
An eleven-character, alphanumeric code that identifies a bank. In various countries, a bank identifier is used to denote the bank to which an account belongs. For payments, for example, the bank identifier is used on a remittance form to denote a banking relation or a pay-to business partner.
bank identifier code (BIC)
The SWIFT code that identifies financial institutions. The BIC consists of eight or eleven contiguous characters.
Abbreviation: BIC
bank reference
A unique number used by the banks to reference each invoice. The bank reference number can be a string of 20 or more digits, composed in such a way that a number check can be performed to check its validity.

In some countries, the bank reference number is a critical component of payment and receipt transactions, especially if payment slips are used. If bank reference numbers are used, the bank reference number must appear on the invoice document, on the payment slip if applicable, and on the payment document.

bank relation
A bank account of your company. The bank relation definition includes details such as your bank account number, account type, the international bank account number, the bank's currency and whether other currencies are allowed, and whether the account is a blocked account.
base year
The year on which the index values of all other years are based. The index value of the base is always 100.
batch
A group of financial transactions processed together. If you finalize a batch, all the transactions are processed, or if an error occurs, no transactions are processed.
Belgian Balance of Payments
Companies in Belgium and Luxembourg are obliged to declare their financial transactions (payments) with foreign countries. You can use a specified form to make the declaration which provides information related to the assets and liabilities as a result of sales and purchases with foreign companies.
Belgian bank files
The banking standards specified by the Belgian Bank Association for electronic payments and transfer of orders and credit advises between financial institutions and customers. There are different standards for domestic payments in BEF (Belgian Francs), domestic payments in EUR (Euro) and other foreign payments.
Belgian VAT Reporting
The VAT reporting for Belgium requires an alternative way of presenting the tax amounts. You must use the country groups to facilitate the setup of the relations by tax position. In addition, you can use the country groups for tax reporting (both the tax declaration and the yearly tax reports) and tax journal.
bill of activities (BOA)
A list of activities used in activity-based costing (ABC).
See: activity-based costing (ABC)
See: activity
BIRT
BIRT is an open source reporting system for web applications, especially those based on Java and J2EE.
blocked account
A special account for transferring money to the national tax authorities. The blocked account is used when subcontractors are contracted. They must deposit part of the invoice amount into the blocked account.
BLWI
Belgisch-Luxemburgs Wisselinstituut (Belgium Luxembourg Exchange Institute).
book
An instance of an asset. Books are attached to assets, and are designed to capture values for an asset. Each asset may have many books attached to it for reporting or calculation requirements. Books defined with particular types ( Calculator, Financial, etc.) are dedicated to specific calculations.
book code
Identifies the book associated with the asset. Book codes permit you to define the books used by assets to record transactional data. Each asset must have at least one asset-book relationship.
book value
The purchase value of an asset added with all revaluations and subtracted with all depreciations, adjustments, and reductions to the purchase value. The book value can be used as a base for the depreciation calculations.
Antonym: purchase value
budget
A plan of units or amounts allowed to be spent on certain objects such as departments, cost centers, items, or item groups.

This plan can be evaluated with the actual figures afterwards, and it can be compared with other budgets. In addition, you can simulate different scenarios.

budget account
A budget account generally covers an organized set of activities, programs, or services directed toward a common purpose or goal. Budget accounts are the basic building block of the budget levels in the master budget hierarchy.
budget adjustment
The process of amending the budget by moving funds from one category or line item to another.
budget amendment
budget balance type
The budget balances that must be updated for a transaction such as budget check, release, amendment and budget transfer.

The types of budget balances are:

  • Budget
  • Allotment
  • Commitment
  • Encumbrance
  • Receipt Expense
  • Expense
budget control
Budget Control is an integrated information system that tracks and controls budget-related business transactions. Financial health is continuously monitored by capturing sources and uses of budgets as they are committed and realized.
budget controller
A person, who is responsible for all the budget management functions in the company.
budgeted amounts
budgeted costs
budget entity
A company's organizational unit whose budget allocations are monitored using the budget control process.

A budget entity can be one of these types:

  • Purchase Office
  • Service Department
  • Work Center
  • Warehouse
  • Accounting Office
budget level
The level of a budget within a company or within a group of companies.
budget manager
A person, who is responsible for his own budget which is a part of the company's budget.
budget period
A period of time for which the budget is applicable or active.
budget policy
The policy defined for a budget, which defines the way the budget must perform.
budget status
The status of the budget.

Allowed values

  • Draft
    The budget is created.
  • Pending Approval
    The data is specified and awaits approval from the budget manager.
  • Approved
    The budget is approved by the budget manager.
  • Modify
    The budget data is modified by the budget manager after the budget is approved.
budget structure
The hierarchy which contains all roll-up structures and budget accounts.
budget structure tree
A graphical display of all levels in the budget structure, by clicking on each branch the underlying levels are displayed until the lowest level 1 is reached. By selecting a branch all other panes are adjusted so the relevant amounts, balances and exceptions are displayed.
budget transfer
A budget amendment process. A transfer updates both the budget and the allotment for the account. The original budget can still be found by adding or subtracting all budgetary amendments from the actual budget.
budget year
The fiscal year for which the policy is applicable.
business entity identifier (BEI)
The SWIFT code that identifies non-banking institutions and trading partners. The BEI consists of eight or eleven contiguous characters, and has the same structure as a Bank Identifier Code.
Abbreviation: BEI
business object
In the context of financial integration transaction processing, a business object is a logistic entity or event such as an item, a purchase order, a business partner, or a warehouse issue.
business object attribute
A characteristic of the business object that can be used to map the integration transaction to specific ledger accounts and dimensions. For example, the Sales Order business object has the Series attribute and the Sales Order Type attribute, among others.
business object ID
The unique code that identifies a specific business object. For example, the business object ID of a Purchase Order business object is the purchase order number.
business object reference
A transaction identification more detailed than the business object, for example, a receipt number or an order number. You can use the reference during reconciliation to match transactions if the business object alone does not provide enough information, for example, during GRNI reconciliation.
Note

The business object reference is not the same as a reference link.

business percent
The asset percentage that is used for business purposes. For tax books, if the business percentage is less than 50, the asset is not eligible for an investment tax credit (ITC) or asset-depreciation range (ADR) or modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) group depreciation. Other books do not modify depreciation according to business use percent. The default value is 100%. You can also distinguish between business use and personal use.
calculation group
A set of financial companies that indicates the currency that must be used for each company in financial statements.

The currency can be one of these:

Calculator book
A book type that permits methods of depreciation specific to European requirements (as in annuity method).
calculator interest
The interest rate that is used in order to calculate the interest on the average capital invested.
capitalization
A transaction that is used to enable asset-related books to be depreciated. Capitalization is the point in time that an asset is used. This point is recorded in specific balance sheet accounts to reflect this change in status from Entered to Acquired.
capitalized interest
The amount you saved by funding a large material project yourself, instead of borrowing from the bank. It is recognized as a credit to interest income, and a debit to assets. This is a non-cash entry.
cash
All money handled through bank accounts, cash boxes, including documents representing a monetary value such as checks and trade notes, that are used in payment/receipt procedures.
cash application
The assignment of received payments to open entries.
cash flow reason
An indication of the kind of cash transaction. Transactions to which you link a reason code of the Cash Flow type are included in the cash flow statement, sorted by cash flow reason.
cash flow reason group
A way to group cash flow reasons on the cash flow statement. On the cash flow statement, LN prints the subtotals for each cash flow reason group.
cash flow statement
A report of the cash transactions history in a financial period. The report provides an overview of the sources and uses for cash. In some countries, a cash flow statement must be submitted to the authorities periodically.
cash forecast
The expected cash position at a future date. The current cash amount is increased by the amounts to be received and reduced by the amounts to be paid, in all periods in between.
cash transaction matching
Payment or receipt (partly) linked to an invoice.
category
Used to classify an asset and provide data entry defaults during asset entry. Categories have associated subcategories, which are assigned by default.
charitable contribution
An asset that is donated to others. For example, computers that are given to schools.
chart of accounts
A hierarchical structure of ledger accounts and dimensions.

To support dual accounting, the chart of accounts can consist of a structure of statutory accounts for fiscal reporting purposes and complementary accounts used for management reporting.

check
A written order directing a bank to pay money as instructed.
check master
A function in which checks can be prenumbered. The prenumbered checks can be used later on in the payment process.
child budget
Part of a parent budget; the budget for an autonomous part of the company, such as a department.
class life
The number of years that the assets in the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) group accounts can depreciate. The class life is only available to MACRS group accounts.
class-life depreciation range
The asset-depreciation range for a class is a range of years from 20% below to 20% above the class life, rounded up to the nearest whole or half year.
clearing accounts
A temporary account containing costs or amounts that must be transferred to another account.
closing method
A schedule for the generation of monthly billing invoices. For example, you can define a closing method to generate two monthly billing invoices each month: one on the 15th day of the month and one at the end of the month.
collateral
A security to secure a loan from the bank.
column layout
Column layouts determine the general presentation of columns in financial statements. This includes the number and position of columns, format, and alignment. This data is used to define the statement columns in a financial statement. LN will order the column data according to the parameters corresponding with the layout code selected.
column references
The data linked to a financial statement column that allows to calculate the column values.
commercial book
Used in countries other than the United States to record data that is not subject to tax reporting regulations, such as general ledger data.
commitments
Represents the start of a spending process through the generation of a purchase requisition. A commitment sets aside an estimate amount from the budget. This prevents other commitments that could exceed the budget. A commitment is not a legal obligation.
company ID
The identification number the bank assigns to your organization for the electronic processing of bank files.
complementary account
A ledger account that you can use for the amounts that are complementary to the amounts in the statutory accounts. For example, you can link a statutory account and a complementary account to a parent account. If you print the Management report based on the parent accounts, on the report LN adds the amounts in the complementary account to the amount in the statutory accounts.
Antonym: statutory account
complementary account
compression
A method to decrease the number of figures by saving only a total amount, based on a set of common attributes.

Compression is for example possible for:

  • Ledger accounts
  • Integration transactions
consolidated statement
Consolidated statements represent the accumulated financial figures of various financial companies, in or outside the financial group company, referring to a specific period. You can accumulate the figures of subsidiaries belonging to the same holding, based on a percentage of ownership (fully owned or majority/minority share).

Consolidation can take place by joining separate financial statements. If these statements use a currency that differs from the consolidation currency, the Financial Statements (tffst1600m000) session allows you to define the rates between the statement currencies and the consolidation currency.

Consolidation is also possible on a higher level by joining separate consolidation statements.

consumption rules
Rules that allow you to generate outgoing budget and actual allocation relations from a retrograde source.
control account
A ledger account used to reflect the balance of a number of related subsidiary accounts.

In LN, 'control account' usually refers to the creditors' account or the debitors' account defined for the financial business partner groups in Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable.

In addition to the creditors' account and the debitors' account, you can define a number of specific control accounts for a business partner group, such as control accounts for doubtful invoices, advance and anticipated payments or receipts, and realized and unrealized currency profit or loss.

correction document
The document that includes the adjustments made to the original purchase invoice.
See: original document
cost accounting
A system to record and report aggregate and detailed cost data from cost centers.
cost allocation
Budget amounts and actual amounts can be allocated between dimensions.
cost allocation sheet
A report per dimension or reference unit showing cost amounts per cost type.
Note

The way of representation is similar to the presentation in flexible budgeting.

cost-allocation sheet
A report per cost center or reference unit showing the cost amounts per cost type.
cost category
A set of cost types, represented as ledger accounts. In cost/budget allocation you can restrict the amounts to be allocated to a cost category, a subset, of all cost types.
cost center
An organizational unit to which costs can be allocated. Cost centers are represented as dimensions.
cost driver
An activity which creates costs, for example, a machine. Cost drivers are represented as reference units.
cost invoice
An invoice that is related to a purchase order or freight order.
cost object
An unit to which costs can be linked.
cost portion
A part of the cost pie. In the Cost Accounting module different portions can be distinguished which can be posted to different cost centers (dimensions) and cost types (accounts).
cost rate
The price, budgeted or actual, per reference unit. For example, the price of a machine per hour.
cost type
Type in classification of budgeted or actual costs. Cost types are represented as ledger accounts.
credit note
The correction form for a (partly) returned purchase or sales order. The credit note states the quantity and value of the goods concerned and the reason for the credit.
creditor identifier (CI)
A country-specific code that identifies creditors.

The CI consists of up to 35 characters, with this format:

  • Positions 1 and 2 contain the ISO country code of the creditor.
  • Positions 3 and 4 contain the check digits based on the 97-MOD ISO check algorithm.
  • Positions 5 to 7 contain the user-definable creditor business code. If this code is not used, the value is set to 'ZZZ'.
  • Positions 8 up to 35 contain the country-specific identifier that can be based on tax ID, SIRET (France), Chamber of Commerce ID (Netherlands), etc.
Abbreviation: CI
cross validation rule
A user-defined rule that allows you to indicate which combinations of GL accounts and dimension values are valid. A cross validation rule requires at least one rule element. Cross validation rules are applied to all transactions registered in the General Ledger.
See: rule element
currency differences
Currency result caused by fluctuations in the exchange rate, for example, if the exchange rate between the invoice currency and your home currency differs between the invoice date and the payment date.
current quantity
The remaining asset quantity. As the asset goes through its life, its quantity decreases, depending on the asset type.
customer statement
A document sent to the customer showing the open entries.
custom method
A free definable method based on depreciation percentages. Percentages can be defined for the years in service, or alternatively for each period of a year in service. In the first period of depreciation, the corresponding percentage is selected, and is used for calculation throughout the total life of the asset.
DAS 2
Déclaration annuelle des salaries (Annual declaration of the wages/fees). A report of all payments made to third parties during a fiscal year, which must be submitted annually to the French government.
data type
Defines a set of values and the allowable operations on those values.

For mapping XML elements to LN records, these data types exist:

  • Attribute
  • Boolean
  • Date
  • Decimal Number
  • Node
  • String
  • UTC Date
declining-balance method
In declining balance, the system calculates each year's total depreciation by applying a constant percentage to the asset's net book value. This leads to continuously decreasing depreciation amounts. A declining balance does not depreciate the asset to its salvage value. If you want to depreciate the asset to its salvage value, you must use the declining balance with a switch to straight line formula.
declining percentage
A percentage rate that is applied in the declining balance formula to calculate the depreciation amount as a percentage of the asset's net book value.
deductable late payment surcharges
The sum of the late payment surcharges that were not due because the invoices were paid in time.
default allocation relation
Templates for allocation relations with source and destination dimensions in different allocation models.
deferred tax
An estimated amount of future income taxes that may become payable because of income that has already been earned but has not yet been recognized for tax reporting purposes. It is not an actual liability or present obligation but instead represents an attempt to compensate for timing differences in the recognition of certain income and expense items for tax reporting and for financial reporting purposes.
delivery terms group
The delivery terms group that will be mentioned on the Belgian Balance of Payments report.
depreciable books
Indication whether the assets associated with a newly created book depreciate.
depreciable cost
Generally depreciation cost is the cost of the asset minus its salvage value minus accumulated depreciation.
depreciation
The decrease in value of fixed assets. The depreciation amount is calculated as the result of the combination of a depreciation method on the book or purchase value of a fixed asset. The depreciation amount is the amount that is deducted from the purchase value to calculate the book value.
See: depreciation costs
depreciation adjustments
An adjustment for the depreciation of an additional investment on the same fixed asset. The adjustment is done for the time between the start of depreciation and the moment of additional investment.
depreciation amount
A calculation amount based on a depreciation method.
depreciation costs
The costs of depreciation that are posted to the profit and loss sheet. It is used as the price of using an asset for a certain period.
See: depreciation
depreciation expense
An amount deducted from revenue in determining income, based on an allocation of a long-lived asset's original cost over the years of its useful life.
depreciation frequency
A way to determine how often depreciation is recorded. It also determines whether a particular period is suspended.
depreciation method
The depreciation method used for an asset determines the formula for calculating the amount of depreciation taken on an asset. Depreciation methods are case-sensitive.
depreciation method
The way in which the depreciation of a fixed asset is spread out over the years.
destination gain and loss
Currency result caused by different results when the transaction currency is converted to the various home currencies. Destination gain and loss can only occur in an independent currency system.
dimension
Analysis account for ledger accounts to get a vertical view on ledger accounts. Dimensions are used to specify ledger account information.
See: dimension type
dimension type
One of up to twelve available analysis account bases for ledger accounts.
direct debit
The initiation of pay-by business partner receipts by means of sending requests to the bank for transfer of the amounts due from the customers bank account to the company's bank account.
Antonym: automatic payment
disinvestment
The withdrawing of investment.
disposal
  • The sale of an asset.
  • From disinvestment, to cancel the investment in the fixed asset by, for example, selling the asset and posting the sales amount to the general ledger.

The sales revenue is recorded in order to post book profits or losses.

disposal type
Indicates the reason why a fixed asset is disposed of.
distribution
A method for spreading out budgeted or actual year totals to a number of periods. Both quantities and amounts can be spread out.
distribution account
Each asset can be assigned to one account or distributed across multiple distribution accounts. The asset depreciation can be recorded in each distribution account as determined by a percentage or by a unit amount. The distribution accounts are determined by the transaction template or integration mapping scheme identified for each line of distribution.
distribution line
Includes the transaction template or integration mapping scheme that will determine the distribution account for that particular part of the asset, the physical location of the asset, and the quantify or percentage of the asset which is to be distributed to the indicated location and distribution account. Also the company that the depreciation expense should be recorded.
document
The identification of a transaction.

The document code is a combination of:

  • Transaction-type code
  • Series number
  • Sequence number
document date
The transaction date in Financials. The document date is always registered in local time. Usually the document date is the same date as the transaction date, except if you manually enter a different transaction date in Financials or if the UTC time and the local time differ by a day.
donation
A disposal type used to record the charitable contribution of an asset to an organisation.
doubtful invoice
An invoice that probably cannot be collected.
DTAZV
Datentraeger Auslandszahlungsverker, German for international disc clearing payments. These are payments from German bank relations to recipients outside Germany. Each DTAZV file consists of a payment advice and, if the amount exceeds a defined limit, Z1 report data.
EBS batch
A batch that converts a sequential file of electronic bank statements to Financials.
economic recapture
Allows depreciation to continue to occur after a fixed asset is fully depreciated. The depreciation is posted to an economic recapture account.
effective date
The point-in-time of an asset's life on which the transaction takes place. The effective date of a transaction may be any point from the in-service date to the date the asset is fully disposed in all its related books.
effective rate

A comparison rate to express the price that:

  • You expect from your own investments
  • You could earn with alternative investments
Synonym: political price
efficiency variance
The difference between the actual and the allowed costs.
See: actual costs
See: allowed costs
See: budgeted amounts
electronic bank statements (EBS)
  • A system for automatic processing of electronic bank statements received from the bank on disk, tape, over the Internet, or by modem.
  • The electronic bank statement files.
element group
A selection of mapping elements used to define a mapping. To map the integration document types, you must link one or more element groups to the integration document types. An element group must contain at least one mapping element and can contain up to 15 mapping elements.
elimination transactions
Transactions used to remove double entries resulting from intercompany transactions (intercompany holdings, intercompany balances), so that these values will not be printed in the consolidated statement.
encumbrance
An obligation in the form of a purchase order, contract or salary commitment that is chargeable to an appropriation, and for which part of an appropriation is reserved.
entry
Recorded transaction.
EU country
The country is a member of the European Union.
evaluated receipt settlement (ERS)
A process where there is no invoice between the supplier and the customer. Payments are initiated by the customer and based on the deliveries done by the supplier. The payments to be made are recorded in advance by the customer in a remittance advice EDI message and are sent to the supplier who will subsequently be able to reconcile the relevant open entries.
exception error table
A table that lists the exception errors that occur during a payment run.
exchange gain and loss
Currency result caused by the use of different exchange rate types, for example, the Sales rate type and the Internal rate type, or if by means of the rate determiner you have changed the exchange rate for a transaction during the order handling procedure.
expense type
An indication of the type of payment, for example, fees, brokerage, or a reduction, of the payments on the DAS 2 report.
external invoice
An invoice automatically created in LN, triggered by and based on data from an integrated external application, for example, E-Procurement.
factor
The funding source for the company. The factor is usually a bank or a commercial finance company that purchases the accounts receivable (sales invoices) from the company.
factor
Absolute figure by which the values of a specific consolidated statement column are multiplied. This may, for example, give you insight into expected financial figures. Factors can also be used to express statement values in other currencies.
factor's advance payment
The money the factor sends to the company in advance, after the verification process is complete, and before the factor receives payment from the company's customer.
factor's commission
The fee that the factor charges for collecting the company's accounts receivable. This fee can also include the interest on the advance paid to the company.
factoring
A form of accounts receivable financing that consists of the sale of a company's accounts receivable to a third party (the factor), in order to obtain funding. The sale is made at a discount from the account's value.

Customers remit to the factor either directly or indirectly through the seller. Factoring can be with or without recourse. For factoring with recourse, the risk of customer non-payment remains with the company.

FASB 52
A guideline about currency translation problems from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
federal tax - U.S. book
Used to record data that is subject to United States IRS tax reporting regulations. IRS regulations dictate specific depreciation methods which are used for varying circumstances, such as adjusted current earnings and alternative minimum tax. You may specify whether the book records data for alternative minimum tax (AMT) reporting and adjusted current earnings (ACE) tax reporting. You can define three separate federal tax books: Standard, ACE, or AMT. They are separate books; therefore, one, two, or all of them can be attached to the same asset and depreciate independently of each other.
finalization
The process by which batches that contain transactions are committed to actual data and committed to ledger accounts and dimensions. After finalization, you can no longer modify batches. Finalization includes updating the ledger account history and dimension history.
finalization of transactions
To freeze booked transactions after checking for completeness and validity of all transaction lines. Changes to these transactions can only made by means of adjustment transactions.
See: adjustment transactions
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
American institute for financial accounting standards.
financial business-partner group
A group of business partners with common characteristics, for which you can define the creditors' account or the debitors' account and a set of additional control accounts such as control accounts for doubtful invoices, advance and anticipated payments or receipts, and realized and unrealized currency profit or loss. LN automatically uses these control accounts in business processes such as sales invoice registration, and the payment process.
financial company
A company that is used for posting financial data in Financials. You can link one or more enterprise units from multiple logistic companies to one financial company.
financial depreciation code
The depreciation code that is used by LN in order to post fixed asset results to the general ledger. You can define up to three financial depreciation codes, one for each home currency.
financial integration

The integration between the logistic and finance modules consists of:

  • Events in logistic modules which cause financial transactions.
  • Costs that are booked in the Financials package but which are related to a logistic source.
financial period
A separate period, or year for financial purposes.

Three financial period types exist:

  • Fiscal, in which all transactions are recorded (for example, 12 months).
  • Reporting, for management requirements (for example, 52 weeks).
  • Tax, for tax regulations (for example, 4 quarters).
financial statement
An account structure that can consist of child statement accounts and parent statement accounts. At the child level, the statement accounts are linked to ledger accounts and dimensions. With a financial statement, you can collect the desired financial values from the General Ledger and Budgeting modules, and use this data for internal and external financial reporting and analysis.
financial transaction (FITR)
The transaction created to reflect a logistic event in Financials. The combination of a transaction origin (TROR) and the financial transaction (FITR) results in an integration document type.
financial - U.S. book
Used to record data that is not subject to tax reporting regulations, such as general ledger data.
first period depreciation
In some countries, assets of a lower value (net price purchase price below a specified limit) can be depreciated completely and immediately, even if the asset must be recorded for a given number of years.
fixed amount
Constant or nonvarying amount that is used as a depreciation amount during depreciation.
fixed amount depreciation
A depreciation method that depreciates a fixed amount. The asset depreciates in its related books for this amount until the end of the asset life, or until the salvage value of the asset is reached.
fixed asset
A long-term (longer than one year) production means which is activated on the company's balance sheet in order to calculate depreciations. A fixed asset is, for example, a manufacturing plant.
fixed-asset group
A collection of fixed assets that have common features. Fixed asset groups are part of the main groups.
fixed-asset main group
A collection of fixed asset groups. The fixed asset structure requires at least one main group.
fixed costs
Costs that are independent of the output performance of a cost center for a certain period.
Antonym: variable costs
fixed costs
fixed costs
fixed overhead volume variance
The difference between the planned fixed costs and the actual charged part of fixed costs. This deviation only applies to full cost accounting systems.
fixed rate
The exchange rate agreed upon by contract with your bank or business partner (in order to avoid a currency loss).
flexible budget
flexible budget
A budget that is based on the performance of a cost center (dimension).
Antonym: ledger-account budget
flexible reporting code
A code that identifies a list of fields that must be included in a customized integration or tax report. The code determines what fields must be selected, and in which order they must appear in the output file.
foreign payment
A payment to a foreign business partner.
formula
Indicates how the values of the statement column must be calculated. The formula contains variables that are linked to statement account values.
Example
a + b - c

Where:

a=Opening balance
b=Debit amount
c=Credit amount

 

full cost accounting
A method to calculate surcharges based on both fixed and variable costs.
fund
A financial resource to pay for budgeted activities within project/programs/organizations. A fund can be a subsidy, grant, endowment, etc.
general depreciation life
The number of years that the assets in the modified accelerated cost recovery (MACRS) group account can depreciate using the standard depreciation expense allowed by the tax authorities. This depreciation system is only available to MACRS group accounts.
general depreciation life
The number of years the assets in the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) group accounts can depreciated using the alternate methods of depreciation (such as Alternative Minimum Tax preference calculation). This is required for some Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Federal tax regulations. general depreciation life is only available for group accounts with a MACRS account type.
GL code
Represents a ledger account and the corresponding dimensions. GL codes are used to represent ledger accounts to users who are not familiar with the structure of the chart of accounts.

To specific logistic transactions, you can link a GL code. Such integration transactions are mapped directly to the ledger account and dimensions of the GL code, they are not included in the mapping process.

group amount
An account that records temporary advances of funds within companies of the same group.
group company
A financial company to which a number of other financial companies is linked.

A group company is used to centrally:

  • Process the corporate and administrative accounting
  • Accumulate data for consolidated financial reporting from the group's financial companies
  • Perform central cash management processes such as payments and direct debit
half-year convention
A convention code that says that one half of the depreciation for the first year of the assets recovery period can be taking in the tax year in which the asset is first placed into service, regardless of when the property is actually placed into service.
hierarchical result
The actual costs, allowed costs and deviations calculated for dimensions are shown for any combination of ledger account and dimension. The results must be made available first by the generation of hierarchical results regarding a hierarchy that is defined in the cost accounting system.
hierarchy
A parent-child structure for ledger accounts and dimensions, separate from the standard parent-child structure within the general ledger. Amounts can be analyzed according to the level of accumulation in a hierarchy.
history purge
A way to purge historical data for the assets of the company.
hold reason
A code attached to a purchase invoice to block the payment of that invoice.
I-Code
The Intracom Code for Business Partner.
IFRS
International Financial Reporting Standards, previously International Accounting Standards (IAS)
index
The value of one period relative to another. One period is the base index (100%) and the other periods can be expressed as a percentage of that index value.

Within Financials it is used for revaluations of fixed assets.

Industrial Assurance Board (IAB)
A public body responsible for collecting, administering, and making social security payments. In a subcontracting invoice, you must transfer a partial amount of the invoice to the Industrial Assurance Board (IAB).
inquiry
The principle method of viewing information in the Fixed Assets module.
in-service date
The date the asset is ready to be placed into service. Assets can begin depreciating after their in-service date. The in-service date can be the same as the purchase date. If the asset requires preparation before use, the in-service date can be later. An asset cannot be capitalized before its in-service date.
integration account
A ledger account used for integration transactions. You can use the account for other transaction types, such as manual transactions, only if you specify exceptions.

To maintain data integrity for reconciliation purposes, by default, you cannot manually enter transactions on an integration account.

To correct postings on integration accounts, two methods are available:

  • To enable manual posting for several domain-specific sessions, use the Manual Posting Exceptions (tfgld0148m000) session.
  • Enter the correction entries on another ledger account with the same parent as the integration ledger account. The results will then appear in the parent account.
integration document type
Represents a type of Operations Management transaction for the purpose of mapping and posting the integration transactions to Financials and for financial reconciliation.

The integration document types supplied by LN each have the corresponding business object attached to them. For example, the integration document types for the various sales order transactions have the Sales Order business object linked to them.

integration document type group
A way to group integration document types for reporting purposes.
integration mapping scheme
A scheme that defines the ledger accounts and dimensions to which the integration transactions are posted.
integration transaction
A financial transaction that is generated through LN packages other than Financials. For each logistic transaction that must be reflected in Financials, LN generates an integration transaction, for example, Purchase/Receipt, Production/WIP Transfer, and Project/Costs of Goods Sold. LN posts the integration transaction to the ledger accounts and dimensions defined in the integration mapping scheme.
integration user group
A way to group users who create financial integration transactions and users who post financial integration transactions.

An integration user group can be used:

  • To allow employees to post the financial integration transactions.
  • To optionally group the employees who create transactions in Operations Management. For mapping and posting, you can select the integration transactions of a range of integration user groups.
intercompany account
A balance sheet account that include transactions between different companies controlled by the same group company. It applies both to transactions between companies within the same group or across groups.
intercompany transactions
The transactions created between financial companies which belong to the same financial group.
intergroup account
An intercompany account that LN uses when generating intergroup transactions.
interim account
An account between two actions or events containing costs or amounts that must be transferred to another account.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
The government agency responsible for enforcement of income tax regulations in the United States.
internal transfer account
Clearing accounts used for practical and controlled accounting operations, such as transferring cash funds to the bank. In addition, such accounts are used for operations that require several accounting journals. These accounts must not appear on the balance sheet.
international bank account number
International Bank Account Number. An international standard account identifier for identifying an account held by a financial institution, in order to facilitate automated processing of cross border transactions. The IBAN is provided by the bank/branch servicing the account.
Acronym: IBAN
investment
A sum of money invested in a fixed asset. An investment can relate to a new fixed asset or an increase in value of a current fixed asset. LN uses investment amounts to determine the purchase value of fixed assets.
investment tax credit
A credit against, or reduction in, a taxpayer's federal income tax liability equal to a specified percentage of the cost of certain qualifying machinery and equipment acquired and placed in service during the current year.
Acronym: ITC
investment tax credit amount
An incentive provided by U.S. tax law designed to stimulate investment in the economy by allowing a percentage tax credit for the purchase of eligible property.
investment tax credit method
Indicates whether an asset is eligible for an investment tax credit (ITC), and how that credit should be applied.
IRS 1099-misc
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the government agency responsible for enforcing the regulations of the US tax code. 1099-MISC income is one of the types of revenue included, and certain supplier payments are subject to reporting under these regulations.
journal book
A report of all financial transactions in date sequence, which in some countries you must periodically submit to the authorities. The journal book is used for internal and external audits, during lawsuits, and so on. Both a detailed report and a summary report are required. The report pages and the transaction lines must be numbered sequentially.
journal book section
A part of the journal book that contains one or more specific categories of transactions. For example, you can define a journal book section for sales invoices, for bank transactions, or for the transactions created at a specific branch office.
journal entry
The medium for entering the details of a transaction or event into an accounting system.
journal vouchers
A transaction for which no subledger (invoice) document is available. Journal vouchers can be posted to general ledger.
ledger account
A register used to record financial transactions and to accumulate the values of the transactions for reporting and analysis. The ledger accounts classify the transactions into categories such as revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities.
Synonym: account
ledger-account budget
A budget based on relations between ledger accounts and dimensions.
Synonym: static budget
Synonym: multi dimension budget
Antonym: flexible budget
Antonym: performance budget
ledger-account budget
ledger account matching scheme
A set of ledger accounts for which a user can perform account matching.
ledger account transaction matching
Matching the credit and debit entries of multiple transactions on the same ledger account to each other. A matching transaction can be generated to solve differences that are within the specified tolerances.
location
A location defines the physical site of an asset. A location consists of up to eight segments, each of which further defines the precise site of an asset.
lower class life
The minimum life for the asset depreciation range (ADR) vintage account assets. Typically, the lower class life is 20% lower than the class midpoint. The lower class life is available only to ADR vintage accounts.
maintenance
A monetary field that stores expense costs associated with the maintenance of an asset. This field is updated from transactions in Accounts Payable or General Ledger based on account definitions.
mapping element
A property of a logistic transaction that you can use to define the ledger account and dimensions for an integration transaction. You can post the transactions with specific values of the mapping elements to specific ledger accounts. A mapping element consists of the combination of a business object and a business object attribute. For example, the Item Group/ Item mapping element represents the Item Group business object attribute of the Item business object.
Example

Some examples of the mapping elements of a warehouse receipt transaction are: item, item group, warehouse, and cost component.

mapping priority
The priority of a mapping. A low value indicates a high priority. To determine the ledger account and dimension to which an integration transaction must be posted, LN checks whether you defined specific ledger accounts or dimensions for the mapping element value in the order of their priority.

For example, if specific values of the Item Group mapping element are mapped with priority one and specific values of the Business Partner mapping element are mapped with priority two, to map the integration transaction LN first checks the value of the item group and next, LN checks the value of the business partner.

mapping sequence
The order in which LN searches the values of the mapping elements within a mapping priority to find the mapping of an integration transaction. For performance reasons, it is recommended that the most specific mapping has mapping sequence number one.
marginal cost accounting
The method to calculate surcharges based on the variable costs.
matching
An account analysis technique in which you link through the same reference, for a given account, a series of accounting movements that balance each other out.
matching

To check which

  • Payment or receipt belongs (partly) to which invoice
  • Purchase or sales order belongs (partly) to which invoice

To increase speed, you can automatically match batches. The remaining part must be matched manually.

matching code
A generated code used to group matched transactions.
matching reference
A reference that is used to link accounting series.
matching sequence number
An automatically generated sequence number that identifies the transactions generated during the matching process. This is the sequence number that is connected to the matching series number.
matching series
A series of maximum four digits that is used to identify the transaction generated during the general ledger matching process.
maximum unit value
The highest possible amount per unit that an asset is allowed to depreciate during the first year.
midmonth convention
A convention code that says that one-half month of depreciation is allowed for the month that an asset is placed in service and for the month of disposition if the property is disposed before the end of the recovery period. Applies to residential rental property, nonresidential real property, and railroad grading and tunnel bores. Used in United States tax methods.
midpoint class life
The point on which the tax lower class life and upper class life is based. In some cases, the midpoint life only is allowed for an asset-depreciation range (ADR) account. The midpoint life is only available to ADR vintage accounts.
modified accelerated cost recovery system
A revised edition of the accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS) guidelines. It classifies depreciable assets into one of several recovery periods depending on the selected depreciation method.
Acronym: MACRS
monetary account
A GL account that is used to record any amount of money stated as a fixed sum, for example, cash, accounts receivable, or accounts payable.
See: non-monetary account
monthly billing invoice
A monthly statement of the open sales invoices that you send to an invoice-to business partner. The business partner generates self-billed invoices and uses the monthly billing invoice for reference.
multicurrency
multicurrency accounting
Accounting in more than one currency. In Financials multicurrency means multiple home currencies by which balances on ledger accounts are stored in multiple home currencies simultaneously.
Synonym: multicurrency
multidimensional budget
multi dimension budget
multisite
The structure of several physical or logical companies between which transactions can be done.
net book value
The value of an asset calculated by subtracting accumulated depreciation from its current cost, as stored on the asset's related book(s). Net book value changes for each asset's related books when depreciation is calculated and updated, or when an adjustment is made to either cost or accumulated depreciation. If the book type is Federal Tax, the Section 179 value is also subtracted from the above calculation.
none depreciation
No depreciation method is defined. You can use this method when an asset cannot be depreciated, for example: real estate.
non-monetary account
A GL account that is valued at historical rates, for example, inventory account, fixed assets account, or WIP account.
See: monetary account
open entry
An unpaid transaction, for example a purchase or sales invoice.
open entry
open invoice
Unpaid invoices.
Synonym: open entry
Synonym: outstanding invoice
operating results

The variance between the expected (planned, budgeted) costs and the actual costs which can consist of these elements:

  • Efficiency variance
  • Fixed overhead volume variance
  • Political price variance
Operations Management
A collective name for the non-financial LN packages. Operations Management represents all the logistic LN packages.
original document
The document that includes the transactions for the finalized and approved purchase invoice. The original document does not include adjustments.
See: correction document
original pay-by business partner
The pay-by business partner that is linked to the invoice-to business partner of the order.
other tax - U.S. book
Used to record data that is subject to tax reporting regulations other than federal, such as state tax or insurance replacement.
outstanding amounts
The sum of all the unpaid amounts that refer to invoices and credit notes or debit notes.
outstanding invoice
overhead costs
The costs which are not linked to cost objects, but are planned and controlled in cost centers.
overhead costs
overhead costs
owner code

The code that indicates whether the asset is:

  • Owned by the company
  • Owned by a third party
  • Is used under a capital lease or operating lease
parent budget
The budget that combines several lower-level company child budgets (for example, departmental budgets) into a higher-level budget (for example, the overall company budget).
parent budget
An aggregated company budget which can contain multiple child budgets for the various autonomous parts of the company, such as departments.
parent-child structures
A hierarchical structure for dimensions and accounts. Multiple child elements can be linked to a parent element. It is used for subtotaling and reports and inquiries. To determine the level in the hierarchy, dimensions and accounts have a sublevel.
partial payment
PAYE
Tax authorities (PAYE)
pay from receipt (PFR)
The purchase invoice is created during the receipts of the goods. In this case, the complete invoice approval and matching procedure can be skipped because the purchase order has been created by the receiving company itself and will be booked as such.
payment agreement
A way to define how invoice amounts must be paid. This includes the payment methods that apply to various parts of the invoice amount, and the payment currency.

For example, you can define a payment agreement to pay the first part of the invoice amount through the bank according to payment method PM1, 40 percent of the remaining amount, according to payment method PM2, and the other 60 percent according to payment method PM3, which can be a trade note payable.

payment batch
A batch that contains selected invoices to be paid. After you have checked this batch, LN can carry out the payment run and generate the payment documents.
payment difference
A difference between the invoice amount and the payment amount. If the payment difference falls within the user-defined margins, it can be accepted and written off automatically.
payment method
The method used to create a payment (purchase invoice) or a receipt (sales invoice).

The payment method defines details such as:

  • The maximum amount
  • The due date
  • Allowance of foreign currencies and other details which must be printed on the report

These are default values that you can change on the order or on the invoice.

payment reconciliation
Supplier reconciliation handles the matching of actual payments on a bank statement with anticipated payments. These payments were anticipated at the time checks, automatic payments or other similar transfer orders were sent to the bank.
payment slip
Optically readable document attached to an invoice, which can be sent to the bank to make the payments for the invoice. The supplier's bank account number, the invoice amount, and an invoice reference number are preprinted on the payment slip. If a payment slip is attached to an invoice, the payment slip is created and printed together with the invoice.
performance budget
A flexible budget for which one or more reference units are connected to the dimension. Performance budgeting is carried out simultaneously with the amount budgeting.
performance budget
performance unit
The use of a fixed asset expressed as a certain unit, for example, as the number of machine hours.
period close
An update process to close or finally close an accounting period. This process is performed after all transactions for the current period have been finalized. A finally closed period cannot be reopened.
period end
Closes and increments the accounting period for selected companies and purges history based upon the specified history retention rules. Running Period-End at year end purges history year end data and resets year to date depreciation to zero.
policy date
The date the policy was modified.
political price
political price variance
This deviation only occurs, if the effective rates/surcharges differ from the calculated values. It is the difference between the two rates/surcharges, multiplied by the actual performance.
positive pay file
In the United States, a file of issued and voided checks that is sent to the bank for verification purposes.
posting book
The source book from which journal entries are sent to the company's General Ledger (GLD) module.
posting data schedule
posting method
A method that shows how the order data must be posted.
premium
The periodic rate an organization pays for insurance.
price difference
A difference between the invoice amount and the order amount or the goods received amount which is caused by a difference between the price per unit on the order and the price per unit on the invoice.
price iteration
A repetitive and precise method to determine the value of an allocation relation.
primary costs
The costs which are linked to cost centers (dimensions).
Synonym: variable costs
Antonym: overhead costs
Antonym: secondary costs
primary costs
proceeds amount
Cash or other proceeds received as a result of asset disposal.
profit and loss
A summary account used at the end of a fiscal period to collect the balances of the profit and loss accounts so that the net profit or loss may be shown.
pro forma invoice
A sales invoice which can be changed prior to printing the final invoice.
projected depreciation
Used to calculate future depreciation for an asset without recording depreciation expense.
property class
A classification of fixed assets for United States legal tax depreciation requirements.
property type
A classification of fixed assets for United States legal tax depreciation requirements.
protocol invoice
An invoice that is related to a purchase in an EU country (other than Bulgaria) and subject to protocol reporting.
protocol number
A unique sequence number for each document.

In some countries, for example Italy, it is required to report in a fixed sequence to the local authorities.

Predefined protocol numbers can be automatically assigned to finalized transactions.

provider depreciation book
A book that contains fixed asset depreciation information. The fixed asset depreciation information is maintained on the fixed asset provider. LN does not use the depreciation books for depreciation calculations.
purchase invoice matching
To ensure that the purchase invoice is correct, by linking the invoice to purchase orders and purchase receipts.
purchase type
A purchase order property that enables you to identify the kind of purchase made and in this way, the kind of payable. This property is used to post the purchase to the correct Accounts Payable account when the invoice is created. To post a purchase invoice, LN retrieves the control account from the purchase type linked to the purchase order line.
purchase value
purchase value
The value for which the fixed asset is purchased. This value can be used for the calculation of the depreciation.
rates
A rate determined in Cost Accounting (CAT) which states the price for one reference unit (operation unit) in a certain cost center (work center, task).
ratio
Represents the proportion of two values, based on a specified formula that uses the data included in a financial statement. Examples are the current ratio and the quick ratio, which represent the liquidity position of the company.

Ratios are used to:

  • Calculate values for financial statement accounts, consolidated statement accounts, and annexures.
  • Define formula variables used to calculate ratio values.
See: formula
ratio variables
The elements included in the formula used to calculate the statement column values. They correspond with the statement account values.
See: formula
reason code
A user-defined description that is based on a transaction and its type. Reason codes assist in selecting data for inquiry and for reporting.
reason for payment
  • A code linked to a foreign buy-from business partner's purchase invoice to indicate why it is being paid.
  • A code used for IRS 1099-MISC reporting purposes.
reason for payment group
The method used to group reasons for payment on the Z4 report. A subtotal is printed for each reason for payment group.
receipt
Received payment.
receipt reconciliation
The matching of actual receipts on a bank statement with anticipated receipts. These receipts were anticipated at the time the received checks, direct debit orders, or other similar transfer orders were sent to the bank.
receipts against shipments
A method to make payments or receipts separately for the approved quantity of each shipment rather than for the invoice that covers the complete order.
received purchase invoice
A received invoice for which no open entries have been created yet. Such an invoice is registered to show that it has been received.
recharge
A special form of duty tax, for example, in Spain. If you use multiple tax lines, you can use a sequence number for special additional taxes. In a printed report, the sequence number for recharge is then kept separate from the normal tax amounts.
reconciliation
To match related financial data from different sources to detect differences. Usually, reconciliation results in a report that you can use to view the matched data, the totals, and the detected differences.

For example:

  • To compare the cash balance as reported by the bank with the cash balance of the company's books.
  • To compare the logistic transactions with the related postings in Financials.
reconciliation area
A general area on which you can perform reconciliation, for example, Inventory, Production Order WIP, Interim Costs, and Invoice Accrual. The reconciliation area and subarea together form a reconciliation group which represents a group of integration ledger accounts.
reconciliation element
A property of a logistic transaction that you can use to trace the transaction for reconciliation. The reconciliation elements correspond with the mapping elements of the business objects.
reconciliation group
Represents a group of integration ledger accounts on which you can perform reconciliation. A reconciliation group consists of the combination of a reconciliation area and a subarea, for example, Invoice Accrual/ Purchase Order WIP.
reconciliation subarea
A further division of a reconciliation area into the kinds of origins of the transactions. For example, the Interim Costs and Invoice Accrual reconciliation areas are divided into many subareas such as Sales Order, Purchase Order, and Service Order. The reconciliation area and subarea together form a reconciliation group which represents a group of integration ledger accounts.
recourse
A type of factoring or trade note discounting for which the risk of customer non-payment remains with the company. If the company's customer is financially unable to pay the amount due, the factor or bank has recourse against the company for that amount.
recovery period
The entire time an asset may depreciate. The period in which you are currently depreciating is the current recovery period.
recurring purchase invoice
A periodic purchase invoice that is generated based on a Cost Invoice purchase invoice. You can use this invoice type to create identical, recurring invoices.
recurring sales invoice
A periodic sales invoice generated on the basis of another sales invoice that is originally registered in the Accounts Receivable module. You can use this invoice type to create identical, recurring invoices.
recurring transaction
A periodical transaction on a predefined date or on dates based on user-defined settings.
recurring transactions
A transaction that is entered for defined number of periods, and which automatically creates a journal entry. In addition, recurring transactions for the current period must be generated before you can close the period.
reference

Any informative description field used to refer to, for example:

  • The person or department with authorization to perform a specific task.
  • The business partner's contact.
  • The original invoice number.
reference link
A generated code that is attached to the debit posting and the credit posting of an integration transaction. You can use the reference link to match the postings on interim accounts that you cannot match business object ID because they belong to different business objects, for example, a Purchase Receipt and an Inventory Transaction.
Note

The reference link is not the same as a business object reference.

reference unit
A performance measure of a cost center and a calculation base to determine rates and surcharges.
reminder
A financial letter, urging a business partner to pay.
remittance advice message (RAM)
A notification in which a business partner states the amounts he has transferred per bank. These notifications can be received electronically through EDI or diskette, in standard EDI format.
Synonym: RAM
remittance agreement
A subcontracting document that contains agreements about how the payment for a project will take place. For example, the remittance agreement states that part of the invoice amount must be paid to the subcontractor's industrial assurance board (IAB) and to the tax authorities.
remittance code
The code used to identify the remittance advice.
remittance company
The company used to process and post the remittance advices.
remittance header
The remittance received from the pay-by business partner either in the form of check, fax or email.
remittance rate
The rate at which the remittance advices are applied and posted.
remittance reference
The shipment reference, packing slip number, external packing slip number, or customer order number recorded in the EDI message that was received from the customer.
removal
A transaction that is applied to remove capitalization stored on asset-related books.
report currency
In the Financial Statements module, the currency in which the report values are expressed.
reporting currency group
In an environment with multiple financial companies, a code that defines the common home currency to be used in reporting and viewing data for those companies that are linked to that code.
requisition/trace number
A reference number that you can use to identify purchase requisitions on the statements that you receive from a procurement card company.
retrospective adjustment
The adjustment to adjust the depreciation amount based on the revaluation value of an asset. This adjusts the non-depreciated amounts for the periods in the past, as from the first date of depreciation.
revaluation
An update of the current value of a fixed asset to market prices. In Financials, you can revaluate a fixed asset based on an index or enter the amount manually.
revaluation index
A current value update of a fixed asset to market prices. You can use a revaluation index to set a new value for the asset cost in reference to the index increase or decrease for a given year. The revaluation index is unique and it is linked to an asset-book combination.
reversal transaction
A transaction that reverses the original posting on a predefined date or on dates based on user-defined settings.

These types of reversal exist:

  • Accrual
  • Reversal
  • No Reversal
rounding difference
Small differences between related debit and credit postings resulting from the rounding of calculated amounts.
rule element
In a cross validation rule, a range of GL accounts and dimension values to be either included or excluded.
See: cross validation rule
sale
A disposal type, which records that an asset has been sold.
sales invoice
A document transaction entered in Invoicing. When an asset account is affected, a disposal transaction is generated from Invoicing in the Fixed Assets module to process this event based on the general ledger account definition.
sales type
A sales order property that allows you to identify the kind of sale made and the kind of receivable. This property is used to post the sales to the correct Accounts Receivable account when the invoice is created. To post a sales invoice, LN retrieves the control account from the sales type linked to the sales order line, project contract, and so on.
salvage value
The amount expected to be recaptured when a fixed asset is disposed at the end of its useful life.
scrap
An asset taken out of service, which can result in an extraordinary gain or loss.
secondary costs
secondary costs
Costs which are not related to a cost center (dimension), but are results of allocations between dimensions based on performance relations.
Synonym: overhead costs
Antonym: primary costs
Antonym: fixed costs
section 179 value
A deduction available to certain types of property as specified by the Internal Revenue Service. This allows taxpayers other than estates, trusts, and certain non-corporate lessors to claim a current deduction for a specified amount of the cost of qualified property placed in service during the tax year.
segment
The term is applied to location components.
self-billing
The periodic creation, matching, and approval of invoices based on receipts or consumption of goods by an agreement between business partners. The sold-to business partner pays for the goods without having to wait for an invoice from the buy-from business partner.
SEPA
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative for the European financial infrastructure involves the creation of a zone for the Euro in which all electronic payments are considered domestic, and where a difference between national and intra-European cross border payments does not exist. SEPA will enable customers to make cashless Euro payments to anyone located anywhere in the area using only a single bank account and a single set of payment instruments.
serial number
The selected asset's identifying number to distinguish it from other products in a similar line.
shift factor
The rate that accounts for an asset's use beyond a regularly scheduled work period. The value of the shift factor cannot be less than one.
simulated asset
A nonexistent asset that can be used to project the depreciation expense.
Note
  • Simulated assets cannot be used for performing any FAM transactions such as capitalization, depreciation and transfer.
  • To check how the depreciation would be calculated based on the given parameters, select Only Simulated Assets in the Print Depreciation Expense Projection (tffam1401m000) session.
single payment
A payment that is paid as a single amount.
Antonym: partial payment
SIREN
Système Information et Répertoire des Entreprises (Corporate Information and Directory System). An organizaton's identification used in France mainly for the official registration in the Trade Register and in communications of the authorities with or about the organizations.
sort position
The value used to sort the financial transactions within a business object. For every business object, LN generates the sort position from the values of some of the business object properties. For example, for a freight order cluster the sort position is the cluster line, and for an inventory transaction the sort position is the inventory transaction sequence.
special book
A book type for non-U.S. countries that permits specific depreciation method (either custom or excess depreciation to what is normal) to be posted. It supplements Commercial or Statutory depreciation.
special depreciation
Depreciation other than the usual decrease in value. You can use special depreciation to take into account, for example, a pollution tax.
spot rate
A fixed rate that is linked to a financial transaction.
stand-alone payment
A payment that is not related to any invoice.
Synonym: standing order
standard audit file
The "Standard Audit File for tax compliance checking purposes" (SAF-T) is a file containing reliable accounting data exported from an original accounting system, for a specific time period, easily readable by virtue of its standardisation of layout and format, and one that is extensible according to need.
Note

For more information, refer to OECD, SAF-T version V1.42 of May 2005

Synonym: SAF-T
standard industrial classification code
A standard industrial classification code for United States tax purposes.
Acronym: SIC
standing order
An order to which no invoices are linked, for example, recurring payments.
standing order
statement code
A separate code which is assigned to each remittance letter.
statement layout
Statement layouts determine the general presentation of financial statements. This includes margins, header data of columns and accounts, header and footer texts, etc. This data is used to create financial statements. LN will order the statement data according to the parameters corresponding with the layout code selected.
statement method
The method LN follows to create account statements. The method determines when, at which interval, and to which business partner the account statement is sent.
statement of account
A report that gives information about the account status of an agreement between business partners.

A statement of account can include:

  • The unpaid balance due
  • Any invoices that were changed since the statement was last printed
statement of operating results
A time-oriented view of the revenues, costs, and deviations of cost centers.
static budget
A static budget is the ledger-account-oriented approach where costs can be related to multiple dimensions at a time.
Synonym: multidimensional budget
static budget
statutory account
statutory account
A ledger account used for official accounting purposes according to legal requirements.
Antonym: complementary account
statutory book
A tax book for non-U.S. countries that permits you to report depreciation for tax reporting purposes for Calculator, Commercial, and Special book types.
statutory depreciation
Depreciation that occurs in a statutory book, which is used in countries outside the U.S. to record depreciation for tax purposes.
straight line depreciation
Method of calculating depreciation of an asset that assumes the asset will lose value in an equal amount per year which is calculated by the formula: .
100 / years = percentage
subcategory
Subcategories provide additional classification of assets within a category. For each category, you enter one or multiple subcategories.
subcontractor
A business partner from whom you buy service to perform or execute part of a project or production order.
sublevel
A number that indicates the level of a ledger account or a dimension in the hierarchical structure of accounts and dimensions. A low number corresponds with a low sublevel. Ledger accounts can have sublevels 0 through 99. Dimensions can have levels 0 through 9.

Transactions can only be posted to accounts and dimensions which have a sublevel zero. All amounts and quantities on the sublevels 1 and higher are aggregated from lower sublevels.

summary dimension
The default user-defined account dimension by which summary data is stored.
summary history
The number of years to retain asset summary data.
sum of years digits depreciation
The depreciation amount is calculated by means of a fraction. It is a form of accelerated depreciation, whereby each year a part of an asset's depreciation costs will be written down from its balance sheet value. The fraction consists of the current year (years are numbered in descending order) divided by the sum of the number of years that the asset is in use.
sundry debtors and creditors account
The account used to record receivables and payables which are not attached directly to the operating business cycle.

For example:

  • To register assignment expenses to be charged back and for which the posting is uncertain at the time they are recorded.
  • To record purchases made on behalf of third parties, which should not be posted to the profit and loss account.
suspended periods
The process of discontinuing an asset's ability to depreciate during a specified period.
suspense account
An account that records operations that cannot be posted definitely to an account.

However, such accounts must not appear on the balance sheet. For example:

  • When bank reconciliations bring the balance of the company's account into line with that of the bank, the unidentified movements listed on the bank statements are posted to a suspense account

Note: Unidentified movements can, for example, be customer receipts.

tag number
An identification number for an asset.
tax country
The country in which the tax must be paid.
theft
A disposal type, which records that an asset has been stolen.
to discount a trade note
A form of accounts receivable financing that consists of the sale of a company's trade notes receivable to a third party (usually a bank), in order to obtain funding. The purchase is made at a discount from the trade note's value and the net amount of discounting charges and commission is remitted to the company.

Customers remit to the discounter either directly or indirectly through the company. Discounting can be with or without recourse. For discounting with recourse, the risk of customer non-payment remains with the company.

to endorse a trade note
To transfer a trade note receivable to your supplier to settle purchase invoices. The transfer is achieved by putting the signature of the authorized signatory and the company stamp on the trade note.
tolerated discount amount
The tolerated discount amount is determined for all outstanding amounts of a certain business partner. LN determines the first, the second, or the third cash discount that must be deducted according to the payment terms that apply to the transaction. This amount will be maintained per period, per business partner.
tolerated price difference
The price difference levels, defined by the employee ( LN user), that are tolerated when matching purchase invoices with receipts.
to mature
When a trade note matures, the payment is due.
trade in
A disposal type, which records that an asset has been traded for a newer model.
trade note
Generic term for payment instruments such as bank drafts, checks, promissory notes, and bills of exchange. Trade notes can be used instead of cash payments if credit is extended to the customer. A trade note can replace the invoice. Because trade notes are negotiable, they can also be used as a credit instrument, for example, for discounting and endorsing.

Trade notes can exist on paper and on magnetic supports, according to local business practices and banking standards.

trade note division
Sometimes, the total payable amount is divided into multiple trade notes of smaller denominations so that such trade notes can be either discounted or endorsed. The denomination of such trade notes depends on the agreement between the company and the business partner.

To minimize the amount of revenue tax paid, companies usually break up the amount payable by trade notes. Instead of issuing one trade note for the entire amount, they issue multiple trade notes that together cover the amount.

trade note payable (TNP)
A promissory note that you send to a supplier or a bill of exchange received from your supplier with the commitment to pay the amount due after a certain period.
Acronym: TNP
trade note receivable (TNR)
A promissory note received from a customer or a bill of exchange accepted by a customer with the commitment to pay the amount due after a certain period.
Acronym: TNR
transaction
A record generated to record an asset's event, its related books, and its distributions. You can store transactions for assets that are capitalized, adjusted, transferred, and disposed of.
transaction category
A way to categorize transaction types, for example journal vouchers, recurring/reverse journals, purchase invoices, and sales invoices. The category defines how to process a transaction linked to the selected transaction type.
transaction cost
The price you pay for an asset, expressed in the purchase currency.
transaction date
The date you enter when you create the transaction such as a sales order or a warehouse receipt. Usually the transaction date is the current date. Only for backdated and antedated transactions, the transaction date differs from the current date. Internally, the transaction date is registered in UTC time.
transaction entry date
The date you enter when you create the batch. Usually the transaction entry date is the current date. Only for backdated and antedated transactions, the transaction entry date differs from the current date. Internally, the transaction entry date is registered in local time.
transaction origin (TROR)
The definition of the (logistic) origin of an integration transaction. The combination of a transaction origin (TROR) and the financial transaction (FITR) results in an integration document type.
transaction reference
A user-defined description of the transaction.
transaction schedule
transaction scheme
transaction template
A set of entries created (generated and repeated) to distribute a transaction across a number of ledger accounts and dimensions. For example, you can distribute the recurring purchase invoices for general supplies across a number of departments or work centers. The set of transactions is automatically linked to the document.
Synonym: posting data schedule
Synonym: transaction scheme
Synonym: transaction schedule
transaction type
A user-defined three-position code used to identify documents. The series linked to the transaction type give documents the sequence number.
transfer
A transaction that applies to moving values stored on an asset's related books to another asset as a result of a change of owners, location, or responsibility.
translation adjustments
Before reporting in a currency other than the reporting currency, the amounts in the local currency have to be translated with the proper currency rate according to FASB 52 guidelines.
See: FASB 52
translation gain and loss
Currency result caused by the use of different currencies during the order handling procedure, for example, if the order currency or the payment currency differs from the invoice currency.
unallocated payment/receipt
A payment/receipt, appearing on a bank statement, which cannot be allocated to an invoice or other document. This payment can be registered as unallocated. An unallocated payment/receipt can be allocated to invoices later.
uncharged costs
All costs that are not yet charged to cost objects, cost units, or cost centers by means of rates and surcharges. The cost portions are fixed costs, fixed overhead volume variance, efficiency variance, political price variance, all uncharged costs.
units of production
The method of determining the periodic depreciation expense of an asset whose life is recorded in units instead of in periods.
units of production depreciation
A method of determining the periodic depreciation charge based on projected number of units to be produced by an asset instead of the asset's useful life. The calculation is made by multiplying the depreciable amount (original cost - salvage value) by the percentage of the asset's expected total output that was produced during the period.
upper class life
The maximum number of years the asset-depreciation range (ADR) vintage account asset can depreciate. Typically, the upper class life is 20% higher than the class midpoint. The upper class life is only available to ADR vintage accounts.
value-adding activity
An activity that adds value to the company's profit. For example, invoicing is non-value adding, whereas manufacturing is value adding.
variable costs
variable costs
variable costs
Costs that are directly dependent of the output performance of a cost center. An increase of the performance will cause a proportional increase of the total variable costs.
Antonym: fixed costs
VAT book
A legal report of all value added tax (VAT) transactions of a company, in date sequence. The transactions can be grouped by tax articles, which typically group transactions that have the same tax percentage.
VAT liquidation report
A report that shows the net VAT amount due to the tax authorities for the report period.

The liquidated VAT amount is the result of the VAT on purchases minus the VAT on sales. If the result is a negative amount, the amount must be paid to the tax authorities. If the result is a positive amount, the amount is carried over as a credit amount to the next VAT book period.

In some countries, the VAT liquidation report replaces the VAT declaration.

vintage or group account
You use vintage or group accounts to associate and maximize the United States tax deduction for assets subject to asset depreciation range (ADR) and modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) group depreciation. You can create either a MACRS group account, for any MACRS asset placed into service after 1994, or an ADR Vintage account, for assets placed into service prior to 1980. Assets in a vintage or group account are depreciated as a group, and are subject to different disposal rules than assets that are not part of an account.
XBRL
Abbreviation of eXtensible Business Report Language. XBRL is an XML-based computer language for the electronic transmission of business and financial data.
year-to-date amount
The accumulated depreciation for the current year. The time frame for this type of depreciation ranges from the beginning of the current year up to the current date. Year-to-date amounts are stored in the asset books ( Fixed Assets module).
year-to-date amount
The budget amount accumulated in a budget account from previous periods till date, and can be carried forward and used for next budget period. A budget manager is responsible for his own budget(s) as part of the company budget.
Z1 report
A report that is required by the Bundesbank, the German central bank. A Z1 lists payments to foreign recipients.
Z4 report
A report that is required by the Bundesbank, the German central bank. A Z4 lists inbound and outbound foreign payments.
Note

If your organization uses SEPA filing for payments and direct debits, Z4 reporting is mandatory.

Z5 report
A German report of claims on and liabilities to non-residents arising from transactions in goods and services. The report includes claims on and liabilities to non-resident associated enterprises and non-resident businesses other than banks, to which you are linked through common interests.