The Ultimate Qashiopedia
ACH (Automated Clearing House) transfer
An ACH transfer is an electronic transfer of money between two bank accounts through the ACH Network. ACH transfers are typically either credit transfers made by individuals or businesses for non-essential payments, or direct debits used to pay bills, insurance, rent, and memberships. ACH transfers may take longer to complete.
AI-Powered Receipt Matching
The use of artificial intelligence to automatically match receipts with corresponding transactions, which improves accuracy and reduces manual entries, saving finance teams time.
Account Balance Report
Highlights the opening and closing balances for all business card balances over a specified period, available via email with an Excel file.
Accounts Payable
Outstanding payments a company owes to its suppliers or vendors.
Accounts Receivable
Money owed to a company by its customers for goods or services delivered.
Accounts payable
Accounts payable, sometimes referred to as "AP," is a general ledger account under the liability category that indicates the short-term debts a company owes to its suppliers, vendors, and other creditors.
Accounts receivable
Accounts receivable, sometimes referred to as trade receivables, is the money owed to a company by customers for goods or services received but not yet paid for. Accounts receivable is recorded as an asset on the balance sheet.
Accrued payroll
Accrued payroll is a broad term referring to all forms of unpaid compensation owed by an employer to employees. It represents a liability on the general ledger. Accrued payroll is not recognised in accounting under the cash basis but is accounted for under the accrual basis, and the main elements include salaries, wages, commissions, and bonuses.
Accrued revenue
Accrued revenue is money earned from providing goods or services that have yet to be paid for. In other words, payment will be collected after the goods or services have been provided. It is recorded as a receivable on the balance sheet.
Acquirer processor
Should we use "Merchant Acquirer" or "Payment Processor" instead of "Acquirer processor"? This term does not make sense.
Acquiring bank
An acquiring bank, or acquirer, is a bank or financial institution that is a licensed member of a card association such as Visa or Mastercard, which authorises and processes electronic credit or debit card payments from clients on behalf of the merchant.
Actions
Enables Qashio users to perform key tasks like exporting transaction reports, viewing account balances, and generating bulk card statement reports.
Activity-based budgeting
Activity-based budgeting (ABB) is a budgeting strategy that fully analyses activities to estimate expenditures. When developing a budget, ABB does not consider historical costs, unlike traditional budgeting.
Admin User
An admin user in Qashio is a role assigned to individuals responsible for overseeing company-wide financial activities, managing user access, defining how Qashio Points are redeemed, and ensuring compliance with internal policies. There are four roles available for end users. These are Company Admin, Assistant Admin, Accountant Admin, and End User, each with different responsibilities. Admin users who also have a corporate card are granted end-user rights for card-related activities. The number of admin roles a company can have access to is defined in the Qashio Service Agreement, and additional roles can be requested.
Annual percentage rate (APR)
The annual percentage rate (APR) is a percentage that indicates the yearly cost of borrowing money or the amount earned on an investment.
Approval
Refers to the process of reviewing and authorising financial transactions and activities before they happen. This involves approval groups, approval policies, and approval workflows.
Approval Groups
A feature in Qashio that allows admin users to create groups of users for the purpose of streamlining expense approvals. By navigating to the Approval Policies section, users can set up an Approval Group, assign specific employees, and use these groups to efficiently manage and apply approval workflows across departments or expense categories, ensuring faster and more organised expense approvals.
Approval Policy
A set of rules and processes which are defined by company admins to manage and control the approval of key financial activities, including card creation, fund allocation, and invoice payments. These policies define the approval workflow by determining who needs to approve requests based on factors like department, requester, amount, and the type of transaction. Policies can apply to all departments or be further customised to specific departments, with approval range and several layers of approvers. This means that approvals are properly managed and align with company governance.
Approval Workflows
A defined series of steps that ensures business expenses get the required approvals before being processed. This promotes compliance, control, and accountability for businesses. With Qashio, approval workflows are further enhanced through dual-level approvals, approval groups, and cross-department workflows, offering flexible and detailed approval structures to suit diverse organisational requirements.
Audit
An audit is essentially an independent examination of a company’s financial reports, which include: 1. Balance Sheet 2. Income Statement 3. Statement of Changes in Equity 4. Cash Flow Statement 5. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies 6. Other Explanatory Notes
Audit Trail
A chronological record of all transactions and activities within the Qashio platform, which provides transparency and accountability for compliance purposes.
Automated Expense Reports
Auto-filled reports that leverage advanced technology to streamline and simplify the entire expense management process. From automatically capturing receipts and matching them with transactions to automating approval workflows and reimbursing employees, this system eliminates the need for manual input, saving valuable time. Automated expense reports are essential because of the high frequency of transactions for businesses of all sizes.
Average daily rate (ADR)
Average Daily Rate (ADR) is a hospitality performance indicator that provides an average of revenue generated per occupied room. The formula is: Average Daily Rate = Total Occupied Room Revenues / Number of Occupied Rooms A higher ADR and a rising trajectory are preferred; however, discounts or promotions may skew the figures on individual days.
Balance sheet
A balance sheet is one of the three financial statements that a company typically reports. It concerns the company’s total assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity at a specific point in time, showing the financial position and balanced with the formula: Assets = Liabilities + Equity.
Balloon loan
A balloon loan differs from a standard loan in that it involves very small monthly payments with a large final payment. Instead of paying off the loan on a fixed monthly basis, the borrower mainly pays interest for a set period until concluding the balance with a single large payment.
Bank identification number (BIN)
The Bank Identification Number (BIN) is a specific number of a financial institution that appears in the first 4-6 digits on a credit, debit, or other payment cards to trace transactions to the specific issuer.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralised digital currency, also known as cryptocurrency. It is transacted on a public ledger called a blockchain, where transactions are stored, verified, and confirmed.
Budget variance
The difference between the budgeted revenues or expenses and the actual figures is referred to as budget variance. There are two types of budget variance: favourable, which indicates higher revenue or lower expenses than budgeted, and adverse, which indicates lower revenue or higher expenses than budgeted. Budget variance can result from either systematic or unsystematic factors but is often due to a rushed or inadequately thought-out budget.
Budgeting
The process of creating a financial plan that outlines expected income and expenses over a specific period, aiding in effective financial management and forecasting.
Burn rate
The burn rate is a formula that measures how long a company’s cash will last until exhaustion if it is operating at a loss. It is used for both performance evaluation and company valuation and is calculated using the following formulas: Gross Burn Rate = Cash / Monthly Operating Expenses Net Burn Rate = Cash / Monthly Operating Losses
Business credit cards
A business credit card, as the name suggests, is a credit card issued to a company for business use. There are typically fewer barriers to apply for business credit cards compared to business loans, as the application process is usually streamlined and provides instant decisions. These cards may alleviate expense management issues and often come with perks and benefits. However, as lenders take on increased risk, the borrower will generally pay a higher interest rate.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL)
"Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) is a quick form of short-term instalment loan. It typically involves point-of-sale instalments that allow the customer to pay part of the product's price at the time of purchase and the remaining balance over a specified period, sometimes interest-free. Payments are usually made in 30 days, often in 3-4 instalments.
Capital Assets
In personal terms, almost any asset can be considered a capital asset, including stocks, vehicles, property, and collectibles. In a business context, capital assets are those not intended for sale in the normal course of operations and have a useful life of more than one year.
Capital gains / capital losses
A capital gain occurs when a capital asset increases in value and is realised when the asset is sold for more than its purchase price. Conversely, a capital loss occurs when a capital asset decreases in value and is realised when the asset is sold for less than its purchase price.
Capitalisation table
A capitalisation table, often shortened to cap table, is an in-depth analysis of a company's shareholders' equity. It is primarily used in startups and companies in their initial stages.
Card Controls
Rules and restrictions that administrators can apply to Qashio corporate cards, including spending limits merchant restrictions, and geo-location rules.
Card Creation
The process where an admin or authorised user generates a new virtual or physical corporate card within the Qashio platform. This involves defining spending limits, policies, and approval workflows before creating the card (virtual or physical) for the employee.
Card Loading
The process of adding funds to a Qashio corporate card, increasing the card’s balance.
Card Statement Report
Detailed statements for all Qashio cards for a selected month, sent as an email with an Excel file that includes a consolidated list and individual statements for each card.
Card Statements
These refer to detailed records of transactions made using the Qashio card. To export card statements users can navigate to the “Cards Section”, select the desired card, and choose “Export Card Statements” from the actions menu. They can then specify the period for which they want the statement to be downloaded. This process provides Qashio clients with a clear and organised report of all card-related expenses, making it easier to track spending, ensure accuracy, and maintain financial transparency.
Card Unloading
The depletion of funds from a Qashio card, reflecting a decrease in the card’s balance.
Card issuer
The card issuer is the financial institution that provides a credit, debit, or prepaid card to a client, whether corporate or personal.
Card networks
A card network acts as an intermediary in the purchase process. Examples of card networks include Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. When a card is used for a transaction, the information is sent to the acquiring bank, then to the card network to communicate with the card-issuing bank for approval or denial, after which the network communicates the approval back to the point of sale, completing the transaction.
Cardholder Limits
Pre-defined spending caps are set for each employee who is given a Qashio corporate card, which ensures tighter control over budgets. These limits can be set based on the transaction amount, frequency of usage, and specific periods. Card limits also include restrictions on categories like ATM withdrawals, purchase amounts, and countries.
Cash Flow Management
The process of monitoring and optimising the inflow and outflow of funds to ensure a company maintains sufficient liquidity for operations and short-term obligations.
Cash Withdrawals
This indicates that the user has withdrawn funds from an ATM using a Qasio corporate card. This transaction type records the amount of cash taken out and the specific ATM used for the withdrawal.
Cash disbursement
A cash disbursement occurs when cash is sent from a company to another party. Cash can be paid in various ways, including bills, cheques, digital payments, or any payment method that instantly deducts from the sender's account.
Cash flow conversion
Cash flow conversion is a ratio calculated using the formula: Operating Cash Flow / Net Income, which shows how well a company's profits are converted into cash. A good ratio is generally considered to be one or above.
Cashback
Cashback is a form of refund on purchases, where the buyer receives back a percentage of their purchases in line with the cashback policy of the issuing party. It is most commonly associated with credit cards but can also apply to certain debit card transactions.
Charge cards
Charge cards are uncapped cards where the balance is typically paid off monthly with no interest, and they often provide users with substantial rewards. However, they usually come with a significant annual fee and steep penalties for missed payments.
Chargeback
A chargeback is broadly a type of refund resulting from a successful dispute with a consumer’s card issuer or merchant. Chargebacks can occur due to fraud, theft, double charges, or transactions involving goods that did not meet specific standards. The key difference between a chargeback and a refund is that refunds are voluntary, while chargebacks are disputed, often incurring additional fees for the merchant.
Cleared Transactions
Transactions that have been fully processed and settled, which then get tracked and recorded in the Qashio platform for reporting purposes.
Clearing
Clearing encompasses all activities from the moment a transaction is initiated until it is completed. Notable examples include cheque clearing, which involves the time from when a cheque is written until funds are transferred to the concerned party's account, and the clearing of securities and derivatives.
Client Onboarding
The process of integrating new clients into the Qashio system, including setting up accounts, training, and familiarising them with the platform's features and benefits
Collateral
Collateral is an asset that a borrower pledges as security for a loan, which is accepted by the lender. If the borrower fails to honour the payments owed, the lender can seize the collateral to cover the loss of the loan.
Company Balance
The opening and closing balances of both the Qashio Business Account and individual employee corporate cards. This includes a detailed overview of transactions for a selected period and is available via email in an Excel format. The first sheet provides an overall business account balance, while subsequent sheers break down card-specific balances.
Corporate Card
Qashio corporate cards are pre-funded cards created for employees for business-related expenses, such as travel, office supplies, or client entertainment. The Qashio corporate card removes the need for personal credit card usage and reimbursement, as well as petty cash payments. Customers securely transfer funds to a Mashreq Client Money account, managed by NymCard, an entity regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE. These funds are used to enable spending limits and are never accessed by NymCard, Qashio, or third-party accounts. Through Qashio’s corporate card users can create, control, and allocate funds to cards, with each card customisable for spending limits and merchant restrictions, ensuring secure, real-time control.
Corporate cards
Corporate cards are credit, debit, or prepaid cards issued for commercial purposes, typically reserved for larger companies (i.e., corporations). They are provided to employees to facilitate purchases without the need to use personal cards, aiding in expense management.
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
COGS represents the total expenses incurred by a company in the production of a product, including labour costs, materials, and other factory overheads.
Credit card float
The float of a credit card refers to the time between when a purchase is made and when it appears in the credit card account. This float typically lasts one to two days.
Custom Export Templates
Allows users to create tailored transaction reports by selecting specific data fields and filters based on their business needs. Users can customise the report by choosing the columns to be included, applying filters to limit the transactions, and saving the template for future use. These saved templates can be easily accessed and reused, ensuring consistent reporting with minimal effort. This feature enhances flexibility in data extraction, allowing for detailed and focused financial insights that align with specific company requirements.
Custom Transaction Reports
This feature allows Qashio clients to generate tailored reports based on specific transaction data. Users can select transaction details such as date range, amount range, and preferred file format (CSV or PDF). Before exporting the report users can modify the report by adjusting templates or filters. Once the report has been finalised it can be generated and either downloaded or emailed directly. This feature provides more flexibility in tracking and analysing expenses, helping to meet the unique financial reporting needs of businesses.
Data Encryption
The method of encoding information so that only authorised parties can access it, ensuring the security of sensitive financial data and transactions.
Deferred revenue
Deferred revenue is money received before a company has provided its products or services. It is considered a liability, as it will only be recognised as revenue once the goods or services are delivered.
Department
Refers to a segment within a company that is created and managed by company admins through the admin dashboard. Departments can represent a specific business unit or team and are essential for organising and managing financial operations within the Qashio platform. Each department can customise settings, such as spending limits, alerts, and assign a manager responsible for overseeing approvals and expense activities.
Deposits
Refers to transactions where funds are added to the Qashio Pool Account. This indicates a successful top-up of the account with a specific amount, increasing the available balance.
Depreciation
From an accounting perspective, depreciation refers to the reduction in the cost of an asset over time until it becomes valueless. For example, if a truck is bought for £500,000 and has a useful life of five years, it can be depreciated by £100,000 each year for five years.
Dilution
Dilution occurs when new shares are issued in a company, resulting in existing shareholders receiving more shares but a reduced percentage of ownership, thereby lowering the value of each individual share.
EBITDA
EBITDA stands for "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation," and it is commonly used as a measure of a company's profitability before accounting for potential deductions.
EDI payments
EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is a method of transmitting payment data to manage sensitive information more securely. It is an encrypted way to handle and transfer transactions, invoices, and other payment information.
EMV chip card
An EMV chip card, which stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, features a smart chip that has replaced the traditional magnetic stripe on cards over the last few years. The EMV chip includes security measures such as encryption, making it more difficult to skim or clone.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
Software systems are used by companies to manage and integrate core business processes, such as finance, HR, and supply chain management.
ERP Transactions
This feature enables the export of purchase and cash withdrawal data specifically designed for integration with ERP systems. This export includes detailed transaction data, such as associated GL (General Ledger) accounts, to streamline importing and syncing with an ERP. This feature helps finance teams to efficiently manage expense categories, improve reconciliation, and ensure accurate financial reporting by providing more comprehensive data.
Equity multiplier
The equity multiplier is a leverage ratio that indicates how much of a company's assets are financed by equity. The formula is: Total Assets / Total Shareholder Equity, with a higher number indicating greater reliance on debt.
Expense Approval Process
A structured series of steps that financial transactions must go through before being authorised. This process includes user submissions, reviews, and final approvals.
Expense Categories
Predefined groups of merchants or merchant types that help to control and track where a company's spending is allowed. These categories help admins limit card usage to specific types of expenses, ensuring that funds are only used for approved purposes.
Expense Management
Expense management is the process companies use to efficiently plan, pay, track, report, and audit business expenses. It streamlines and automates the financial workflow, from expense approvals to reimbursements, which ensures an accurate record and compliance with company policies.
Expense Policy
A set of guidelines that define what types of expenses are allowable, the process for submitting expenses, and the required documentation for reimbursement.
Expense Report
A detailed document that outlines business expenses incurred by employees, typically submitted for reimbursement.
Expense reports
An expense report is typically filled out by employees to list business expenses incurred on behalf of the company for reimbursement. Receipts are usually required for approval.
FICO score
A FICO score, developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, is the most commonly used credit score that lenders use to evaluate a potential borrower's credit risk. It ranges from 300 to 850, with a score of 670-739 considered good.
Financial Reporting
The practice of preparing financial statements that provide an overview of a company's financial position, including income, expenses, and cash flows.
Financial forecasting
Financial forecasting involves assessing and predicting future company performance. Ideally, all three financial statements—income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement—should be forecasted, although most companies at least forecast the income statement.
Fintech
Fintech, derived from "financial technology," is a broad term describing technology designed to enhance the performance of traditional financial services. Fintech aims to improve the efficiency of financial activities for individuals or businesses, employing various methods such as AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data.
Float Management
Refers to a tool that allows corporate cards to automatically top up with funds when a transaction is approved. This feature, which can be activated at the card level and ensures that the card balance is replenished by the exact amount of the approved transaction. This streamlines financial management and reduces the need for manual work. Admin users can turn this feature on or off as needed, providing flexible control over card balances and enabling smoother transaction processing.
Founder guarantees
A founder guarantee, often referred to as a personal guarantee, is a promise made by an individual or organisation when accepting debt, taking full responsibility in the event of failure to repay. Typically, a founder, owner, or executive will provide a personal guarantee to secure credit for their business.
Fraud Detection
Systems or software that identify suspicious or unauthorised transactions, which protects companies from financial losses due to fraudulent activity.
Fund flow
Fund flow refers to the movement of money through liquid assets such as stocks and bonds. It is not a measure of performance but rather a reflection of cash inflows and outflows related to these assets.
Fund flow statement
A fund flow statement is a financial statement that details the inflow and outflow of funds for a company over a specific period. It is prepared to analyse differences between balance sheets from different dates, typically involving the following steps: 1. Analyzing current assets and liabilities, where positive changes indicate an application of funds and negative changes indicate a source of funds. 2. Reviewing funds from operations, where profit indicates a source of funds and losses indicate an application of funds. 3. Conducting the fund flow statement, incorporating all inflows and outflows.
Funding
Funding refers to the process of adding or allocating money to a Qashio corporate card. This can be done manually or automatically using features like float management, where the card is topped up based on pre-defined conditions, such as a transaction being approved. Funding ensures that the card has sufficient balance for future expenses.
GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
GAAP is a set of widely accepted accounting standards and rules, serving as the general accounting standard that most large companies in the US follow, while public and regulated firms are required to adhere to these standards. Most companies outside the US follow IFRS accounting standards.
GL Code Mapping
The automatic assignment of General Ledger (GL) codes to transactions when using the Qashio card, makes reconciliation with accounting systems seamless.
General Ledger
A comprehensive record of all financial transactions of a business, organised by account. Each expense made with Qashio’s corporate card is assigned to a specific GL account, allowing finance teams to categorise and track expenditures accurately.
General ledger
The general ledger, often abbreviated as GL, is the foundation of double-entry accounting. It contains a business's financial data and other account information used to prepare financial statements. The general ledger has pages for each account as defined by the Chart of Accounts, covering assets, liabilities, owner's equity, revenue, expenses, profits, and losses.
Geo-Location Controls
A security feature that limits card usage to specific locations, helping companies ensure that spending is within agreed geographic regions.
Hedge / hedging
A hedge is a financial investment made to reduce the risk of potential price volatility of an asset. Essentially, it is a strategy employed by investors to protect themselves against losses in an investment by taking an opposing position. Hedging can be performed using various financial instruments.
Holding Costs
Holding costs is a blanket term that describes all expenses associated with storing inventory. These costs may include depreciation, insurance, obsolete inventory, personnel, rental space, security, and more.
Human Resources Information System (HRIS)
An HRIS is a data collection and storage system for business employees. It is the most commonly used software for HR and encompasses the fundamental functions for end-to-end Human Resource Management (HRM). The HRIS is utilised for recruiting, performance management, learning and development, among other tasks.
Hybrid Annuity
An annuity is essentially an insurance contract where you commit a certain amount of money at the time of signing to receive a lump sum or several planned payments in the future. A hybrid annuity follows the same concept; however, it allows the investor to divide their money between both variable and fixed-rate financial assets. For example, with a hybrid annuity, you can invest a portion in low-volatility assets and another portion in high-volatility assets, aiming to provide a steady income stream during retirement.
Integrations
Seamless connection between Qashio’s expense management software and external systems, including a range of ERP and accounting software, to ensure automated transaction processing, reconciliation, and reporting. Qashio supports integration with popular ERP and accounting software, ensuring that data syncs seamlessly between systems for efficient financial management. Commonly integrated platforms include Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Intuit QuickBooks, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics 265, SAP, Xero, Sage, Tally, and Odoo, with the flexibility to connect with additional software on request. This streamlines financial operations, reduces manual entry, and enhances accuracy across all transactions.
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