Glossary

What you'll accomplish

As an Operator or Admin, you will be able to look up the meaning of key MoF account codes, Lao accounting terms, and BigBooks-specific concepts — so that you can confidently interpret reports, journal entries, and compliance documents.

Key Terms

Satang

The smallest monetary unit in the BigBooks system. All amounts are stored as integer satang (1 LAK = 100 satang), which eliminates floating-point rounding errors. When you see an amount in the user interface, it has been divided by 100 for display. When you enter amounts, you enter them in normal kip (LAK); BigBooks converts to satang internally.

Example: 10,000 LAK is stored as the integer 1,000,000 (satang). The UI divides by 100 to display 10,000.00 LAK.

Millisatang

An even finer unit (1 satang = 1,000 millisatang) used only for inventory unit costs and cost-layer prices. Weighted-average cost can drift over many small stock movements if it is rounded to whole satang each time, so per-unit costs are carried in millisatang and only rounded back to whole satang when an amount is actually posted to the general ledger. You never enter millisatang yourself; it is an internal precision unit.

MoF 2020

The Ministry of Finance accounting framework issued in 2020, which governs the Chart of Accounts structure, financial statement formats, and immutability rules for Lao entities. BigBooks is designed to be fully compliant with MoF 2020.

Chart of Accounts (COA) Classes

Key MoF Account Codes

AR Buying Rate

The exchange rate used when receiving foreign currency from customers. Applied to customer invoices and direct receipts in foreign currency.

AP Selling Rate

The exchange rate used when paying foreign currency to suppliers. Applied to supplier invoices, expenses, and supplier payments in foreign currency.

Day Book vs Cash Book

• Day Book — a chronological record of all cash movements booked by a single counter operator during one business day. Used for end-of-day counter close.
• Cash Book — an aggregated view of all cash-account movements used by the back office for bank reconciliation. The same payment may appear in both but serves a different purpose in each.

Journal Entry Lifecycle

1. Draft — entry exists but has no ledger impact; can be edited or deleted.
2. Pending Approval — submitted for review; cannot be edited.
3. Posted — immutable; lines are recorded in the GL; account balances updated.
4. Voided — reversed via a system-generated counter-entry; the original lines remain on record.

VAT / Input VAT / Output VAT

• VAT (Value Added Tax) — the consumption tax applied to sales and purchases in Lao PDR.
• Input VAT — VAT paid on purchases and expenses that can be recovered from the tax authority.
• Output VAT — VAT charged on sales; must be remitted to the tax authority.
• DTTDF — Development Tax on Transfer of Domestic Financial Services; a withholding tax applied to certain financial service transactions.

Dot-Notation Account Codes

BigBooks uses dot-notation to extend the MoF account tree. For example, 1121.01 is a leaf account under parent 1121. The dot separates the parent code from the company-specific extension.

Inventory Terms

Weighted Average Cost (WAC)

The costing method BigBooks uses to value stock. Every receipt of goods is recorded as an append-only cost layer, and the product's average unit cost is re-derived from the total inventory value so the on-hand value and the ledger stay in step. When you sell an item, cost of goods sold is taken at this weighted-average cost. (A FIFO method is reserved for a future tier; WAC is what is in use today.)

Cost Layer

A single recorded addition to a product's stock — quantity plus its unit cost — created on a goods receipt, opening stock, or adjustment. Layers are never edited after the fact; the running inventory value (account 137) is the sum of what each layer contributed.

Landed Cost

Extra costs on a purchase — freight, import duty, handling — that are capitalized into the value of the goods rather than expensed. On a goods receipt, each landed cost is spread across the receipt's cost layers (by value, quantity, or weight), raising the inventory value (DR 137) against a freight/duty clearing account, so the cost you eventually expense as COGS already includes them.

Lot

A tracked batch of a product, used where stock must be followed by batch or expiry (the Lot tracking screen under Inventory). A lot ties received quantities to a specific batch reference.

Module Terms

External Ledger

A tool for bringing ledger data that was kept outside BigBooks — for example an opening period maintained in another system or a spreadsheet — into the BigBooks general ledger. You set up an import profile, map each external account code to a BigBooks Chart of Accounts code, then import the balances as journal entries. Requires journal permissions (canViewJournals / canCreateJournals / canConfirmJournals).

Year-End Close

The fiscal-year closing process that generates closing entries to move the year's revenue and expense balances (Class 6 and Class 7 accounts) into retained earnings, leaving the income-statement accounts at zero for the new year. The same screen can reopen a closed fiscal year. Found under Settings › Fiscal periods › Year-end close.

AInvoiceX

The Lao Tax Department's official electronic-invoice service. BigBooks can submit your issued tax invoices to AInvoiceX (in its Universal Invoice Model format), retrieve the official e-invoice PDF, and run in a sandbox or production environment. Submissions move through pending → synced, or surface an error you can retry. Configured under Settings › Tax; submissions are tracked under Tax submissions › AInvoiceX.

Official Notice

A formal message sent to your company by a government or tax-authority user — for example an audit notice, report reminder, information request, or compliance warning (priorities range from normal to critical). Notices arrive in the Official notices inbox, where they can be read and responded to. This is distinct from in-app system notifications.

Common problems

• "satang" amounts in exports look 100× too large — Raw exports may show satang values. Divide by 100 to get the kip (display) value.
• Inventory value doesn't match what you paid — Stock is valued at weighted-average cost across all layers, not the price of the last purchase; landed costs you added are also folded in.
• Account class is wrong on a report — Check the account code prefix; it determines the class. A code starting with 1 is always a Class 1 (Asset) account.
• Confused about AR vs AP rate — Use AR Buying for money coming in (customer side), AP Selling for money going out (supplier side).
• AInvoiceX submission stuck on "error" — Check the tax configuration (party/tax ID and keys) and the environment; the submission can be retried once the cause is fixed.