Glossary¶

Staff Admin

The words Amana uses, in one or two sentences each, with the guide that explains them.

Organisation and approvals¶

Legal entity: A registered organisation that keeps its own books, such as GHAF Kenya. Each has its chart of accounts and currency. Organization
Office (organisation unit): A unit of the organisation structure, such as the Kenya Country Office. Records belong to an office, and an office's approval policies decide its requests. Organization
Scope: The offices a user can see and act in, set on their user's Organization tab. Administration
Approval policy: A rule saying who approves one type of request, in one currency, for one office, and in what order. Approvals
Request type: What is being approved: Travel, Leave, Purchase Request and so on. Each policy covers one. Approval request types
Delegation: A temporary handover of an approver's decisions to someone else. Approvals

Programme / project / activity: A programme groups projects. A project has a workplan of activities, which is what time, travel and events are charged to. Programs & Projects
Award (grant): A donor's funding agreement: amount, dates, conditions and reporting. Grants
Fund: A pot of money within an award, such as programme delivery or award management. Time and costs charged to an award name its fund. Grants
Donor budget: The award's budget as agreed with the donor, line by line. Changing it on an active award needs a grant amendment. Grants
Amendment: A recorded change to an award: dates, amount or budget. Grants
Subaward: Part of an award passed to a partner organisation, with its own advances and financial reports. Subawards

Budget: What an office, programme or grant plans to spend in a period, line by line. Budget
Budget line: One line of a budget, such as Healthy Communities: staff field travel. Spending is charged to a budget line, which fixes the project, grant, fund and account. Budget
Budget version: Each approved change (transfer, revision) makes a new version. Only the current version's lines can be charged; earlier ones are kept for history. Budget
Commitment: Money reserved on a budget line for something approved but not yet spent, such as a requisition, a travel advance or a staff contract. Available is the budget less commitments and actual spending. Budget
Budget check: The check an app runs before submitting: does the budget line have enough available? Depending on the control rule, it warns, blocks, or asks for an exception. Budget
Cost centre: Core costs that no grant pays for directly, such as Kenya Country Office core costs. How the books are laid out
Journal voucher: A manual journal entry. On some journals it waits for a second person's authorisation before it posts. Finance
Requisition: A request to buy something (Procurement) or to hire someone (Recruitment), approved before the purchase or hiring starts. Procurement, Recruitment

Employment contract: An employee's dates, wage, pay grade and funding split. Its wage is what payroll pays. Employees
Funding split: Which grants and cost centres pay a salary, in percentages that add up to 100%. Employees
Pay grade: A salary band with a minimum and maximum monthly wage. Employees
Effort report: A staff member's monthly confirmation that the time they recorded matches the split their salary was charged to, approved by their supervisor. Employees
Exit clearance: The checklist of steps cleared by finance, IT, the manager and HR before someone leaves. Employees
Allocation / accrual plan: An allocation is a leave balance. An accrual plan grows it month by month, for example 21 days a year. Leave
Payroll run / payslip / salary structure: A run pays one legal entity for one period, with a payslip per employee. The salary structure holds the country's rules: basic pay, deductions, contributions and net pay. Payroll
Remittance: Paying a tax authority or statutory fund what payroll deducted, such as PAYE to KRA. Payroll
Panel score: One interview panellist's independent, competency-based score of a candidate. Recruitment
Safer-recruitment check: A check cleared with evidence before anyone is hired: references, police clearance, misconduct disclosure and so on. Recruitment
Appraisal cycle: The period HR opens appraisals for: objectives, self-assessment, manager review, second-level review, acknowledgement. Performance

Travel advance: Money paid to a traveller before a trip, charged to a budget line. Travel
Per diem: The daily allowance for meals and incidentals, from the rates for the country. Departure and return days are paid at a reduced percentage. Travel
Settlement: The traveller's account of what the trip actually cost, with receipts and a report. The difference from the advance is refunded or reimbursed. Travel
Expense claim: A request to be repaid costs a staff member paid themselves outside a trip. Travel
Payment provider: How money is paid out: M-Pesa, Paystack, bank, card or petty cash, each with its journal. Travel
Payout batch: One approved batch of payments to an event's participants, verified payee by payee before it posts. Events
Vehicle request / recharge: A booking of an organisation vehicle for a trip. After the trip, the distance driven times the vehicle's rate per km is recharged to the project. Fleet

Document type / requirement rule: A document type says how a kind of document is kept (review, retention, confidentiality). A requirement rule says which documents a record must have, such as a vendor's tax compliance certificate. Documents
Retention / legal hold: How long a document must be kept, and a hold that stops it being disposed of while a matter is open. Documents