City of Surrey Financial Plan 2020-2024

CITY OF SURREY GLOSSARY

Accrual—The accrual basis of accounting recognizes revenues when they are earned and records expenses when they are incurred. This results in both revenues and expenses being recognized and recorded in the accounting period when they occur rather then when payments are actually received or made.

Activity—Departmental efforts that contribute to the achievement of a specific set of program objectives; the smallest unit of the program budget.

Annualize—Taking changes that occurred mid-year and calculating their cost for a full year, for the purpose of preparing an annual budget.

Appropriated Surplus—Funds set aside for a non-statutory specific purpose.

Appropriation—A legal authorization to incur obligations and to make expenditures for specific purposes.

Assessed Value—The value that is attributed to real estate and certain personal property by the Assessor as a basis for levying property taxes.

Assets—Resources owned or held by the City that have monetary value.

Balanced Budget—A budget in which budgeted revenues are equal to budgeted expenditures, thus neither a budget deficit nor a budget surplus exists.

BC Assessment Authority (BCAA)—The organization that is responsible for assessing property values in British Columbia.

Bonds—A certificate evidencing a debt on which the issuer promises to pay the holder a specified amount of interest based on the coupon rate, for a specified length of time, and to repay the loan on its maturity. Assets are pledged as security for a bond issue, except in the case of government bonds.

Budget—A plan of financial operations embodying an estimate of proposed expenditures for a given period and the proposed means of financing them.

Biodiversity—The variety of species and ecosystems on earth and the ecological processes of which they are a part—including natural ecosystems, living species and other components that provide genetic diversity. Build Surrey—A program that consists of a series of large-scale capital projects across the City to accommodate business development and population growth. Business Improvement Area (BIA)—A specific area within which businesses pay fees to fund improvements in commercial business potential.

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