Glossary of key terms

Definitions of key terms, user types, permissions, and concepts used throughout the Zato platform.

This glossary explains key terms and concepts used throughout the Zato Firm Portal. All users should review this before using the platform.

User types and access

Customer: A CA firm fully onboarded with Zato with a commercial subscription. Customers can run an unlimited number of clients.
User: Any individual within the firm who has been granted access to the portal. Each user is assigned a role that determines what they can see and do.
Client: The end entity (company, trust, or individual) whose compliance work is being processed in Zato.
Director / Authorised Signatory: The person who ultimately signs off the completed job. Often a shareholder or trustee of the client entity.

Your subscription tier is not displayed within the portal. There are no functional differences or feature restrictions based on subscription plan.

Job: An individual engagement for a specific client and financial year (e.g. Demo New Zealand Limited Year End 31 March 2025).
Questionnaire: The end-of-year information request sent to clients, either a Lean Questionnaire or a firm-customised version.
Automation: The Zato process that runs on uploaded data and produces workpapers, journals, and GL Scrutiny results.
Workpaper: A system-generated financial schedule or reconciliation produced during automation. Zato produces 40+ workpapers.
GL Scrutiny: The exception and anomaly review layer that flags transactions requiring investigation before finalisation.
Manual Journal (MJ): An entry posted outside of automation, used for corrections, accruals, provisions, or adjustments.

Chart of Accounts (CoA): The list of account codes used by the client. Zato maps this against its standardised parent structure.
Trial Balance (TB): The summary of all account balances at year end, used to drive the CoA mapping process.
General Ledger (GL): The full detailed ledger of transactions for the year.
Inland Revenue Department (IRD): New Zealand's tax authority. Zato integrates with myIR for pulling tax data.
One-Time Password (OTP): A single-use code sent to your registered email for secure login.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): The permissions framework that controls what each user can do based on their assigned role.
Goods and Services Tax (GST): New Zealand's value-added tax charged on most goods and services. Zato handles GST reconciliation and variance analysis within dedicated workpapers.
CSV (Comma-Separated Values): A plain-text file format used for importing and exporting tabular data such as client lists and journal entries.
XLSX: The standard Microsoft Excel file format, supported for Chart of Accounts (CoA) uploads and similar structured data.
PDF (Portable Document Format): The standard file format for documents in Zato, used for invoices, statements, signed documents, and exported workpapers.