Statewide Accounting glossary

This is a list of terms used within the Washington Administrative and Accounting Manual (WAAM) and within Workday. To find a term, enter it in in the search box, and select 'Apply'.

Term	Category	Definition
Account		A fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of general ledger codes in which cash and other financial resources, together with all related liabilities and residual equities or balances, and changes therein, are recorded and segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations. For reporting purposes, the state identifies major accounts, and administratively combines all remaining accounts into roll-up funds. Most accounts are set up in state law to isolate specific activities.
Account code		The three-character alpha/numeric code assigned by OFM to identify each account. (See the Fund Reference Manual.)
Account Summary (Ledger Account Summary)	Financial	A grouping of ledger accounts. For example, you can group all assets that are considered current assets to easily reference them. Individual accounts can appear in multiple account summaries.
Account Translation Rule Set	Financial	A set of rules that dictate how monetary amounts in individual accounts are translated into a different currency. Translation rule sets are defined at an account-set level and apply to each account in that account set.
Accounting Financial Reporting System (AFRS)		The state's current general ledger accounting system, which will be replaced by the new, cloud-based Workday ERP system.
Accrual basis		The basis of accounting whereby revenues are recognized when they are earned and measurable regardless of when collected, and expenses are recorded on a matching basis when incurred. All proprietary and fiduciary funds use the accrual basis of accounting.
Accrued expenditures		Expenditures that meet the appropriate recognition criteria of the account type involved but have not been paid. Accrued expenditures are expected to be paid in a subsequent accounting period.
Accrued liabilities		Liabilities reflecting the obligation to pay for goods or services that have been incurred or received but not paid for by the end of the accounting period. Accrued liabilities related to refunds of revenue are offset to the revenue originally recorded.
Accrued revenues		Revenues that meet the appropriate recognition criteria of the fund type involved, but are not realized until a subsequent accounting period. Also refers to Accrual Basis and Modified Accrual Basis.
Acquisition		See: Purchase
Acquisition (capital budget)		This type of project includes the acquisition of land, structures, and buildings. These are fixed assets that have no relationship to the addition or improvement to, or the repair or replacement of, existing fixed assets. Examples of an acquisition are purchase of a tract of land or purchase of a building.
Activity		An activity is something an organization does to accomplish its goals and objectives. An activity consumes resources and produces a product, service or result. One way to define activities is to consider how agency employees describe their jobs. What do you do? For whom? Why is it valuable? For the Activity Inventory, an agency's work should be broken down into its discrete functions or services.
Activity (capital budget)		A written or graphic instrument issued by the architect before execution of the construction contract that modifies or interprets the bidding documents by additions, deletions, clarifications, or corrections.
Advanced Report	Cross Application	You can create 3 types of custom reports: simple, advanced, and matrix. An advanced report provides all the features of a simple report, plus more advanced ones such as accessing related business objects and producing multiple levels of headings and subtotals. Advanced reports also enable the use of sub-filters, run time prompts, charts, worklets, and report sharing, and provide the ability to expose the report as a web service.
Agency		Any state office or activity of the executive and judicial branches of state government, including state agencies, departments, offices, divisions, boards, commissions, institutions of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016, and correctional and other types of institutions.
Agency Consultants (AC)		The dynamic change readiness team, tasked with empowering agencies to navigate the transformation. They keep agencies informed, build their understanding, coach to develop their change competence, plan for the future with change management toolkits, and gather invaluable feedback.
Allocation		Spending authority assigned to an agency from a lump-sum appropriation that is designated for expenditure by specific governmental units and/or for specific purposes, activities, or objects. For example, the Legislature may provide a lump-sum appropriation to OFM for allocation to agencies on an as-needed basis, or according to specified criteria.
Allotment		An agency's plan of estimated expenditures, revenues, cash disbursements, and cash receipts for each month of the biennium.
Alternate financing		Proposals that cover a wide range of financial contracts that call for the development or use of space by state agencies through a contractual arrangement with a developer or financing entity. The sale of debt obligations, Certificates of Participation (COPs) through the State Treasurer may be involved, or financing may be offered by a private developer. Title to the property involved may transfer to the state either upon exercise of an option or at the termination of the contract.
Alternative analysis		Involves identifying different ways of meeting the functional requirements of the program including various construction solutions to a problem or whether to lease, buy, build, or use some other financing techniques. This requires using approaches such as costbenefit or life-cycle costing analysis to determine comparable costs of alternatives.
Alternative public works		Refers to public works processes authorized under RCW 39.10 and includes General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM) and Design-Build. To use these procedures, the project must meet the criteria (including project size) stipulated in RCW 39.10.
Amendments		A formal or official change made to a contract that adds, removes, or updates parts of the agreement such as performance period, pricing, scope adjustments, adds or removes products or services.
Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)		The ACFR differs from a standard financial report by offering a more comprehensive, transparent, and contextually rich financial narrative that goes beyond basic financial reporting requirements.
Apparent Successful Bidder (ASB)		The lowest responsive and responsible Bidder as determined by the bid evaluation process and prior to Bidder negotiations.
Application Programming Interface		A set of defined rules that enable different applications to communicate with each other. It acts as an intermediary of the layer that processes data transfers between systems.
Appropriation		A legal authorization to make expenditures and incur obligations for specific purposes from a specific account over a specific time period. Appropriations typically limit expenditures to a specific amount and purpose within a fiscal year or biennial timeframe. Only the Legislature can make appropriations in Washington State.
Assignable Roles	Cross Application	You can assign positions to organization roles. Depending on your staffing model, a position may or may not necessarily have a worker specified.
Assignee		Allows for identifying and reporting on financial activity and balances for which the individual is responsible. Defaults from another element such as the Grant (referred to below).
Automated Clearing House (ACH)		Electronic payments commonly referred to as direct deposit and automatic debit. ACH is a low cost, safe and green payment method utilized by most state agencies to take advantage of economies of scale by processing transactions in batches rather than sending each payment separately.
Award		This is a phase within the contract life cycle. Activities include; the Competitive Solicitation procurement process; negotiating (where permissible) with successful bidders; and contract execution.

Term

Category

Definition

Account

A fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of general ledger codes in which cash and other financial resources, together with all related liabilities and residual equities or balances, and changes therein, are recorded and segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations. For reporting purposes, the state identifies major accounts, and administratively combines all remaining accounts into roll-up funds. Most accounts are set up in state law to isolate specific activities.

Account code

The three-character alpha/numeric code assigned by OFM to identify each account. (See the Fund Reference Manual.)

Account Summary (Ledger Account Summary)

Financial

A grouping of ledger accounts. For example, you can group all assets that are considered current assets to easily reference them. Individual accounts can appear in multiple account summaries.

Account Translation Rule Set

Financial

A set of rules that dictate how monetary amounts in individual accounts are translated into a different currency. Translation rule sets are defined at an account-set level and apply to each account in that account set.

Accounting Financial Reporting System (AFRS)

The state's current general ledger accounting system, which will be replaced by the new, cloud-based Workday ERP system.

Accrual basis

The basis of accounting whereby revenues are recognized when they are earned and measurable regardless of when collected, and expenses are recorded on a matching basis when incurred. All proprietary and fiduciary funds use the accrual basis of accounting.

Accrued expenditures

Expenditures that meet the appropriate recognition criteria of the account type involved but have not been paid. Accrued expenditures are expected to be paid in a subsequent accounting period.

Accrued liabilities

Liabilities reflecting the obligation to pay for goods or services that have been incurred or received but not paid for by the end of the accounting period. Accrued liabilities related to refunds of revenue are offset to the revenue originally recorded.

Accrued revenues

Revenues that meet the appropriate recognition criteria of the fund type involved, but are not realized until a subsequent accounting period. Also refers to Accrual Basis and Modified Accrual Basis.

Acquisition

See: Purchase

Acquisition (capital budget)

This type of project includes the acquisition of land, structures, and buildings. These are fixed assets that have no relationship to the addition or improvement to, or the repair or replacement of, existing fixed assets. Examples of an acquisition are purchase of a tract of land or purchase of a building.

Activity

An activity is something an organization does to accomplish its goals and objectives. An activity consumes resources and produces a product, service or result. One way to define activities is to consider how agency employees describe their jobs. What do you do? For whom? Why is it valuable? For the Activity Inventory, an agency's work should be broken down into its discrete functions or services.

Activity (capital budget)

A written or graphic instrument issued by the architect before execution of the construction contract that modifies or interprets the bidding documents by additions, deletions, clarifications, or corrections.

Advanced Report

Cross Application

You can create 3 types of custom reports: simple, advanced, and matrix. An advanced report provides all the features of a simple report, plus more advanced ones such as accessing related business objects and producing multiple levels of headings and subtotals. Advanced reports also enable the use of sub-filters, run time prompts, charts, worklets, and report sharing, and provide the ability to expose the report as a web service.

Agency

Any state office or activity of the executive and judicial branches of state government, including state agencies, departments, offices, divisions, boards, commissions, institutions of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016, and correctional and other types of institutions.

Agency Consultants (AC)

The dynamic change readiness team, tasked with empowering agencies to navigate the transformation. They keep agencies informed, build their understanding, coach to develop their change competence, plan for the future with change management toolkits, and gather invaluable feedback.

Allocation

Spending authority assigned to an agency from a lump-sum appropriation that is designated for expenditure by specific governmental units and/or for specific purposes, activities, or objects. For example, the Legislature may provide a lump-sum appropriation to OFM for allocation to agencies on an as-needed basis, or according to specified criteria.

Allotment

An agency's plan of estimated expenditures, revenues, cash disbursements, and cash receipts for each month of the biennium.

Alternate financing

Proposals that cover a wide range of financial contracts that call for the development or use of space by state agencies through a contractual arrangement with a developer or financing entity. The sale of debt obligations, Certificates of Participation (COPs) through the State Treasurer may be involved, or financing may be offered by a private developer. Title to the property involved may transfer to the state either upon exercise of an option or at the termination of the contract.

Alternative analysis

Involves identifying different ways of meeting the functional requirements of the program including various construction solutions to a problem or whether to lease, buy, build, or use some other financing techniques. This requires using approaches such as costbenefit or life-cycle costing analysis to determine comparable costs of alternatives.

Alternative public works

Refers to public works processes authorized under RCW 39.10 and includes General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM) and Design-Build. To use these procedures, the project must meet the criteria (including project size) stipulated in RCW 39.10.

Amendments

A formal or official change made to a contract that adds, removes, or updates parts of the agreement such as performance period, pricing, scope adjustments, adds or removes products or services.

Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)

The ACFR differs from a standard financial report by offering a more comprehensive, transparent, and contextually rich financial narrative that goes beyond basic financial reporting requirements.

Apparent Successful Bidder (ASB)

The lowest responsive and responsible Bidder as determined by the bid evaluation process and prior to Bidder negotiations.

Application Programming Interface

A set of defined rules that enable different applications to communicate with each other. It acts as an intermediary of the layer that processes data transfers between systems.

Appropriation

A legal authorization to make expenditures and incur obligations for specific purposes from a specific account over a specific time period. Appropriations typically limit expenditures to a specific amount and purpose within a fiscal year or biennial timeframe. Only the Legislature can make appropriations in Washington State.

Assignable Roles

Cross Application

You can assign positions to organization roles. Depending on your staffing model, a position may or may not necessarily have a worker specified.

Assignee

Allows for identifying and reporting on financial activity and balances for which the individual is responsible. Defaults from another element such as the Grant (referred to below).

Automated Clearing House (ACH)

Electronic payments commonly referred to as direct deposit and automatic debit. ACH is a low cost, safe and green payment method utilized by most state agencies to take advantage of economies of scale by processing transactions in batches rather than sending each payment separately.

Award

This is a phase within the contract life cycle. Activities include; the Competitive Solicitation procurement process; negotiating (where permissible) with successful bidders; and contract execution.

Accounting

Statewide Accounting glossary

Pages

About us

For the public

For state agencies

Office of Financial Management

Accounting

You are here

Statewide Accounting glossary

Pages

About us

For the public

For state agencies