A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Account – A 6 digit mandatory chartfield that tracks asset, liability, revenue, and expense classifications.
Accounting Date - The accounting date indicates when a transaction is recognized, as opposed to the date the transaction actually occurred. The accounting date and transaction date can be the same, but they don’t have to be.
Accounts Payable – The VISION module used to pay others for goods and services received and assets acquired by the State.
Accounts Receivable - The VISION module used to record amounts due and/or collected from others for goods furnished and services rendered.
Accrual - An accounting concept that recognizes and records revenue or expenses when certain criteria are met as opposed to when cash is collected or paid.
Actuals Ledger - Represents the place in VISION where all non-budget financial transactions are posted. This is the data used for external financial reporting.
Adjustment Voucher – A voucher to recognize and account for a credit received on an invoice.
Affiliate – Used in a TSF journal entry - business unit of department that you are receiving money from or sending money to.
Allocation - The movement of actual dollars, based on certain rules, performed with a journal (either automated or manual).
Approval Page - The tab on a journal that displays whether that journal has been approved, sent back (also known as “recycled”), or denied.
Approvals in Process - Status that indicates an expense transaction is in the approvals process.
Asset – The entries on a balance sheet that show all tangible and intangible property and claims such as cash, accounts receivable, and inventories.
Asset Related Voucher – A regular voucher with the addition of entering asset information which is then passed directly to the asset management module.
B
Batch Process – A means of processing a group of transactions instead of processing each transaction individually.
BDA – Blanket Delegation of Authority
Blanket Delegation of Authority - Authority granted by State wide Purchasing to agencies and departments to directly purchase specific types and classes of items with limited or variable availability considerations.
Budget Check - A VISION process that verifies that funding is available to allow a given transaction to be completed (e.g., budget transfer, encumbrance, pre-encumbrance, expense, etc.). Additionally, budget check updates the Commitment Control ledger and updates the Budget Check status on a transaction.
Budget Control – A process in Commitment Control by which transactions are approved and posted only if sufficient funding is available.
Budget Journal - A commitment control journal used to establish a budget for a particular chartstring.
Budget Period - The interval of time into which a year is divided for budgetary and reporting purposes.
Budget Status – Field on a budget journal that indicated its current status such as P for posted, E for Error, N for not posted.
Budget Transfer - The process used to move budget dollars between chartstrings.
Bulletin – A policy issued by the Agency of Administration.
Business Unit - In the General Ledger, an entity with its own set of balanced books, which maintains its own set of transactions. (In other modules, the business unit provides a way of distinguishing entities which may have unique operating rules.)
C
Cache – A block of memory for temporary storage of data likely to be used again. Clearing your web browser cache may resolve some errors or unexpected results.
Chart of Accounts - Refers to the area of VISION concerned with the creation and maintenance of the accounting structure. The chart of accounts serves as the basis for recording the day-to-day financial operations. The VISION Chart of Accounts structure uses “chartfields” to record the financial effect of transactions. The use of chartfields separates the unique aspects of each transaction into relational segments for summarization and reporting.
Chartfield - An individual field representing a portion of the accounting structure. Each chartfield captures a different element of information regarding the transaction. Mandatory chartfields are business unit, account, fund, and dept ID.
Chartstring - A set of chartfields “strung” together to represent the proper categorization of a financial transaction.
Class – An optional chartfield.
Combination Editing - Certain rules that govern which chartfield combinations are valid and which combinations are not.
Commitment Control - The part of VISION that controls various financial activities based on available budget.
Control - The act of placing restrictions on how certain monies are spent. Control is typically used in reference to sponsored projects.
Conversations – Comments recorded in the Vendors section of VISION.
Crystal Reports – Software that is used to develop reports that is packaged with VISION.
Custom Report - Reports within VISION that were developed for use by the State of Vermont. These reports can be changed and enhanced with additional programming effort.
D
DBA – Doing Business As or Database Administrator
Delivered Report - Standard reports that were received as part of the VISION package.
Dept ID (Department ID) – A mandatory 10-digit chartfield that tracks organizational units within a business unit. The first 4 digits are the Business Unit without the leading digit.
Drill Down - The ability in VISION to click on hyperlinks in order to move from a transaction back to its source.
E
Effective Date – A method of dating information in VISION that determines the point in time that something is valid or active.
Encumber – To hold funds for a specific purpose.
Encumbrance - A planned expense that has been set aside in your budget (includes salary, purchase orders, etc.).
F
Favorites - A user-defined list of frequently-visited VISION pages or frequently-used queries.
FootPrints - A web-based tool used to track requests for assistance in the use of VISION.
Fund – A mandatory 5-digit chartfield that tracks a particular funding source (e.g., General Fund, Transportation Fund, etc.).
G
General Ledger (Actuals Ledger) – The official record in VISION of all financial transactions. Also refers to the VISION module containing functionality such as journal entries and actuals ledger-based reports and inquiries.
H
HCM - Human Capital Management. This is Oracle/PeopleSoft's human resources application.
I
Inactive – Status of an item, vendor, etc. indicating that the value is not available for use in a current or future transaction.
In Process - Refers to the status of a report instance in the process monitor. It means that the report has been successfully started, but is not yet complete. (It may also refer to the status of an expense report requiring approval by multiple departments—where one or more departments have approved the report and one or more have not yet approved it.
Inquiry - A tool for pulling together information in VISION.
Inter-Unit Transfer - A transaction, using journal source code TSF, where one business unit furnishes funds to another business unit.
Intra-Unit Transfer - A transaction, using journal source code ONL, within a business unit for expenditure or revenue transfers or corrections between chartfields.
Interface – A process that moves data from one system to another.
Invoice – A document created by a vendor to initiate payment.
Invoice Date – The date that the invoice was created by the vendor.
Invoice Number – In most cases, the number that a vendor uses to identify a specific purchase.
J
Journal Entry - The official record of financial transactions that are recorded in VISION, journals are used to move dollars between chartstrings.
Journal Lines – Detailed information within a journal including chartstrings, amounts, and processing options
Journal Post Date - The date that a financial transaction is accounted for in the general ledger.
Journal Status – The field that reflects the current status of a journal entry such as E for error, V for valid, and P for posted.
Journal Voucher – A zero-balance voucher that is used to correct accounting entries on a previously entered voucher (only used within a Business Unit).
K
KK - Abbreviation for Commitment Control, the part of VISION Financials that deals with budgets and controlling spending authority.
L
Ledger - Represents a repository for a set of data for each business unit or entity. Updated by budget checking (in the case of commitment control ledgers), or by journal entries.
Liability – A financial obligation entered in the balance sheet.
Liquidate - The process of releasing encumbered funds on a purchase order for which a final invoice has been received and there is a remaining amount on the purchase order. Finalizing the purchase order liquidates the funds.
M
Matching - The process of applying system match control rules against a voucher and purchase order to ensure that an invoice being entered reflects what was ordered before it is approved for payment.
Modules - Groupings of software programs that collectively support a specific business function. Currently, the VISION modules are: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Accounts Receivable, Asset Management, Billing and Inventory.
N
nVision – VISION’s reporting tool that integrates the database information and Microsoft Excel.
O
One Time Supplier – Suppliers who are set up by the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Treasurer’s Office and are paid only once. These suppliers are inactive.
ONL –Intra-department (within a single department) transfer. See TSF.
P
Pay Cycle – In the accounts payable module, a set of rules that define the criteria by which scheduled payments are created.
Payment – The check, wire or electronic transfer of State funds to an entity. Payments are generally made by the Treasurer's Office based on a warrant that includes vouchers authorized for payment.
Pay (Payment) Terms – The attribute that determines due dates or discount dates and amount. Each vendor has default payment terms. The payment date is a function of the invoice date.
Pending - In process, but not yet complete.
Portal - The VISION portal is the sign-in page.
PO Unit – the business unit used to create a purchase order.
Pre-Encumbrance - Anticipated expenses applied against a budget, generated by a requisition.
Procedure – An action that implements or a document that describes a policy or process.
Process Monitor - A VISION tool used for viewing the status of a report. (It serves as the gateway for picking up reports which you have requested from the system.)
Profiles and Preferences - The area of VISION where changes are made to adjust how certain information appears on the user’s screen.
Project – An optional chartfield that tracks business unit defined activities
Program – An optional chartfield that tracks business unit defined activities
Purchase Orders – The document written for an order to a vendor. The purchase order details and defines the terms and conditions of the purchase.
Purchase Order Number – A unique identifier consisting of numbers and/or letters that is associated with a specific purchase order.
Purchase Order Type – A field on the PO Header page that identifies the reason why the PO is being created such as Construction, Grant, Product, or Service.
Purchase Order Voucher – A voucher used to pay an invoice associated with a purchase order where the purchase order information is copied into the voucher.
PY – A code used to identify transactions in a previous year
Q
Query – An application within VISION used to retrieve data based on criteria which you specify. Queries produce results that can be downloaded into Excel.
R
Recognized Revenue - Income that has been earned within the current accounting period (not deferred revenue).
Recycle - For journals, this is a status that prevents posting. There may be an error or an approver may need more information.
Regular Voucher – A voucher used to pay an invoice that is not associated with a contract or requisition.
Remit To - The address that a check is mailed to.
Report - Reports are used to bring back data based on a set of criteria you specify. Reports are “jobs” that need to be processed by the system. In VISION Financials, reports use a Run Control ID and present information in .pdf file format.
Requisition - Requisitions are a request for a purchase order. Requisitions create pre-encumbrances of funds.
Role - Refers to VISION security. The role identifies the particular VISION functionality that an individual is able to access.
Run Control ID - A Run Control ID saves a set of criteria used to create a report. The criteria can be changed, but the Run Control ID itself cannot—and run control IDs cannot be deleted.
S
Search Criteria - The particular set of variables a user enters on a search screen in order to find certain specific data within the system.
Set ID – Most data in control tables is stored by a Set ID.
Short Supplier Name – A ten-character identifier assigned to a supplier for look up/search
SME – Subject Matter Expert
SpeedChart - A user-defined chartfield combination used for creating vouchers.
SpeedType - A user-defined chartfield combination used for creating journal entries.
Split Funding – The method used to allocate or divide expenses among one or more accounting chartfields.
SQR – Structured Query Reporting. This is a programming language frequently used to run processes and reports.
Supplier - An individual or company that provides good or services. Known as a Vendor in VISION 8.8.
Supplier ID - The number assigned by VISION to uniquely identify a supplier.
T
Time and Labor - The name for the VISION component that controls the timesheet and manager search/approval functions.
TIN – Taxpayer Identification Number
Tree - The hierarchical structure in VISION that shows the relationship between all accounting units.
Tree Viewer - Functionality within VISION Financials that allows one to see the hierarchical relationship of chartfield values.
TSF – Inter-department (between department) transfer. See ONL.
U
UOM – Unit of Measure
V
Voucher - The VISION accounting document that serves as the basis for cutting checks or generating payments and recording financial transactions to pay a vendor.
Voucher Style – The type of voucher, Regular, Purchase Order, and Journal are the most commonly used.
W
Warrant - A document produced from a VISION Pay Cycle which, when approved by Finance & Management, authorizes the Treasurer's Office to generate a payment.
Wildcard - This is a character that is used to search for items for which you only have partial information. The percent sign (%) is the wildcard used in VISION.
WorkCenter - A page in VISION that brings together commonly used functionality in a module.
Worklist - The place in VISION Financials where a manager will find financial transactions needing approval.