Glossary

An account is part of the chart of accounts. As the central component of accounting, an account’s purpose is to categorize business transactions. WINPACCS uses the double-entry accounting system. Each voucher is entered onto two accounts, the assignment to the debit side and credit side automatically takes place through the transaction type.

The process “Account assignment” refers to the selection of an account for entering vouchers within an accounting system. In WINPACCS cashbook, based on the preferences of the organisation, account assignments are not necessarily required whereas in WINPACCS accounting a complete account assignment must be provided for each voucher. Through a transaction type vouchers are recorded on two accounts, and assigned either to the credit or debit side.

An accounting period is a defined month in which vouchers are recorded in a project accounting system.
The accounting period cannot be changed in the voucher data. Before opening a new period in WINPACCS accounting the current period must be closed. Making changes in already closed accounting periods is not possible.

The actual costs/income factor in all costs and income actually incurred at the time of evaluation. When monitoring the budget in WINPACCS cost control, the actual costs/income are contrasted with the budget (plan/actual comparison).

Voucher data (e.g. check number or invoice number) that is not relevant for invoicing but still helpful for understanding as well as allocating voucher entries is referred to as “additional information.” These fields can be optionally included in the entry mask in WINPACCS accounting. In WINPACCS cost control these fields are available in the voucher overview for search and evaluation purposes.

Since exchange rates between the multiple currencies in a project rarely remain constant through-out the course of a project, vouchers are entered using various exchange rates. Only the transaction types “Supply of funds” and (optionally) “Forward funds” are affected by changes in exchange rates. This means that in addition to the voucher currency, the amount must be entered in company currency as well in order to create a new average rate calculation. All following vouchers are evaluated with this newly calculated average rate until an entry that alters the average rate takes place.

All vouchers in WINPACCS that don’t affect the budget, i.e. that aren’t costs or income, are referred to as “Balance Vouchers”. This includes e.g. cash inflows from supplies of funds, cash outflows from forwards of funds, money transfers as well as payments for settling receivables and liabilities.

In WINPACCS cashbook all transactions within a bank account are recorded in a bankbook. A bankbook’s balance can be negative.

The base language is the main business language used by an organisation. This is often the language of the country in which the client’s head office is located.

A batch refers to a group of vouchers that have the same origin identity. This, for example, is how the exported vouchers from a cashbook in WINPACCS cashbook form a batch. These voucher batches are gathered through the batch processing in WINPACCS accounting and then prepared for further entries.

Development and humanitarian aid projects are mostly financed through multiple donors. Before implementing the project measures, a payment plan for the course of the project is determined with the donor. This plan is called a budget. In WINPACCS cost control, the user has the option to enter as many budgets as he or she desires on the level of cost category, cost category group and project internal structure. Reports can be created on the basis of these budgets for both internal controlling as well as external purposes in the format of the donor’s financial evaluation (planned/actual comparison).

All cash movement takes place through the cash box. All cash income and expenditures must be verified through a receipt or an internal voucher. Cash vouchers can be entered in WINPACCS cashbook through a cashbook or directly in WINPACCS accounting. Differentiating between each cash box takes place in WINPACCS cashbook through separate cashbooks that can each be assigned sub-accounts in WINPACCS accounting. Furthermore, the project receivables as prepayments to employees or partners can be administered in WINPACCS cashbook. In this case the cashbook in WINPACCS accounting is assigned a receivables account and not a cash account.

The chart of accounts is a folder with the accounts required for the entries of all business transactions within a project. Charts of accounts are centrally created in WINPACCS online.

The term “Clear item” refers to the allocation of vouchers (costs or payments) to an unsettled item (original voucher). In WINPACCS accounting, an item is cleared directly when recording the entry in the entry mask or subsequently through the supporting list “Unsettled items”.

A committed cost is a future payment obligation due to e.g. a signed contract or an order. An entry cannot take place if a service/return service hasn’t been rendered or billed. Committed costs can only be recorded or imported (committed costs of head office) in WINPACCS cost control.

The term “Company accounting” refers to a system for administrating the finances of an aid organisation outside of the WINPACCS modules. Through the multiple interfaces the user can transfer entries recorded in WINPACCS accounting to the accounting system of the head office (e.g. SAP or DATEV). Data from external accounting systems (direct payments or committed costs of the head office for projects) can be transferred to WINPACCS cost control for complete budget monitoring.

The company currency is the currency in which all the head office’s accounting operations are conducted. The company currency is usually the currency of the country in which the head office is located.

Computer generated vouchers are vouchers automatically created by an accounting system that are required for automatically generated entries. WINPACCS accounting creates computer generated vouchers e.g. for a reverse entry or an entry change within the end-of-period accounts.

Cost categories are the cost accounts found in an accounting system. They serve to categorize different costs based on their nature (personal costs, marketing costs, interest etc.). In WINPACCS cost control, accounts containing costs and income are referred to as cost categories.

A cost category group is an accumulation of several cost categories. Various cost categories from the area of personal costs for example could be combined into a cost category group “Personal”. In WINPACCS cost control, cost category groups can be used as components of a cost category group structure for budgeting and reporting purposes.

A line structure based on cost category groups that is used for budgeting and evaluation purposes is recorded through a cost category group structure. In WINPACCS cost control a donors requirements (budget lines) for example can be displayed by using the cost category group structure. Financial evaluations such as budget reports can then be created in compliance with the demands of the donor.

The data source is the origin of the data from the vouchers in a journal.
A journal may have one of the following data sources:
Project accounting: vouchers are entered in WINPACCS accounting.
Company accounting: Costs of the project are entered in the accounting system of the head office.
Local committed costs: Committed costs are entered in WINPACCS cost control.
Committed costs of head office: Committed costs are entered in the accounting system of the head office.
Local partner accounting: Cost vouchers of partners are entered in WINPACCS cost control.
Partner accounting: Cost vouchers of partners are entered in the accounting system of the partner.

The date of voucher is the date when the voucher was generated. It is taken from the voucher or the invoice and then manually entered into the corresponding field of the WINPACCS suite module, in the format dd.mm.yyyy.

Depreciation refers to the scheduled reduction in value of an asset. Donors normally accept the deduction of the total acquisition costs from the budget. In certain cases donors can factor in the scheduled depreciation instead of the acquisition costs. WINPACCS accounting automatically calculates the depreciation of all inventories.

The term “Dispatch of Liabilities” refers to the payment of liabilities.
In WINPACCS accounting transaction type 9 can be used for the dispatch of liabilities. Such payments normally offset or at least reduce existing liabilities through partial payments. The balancing of accounts takes place when liabilities are assigned to an unsettled item.

The donor is the organisation that provides the funds for a project. Projects can be financed by more than one donor. By using different journals each donors funds can be administered separately within a project and their use can be monitored. Donors are centrally administrated through the organisation settings in WINPACCS online.