# ERP, accounting & API glossary Plain-language definitions of accounting and Apideck integration terms, with examples and implementation links. This document includes every term; browser search and topic filters do not limit it. Connector support and field requirements vary; definitions do not establish coverage. ## Accounts payable Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#accounts-payable Topic: Accounting Also searched as: AP, payables Money a business owes suppliers for goods or services it has received but has not yet paid for. In practice: An AP workflow can create a supplier bill, attach its source document, and record a bill payment. [Build an accounts payable workflow](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/accounts-payable-automation) ## Accounts receivable Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#accounts-receivable Topic: Accounting Also searched as: AR, receivables Money customers owe a business for goods or services already invoiced. In practice: An AR workflow creates customer invoices and records payments against them. [Build an accounts receivable workflow](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/accounts-receivable-automation) ## Allocation Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#allocation Topic: Accounting Also searched as: payment allocation The part of a payment or credit applied to a particular transaction. In practice: A payment can cover part of an invoice. Inspect the relevant payment schema for supported allocation fields. [Explore payments](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/payments) ## Attachment Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#attachment Topic: Accounting Also searched as: receipt, supporting document A file associated with an accounting record, such as a receipt attached to an expense or an invoice PDF attached to a bill. In practice: Check the connector and operation coverage before choosing how to upload or retrieve a file. [Explore attachments](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/attachments) ## Bill Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#bill Topic: Accounting Also searched as: supplier invoice, vendor bill, purchase invoice An invoice received from a supplier, recorded from the buyer’s perspective as an amount payable. In practice: Use Bills for a supplier invoice your customer needs to pay; use Invoices for an invoice your customer sends to a buyer. [Explore bills](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/bills) ## Bill payment Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#bill-payment Topic: Accounting Also searched as: supplier payment, vendor payment A record of a payment made toward one or more supplier bills. In practice: Recording a bill payment in an accounting system is distinct from initiating a bank transfer. [Explore bill payments](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/bill-payments) ## Chart of accounts Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#chart-of-accounts Topic: Accounting Also searched as: COA, general ledger accounts The organized list of ledger accounts a business uses to classify its transactions. In practice: Map an expense category to a ledger account from the connected company; account IDs are not interchangeable across companies. [Explore ledger accounts](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/ledger-accounts) ## Connection Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#connection Topic: Integration Also searched as: connected account The credentials and configuration that connect an Apideck consumer to a downstream service for a Unified API. In practice: A consumer identifies whose data is accessed; the connection determines the configured access to the chosen service. [Understand connection authorization](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/authorize-connections) ## Connector Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#connector Topic: Integration Also searched as: integration provider, service Apideck’s integration with a downstream service, such as QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite. In practice: Select the connector through x-apideck-service-id when routing a request. A listed connector does not imply every operation is supported. [Browse accounting connectors](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting) ## Consumer Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#consumer Topic: Integration Also searched as: consumer ID, tenant An Apideck record representing the customer or isolated customer account whose integrations you access. In practice: Pass the stable identifier in x-apideck-consumer-id. It is distinct from a Customer record inside the connected accounting system. [Understand consumers](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/understanding-consumers) ## Coverage Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#coverage Topic: Integration Also searched as: capability, supported operations The operations and fields Apideck exposes for a particular connector and API resource. In practice: Inspect support for the exact operation and fields. Missing metadata is unknown, not evidence that a connector supports a workflow. [Check accounting coverage](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/coverage) ## Credit note Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#credit-note Topic: Accounting Also searched as: credit memo A document that reduces an amount owed by a customer, for example after a return or billing correction. In practice: A credit note adjusts the amount due; it does not by itself prove that a cash refund occurred. [Explore credit notes](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/credit-notes) ## Cursor Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#cursor Topic: Integration Also searched as: pagination, next page An opaque value used to request another page of records. In practice: Follow the next cursor returned by the API until there is no next page; do not assume the first response contains every record. [Inspect invoice pagination](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/invoices) ## Customer Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#customer Topic: Accounting Also searched as: debtor In the Accounting API, a person or organization that buys goods or services from the connected business. In practice: An accounting customer is a business record. An Apideck consumer identifies whose integration you are accessing. [Explore accounting customers](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/customers) ## Downstream Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#downstream Topic: Integration Also searched as: source system, provider The external service that Apideck calls for a request, such as the customer’s accounting platform. In practice: Downstream validation rules and permissions can affect a request even when its unified schema is valid. [Understand API errors](https://developers.apideck.com/errors) ## Expense Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#expense Topic: Accounting Also searched as: spend A cost incurred by a business. Accounting platforms may represent paid spend differently from supplier bills awaiting payment. In practice: Choose the resource based on the accounting event and connector support, rather than treating every expense as a bill. [Build an expense integration](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/expense-management-integration) ## Field mapping Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#field-mapping Topic: Integration Also searched as: mapping, custom mapping A correspondence between fields or values in your application and those in another system. In practice: Map your product’s expense category to a ledger account in the connected company and keep that mapping scoped to the customer. [Learn about field mapping](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/field-mapping) ## General ledger Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#general-ledger Topic: Accounting Also searched as: GL The record of a business’s accounting activity organized by ledger account. In practice: Use journal entries and financial reports to understand how transactions affect accounts. [Understand the accounting data model](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/accounting-data-model) ## Invoice Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#invoice Topic: Accounting Also searched as: sales invoice A document issued to a customer describing goods or services sold and the amount due. In practice: From your connected business’s perspective, an outgoing invoice belongs to receivables; an incoming supplier invoice is a bill. [Explore invoices](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/invoices) ## Journal entry Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#journal-entry Topic: Accounting Also searched as: posting A record of debit and credit movements in the ledger. In double-entry accounting, the debits and credits balance. In practice: A payroll integration may post a journal entry instead of creating individual employee bills. [Build a payroll journal workflow](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/payroll-journal-entries) ## Ledger account Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#ledger-account Topic: Accounting Also searched as: account code, GL account An individual category in the chart of accounts used to record assets, liabilities, equity, income or expenses. In practice: An expense account such as Travel is an accounting classification, not a customer account or an Apideck consumer. [Explore ledger accounts](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/ledger-accounts) ## Raw data Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#raw-data Topic: Integration Also searched as: raw mode, raw response Provider-specific response data available alongside unified data when supported and requested. In practice: Use raw data when you need a downstream field that is not represented by the unified model. Availability varies by connector. [Use raw mode](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/using-raw-mode) ## Reconciliation Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#reconciliation Topic: Accounting Also searched as: matching Comparing records from different sources and resolving differences so they agree. In practice: Match imported bank activity to recorded payments; fetching both datasets does not automatically reconcile them. [Explore payment reconciliation](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/fx-payments-accounting-api) ## Supplier Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#supplier Topic: Accounting Also searched as: vendor, creditor A person or organization that provides goods or services to the connected business. In practice: Reference the supplier when recording a bill. Some accounting systems label the same business role Vendor. [Explore suppliers](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/suppliers) ## Tax rate Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#tax-rate Topic: Accounting Also searched as: VAT, GST, sales tax A rate or tax-code configuration used when calculating tax on a transaction. In practice: Read the connected company’s tax rates and map their IDs; a matching percentage alone may not identify the correct tax treatment. [Explore tax rates](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/tax-rates) ## Tracking category Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#tracking-category Topic: Accounting Also searched as: dimension, cost center, class An additional classification used to group transactions for reporting, such as department, location or project. In practice: Terminology and supported dimensions vary by connector. Check the fields available on the transaction you want to create. [Explore tracking categories](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference/tracking-categories) ## Unified API Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#unified-api Topic: Integration Also searched as: unified model, normalized API A common interface and data model for a category of services, such as accounting. In practice: The same API surface can target different connectors; their operation coverage and required fields still need to be checked. [Explore the Accounting API](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/accounting/reference) ## Vault Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#vault Topic: Integration Also searched as: connection UI, authorization UI Apideck’s connection-management interface for customers to authorize and configure their integrations. In practice: Create Vault sessions on your server and use the session to open the connection flow for the intended consumer. [Embed Vault](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/vault) ## Webhook Term URL: https://developers.apideck.com/glossary#webhook Topic: Integration Also searched as: event, event notification An HTTP notification sent to your application when a subscribed event occurs. In practice: Check event support, validate incoming notifications, and design processing to tolerate duplicate deliveries. [Set up webhooks](https://developers.apideck.com/guides/webhooks)