---
title: "Glossary"
description: "Plain-language definitions of accounting terms such as accrual, trial balance, reconciliation, withholding and revaluation, as used in BareLedger."
url: "https://bareledger.app/guides/glossary"
category: "Resources"
updated: "2026-10-29"
publisher: "BareLedger (Syneria Technologies OPC)"
---

# Glossary

> Plain-language definitions of the accounting and product terms used across BareLedger and its guides.

**Access tier** — a per-page permission preset (e.g. Viewer, Preparer, Reviewer, Approver, Full access) that maps to a bundle of underlying permission keys. See [Authentication & Authorization](https://bareledger.app/guides/api-authorization).

**Audit assurance (`auth_assurance`)** — the authentication strength behind a logged action: `password`, `totp`, `sso`, or `otp` (email one-time-passcode, used by the change-request flow).

**BareLedger** — the product name (rebranded from "Books by Syneria" in August 2026). Built by Syneria Technologies OPC.

**BIR** — Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Philippine tax authority. Several statutory forms/books in this system target BIR requirements (2550Q, 2551Q, 1601-series, Books of Accounts).

**Books of Accounts** — statutory accounting books (general journal/ledger, sales/purchase books, cash books) in the specific columnar format BIR examiners expect, distinct from general financial reports.

**Change request** — a pending, email-OTP-confirmed edit to a sensitive resource (org profile, branch, period status), created instead of applying the edit immediately. See `change_requests` table and Multi-Tenancy & Organization.

**Commercial document** — the unified backend table/model (`commercial_documents`) underlying invoices, bills, credit notes, debit notes, quotations, and sales orders — discriminated by a `kind` field.

**CAS** — Computerized Accounting System, the BIR classification for accounting software like BareLedger; the "CAS Audit Trail" report supports this classification's audit requirements.

**Engine account codes** — a fixed set of chart-of-accounts codes (e.g. 1200 AR, 2010 AP, 3020 Retained Earnings) that the posting engine resolves by code and protects from renumbering once in use.

**EOPT** — Ease of Paying Taxes Act (Philippines, RA 11976) — governs the invoice/receipt lifecycle distinction (invoice = sale recognition, receipt = collection proof) this system implements.

**Feature gate** — a plan-entitlement check (`feature:<key>` middleware) distinguishing which capabilities a tenant's subscription plan includes; "strict" mode blocks reads as well as writes when unentitled.

**Ledger entry** — an immutable, posted general-ledger row (`ledger_entries` table) — the ultimate output of the posting engine, never edited or deleted after creation.

**Maker-checker** — a control pattern requiring one person to create/prepare an action and different people to check and approve it (for financial transactions: maker, reviewer and approver are three different people); enforced in this system both for document workflows (segregation of duties) and administrative changes (the change-request OTP flow).

**Numbering sequence** — a per-document-type, atomically-incremented counter used to assign official document numbers only at posting time (not at draft creation).

**Permission key** — a flat `module.action` string (e.g. `sales.approve`) that is the actual unit of authorization enforcement, as opposed to a role (a convenience bundle of permission keys).

**Reversal / reversing entry** — the mechanism for correcting a posted (immutable) record: a new, debit/credit-swapped entry is created and posted, rather than editing the original.

**Reverse charge** — a tax mechanism where the buyer, not the seller, self-assesses and remits tax on cross-border digital-service purchases; posts as a net-zero input/output tax pair.

**Segregation of duties (SoD)** — the three-person rule: whoever prepared a document can never also review or approve it, and whoever reviewed it can never also approve it, enforced server-side (and again at posting) regardless of the acting user's role/tier or owner status.

**Statutory form** — a country-specific tax filing (e.g. PH 2550Q, US 1099-NEC) generated by the [Compliance, Tax & E-Invoicing](https://bareledger.app/guides/compliance) form engine from posted ledger data.

**Tenant** — an organization/company using BareLedger; the top-level unit of data isolation. A user can belong to multiple tenants via memberships.

**TOTP** — Time-based One-Time Password, the MFA mechanism used for both login-time 2FA and per-action step-up verification.

**Withholding tax (WHT)** — tax withheld at source; this system tracks both outbound certificates (issued to BareLedger's own suppliers) and inbound certificates (received from customers), each with its own lifecycle.

**X-Tenant header** — the HTTP header a client sends to select which tenant a request operates within; only trusted if it matches one of the authenticated user's own active memberships.