The WINPACCS glossary provides helpful explanations on the WINPACCS technical terms that are used most frequently.
An account is part of the chart of accounts. As a key element of accounting, it serves to categorise transactions.
WINPACCS uses the double-entry accounting system. Each voucher is entered in two accounts, the assignment on the debit and credit side is supported by the selection of the transaction category and type.
Account groups are used to break down the account classes of the general chart of accounts. Account groups can be subdivided into accounts and sub-accounts.
The following account classes and groups are available in WINPACCS:
Account classes | Account groups |
Balance (bank, cash) | Bank |
Cash | |
Balance (receivables, payables) | Receivables from third parties |
Receivables from partners | |
Receivables national VAT | |
Payables | |
Withholding tax payables | |
Supply of funds | Branch office |
Currency exchange | |
External project | |
Local income | |
VAT head office | |
Input tax other countries | |
Costs | General |
Assets | |
Non-recoverable VAT | |
Costs from rounding differences | |
Proceeds | General |
Assets | |
Income from rounding differences | |
Revenue | General |
Clearing | Purchase of assets |
Sale of assets | |
Balances carried forward | |
Revaluation |
The accounting period includes all the postings of a certain month.
In Project accounting, the accounting period is finalised by a month-end closing. Postings from finalised accounting periods cannot be changed, since the posting data has already been forwarded to Project controlling and the interface to Company accounting. In the current accounting period, postings from accounting periods that have already been finalised, can be reversed and reposted.
Within an accounting period, dates from finalised months (not future months) can be used as the voucher date.
Entry software is the actual software product in which postings are made. If different versions of a software handle data differently, the version number is also indicated.
The data entry software is specified for journals of the Project accounting and Company accounting journal classes.
The asset type is used to assign uniform properties to a certain type of asset. Examples of asset types are "vehicles" or "construction machinery". In WINPACCS the asset type is assigned to an account and an account can have several asset types assigned to it.
An asset is assigned to just one asset type. Depending on the asset type, additional organisation-specific fields can be displayed for the asset. In the case of vehicles, for example, this can be the chassis number; for buildings – the address and the floor space. The useful life of an asset depends on the asset type. The pre-entered value in the "Useful life (in months)" field can be changed.
A budget structure is a self-defined area of a project that can be used for budgeting and cost controlling. Donor requirements or the technical structure of a project are examples of budget structures.
A budget structure consists of several budget lines. Costs are assigned to a budget line on the voucher level. This is already performed in the Project accounting in WINPACCS Accounting, or it can even be pre-entered in WINPACCS Cashbook. In contrast to the account assignment of a voucher, changes can be performed to the assignment of a budget line in WINPACCS Accounting until the month-end closing without having to repost. In WINPACCS Project controlling the budget structure is available for extensive analysis in the area of controlling and reporting. The assignment of a voucher to a budget line can also be changed at a later date in Project Controlling.
In WINPACCS, cashbooks are used for pre-entering vouchers. The vouchers are entered in WINPACCS Cashbook by a cashier and then transferred to the Project accounting (WINPACCS Accounting) where they are posted by an accountant. Even for untrained staff, it is very easy to pre-enter the vouchers in a cashbook.
Exactly one sub-account is assigned to each cashbook. Cashbooks of various types (types are shown in brackets) can be created, for example, to manage a petty cashbox (cash), a bank account (bank) or to manage advance payments to employees or partners (receivables).
Each cashbook is assigned to a journal and thus to a specific voucher currency.
Account classes are used to systematically structure the main chart of accounts. They are further subdivided into account groups, accounts and sub-accounts.
These account classes and groups are available in WINPACCS:
Account classes | Account groups |
Balance (bank, cash) | Bank |
Cash | |
Balance (receivables, payables) | Third party receivables |
Receivables from partners | |
Receivables national VAT | |
Payables | |
Withholding tax payables | |
Supply of funds | Head office |
Currency exchange | |
External project | |
Local income | |
VAT Head office | |
VAT other countries | |
Costs | General |
Assets | |
Non-recoverable VAT | |
Costs from rounding differences | |
Income | General |
Assets | |
Income from rounding differences | |
Revenue | General |
Clearing | Purchase of assets |
Sale of assets | |
Balances carried forward | |
Revaluation |
A cost category group structure is used to enter a row structure based on cost category groups for budgeting and evaluating purposes. In WINPACCS a cost category group structure can be used, for example, to map the specifications of a donor.
Analyses such as budget reports can thus be generated according to donor requirements.
The voucher date is the date specified on the voucher of a posting.
In WINPACCS the date format can be adjusted via the language settings when posting or pre-entering in cashbooks.
Expenses are cash outflows that reduce the balance of a financial account, i.e. bank or cash.
The opposite of expenses is income.
Income arises from cash inflows that increase the balance of a financial account, i.e. bank or cash.
The opposite of income is an expense.
Journals are used to enter the postings of the transactions.
In WINPACCS a currency is assigned to each journal, i.e. if several currencies are used in a project, several journals have to be created. The moving average rate procedure is used for converting a journal’s voucher currency into the company currency.
Journals can also be assigned to fundings. Contractual agreements with the donor can also be shown in WINPACCS. If necessary, closed cash cycles can be used to keep funds from different donors apart. This requires the use of separate bank accounts and petty cashboxes for the funds of a donor or a funding.
The journal class is a basic property of a journal, which identifies the origin of the journal's postings. WINPACCS makes a distinction between the following journal classes:
“Project accounting” journal class
Identifies the journal class for postings, which have been entered as balance sheet effective in the Project accounting (WINPACCS Accounting). A special feature is the “Project accounting (costs from external projects)” journal class which contains the postings that were posted to your own project from other projects. This journal class is the only one that may contain postings in different currencies.
“Company accounting” journal class
Identifies the journal class for postings, which have been forwarded from Company accounting to WINPACCS via an interface.
“Partner Accounting” journal class
Identifies the journal class for postings that were received from a partner for information purposes via an interface.
So that postings can be entered in a journal, the journal must be accepted by an authorised user at an installation. The journal status describes the status necessary for this in WINPACCS Cloud or WINPACCS Accounting. When the user accepts a journal, it is thus blocked for other Project accounting installations. Simultaneously working in the same journals in different locations is not conducive to good project accounting.
In WINPACCS Accounting the journal status indicates whether a journal has been accepted and can therefore be posted to or not. The following journal statuses are available:
In WINPACCS Cloud the journal status history can be viewed for each journal across all the installations. The following journal statuses are available in the Cloud:
The posting status in WINPACCS Accounting indicates what stage a posting is at, in being processed. Postings are first posted in Project accounting, then uploaded to WINPACCS Cloud in day-end or month-end closings, before being released there manually or automatically. After being released, the relevant posting items are transferred to Project controlling and forwarded to the Company accounting via an interface.
The following posting statuses reflect this process:
A quantity can be used in the monitoring of quantities for specific expenses on a budget line. In addition to the posting amount, the quantity also indicates how much of a unit of quantity was consumed.
Example: USD 2,000.00 (amount) and four expert days (quantity and unit of quantity) were spent on the fee of an expert.
In addition to the amounts, the quantities can also be planned in a budget.
Every flow of funds takes place between a project and another party, e.g. a trader, a service provider, the head office of your own organisation, a partner or an external project. The field identifies this party. Depending on whether it is a payment or a deposit (WINPACCS Cashbook) or which transaction is involved (WINPACCS Accounting), the second party is either a recipient or a depositor.
As a rule: In the case of an expense, the name of the recipient is to be entered; in the case of income, the name of the depositor.
The reporting year is the calendar year which includes the reporting period of the respective posting item.
WINPACCS Project controlling can produce analyses that break down costs into reporting years.
The voucher currency is the currency in which the amount on a voucher is shown.
In Project accounting, voucher currencies are separated into journals. Amounts are converted from voucher currency to company currency using the Moving Average Rate Procedure.
The voucher status indicates which processing step a voucher is at in a cashbook. Vouchers are firstly pre-entered, then locked and finally forwarded to Project accounting. The following voucher status reflects this process: "Entered today", "Entered", "Locked" and "Forwarded". The voucher status cannot be reset.
The options for changing a voucher in a cashbook depend on the voucher status.
In the "Entered today" status all the data of a voucher can be changed. This status is only used in cashbooks of the "cash" type.
In the "Entered" status, the "Amount in voucher currency" and "Select income / expense" fields can no longer be changed.
In the "Locked" and "Forwarded" status, no changes can be made to the data of a voucher.