Glossary of ServiceTrade Accounting Connector Terms

Below is a list of terms used by ServiceTrade’s Accounting Connector, some are interchangeable with words used in ServiceTrade and some are Accounting specific. This will help our support team be able to better understand and assist you if an issue were to occur while using the ServiceTrade Accounting Connector.

Accounts receivable (AR)

The amount of money owed by customers or clients to a business after goods or services have been delivered and/or used.

Accounting (ACCG)

 A systematic way of recording and reporting financial transactions for a business or organization.

Accounts payable (AP)

The amount of money a company owes creditors (suppliers, etc.) in return for goods and/or services they have delivered.

Balance sheet (BS) definition

A financial report that summarizes a company's assets (what it owns), liabilities (what it owes) and owner or shareholder equity, at a given time.

Cash flow (CF)

The revenue or expense expected to be generated through business activities (sales, manufacturing, etc.) over a period of time.

Cost of goods sold (COGS) definition: 

The direct expenses related to producing the goods sold by a business. The formula for calculating this will depend on what is being produced, but as an example this may include the cost of the raw materials (parts) and the amount of employee labor used in production.

Credit (CR)

An accounting entry that may either decrease assets or increase liabilities and equity on the company's balance sheet, depending on the transaction. When using the double-entry accounting method there will be two recorded entries for every transaction: A credit and a debit.

Days Outstanding (DSO)

The accounts receivable collection period of sales outstanding or the days sales in accounts receivable.To illustrate the accounts receivable collection period, let's assume a corporation had net credit sales of $360,000 during the past year and its accounts receivable balance was on average $40,000. The average credit sales per day were approximately $1,000 per day ($360,000 of annual credit sales divided by 360 or 365 days per year). The average accounts receivable balance of $40,000 divided by $1,000 of credit sales per day equals 40 days.

Debit (DR)

An accounting entry where there is either an increase in assets or a decrease in liabilities on a company's balance sheet.

Expenses (fixed, variable, accrued, operation)

Expenses (FE, VE, AE, OE) definition: The fixed, variable, accrued or day-to-day costs that a business may incur through its operations.

• Fixed expenses (FE): payments like rent that will happen in a regularly scheduled cadence.
• Variable expenses (VE): expenses, like labor costs, that may change in a given time period.
• Accrued expense (AE):an incurred expense that hasn’t been paid yet.
• Operation expenses (OE): business expenditures not directly associated with the production of goods or services—for example, advertising costs, property taxes or insurance expenditures.

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

A set of rules and guidelines developed by the accounting industry for companies to follow when reporting financial data. Following these rules is especially critical for all publicly traded companies.

General ledger (GL)

A complete record of the financial transactions over the life of a company.

Payroll (PR) 

A company's recording of its employees' compensation including: gross wages, salaries, bonuses, commissions, and so on that have been earned by its employees withholding of payroll taxes such as federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, state income taxes (if  applicable) withholding for the employees' portion of health insurance premiums, employees' contributions to savings plans, garnishments of salaries and wages, employees' contributions to United Way, etc. employer's portion/expense for Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, state and federal unemployment taxes employer's portion/expense of fringe benefits such as health and dental insurance, paid holidays, vacations and sick days, pension and savings plan contributions, worker compensation insurance, etc.

Profit and loss statement (P&L)

A financial statement that is used to summarize a company’s performance and financial position by reviewing revenues, costs and expenses during a specific period of time, such as quarterly or annually.

Purchase order (PO): 

Is also referred to as a "p.o." A multi-copy form prepared by the company that is ordering items, services, parts, and labor, purchased from a supplier. The form will specify the items being ordered, the quantity, price, and terms.that will be used on a ServiceTrade job or work order

Revenue:

Revenue is the amount a company receives from selling goods and/or providing services to its customers and clients. A company's revenue, which is reported on the first line of its income statement, is often described as sales or service revenues. Hence, revenue is the amount earned from customers and clients before subtracting the company's expenses.

ServiceTrade Job: 

Verbiage for service industry “work order”.

Warehouse: 

The code associated with a specific warehouse, facility or service vehicle .

AR Reverse File 

Imports reversal for invoices that are not able to be posted. This file imports the original AR invoice as negative transactions, zeroing out invoice import.

ST-Update file 

This file updates exported AR,PO, DC, and PR data in ServiceTrade. This will ensure that none of the items imported by those connections  will ever get picked up by those same connections again, even if they are used with the same parameters. This is referred to as applying an “Accounting Stamp”.  

A Repository of Common Terms