64 terms · both languages

The accounting glossary

Every term here appears in Arabic and English together, with a one-sentence definition. Because most people keeping books in this region read the standard in one language and use the system in another.

The basics

The terms the rest of the list is built on — starting with debit and credit.

Double-entry bookkeepingالقيد المزدوج: Recording every transaction against at least two accounts for equal amounts on both sides, so the ledger balances after each transaction rather than only at year end.
Debitمدين: The left side of an entry. It increases assets and expenses and decreases liabilities, equity and income — it is neither "negative" nor "positive".
Creditدائن: The right side of an entry. It increases liabilities, equity and income, and decreases assets and expenses.
Journal entryقيد اليومية: The single unit of accounting record: at least two lines whose debits equal their credits, carrying a date, a description and a source document.
General ledgerدفتر الأستاذ العام: Every posted entry organised by account — the single source every financial report is derived from.
Chart of accountsدليل الحسابات: The numbered list of accounts a business uses, classified into assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses.
Accrual basisأساس الاستحقاق: Recording revenue on the day of the sale and an expense on the day it is consumed, regardless of when payment moves.
Cash basisالأساس النقدي: Recording revenue and expenses only when cash moves — simpler than accrual, and blind to what you are owed and what you owe.
Fiscal yearالسنة المالية: The twelve months a business measures its result over, which need not begin in January.
Audit trailمسار التدقيق: An append-only record of who did what, when, and the value before and after — what makes a figure provable rather than merely displayed.
Period lockإقفال الفترة: Blocking any new posting into a month or quarter already closed and filed, so declared figures cannot change after the fact.
Opening balanceالرصيد الافتتاحي: An account's balance on the day a new system starts — what you enter when migrating from previous books instead of re-keying all the history.
Reversing entryالقيد العكسي: A new entry cancelling an earlier one with the same amounts in the opposite direction — the only way to correct a posted entry without deleting it.

Documents

What you issue and what you receive, and the difference between two documents that look alike.

Invoiceالفاتورة: A demand for payment issued to a buyer, which is simultaneously a tax document and the source record behind the entry that books the revenue.
Tax invoiceالفاتورة الضريبية: An invoice carrying every detail the tax authority requires so the buyer can deduct the tax paid on it.
Simplified tax invoiceالفاتورة الضريبية المبسّطة: The shortened form normally used for sales to end consumers, carrying fewer buyer details than a full tax invoice.
Credit noteإشعار دائن: A document reducing the value of an invoice already issued and referencing it by number — the correct way to cancel or amend one instead of editing it.
Debit noteإشعار مدين: A document increasing the value of an invoice already issued, used when the original was for less than what is actually due.
Quotationعرض السعر: An offer of price and terms before a sale. It creates no accounting entry and no tax liability until it becomes an invoice.
Billفاتورة الشراء: The invoice your supplier issues to you: an invoice on their side, an expense or asset on yours, and its tax is input VAT.
Purchase orderأمر الشراء: A formal request sent to a supplier before delivery: a commercial commitment rather than an accounting one, and it does not post to the ledger.
Payment receiptسند القبض: Proof that an amount was received. It is matched to an invoice and closes the receivable partly or fully; it creates no new revenue.
Proforma invoiceالفاتورة المبدئية: A provisional invoice sent before supply for approval or customs purposes; it is not a demand for payment and books no revenue.

Tax and compliance

VAT and e-invoicing vocabulary as the region's authorities use it.

Value added tax (VAT)ضريبة القيمة المضافة: A consumption tax collected at each stage of sale: a business collects it on the authority's behalf and remits the difference between what it collected and what it paid.
Output VATضريبة المخرجات: The tax you charged on your sales. It is a liability from the moment the invoice is issued, not revenue.
Input VATضريبة المدخلات: The tax you paid on your purchases, deducted from output VAT — provided you hold a valid tax invoice for it.
Zero-ratedخاضع بنسبة صفرية: A supply taxed at zero percent, where the supplier still keeps the right to deduct input VAT on it.
Exempt supplyالتوريد المعفى: A supply outside the tax's scope, on which input VAT cannot be deducted — the substantive difference from zero-rated.
Reverse chargeالاحتساب العكسي: A mechanism moving the obligation to account for tax from the supplier to the buyer, typically on services imported from abroad.
Tax registration numberالرقم الضريبي: The number a tax authority issues to a registered business; its presence on an invoice is a condition for deducting the tax on it.
Tax periodالفترة الضريبية: The span one return covers: a month in Egypt and Tunisia, two in Jordan, a quarter by default in the Gulf — and turnover can change it, so confirm your own classification with your authority.
VAT returnالإقرار الضريبي: The periodic form declaring your sales and purchases in their separate buckets, on which you pay or reclaim the difference.
E-invoicingالفوترة الإلكترونية: Issuing invoices in a structured format a tax authority's system reads directly — not simply a PDF sent by email.
Clearance modelنموذج الإجازة المسبقة: The authority approving an invoice before it reaches the buyer. Its counterpart is the reporting model, where the invoice is submitted after issue.
Withholding taxضريبة الاستقطاع: An amount the payer holds back from a supplier's dues and remits to the authority on their behalf, common on payments to non-residents.
Zakatالزكاة: A religious levy assessed on a business's zakat base, applied in Saudi Arabia alongside VAT rather than instead of it.
Corporate taxضريبة الشركات: A tax on a business's profits rather than its sales, entirely separate from VAT in both calculation and filing.

Reports and figures

What each financial statement says, and what its recurring lines mean.

Income statement (P&L)قائمة الدخل: A report covering a period, saying whether the business earned or lost over it, from revenue down to net profit.
Balance sheetالميزانية العمومية: A report covering one moment, showing what the business owns, what it owes and what belongs to its owners, in two sides that always balance.
Trial balanceميزان المراجعة: A list of every account with its balance as a debit or credit and the two totals beneath. Their equality is necessary for correct books, not sufficient.
Cash flow statementقائمة التدفقات النقدية: A report splitting cash movement into operating, investing and financing, answering a different question from the income statement's.
Gross profitمجمل الربح: Revenue less the cost of what was actually sold. As a share of revenue it is the gross margin, and the most honest early signal on pricing.
Net profitصافي الربح: What remains after every expense. An accounting figure rather than a bank balance, and it can differ substantially from the increase in cash.
Retained earningsالأرباح المبقاة: The accumulated profits of prior years not distributed to owners, shown within equity on the balance sheet.
Accounts receivableالذمم المدينة: What your customers owe on sales issued but not yet collected. An asset until the day it is collected.
Accounts payableالذمم الدائنة: What you owe suppliers for purchases received but not yet paid for.
Aged receivablesأعمار الذمم المدينة: A report bucketing receivables by how overdue they are — the practical tool for knowing which balances need chasing today.
Working capitalرأس المال العامل: Current assets less current liabilities. It is where most of the gap between profit and cash opens up.
Depreciationالإهلاك: Spreading a fixed asset's cost across the years of its useful life as an annual expense, rather than charging it all in the year of purchase.
Cost centreمركز التكلفة: An extra dimension an entry is tagged with — a branch, project or department — so each one's result can be read separately.

Inventory and costing

How what you hold is valued, and how its cost reaches the income statement.

Cost of sales (COGS)تكلفة المبيعات: The cost of the goods actually sold in the period — not the cost of what was bought in it. What stayed on the shelf stays an asset in inventory.
Weighted-average costالمتوسط المرجّح للتكلفة: A valuation method recomputing the average unit cost after every receipt, so sales are relieved at that average rather than at one shipment's price.
Landed costالتكلفة الواصلة: The cost of goods including freight, duty and clearance apportioned across the items — your real cost, rather than the invoice price.
Stock on handالمخزون المتاح: The quantity physically held with its book value, which must always tie to the inventory account's balance in the ledger.
Batch (lot)الدفعة: A group of units sharing one number and one expiry date; tracking them is a regulatory requirement in pharmaceuticals and food, not a convenience.
Reorder pointحدّ إعادة الطلب: The quantity at which a new purchase order should be raised, derived from the supplier's lead time and the rate of consumption.
Stock takeالجرد: A physical count of stock, with the difference between book and actual quantities settled by an adjustment entry.
Fixed assetالأصل الثابت: An asset used for more than a year — equipment, vehicles, property — charged to expense through depreciation rather than all at once.

Banking and currency

The vocabulary that appears once more than one currency or account is involved.

Bank reconciliationالتسوية البنكية: Matching every line of your bank statement to its entry in the ledger — what catches the missing transactions that balancing cannot.
Base currencyالعملة الأساسية: The currency your financial reports are prepared in, and into which every transaction recorded in another currency is converted.
Exchange rateسعر الصرف: The rate one currency converts to another at on a given date, stored with the entry — because today's rate does not explain last month's posting.
FX gain or lossفروق أسعار الصرف: The profit or loss arising from the exchange rate moving between an invoice's date and the date it is collected or paid.
Minor unitsالوحدات الصغرى: A currency's smallest unit — halalas, fils, millimes. It is not always two digits: the Gulf dinars and the Tunisian dinar carry three.
Multi-currencyتعدّد العملات: A system handling several currencies at once: the invoice in the customer's currency, the ledger and reports in the base currency.

The same terms, at length

A one-line definition is enough to jog a memory, not to learn from scratch. These articles work through the same terms with full examples.

Double-entry bookkeeping Reading financial statements Profit vs cash Writing an invoice All articles

A system that speaks both, like you do

Fatouraty is complete in Arabic and English — interface, invoices and reports — not a translation added afterwards.

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