Year-end jargon buster

See our full glossary of financial terms.

Accrual

In accounting, an accrual refers to the work taken to record a cost that was incurred in one financial year but not paid until the next financial year.

For example, an energy bill for the period January-March received and paid in April will be recorded as a cost for the period January-March.

For year-end, this means you will need to complete the year-end form, detailing the estimated amount of the bill and the dates the bill covers. Then when you receive the bill, you should submit a claim for it before 9 May. IPSA will then match this to the year-end form and allocate the corresponding cost to the 2024-25 financial year.

Claim number and line

If you have submitted a reimbursement claim to pay for goods or services, then you will have a claim number and line. You will need to fill this out in the year-end form.

A claim number begins with '602' and you can find it on the business costs breakdown report (referred to as a transaction number) or on the MPD expenses details (referred to as a claim number). See guidance on these reports.

The claim line is the line number of an individual line of a claim. If you have a claim that has been split across three lines, you will need to tell us which line your submission relates to.

Cost allocation

This refers to the process which we undertake as part of year-end, where we will allocate or assign a particular cost you have incurred to the correct financial year.

If you need to complete the year-end form, you will need to tell us which financial year to allocate a cost to in the 'Request to IPSA' column.

Direct payment

We refer to payments we make directly to suppliers or landlords/agents on your behalf as a direct payment.

If IPSA pays rent directly to the landlord/agents, we will allocate this cost accordingly. There is no need to include any rent we pay directly on the year-end form.

As part of the year-end process, you will need to submit a direct-payment correction form to make changes to claims already reimbursed up to and including 31 March 2025.

Direct suppliers

We have several direct suppliers that we have been using for the 2024-25 financial year: XMA, Commercial, Banner, Trainline and R&M.  

For year-end, we will allocate costs based on the financial year in which the order has been received or when the journey has taken place. For example, if you order stationery from Banner on 30 March 2025, we will assume this has been delivered on 31 March 2025 and we will allocate the costs to the 2024-25 financial year.

Expense category 

This is the category an item falls under, such as travel or equipment purchase. You will need to specify the category in the form. In IPSA Online, this will be referred to as ‘cost categories’ and in the evidence requirement we refer to it as ‘expense type’.

Goods and services 

A good will be something tangible that you buy, such as stationery or office furniture.  

A service is intangible, such as when you pay for software such as Caseworker or rent for your office.

Journal 

A journal entry is a way to keep a record of a transaction and its subsequent movements between budgets/financial years.  

As part of the year-end process, if we need to move transactions for you from one financial year to the next, this will come up as a journal entry.  

Prepayment 

If you have bought goods or services that you will use in the next financial year (2025-26) but you paid for them in this financial year (2024-25), that is a prepayment.  

If you have prepaid for goods or services, the cost will need to be moved to the next financial year. You can use the year-end form to tell us to do this.

Source of transaction  

On your year-end form, you will need to tell us how you paid for goods or services. You will have three options: payment card, reimbursement claim or income. This is the source of the transaction. 

Income refers to money you have received and will need to return to IPSA, for example, a refund for a train journey that was originally paid for by IPSA or income received from sub-letting part of your office.