Cost Center

An organizational unit that represents a defined location of cost incurrence.

Similar to what is now considered a department.

Customer Master
Customer data that includes addresses, account balances, and credit limits
that are maintained centrally to prevent duplication.

Vendor Master
Vendor data that includes addresses, payment details, and account balances of
all vendors with which AOI conducts business. Vendor master records are
centrally maintained to prevent duplication.

Posting Key
A two-digit numerical key that determines the way line items are posted. This
key determines several factors including the account type, type of posting
(debit or credit) and layout of entry screens.

Account Group
Used to categorize accounts that have similar master data requirements. It
determines the required master data needed for creating G/L accounts. It also
determines the number range in which the customer account should be
placed, and whether that number is to be assigned by the user or by the
system.

Ledger
In G/L Accounting, you can use several ledgers in parallel. This allows you to
produce financial statements according to different accounting principles, for
example.

Fiscal Year Variant

A period as defined by the financial calendar. The fiscal year variant contains
the number of posting periods in the fiscal year and the number of special
periods. You can define a maximum of 16 posting periods for each fiscal year
in the Controlling component (CO).

Posting Period Variant

 You can specify which company codes are open for posting in a posting
period variant. Posting period variants are cross-company code and you have
to assign them to your company codes. The posting periods are then opened
and closed simultaneously for all company codes via the posting period
variants.

Reconciliation
Account Summary account for sub ledgers such as Accounts Receivable,
Accounts Payable, and Asset Accounting. No direct postings to reconciliation
accounts are allowed.

Cost Element
A cost element classifies the organization's valuated consumption of
production factors within a controlling area. A cost element corresponds to a
cost-relevant item in the chart of accounts.

Primary Cost Element

A cost element whose costs originate outside of CO and accrual costs that are
used only for controlling purposes.

Open Item Management

A stipulation that the items in an account must be used to clear other line
items in the same account. Items must balance out to zero before they can be
cleared. The account balance is therefore always equal to the sum of the open
items.