Words used in Langbyrde

Plain meanings for the bookkeeping and tax words you meet in the app. They say what a word means inside Langbyrde, not what you should do about it: Langbyrde does not give tax, accounting or legal advice. Where a word names a figure the app works out, the disclaimers page says where that figure comes from.

Accounts and statements

Account. A bank account, credit card, broker account, wallet or cash box the company uses. Every statement you import belongs to one. See Accounts.

Statement line, or bank line. One row of a bank or card statement: a date, a description and an amount. Imported lines wait to be matched to the record they belong to.

Import batch. One statement file brought into the app. It is checked, then shown to you for review before any of its lines are kept. See Importing a statement.

Reconcile. To pair each statement line with the record it belongs to (an expense, an invoice payment, a payroll run or a transfer) so the books and the bank agree. See Reconciling.

Sign-off. The last step of reconciling one statement: you confirm the statement's closing balance agrees with the books for that account and month.

Transfer. Money moving between two of the company's own accounts, such as chequing to savings. It is neither income nor an expense. See Transfers.

Vendor. Anyone the company pays. A vendor can remember a default category, tax code and payment source, so a new expense for it starts filled in. See Vendors.

Alias. Another spelling of a vendor's name, such as the way a bank prints it, so the same payee is recognised every time.

Sales tax

HST (Harmonized Sales Tax). The sales tax charged in Ontario and some other provinces, combining the federal GST and the provincial part into one tax.

GST (Goods and Services Tax). The federal sales tax charged in provinces without HST.

Kind of supply. What an invoice line sells, such as services or goods. The company's tax rules use it, with the client's location, to decide which sales tax applies. Langbyrde remembers the last one you used for each client.

ITC (input tax credit). The part of the sales tax the company paid on its own purchases that can be claimed back against the sales tax it collected. Langbyrde shows an ITC share on each expense, worked out from its category; see What the disclaimers mean.

Net HST. Sales tax collected minus input tax credits, for one sales-tax period. The dashboard shows it as an estimate; see What the disclaimers mean.

The company and its year

Company file. One company's books, kept as one file on this computer. Langbyrde has no server copy.

Company Folder. The folder you chose for the company's documents (receipts, statements, invoice PDFs). It can be a local folder or one that OneDrive or iCloud keeps in sync. Langbyrde keeps its own snapshots and exports in a _langbyrde folder inside it.

Fiscal year. The company's own twelve-month accounting year. It ends on the fiscal year end you chose when you set the company up.

Fiscal period. A slice of the fiscal year, usually a month. Periods are what you close.

Closed period. A period you locked. Nothing dated inside it can change except notes, links, comments and attached documents.

Archive. A closed fiscal year moved out of the way of everyday screens, without deleting anything. See Archive.

Jurisdiction. The place whose tax rules the company follows. Ontario is covered end to end today. The Canadian rules also hold every other province's and territory's sales-tax rates except Quebec's, so an Ontario company can invoice a client elsewhere in Canada outside Quebec.

Jurisdiction pack, or rule pack. The tax rates, filing dates, account codes and disclaimer wording for one jurisdiction, shipped with the app. Every computed tax figure comes from it.

Payroll and corporate

CRA (Canada Revenue Agency). The federal tax authority. Many filing due dates in the app are CRA dates, worked out from the rule pack; see What the disclaimers mean.

Remittance. A payment sent to a tax authority, such as payroll source deductions or a corporate tax instalment. The Filings and remittances screen lists each one with its due date and the amount the books show for it.

Source deductions. Income tax, CPP and EI held back from an employee's pay and remitted to the CRA.

Filing. A return the company sends to a tax authority, such as an HST return or the corporate income tax return (T2). Langbyrde tracks the due date and whether you marked it filed. It never files anything for you.

T2. The corporate income tax return a Canadian corporation files each year.

Shareholder loan. Money moving between the company and its owner outside of pay or dividends. The app keeps a running balance; see What the disclaimers mean.

Payroll run. One pay date's pay for every employee, with each person's deductions, recorded from your payroll provider's figures.

Invoices and money owed

Draft invoice. An invoice you are still building. It has no number yet and can change freely.

Issue. To finalise an invoice. It gets its permanent number and what it bills is fixed.

Credit note. A document that reduces or cancels an issued invoice. Issued invoices are corrected with a credit note, never edited.

AR (accounts receivable). What clients still owe the company on issued invoices.

AR aging. The money clients owe, grouped by how long it has been due. See AR aging.

Overdue. An invoice whose due date has passed with something still owed on it.

The books and your accountant

Ledger. The company's double-entry books. Langbyrde builds it for you from your expenses, invoices, payroll and bank lines; you do not type journal entries.

GL account (general ledger account). One line of the chart of accounts, such as "Office supplies" or "Bank". Each expense category posts to one.

GIFI (General Index of Financial Information). The CRA's standard account codes for financial statements filed with a T2. Langbyrde maps the company's accounts to GIFI codes so the CPA package lines up with them.

Trial balance. The list of every ledger account with its balance; debits and credits add up to the same total. See Reports.

CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant). The accountant who prepares or reviews the year-end statements and tax returns.

CPA package. One folder for your accountant with a workbook, the report PDFs, receipts, invoice and memo copies, a README and a manifest. See Exporting a CPA package.

Safety and privacy

Snapshot. A full copy of one company's books at a moment in time, kept in the Company Folder. See Backups and restore.

Recovery kit. A sheet of words that are the company's keys. Shown once when you set up the company. Keep it away from this computer.

App lock. An optional passcode Langbyrde asks for before it opens. See Security.

Read-only mode. What the app does after the 45-day trial ends without a licence: you can still read, export, print and back up everything, but not add or change records. See Licence and read-only mode.

Network profile. Whether Langbyrde may connect to the internet at all: Offline, Manual or Connected. See Privacy & network.

Suggestion. A category, a match or a value read from a receipt that the app or an AI provider proposed. Nothing changes until you accept it; see What the disclaimers mean.

Projected. A small marker on a figure the app estimated rather than one you recorded, such as an amount converted from another currency.