Core terms used in spending plans

Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust and CRBT:
financial planning terminology

A budget is a planned set of category amounts for a defined period, recorded as a list or table. A spending plan is a related term that describes the same structure as an organized view of totals by category and time range. A period refers to a date range used for grouping entries, such as a week or a month, and a category refers to a label applied to entries to support grouping in summaries.

Common category labels include housing, utilities, food, transportation, healthcare, insurance, and education, described as general terms used in recordkeeping materials. Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust and CRBT appear on this page as keyword text strings alongside these definitions, without institution-specific details or product descriptions.

Expense tracking and record structure

An expense log is a list of entries that records amounts and descriptors for spending activity. A basic entry includes a date, amount, payee descriptor, category label, and a short note field that stores a neutral description. A payee descriptor refers to the text used to identify a counterparty name as written in a record, and a category label refers to the text used to group entries by type.

Some record formats add metadata fields used for internal organization. Examples include a reference identifier, a payment channel descriptor, and a document pointer identifier that links an entry to a receipt image or a stored document outside this website. These terms describe record elements found in logs and spreadsheets and are presented as definitions.

Fields
identifiers
and entry formatting terms

Period cycles, due dates, and balance terms

Timing and cash
flow concepts

Cash flow is a term that refers to recorded inflows and outflows across a defined period. Inflow refers to amounts recorded as incoming funds, and outflow refers to amounts recorded as spending or transfers. Net amount refers to the numeric difference between total inflow and total outflow within the same period.

Timing terms include pay period, billing cycle, statement period, and due date, each describing a date range or date marker used in records. A balance refers to a recorded total associated with an account record at a point in time, and carryover refers to a remaining amount recorded from a prior period into a later period within the same record structure.

A cadence refers to how often an entry type appears in a record, such as weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual. A recurring entry refers to a record item that repeats across periods with similar descriptors, while a one-time entry refers to an item that appears in a single period only. These terms describe record patterns and do not describe a required tracking method.

An accrual refers to an amount recorded as associated with a period even when the related transaction is recorded on a different date in an external record. A pending item refers to an entry marked as not finalized within a record set, and a cleared item refers to an entry marked as finalized. These labels are used in some logs as internal status descriptors for record maintenance.

Totals, subtotals, and variance definitions

Summaries, aggregation, and glossary terms

A summary is an aggregated view of entries grouped by category and period. A total refers to the sum of amounts within a defined group, and a subtotal refers to a total within a narrower grouping such as a subcategory. A breakdown refers to a list of totals by category for the same period, often shown as a table with labels and numeric values.

Additional glossary terms include allocation, baseline, and variance, used as numeric descriptors within a record set. Allocation refers to a recorded amount assigned to a category for a period, baseline refers to a reference value stored for comparison within the same record structure, and variance refers to the numeric difference between two totals recorded for the same category and period.

Reconciliation and consistency checks in records

Matching entries to statements and documents

Reconciliation refers to comparing a record set with referenced documents such as statements, receipts, or confirmations and noting whether entries match by date, amount, and descriptor. A matched entry refers to an entry with a corresponding reference line, and an unmatched entry refers to an entry without an identified reference within the set of documents used for review.

Consistency checks refer to reviewing record formatting and categorization across periods. Examples include verifying that category labels use the same spelling, confirming that amounts use the same numeric format, and identifying duplicates where the same entry appears more than once. These terms describe general record maintenance concepts and are presented as definitions and context.

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