A-B

Term	Definition
AAM	An acronym for Alliance for Audited Media, an independent agency that audits newspaper circulation figures to assure advertisers of the accuracy of these figures. It was previously known as the ABC.
AAM Zone	A user-defined designator which defines how paid circulation totals will be reported for AAM (Alliance for Audited Media). AAM zones are also known as AAM “report areas”.
Access	An access happens whenever a process touches a record in a search, read, write or other operation. For example, a process searching for a subscriber may access thousands of records in order to read or write to the one record for the subscriber.
Account	A carrier or dealer.
Account ID	The ID of the person responsible for the carrier/dealer’s bill.
Account Payment Adjustment	A credit or debit made to the an account’s balance that is not a cash transaction. For example, you may credit an account’s balance for purchasing additional papers for shortage purposes.
Accruals	The process of running a premature billing run, which is then reversed out. The purpose of accruals is to update general ledger accounts. Accruals are run when a newspaper’s fiscal periods do not match their billing periods.
Actual Draw	Draw based on papers that were actually distributed via routes or mail.
Adjustment Days	Expiration days adjusted for a subscription, if available, for payment and restart transactions or through manual adjustments.
Advance Draw	Draw estimates calculated for an advance publishing run.
Advance Publishing	The practice of distributing sections of the newspaper to carriers in advance. The carriers then insert these sections into the newspapers when they arrive.
Apply a Payment	Activate a payment toward an invoice or customer’s balance.
Apply to AR Now	Charges or credits that apply directly to an account balance, not when account billing is processed (typically at the end of the month).
ASCII	ASCII is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is an alpha-numeric format code that is used to interface data between computers.
Auto Renew	Subscriptions that are automatically renewed to the customer’s credit card or from the customer’s bank account.
Average Copy Rate	The cost of a single copy of the newspaper to a carrier or subscriber. This may or may not vary by day of the week.
Background	Data processing is performed as a “hidden” activity while leaving the terminal free for other uses.
Batch	A group of payments and/or credits that is assigned an ID. A batch allows you to have control totals for balancing purposes.
Batch Processing	Processing in which the entire program executes at once with little, if any, operator intervention.
Bellatrix	An automated rack system. Draw information can be imported into Circulation from Bellatrix.
Bill Period	The ID used for selecting carrier/dealers for account billing and applying recurring charges and/or credits to account bills.
Bill Source	The ID used to group carriers and/or dealers for billing purposes.
Billing Method	The method by which subscribers are billed for the newspaper. Billing methods include office pay, carrier collect, paid complimentary and unpaid complimentary.
Bond	Newspapers sometimes have carriers pay bond charges as security for their routes. The bond money is returned when the carrier leaves the route.
Bonus Day	A day, typically a holiday, on which a subscriber receives the paper, even though it is not a normal delivery day for the subscriber (for example, if a weekend-only subscriber receives a paper on Tuesday, January 1). See also “Premium Day”.
Bulk	A distribution method used for AAM reporting purposes in which the “bulk” paid circulation figures are reported separately. For example, “bulk” subscriptions may be delivered to hotels or to the airport, and the circulation figures will be reported as paid “Bulk” for the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Also, in relation to trucks, routes that are “bulked” get one bundle top.
Bundle Labels	See Bundle Tops.
Bundle Tops	A printed label designating the contents of a bundle of newspapers, the carrier or dealer name, the drop location, etc. It may also contain information for the carrier about subscription starts, stops, etc.
Business	The highest level in the organizational structure as it relates to financial information and reporting.
Business Rules	The set of rules you set up to control the operation of Circulation. Business Rules can control whether fields, menus, menu items and windows are active for a particular user or group of users. See the Business Rules Workbook.