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 & access

Customer: A CA firm fully onboarded with Zato with a commercial subscription. Can run an unlimited number of clients.
User: The logged-in person from the firm interacting with the portal.
Firm: The Chartered Accountancy (CA) firm using Zato.
Director: A Partner, CEO, or Head of the CA firm. Directors approve and sign the Zato Terms of Use during Firm Setup.
Firm User: Any authorised CA firm staff member, including Partners, Managers, Accountants, and Admin users.
Manager: A senior firm member responsible for overseeing clients and reviews. May also be a Partner or Director.
Client: The CA firm's end customer (business, trust, individual, or entity) whose compliance work is processed through Zato.

Chart of Accounts (CoA): A structured list of account codes. Zato aligns the client CoA with its standardised CoA to ensure accurate automation. Each client requires its own CoA upload.
Trial Balance (TB): A client-specific financial summary uploaded during CoA Mapping. Each client requires its own TB upload.
General Ledger (GL): A detailed record of all financial transactions.
Autocoding: An AI-driven feature that assigns account codes to transactions using last year's GL and bank statements.
GL Scrutiny: A validation layer that identifies anomalies, variances, and exceptions after automation runs.
Workpapers: System-generated supporting documents that form the audit trail.
Manual Journals: User-created accounting entries used to adjust or correct transactions not handled automatically.
Reset Job: Clears all automation results and restarts the job from Job Setup.
Re-Run Automation: Reprocesses a client after re-mapping or updating data or documents.