Activity Code |
Code used on the DAI and by purchasing to identify the
type of the material purchased. For example 414 is the activity code
for Computers. The activity code is used in EDH to identify the material
and identify special routing if necessary. It is then used in the
accounting system in conjunction with the value of the material to
post the material to the correct 'nature' in the plan of accounts. |
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Actual Cost |
The actual cost incurred to perform the work (in CHF).
For example if after 6 months where you planned to build 6 widgets
at 100 CHF/widget, you may find that your actual costs are only 550
CHF. Actual costs alone cannot tell you the health of a project because
for the 550chf you don't know if you actually built all 6 widgets
or only 1 widget. (If all six then well done, you are on-schedule
and under budget, but if only 1 then you have an overrun of some 550%!). |
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Amendment |
A modification to an original contract. Not all contract
amendments have a financial impact |
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Annual Commitment |
This is the commitment viewed from an annual perspective. Imagine
the following scenario: In 1999 you make an order of 10,000 CHF.
You pay 2000 CHF in 1999. 8000 CHF are therefore carried over to
the following year where you pay the remainder.
The annual commitments are therefore:
1999 : 10000 CHF
2000 : 8000 CHF
From a budget-year perspective each of these is correct. In 1999
you committed 10000 CHF and in 2000 you committed 8000 CHF. However
note that annual commitments cannot be summed across a pluri-annual
view (the sum would give 18000 CHF which is a distortion of the
original order), and therefore for pluri-annual views the 'pluri-annual'
commitment must be used.
The pluri-annual commitments for the above order would be:
1999 : 2000 CHF (pluri-annual commitment = payment)
2000 : 8000 CHF |
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Annual Open Commitment |
This is the remaining left to pay as viewed from an annual perspective.
Imagine the following scenario: In 1999 you make an order of 10,000
CHF. You pay 2000 CHF in 1999. 8000 CHF are therefore carried over
to the following year where you pay the remainder.
The annual open commitments are therefore:
1999 : 8000 CHF
2000 : 8000 CHF (and later 0 CHF when the order is paid)
As with Annual Commitments these figures are correct from a budget-year
perspective, but cannot be summed across a pluri-annual view. |
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Budget Code |
Also known as 'intersection code'. It is the 5 digit
code to which CERN expenditure is charged. |
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Carry Over |
The open commitments which remain at the end of one
financial year, i.e. the 'amount due' at the end of a given financial
year is carried forward to the following financial year and becomes
known as the 'carry over'. |
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Cashflow Transactions |
These are the transactions associated with the rebilling
mechanism for Teams & Collaborations. For example if a team spends
500 CHF on an order and 500 CHF on telephone bills then at the end
of the month they will received an invoice for 1000 CHF. The funding
agency may choose to pay this amount, or even credit more to the account.
To see the invoices and credits you look at the cashflow transactions
on the Team Reports, |
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Commitment |
The amount of money engaged to be paid, or already paid at a point
in time. For example if you place an order to purchase goods for
10,000 CHF we say you have committed 10,000 CHF. If last year you
placed an order to purchase goods for 5000 CHF then you committed
5000 CHF.
In accounting the following golden rule applies:
Commitments = Payments + Open
Commitments.
Therefore, if for your 5000 CHF order a bill arrived for 5500 CHF
(e.g. because the exchange rates changed against you), then we say
you paid 5500 CHF and therefore looking in the accounting system
your commitment for last year was also 5500 CHF (although your initial
commitment was 5000 CHF). |
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Contract |
An approved agreement between CERN and a supplier for
an agreed amount of goods or services at an agreed price and subject
to agreed payment terms |
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Contract Id |
This is the full contract number including the amendment
number, e.g. F264/00. |
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Contract Number |
This is the contract id excluding the amendment number,
e.g. F264. |
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Contractual Delivery Date |
The delivery date as originally planned according to
the signed contract. |
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Cost Performance Index |
This is the ratio of Earned Value to Actual Costs. If
you have built 5 widgets (planned at 100chf/widget) then your EV is
500, and say your actual costs show 500chf then your Cost Performance
Index is 500/550 = 0.90% Basically the cost performance index indicates
the amount of work you are achieving for every CHF of cost your are
incurring. A CPI of 90% indicates that for every CHF spent you are
achieving 90% of the work. If you wish to extrapolate then you can
say that instead of your planned 100 CHF per widget, every time you
spend 100chf you are only building 90% of a widget, so the real cost
of a widget is around 110 CHF and not the planned 100 CHF. The cost
performance index is vital for extrapolating to determine how much
over budget you will be if performance doesn't improve. |
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Cost Variance |
Cost Variance is the Earned Value - Actual Costs. If
for example you have built 5 widgets at a planned cost of 100chf/widget
and your current actuals show you have spent 550 CHF then there is
a cost variance of -50chf. Negative cost variance indicates cost overrun. |
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CFU ICA reference |
This is the International Cooperation Agreement reference
coming from the Contract Follow Up system. |
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Destination |
The hierarchy of Activity Codes |
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Destination Code |
The code given to the destination. The Activity Code
is a destination code, e.g. 115 for painting |
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Destination Description |
The associated description of a destination code |
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Earned Value |
The actual amount of work performed measured in CHF.
For example if after 6 months you have built 5 widgets (planned at
100chf/widget) then your Earned Value is 500 CHF. |
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FC |
Finance Committee. The committee of member state delegates
one of whose roles is to approve on contracts and contract amendments. |
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Foreseen Delivery Date |
The date at which the goods will probably arrive. This
date is usually updated if new knowledge is provided and thus may
differ from the Contractual Delivery Date. If the foreseen delivery
date falls into a different financial year from the original contractual
delivery date then one may consider also shifting the associated commitments
to that financial year. |
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Income Debit/Credit |
The income transactions are associated with Team accounts.
Since Team accounts are non-CERN money then the transactions are summed
and an invoice is sent to the Team. This invoice is seen as an Income
Debit. Payment of this invoice (e.g. via money to the UBS) is seen
as an income credit. |
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Job |
A job is similar to an order, but is carried out internally
at CERN (usually by EST) and you are billed using an internal billing
system involving authorization of an EDH Job document and debiting
of your budget code with a credit to the corresponding 'Job' cost
centre. |
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Nature |
Nature is the generic term to cover the expenditure
hierarchy of the plan of accounts. Unlike activity code, nature allows
you to differentiate between assets and consumables. |
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Nature Code |
This is the code coming from the accounting system to
identify the Nature of the goods. |
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Nature Description |
The description associated with the given nature code |
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Nature Category |
The high level classification of the nature code, e.g.
Nature code 6155100 which is for IT maintenance falls under Nature
category 61 which is consumables. |
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Non-Recurrent |
Expenditure associated with a project. Expenditure not
pertaining to the recurrent operational activities. |
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Open Commitment |
Open Commitment is the difference between the initial
commitment and the amount paid. It is effectively the amount remaining
to pay. |
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Order |
An order is a request to an outside supplier for the
provision of goods or services in return for a payment. |
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Organic Unit |
The generic term to encompass divisions, groups, sections
etc that belong to the CERN organizational structure. |
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Order Status |
A number given by the purchasing system to indicate
the status of an order. For example 30 means the order has been committed,
91 means the invoice has been paid. A complete list may be obtained
from the Order Status screen on the Info menu. |
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Paid |
The amount that has been debited from your budget code.
Note that in CET there are two varieties of paid, namely : Paid
on Budget Code and Paid to Supplier. In the majority of
cases the amount charged to your budget code is the amount received
by the supplier, but in the cases where provisions are involved, you
may already see a debit on your budget code before the corresponding
invoice has arrived and is paid to the supplier. |
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Paid on Budget Code |
This is the amount billed to your budget code |
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Paid to Supplier |
This is the amount paid to the the third party (e.g.
on an invoice). |
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Pipeline Transactions |
These are transactions which are not yet in the financial
system, but which in the future will have an impact on your budget.
Examples are : EDH documents in circulation and not yet fully approved
Material Requests for which you have not yet been invoiced CFU future
expenditure lines Salaries for Project Associates, Technical students
etc paid on the Materials budget. |
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Planned Value |
The amount of work scheduled measured in CHF. For example
if you plan to build 1 widget a month at 100 CHF a widget, then your
PV after 6 months is 600chf. |
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Pluri-Annual Commitment |
The commitment seen from a pluri-annual perspective. Imagine the
following scenario: In 1999 you make an order of 10,000 CHF. You
pay 2000 CHF in 1999. 8000 CHF are therefore carried over to the
following year where you pay the remainder.
The pluri-annual commitments are therefore:
1999 : 2000 CHF
2000 : 8000 CHF
Totalling these commitments across the pluri-annual view gives
10,000 CHF which is correct as far as the original order is concerned.
Note that in reality you originally committed 10,000 CHF in 1999,
but as only 2000chf was paid we apply the golden rule:
Commitments = Payments + Open
Commitments. |
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Pluri-Annual Open Commitment |
The open commitments remaining when viewed across several
years. See Annual Open Commitments for more information. |
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PPA Unit |
The Program Project Activity in the CERN PPA structure.
In general the PPA view of the budget codes regroups codes of similar
activities irrespective of their placement in the organizational structure |
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Price Revision |
The amount associated with a change (usually increase)
in the amount to be paid on a contract due to a 'price revision clause'. |
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Project |
A code identifying a collection of non-recurrent budget
codes used for identifying the expenses related to a particular project.
Some projects have a hierarchical structure in their project codes. |
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Projected Payment |
The commitment re-aligned based upon the latest schedule
information. For example if you have a commitment of 100K in 2007,
but you know there is a delay and the material will arrive in 2008,
then if this knowledge is entered into the project management software
(PPT) the projected payment will be shown as 2008 and not 2007. Projected
Payments are a useful indicator for re-aligning commitments where
schedule variance may alter when the actual payments should be made. |
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Provision |
Money put aside during one financial year on open orders
in order to cover the payment of invoices originally foreseen in that
financial year, but which may actually arriving in the following calendar
year. The provisioning mechanism ensures that invoices arriving in
the following calendar year may still be allocated to the budget of
the previous year. |
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Provision Balance |
The amount remaining to be used in the provisions. |
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Provisioned Next Year |
The amount of money paid this year to be consumed on
the arrival of invoices next year. |
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Provisioned Paid |
The amount of money paid on an invoice which came from
money previously provisioned. |
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Provisioned Previous Year |
The amount of money previously provisioned for the arrival
of future invoices. |
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Recurrent |
Term used to identify operational, non-project related
expenditure |
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Team Code |
7 character code, starting with 'T' and ending with
6 digits used to identify the account upon which Team expenditure
is charged. |