Terms and definitions

An account field is a text field that represents one of the G/L account codes that you have created in Accentis Enterprise. All account fields support the QuickList key which activates the Chart of Accounts form, allowing you to quickly select the desired account code.

An Address field is a structured group of fields that define a postal or business address. It contains the following individual fields:

• To: Optional field used to enter the name of an addressee. This field can vary from 64 to 100 characters in length.
• Address lines: The physical street address or postal box details of the address. These two fields can be up to 64 characters in length.
• Suburb: This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
• State: This field contains a list of all Australian states and territories, but you are also able to type up to 15 characters to meet any requirements.
• Postcode: This field can be up to 15 characters in length, allowing you to meet all international requirements.
• Country: This field can be up to 64 characters in length.

To enhance the usability of address boxes, additional functionality has been added. When right clicking on an address box, a menu will pop-up allowing the entire address details to be copied. Once copied, right clicking on another address box will allow all address details to be pasted into the relevant fields at once.

A button is a field that can be pressed to enable the display of specific information regarding the field.

A CheckList is a list box that allows you to check individual items by click with the left mouse button in the small box to the left of each list item. Depending on the context in which the Check list appears, the action of checking an item usually selects that line for processing.

A contact field allows you to enter contact details for a person or organisation. It contains the following fields:

• Contact: The name of the person to whom this contact relates
• Phone: The land-line telephone number of the contact person
• Mobile: The mobile telephone number of the contact person
• Fax: The Fax number of the contact person
• E-Mail: The electronic mail address of the contact person

To enhance the usability of contacts boxes, additional functionality has been added. When right clicking on a contact box, a menu will pop-up allowing the entire contact details to be copied. Once copied, right clicking on another contact box will allow all contact details to be pasted into the relevant fields at once.

A currency value is a decimal value with up to (but not exceeding) 4 decimal places and 15 non-decimal digits. This gives a range of -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807.

When entering a currency value on a form, do not include dollar signs, commas, spaces or any characters other than a digit, minus sign (-) or decimal point.

A date is any valid date that can be entered in any format that unambiguously specifies the day, month and year in that order.

A date can be entered as a single 6 (2 digit year) or 8 (4 digit year) character string, or each part of the date can be separated with either a forward slash (/), dash (-), space ( ), decimal point (.) or comma (,). When using spaces, decimal points or commas as separators, you must enter a 4 digit year for the date to be considered valid. After you leave a date field, it will be converted to the standard short format for your PC – usually dd/mm/yy.

The following are examples of valid dates for June 8th, 2010: 080610, 08062010, 8/6/10, 08/06/10, 08/06/2010

To simplify the date entry process, a number of shortcut values have been built into each date field in Accentis Enterprise. Below is a list of these shortcuts and their effect, using 10/05/2011 as the current date.

An image is able to be added to some records, which can be used on the screen as a visual aid or in reports which can then be printed, faxed, or emailed to customers.

The image must be in either a .jpg, .jpeg, or .bmp format.

If a record that displays images (such as Inventory, Fixed Assets, or Human Resources) does not have an image specified, but does have an attached document with an image extension of .jpg, .jpeg, or .bmp and a name which contains the word PHOTO, this image will be displayed for the record.

This term can have multiple meanings depending on the field used.

List

This selection is usually a Read-only field and is used for the display of information in a list format.

Select from list

This selection presents a list from which you can choose options to suit your configuration.

A Memo field allows entry of text of any length, including carriage returns. There is no limit to amount of text you can enter into a memo field and no restrictions on the characters you enter.

This term has multiple definitions depending on its use, as below.

Menu

This field allows you to choose from a selection of items relevant to the form.

Pop-up menu

This field displays a menu in a separate window from which you can select the file/s you wish to import to the form.

Options menu

This selection opens a menu from which the user can choose from a selection of options relevant to a form or report.

Special menu

This menu option gives the user advanced selections to use dependant on database configuration.

A number is any non-decimal numeric value in the range from 0 to 2,000,000,000.

When entering a number value in a field, do not include commas, decimal points, spaces or any other non-digit characters.

A Quantity is any decimal number having a maximum of 10 digits. When entering a quantity in a field, do not include commas, spaces or any other non-digit characters.

A Text field is designed to hold text you wish to enter. When a listed text field in this help file contains a number in brackets, the number represents the maximum number of characters you can enter into the field.

Text can contain digits, punctuation, upper and lower case letters or any white space, but cannot include carriage returns.

A time value is a time expressed in the format hh:mm:ss.

Time values can be used to indicate either the actual required time such as 15:30:00 to represent 3:30pm or a value given in hours, minutes and seconds such as 34:25:15.

The login name of the user who performed the specified action

When this field is selected, you can select either Yes or No. If the field is Mandatory, you must select one, otherwise it can be left blank.

This also refers to check boxes, which can either be activated (checked) or deactivated (unchecked).

An AutoComplete field automatically fills in the remaining characters of the nearest matched FlexiCode (alphabetically) as you are typing. AutoComplete simplifies and speeds up data entry by automatically completing codes for you rather than needing to type the entire code.

For example, if you have Customer Codes ACME and ARMY and you type A in an AutoComplete field that requires a Customer code, it will automatically add CME to the field because ACME is the first alphabetical match for the letter A. If you then type the letter R (after the A), the field will automatically append the letters MY, because now ARMY is the first (and only) code that begins with AR.

An expandable field is a memo field that can expand to a larger window when the QuickList key is pressed while in the field. You can then enter your text in a larger window and close it to continue.

A FlexiCode field is a field used to identify a particular record on a form and which can be modified while still retaining all internal references to other records linked to that code.

For example, many systems enforce that once a Customer code has been entered, it cannot change for the life of that record. FlexiCode allows you to change a Customer's code (for example, the customer may have changed the name of their company or you are restructuring your customer codes) without losing any of the references to that customer from Sales orders, Quotations or Sales Invoices etc. All records that used the previous customer code will now automatically display the new customer code on the forms instead.

A HotEdit field is a drop-down box containing a set of values that allows you to open the management form relating to those values and re-fill the list with the updated data. This functionality is generally used when adding or editing a record and finding that the data in the HotEdit field is incorrect or incomplete. In this situation, HotEdit allows you to add or modify values in the field immediately and then use the added / modified value.

A HotEdit field management form is activated by pressing the HotEdit key.

For example, if the Shipping drop-down on the Sales order form does not contain a shipping code that is appropriate for your Sales order, you can press the HotEdit key to display the Shipping codes management form and add the relevant shipping code. When you close the Shipping codes form and return to the Sales order form, the Shipping codes drop-down will automatically be refreshed and now contain the updated list of shipping codes.

The HotEdit key is the key used to activate a management from any field that supports the HotEdit feature. The actual keyboard key that is used for the HotEdit hot key is defined in the Preferences form. For more details, see HotEdit.

A mandatory field is a field on a form that must be filled in with a valid value before you can Update the form data. When adding or editing records, leaving a mandatory field empty will cause a data entry error to be shown when you attempt to update the record.

A QuickList is a pop-up search containing a list of all possible entries relating to the field from which the QuickList was activated.

The QuickList is activated by pressing the QuickList key.

For example, if you activate a QuickList from a field that requires an item code, a QuickList showing all available item codes will appear from which you can select one or more item codes.

The QuickList key is the key used to activate a QuickList from any field that supports the QuickList function. The actual keyboard key that is used for the QuickList hot key is defined in the Preferences form.

A Read-only fields indicates that the value shown in the field cannot be manually modified by the user.

A WYSIWYS (Where You See Is Where You Search) field enables the user to search for records on a WYSIWYS form using data entered directly in that field.

Not all fields support WYSIWYS searches, but those that do are coloured according to the user’s form colour settings when the form is in Search mode.

A single instance form is a form that only allows a single copy to be open at a time. Single instance forms can be either modal, meaning that while the form is open, no other form can be opened or used, or non-modal, meaning that while only one copy of the form can be opened at a time, you are still free to use other forms while that form is open.

An example of a single instance modal form is the Bank account details form, which once opened stops you from using the Accounts form until the form is closed.

An example of a single instance non modal form is the Manufacturing management console form, which will only allow one copy of itself to be open at any given time, but will not stop other forms from being opened while it is being used.

A multiple instance form is a form that can be open multiple times with different data in each "instance" of the form. An example is the Sales order form where you can have several open at any one time.

The number of instances of a multiple instance form that you can have open at any time is only limited by the resources of your PC.

An ActionForm is a form that allows you to input information and then performs an action on records in the database based on that information. An example of an ActionForm is the Generate EFT remittance file form where once the Drawing account, Date, Remittance ID and File name have been specified, an EFT data file is generated.

State-oriented data access defines a method of viewing and accessing data by enforcing certain modes within a SODA form. That is, a SODA form will always be in one of the following modes at any given time:

• Idle - This mode is for viewing only. You cannot modify any data on the form in Idle mode
• Add - This mode is used when adding new records
• Edit - This mode is used when editing existing records. Edit mode automatically locks other users from editing the same or related records
• Search - This mode is used when searching for existing records based on data you have entered into WYSIWYS fields

Changes in form state are always triggered by the user, generally by clicking a button. For example, when in Idle mode, the user must click the Add, Edit or Search buttons to change into these states.

SODA enables you to specifically define what you are doing within a form at any one time. It also allows other users to be made aware that you are editing a particular record and enables Accentis to prevent other users from modifying the same (or related) data.

You can define in User preferences what colours the form uses to display its data depending on what state the form is in. This allows you to easily recognise that you are modifying data so that you don't inadvertently make changes.

Idle mode applies to forms that support SODA (State Oriented Data Access) and is the state in which the record displayed on the form is in neither Add, Edit or Search mode. When in Idle mode, you cannot modify any the displayed record data.

To move into Idle mode, click the Update button when in Add or Edit mode, or the Fetch button when in Search mode.

Add mode applies to forms that support SODA (State Oriented Data Access) and is the state in which new records are added.

To move into Add mode click on the Add button.

Edit mode applies to forms that support SODA (State Oriented Data Access) and is the state in which the displayed data of existing records can be modified.

To move into Edit mode locate the record you wish to edit and click on the Edit button.

Search mode applies to forms that support SODA (State Oriented Data Access) and is the state in which records are being searched for.

To move into Search mode click on the Search button.

A balance sheet account is a General ledger account that constitutes part of your balance sheet. A balance sheet account will have a General ledger category of Asset, Liability or Equity.

The value of a balance sheet account represents something that your business owns or an amount that is owed to another person or business. At any one time, the difference between your assets and your liabilities (which includes equity owed to shareholders) represents the net assets of your business.

The value of a balance sheet account at the end of one financial year is carried over to be the opening balance of the same account at the start of the next financial year.

Every account is classified as either a debit account or a credit account based on the General Ledger category of the account. Whether an account is a debit account or a credit account determines how a credit or a debit transaction affects the balance of the account.

A debit account is a General ledger account that increases in value when an amount is debited to the account and decreases when an amount is credited to the account.

A credit account is a General ledger account that increases in value when an amount is credited to the account and decreases when an amount is debited to the account.

All accounts with a General ledger category of Asset, Expense, Cost of Sales or Other Expense are debit accounts.

All accounts with a General ledger category of Liability, Equity, Income or Other Income are credit accounts.

A group account is a General ledger account that has an account Type of Group. This is also known as a Parent account and groups related Child accounts.

Group accounts can have sub-accounts but cannot have any general ledger transactions performed upon them directly.

A profit and loss account is a General ledger account that constitutes part of your Profit and Loss statement. A profit and loss account will have a General ledger category of Income, Expense, Cost of Sales, Other Income or Other Expense.

The value of a profit and loss account represents an amount of income or expense that has been incurred by your business for the current financial year. At any one time, the net profit year to date is the difference between all of your Income / Other Income accounts and your Expense / Cost of Sales / Other Expense accounts.

The value of a profit and loss account is set to zero at the start of each financial year: the value from the previous year is not carried over like a Balance sheet account.

A Stock item is an Item that is stocked in one or more Warehouse and has an item type of Stock. All Stock Items record how many of them are currently on hand as well as the item transactions that have affected the current cost or quantity of that item.

The quantity of Stock items is strictly controlled: you cannot sell or use any quantity of Stock Items that you do not currently have in stock for the given warehouse.

A Non-Stock item is an Item for which no accounting of quantity or cost is performed.

You can buy, sell or use as many non-stock Items as you like and there is no quantity-on-hand stored for non-stock Items. A non-stock item has an Item type of Non-Stock.

A journal transaction is a record that contains information about a change in the value of a General ledger account resulting from a specific function. The current value of an account cannot change without having a corresponding journal transaction detailing the reason why and how the value was changed.

A list of all journal transactions in the system can be viewed using the Journal transactions facility.

A stock transaction is a record that contains information about a change in the quantity or value of a Stock item resulting from a specific function. The current quantity or cost of a Stock item cannot change without having a corresponding stock transaction detailing the reason why and how the quantity or cost was changed.

A list of all stock transactions in the system can be viewed using the View inventory transactions facility.

A transaction type indicates the type of function that was performed to yield either a Journal transaction or an Inventory transaction. Every form that performs a certain function has a specific transaction type associated with all transactions that are generated form that form. There are also other transaction types that are generated internally and that are used to differentiate between transactions.

Generally, there will be a transaction type per function that can be performed plus a few extras. Some functions generate only journal transactions, some functions generate only inventory transactions, and some functions generate both. The full list of transaction types and links to the functions which generate them is shown below. You can also view the Transaction Map for more details about each transaction type.

Transaction types used only for Journal transactions:

• Asset addition
• Asset depreciation
• Asset disposal
• Asset revaluation
• Deposit receipts
• Invoice (N) – This is the non-tax portion of a Sales invoice line
• Invoice (T) – This is the taxable portion of a Sales invoice line
• Journal entry
• Payment
• Payroll (Leave accrued)
• Payroll (Leave taken)
• Payroll (Pay)
• Receipt
• Supplier invoice – This is the non-taxable portion of a direct Supplier invoice line (not through a Receive)
• Supplier invoice (T) – This is the taxable portion of a direct Supplier invoice line (not through a Receive)
• Job flush
• Profit/Loss
• Rebate provision
• Timesheet labour

Transaction types used only for Inventory transactions

• Purchase Order
• Sales order
• Dispatch
• Dispatch (POS) – This is generate from a Point of Sale Invoice
• Dispatch return
• Work Order Commit – This transaction is generated for an item when it is flagged as required in the building of a kit.
• Work Order Create – This transaction is generated for a kit item when the Work order is started.
• Standard Cost Revaluation

Transaction types used for BOTH Journal transactions and Inventory transactions

• Kit breakdown
• Receive – This is the non-taxable portion of a Receive line
• Receive (T) – This is the taxable portion of a Receive line
• Receive return
• Repairs
• Stock Adjustment
• Stock assignment
• Stock revaluation – This is used when the stock revaluation option is chosen.
• Stock transfer
• Stocktake
• Work Order Build – This transaction is generated for an item when it is removed from stock to build a kit.
• Work Order Done – This transaction is generated for a kit item when the Work order is finished
• Hire adjustment
• Receive assignment
• Work Order job costs
• Work Order WC costs
• Work Order Labour
• Work Order overheads

A user has Administrator permissions for a given function (e.g. Sales order, Dispatch, etc) if the permissions that are configured for that user (or the user’s group) has the Administer property set for either the function in question or the function’s group.

A user with Administrator permissions for a function may be allowed to perform special actions that other users cannot. The Help for each form details special actions allowed by Administrators for that function.

See Permissions for details about how to set a user up to become an Administrator of a function or a group of functions.

The Business Management Software Identifier (BMS ID), is a unique number to distinguish employers within a ABN/Branch.

An employer can report separately based on how the employee records are managed, this will result in corresponding EOFY summaries for each instance reported.

The business rules for reporting employee information are:

1. Where an employer has branched for PAYG withholding purposes, the employer must report separate payroll events for each PAYG withholding branch, established with the ATO.
2. An employer may choose to report separately, for each instance of a payroll solution by allocating a unique BMS ID. This could be where an employer runs more than one payroll solution and separately identifies the same employee, in each solution as a unique payroll record.
3. For an employer who pays their PAYG withholding with their BAS, the ATO will aggregate W1 and W2 across all BMS IDs for pre-filling of the employers BAS.
4. Where an employee is recorded more than once under the same ABN/Branch/BMS ID, then each instance of the employee must be reported, using a unique Payee Payroll ID. These separate Payee payroll IDs will be treated as a separate instance for Single Touch Payroll reporting and must have, separate YTD amounts for Payee Payroll ID. For example where an employee works within an organisation under two separate roles/awards, the employee can be reported under multiple Payee payroll IDs within a single payroll event.

More information on the BMS ID's role and how it relates to being used in Single Touch Payroll (STP) and other payroll instances can be found on our website and the ATO website.

The credit-limit of a Customer (Debtor) is the amount of unpaid Sales invoice amounts that are allowed to be outstanding for that Debtor at any given time. The credit limit for a Debtor is defined in the Customer record for that Debtor.

Users are prevented from Dispatching items for a Customer if the invoiced value of those items (combined with any other unpaid Sales Invoices) would take that Customer over their credit limit. A user with Administrator permissions for Dispatches can override this restriction.

The current average cost applies only to Stock Items and is the averaged cost price that was paid for each item for a specific warehouse.

The current average cost of an item multiplied by the current quantity in stock for that item produces the total value of the stock for that item.

The Extended financial year represents the range of dates from June 1 of the current financial year to September 30 of the next financial year.

Because Accentis Enterprise allows up to 15 financial year monthly periods to be used (12 months for a normal year plus an extra 3 months before End of year rollover), it is possible to specify a date which extends into the next financial year by an extra 3 months.

This refers to STP finalisation and can be found on the STP Finalisation and Lodgment form.

The Finalisation date column will always display a date. New employees or employees that have not been finalised with STP in a previous financial year will display the date of 30/12/99.

Employees that have been finalised on a previous financial year will display that most recent date. The date for employees that you have selected to finalise and lodge will change to the most recent financial year once completed. Once you have lodged your STP finalisation, the date of finalisation will not change until a confirmation is received from the ATO. Submitting to the Transport Provider (Ozedi, MessageXchange, etc) will not change the date as they are only sending/receiving data to and from the ATO.

Each distinct action that can be performed within Accentis is given its own function name, for example Sales invoice, Purchase Order or Pay run. By having different functions, you are able to have more control over your data and the way it is accessed. For example, you can restrict the activity of users by assigning permissions to functions for a given user.

Function groups are groups of related functions. For example, all functions relating to customers, invoices and receipts are classified in the Accounts receivable function group. The complete list of function groups and the functions that belong to them is displayed in a convenient tree-format in the Permissions form.

Internal pay items are Pay items that have been pre-defined by Accentis Enterprise and cannot be modified by users. These pay items exist so that they are always available for use when amounts are automatically calculated by Accentis, such as Eligible Termination Payments, Leave Loading and Income Tax.

You cannot remove internal pay items and they appear in the pay item list with a red tick next to them.

The Journal lock date is a date that is entered into the General ledger Preferences that prevents any General ledger activity on or prior to the specified date. It is used to stop inadvertent updating of account information for financial periods that have been finalised in your reports.

If you do not use the Journal lock date then any user will be able to create, delete or modify General ledger transactions that can affect the balance of accounts for date periods for which you have already generated and finalised financial statements.

A user is able to have their own Journal lock date set too. If this is the case, it can affect how the Journal lock date that is set globally works. In the System preferences > General ledger setting, an icon with an exclamation mark will display to show this is the case.

Last edit 30/10/20

Pending delete represents a state to which certain records can be set, effectively ‘deleting’ them from the system. This state cannot be set directly by the user. The only way in which it can be applied to a record is by attempting to delete the record and having the delete not succeed. This will occur if the record that is being deleted is still required by another record in the system.

While records set as pending delete still remain in the system and are viewable via their respective forms, they are no longer usable throughout the rest of the system. These records can only be edited by a user with administrator permissions, and doing so will cause the pending delete status to be removed from the record.

Deleting of records set to pending delete is not achievable through their respective forms, and can only be accomplished by using the System purge facility located on the System > Database administration menu.

Here is an example of How to un-delete an item code.

When a currency value is rounded to two decimal places it is rounded UP if the cent fractional value is over or equal to 0.5 cents, or rounded DOWN otherwise.

For example, $21.235 is rounded to $21.24, whereas $21.231 becomes $21.23.

When a Customer (Debtor) is on stop-credit, their line of credit has been suspended for some reason. A Debtor’s credit facility can be suspended by using the Customer form and clicking On stop credit because .

A Debtor who is on stop-credit cannot have any more items Dispatched for any of their Sales Orders unless this restriction is overridden at the time of Dispatch by a user with Administrator permissions for Dispatches.

Taxable income is the total amount of income earned by an employee upon which tax is calculated. Defined in terms of pay item types, this is equal to Income + Special income + Leave loading + Allowances before tax - Deductions before tax. The actual amount of tax calculated is not always based on a single calculation upon the taxable income of an employee. For example, the tax calculations for leave loading and eligible termination payments are not necessarily related to the taxable income of the recipient.

An employee's taxable income is not necessarily the same as their Gross income. Only certain amounts from an employee's gross income is considered to be taxable income.

Where data might be displayed from your database that is unique to your business, within the guide we may reference it as xxxx, 'xxxx' or "xxxx" in upper or lower case as required.

XXXX will represent any amount of data that may be equal to a few words or complete sentences. It is simply reference text that we use to help you ascertain the correct information.

This is the Year to Date, and is often used in terms of Pay items and your Pay run.

A YTD figure represents the total value of the pay item that has accrued for the current financial year. This value is the total of the pay item amounts for all pay runs in the current financial year plus the Opening value.