Glossary of Terms

All electronic technology systems, products and services. Equipment, software, services, and products used in processing information, office automation, and telecommunications (voice, data and/or video).

The act of considering and making funding choices based on desired outcomes. Performance budgeting focuses on the results to be gained through investment decisions.

Shadow system is a term used in information services for any application relied upon for business processes that is not under the jurisdiction of a centralized information systems department and duplicates or replicates the activities of the centralized system. In this case, a shadow system is a system that exists outside the main accounting system.

The ability to define an agency’s plan of estimated expenditures, revenues, cash disbursements, and cash receipts for each month of the biennium.

A person or agency that buys goods or services directly, based on delegated authority or through utilization of DES services.

The ESC is an element of the One Washington Governance body that is led by the Executive Director of the One Washington Program and includes leadership from highly impacted agencies as well as the governor’s office. Their function is to provide strategic direction as the decision-making body of the project in charge of overseeing and facilitating project collaboration.

Lease purchase and lease development agreements are forms of financing contracts that enable a building to be built or substantially remodeled to state specifications by a private developer. In both cases, the developer finances the project and recovers the cost through least payments. By the end of the lease period, the state may exercise the option to purchase at a predetermined price. There is no tax exemption for the developer, and market interest rates prevail. Any funds required to pay the cost of leasedevelopment proposals should be requested through the operating budget. For reference, see RCW 39.94, Financing Contracts.

Washington’s adaptation of the "Price of Government" budget approach first developed by Peter Hutchinson and David Osborne. This form of budgeting focuses on statewide results and strategies as the criteria for purchasing decisions.

Any legislative change to the original budget appropriations.

The long-term financing and expenditure plan for acquisition, construction, or improvement of capital assets such as land and buildings, and for programs that accomplish facility improvements. The capital budget is included in an appropriation bill for a specific biennium; the Ten-Year Capital Plan is proposed by the Governor but not enacted into law.

Method to make a payment directly from a bank account using an Automated Clearing House (ACH).

A 12-month fiscal period used for budget and accounting purposes. The Washington State fiscal year extends from July 1 through the next June 30 and is named for the calendar year in which it ends (e.g., July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015 is state Fiscal Year 2015). The federal fiscal year runs October 1 through September 30. The city/county fiscal year runs January 1 through December 31.

This term is used by the Legacy System Remediation Team to describe the categorization of legacy systems. The Remediation Framework launched in the late spring of 2022, offered three system disposition options to remediating agencies:

1. Retire
2. Maintain
3. Modernize

The basis of accounting under which expenditures, whether paid or unpaid, are formally recognized when the liability is incurred against the account, but revenues are recognized only when they become both measurable and available to finance expenditures of the current accounting period. All governmental funds use the modified accrual basis of accounting.

Multi-tenancy is an architecture in which a single instance of a software application serves multiple customers. Each customer is called a tenant.

(A16) - A document that authorizes the delivery of specified merchandise or the rendering of certain services. This form is used by agencies to encumber, liquidate, and authorize payment for such purchase requisition requests.

An entity that provides goods and/or services.

Any state office or activity of the executive and judicial branches of state government, including state agencies, departments, offices, divisions, boards, commissions, institutions of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016, and correctional and other types of institutions.

As opposed to systems maintained on-premise, the Cloud is a network of remote, internet-based systems hosted on the internet used to store and process data.

Statewide bond issues whose repayment is guaranteed by the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the state and that are subject to the state’s debt limit. General obligations bonds are the traditional form of government debt financing for major construction projects.

Our AST Leads serve as the point of contact for their agencies. They facilitate communications between their agency and our One Washington team, and serve as the primary day-to-day contact.

A biennial plan for the revenues and expenditures necessary to support the administrative and service functions of state government.

To continue using a computer system/application instead of utilizing Workday functionality. Note: A decision to retain a computer system/application may require extensive conversation and integration work.

A legal authorization to make expenditures and incur obligations for specific purposes from a specific account over a specific time period. Appropriations typically limit expenditures to a specific amount and purpose within a fiscal year or biennial timeframe. Only the Legislature can make appropriations in Washington State.

The need for cost contingency is generated by a lack of information, at a particular point in time, for the task being estimated. Appropriate contingency amounts are dependent on the degree of risk present and the extent of the technical challenge surrounding the task. The design contingency legitimately covers uncertainties in a project and should be reduced through each phase of the design. Construction contingencies should be limited to 5 percent on new construction and 10 percent on remodeling work. Contingencies should not be considered as opportunities for extra work or to change original budget decisions

Economic life in the context of cost/benefit analysis refers to the span of years necessary to compare similar costs of operating and maintaining alternative solutions. It may not equate to the time required to fully depreciate the structure. The economic life span should be the same for each alternative for a project. The period of time, extending from the date of installation to the date of retirement for the intended service, over which a prudent owner expects to retain the property in order to obtain a minimum cost.

The planning and management process for information technology resources and investments overseen by the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

A quantitative indicator that can be used to determine whether an agency’s programs or services are directly contributing to the achievement or progress toward some objective. Activity performance measures reported in the budget should tell the story of whether the activity is achieving its purpose and contributes to statewide goals. These measures are most likely to be intermediate or immediate outcomes or output measures.

The process of mapping the boundary, topographic, or utility features of a site, measuring an existing building, or analyzing a building for use of space.

An enterprise application developed as a tool to assist agencies in building all components of the decision package and submitting operating and transportation budget requests online. The new Agency Budget System (ABS) replaced BDS in June of 2018.