Glossary

WAQAF brings together two worlds — the language of charitable giving in an Islamic context, and the language of double-entry accounting. This page explains the terms you will meet as you use the dashboard, in plain words and without assuming you are an accountant. When a word in another article is unfamiliar, look for it here first.

Giving and Shariah terms

Waqf (endowment)

An Islamic endowment: an asset given so that its principal is preserved for ever and only the returns it generates are spent. In WAQAF a waqf fund is treated as non-spendable at its principal — you may spend only from its returns — which is why the system blocks a payment that would draw down waqf capital. The platform is named after this idea.

Kafala (sponsorship)

A recurring commitment to support a specific cause or beneficiary — most often the ongoing sponsorship of an orphan or a family. In WAQAF a kafala is usually a recurring donation: a standing pledge that is fulfilled month after month rather than a single gift.

Zakat

The obligatory annual alms in Islam. WAQAF treats Zakat money as restricted: it may be spent only on the eligible recipients (the asnaf, below), and — unlike other income — a Zakat donation carries no admin fee. Zakat funds are kept distinct in the ledger so they are never mixed with general money.

Sadaqah

Voluntary charity, given freely and not obligatory like Zakat. It is one of the classes of income WAQAF recognises and tracks separately so you can always see how much was given as Sadaqah versus other types.

Asnaf (the eight Zakat channels)

The eight categories of people eligible to receive Zakat, named in the Qur'an (9:60): the poor, the needy, those who administer Zakat, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, freeing captives, the debtors, in the cause of Allah, and the wayfarer. When you spend from a Zakat fund, WAQAF asks you to name which of these channels the money serves. Your organisation can rename or deactivate a channel, but the eight canonical ones can never be removed.

Shariah classification

The compliance category every fund and category carries — Waqf, Zakat, Sadaqah, restricted, or general — so that money is spent only in ways that honour the donor's intention and the rules of each type. This classification drives real behaviour: it is what locks waqf principal, exempts Zakat from the admin fee, and keeps restricted money from being spent on the wrong purpose.

Money and currency

OMR and baisa

WAQAF keeps its books in Omani Rial (OMR), which has three decimal places: 1 OMR = 1,000 baisa. Amounts therefore always show three digits after the point — you will see 200.000, not 200.00. Working to three decimals (and storing every figure in whole baisa behind the scenes) means the books never lose a fraction to rounding.

Admin fee

A small administrative deduction (by default 10%) taken from incoming donations to cover the cost of running the organisation. Zakat is exempt — it never bears the fee — and a finance administrator can mark specific categories as exempt too. The fee is recorded against each donation but is hidden from the donor receipt unless your organisation chooses to show it.

FX rate

The exchange rate captured when a donation arrives in a currency other than OMR. WAQAF records the rate that applied at the moment of the gift alongside the original amount, then converts to OMR for the books. The captured rate is never recalculated later, so the historical record stays true.

Accounting terms

Fund

A named pot of money kept separate so you can see, and account for, each purpose on its own — for example a Zakat fund, a waqf fund, or a project fund. A fund's balance is never stored as a number; WAQAF works it out from the ledger every time, so it is always correct and can never drift out of step with the entries.

Category

The label you choose when recording income or an expense — what the money was for. Each category is mapped to a fund and inherits that fund's Shariah classification, so choosing the right category is what routes the money to the right place and applies the right rules.

Ledger / general ledger (GL)

The complete, permanent record of every financial movement in your organisation, kept as balanced double entries. The general ledger is the single source of truth: every balance and every report is derived from it. Nothing in the ledger is ever deleted.

Journal entry

A single balanced record in the ledger. Every journal entry has at least two lines, and the debits always equal the credits — money that comes in or goes out is recorded on both sides so the books stay in balance. Recording income, paying an expense, and correcting a mistake each post one journal entry.

Reversing entry

How a mistake is corrected. Instead of editing or deleting a wrong entry — which would hide what really happened — WAQAF posts an equal-and-opposite entry that cancels it out, leaving both the original and its reversal visible. This keeps an honest audit trail. See Correcting income.

Payment voucher (PV)

The document that authorises and records an expense payment. A voucher is coded by an Accountant, approved by the Finance Manager and then the CEO, and only then paid — the same fixed chain regardless of amount. Each voucher carries a PV-… reference. See The expense approval chain.

Reconciliation

Matching your recorded income against what actually arrived in the bank. When you import a bank statement, WAQAF helps you tie each incoming transfer to the right donation or recurring pledge, so the books agree with the bank.

Fiscal period

The accounting year your entries fall into. A journal entry can only be posted into an open fiscal period; once a period is closed, its figures are locked. If you try to date an entry outside any open period, WAQAF will stop you.

Reference numbers

Every record gets a short, human-readable reference so you can find and talk about it.

DON-YYYY-NNNN

A recorded donation / income receipt, numbered in sequence within the year — for example DON-2026-0042. This is the internal receipt number a duplicate check points to when an income is blocked because its external reference was already used.

REC-YYYY-NNNN

A recurring commitment (a standing pledge such as a kafala). Each fulfilment of the pledge is matched back to this reference when the donor's transfer arrives, so the months line up against one commitment.

PV-YYYYMMDD-NNNN

A payment voucher, numbered per day — for example PV-20260622-0003. It identifies one expense from coding through approval to payment.

Platform terms

Organisation (tenant)

Your charity inside WAQAF — its members, funds, donors, website, and books. WAQAF hosts many independent organisations on one platform, and each one's data is kept strictly separate, so a member of one organisation can never see another's money or donors.

Role (RBAC)

What a member is allowed to see and do. WAQAF uses role-based access control: each role grants a defined set of permissions, roles are combinable (a person can hold several at once and their permissions add up), and the server enforces them. This is why a button you do not have the role for is simply not shown. See the Roles reference.

Entitlement

What your plan unlocks. An entitlement controls which paid modules your organisation can use — separate from roles, which control what each person can do within what the organisation has. See Your plan.

Letterhead

Your organisation's printed identity — its logo, name, contact details, and designated signatories — applied to documents such as receipts, vouchers, and reports so they look official and consistent. See Letterhead & branding.

See also