Compliance reporting comes with its own vocabulary. This page defines the terms you’ll run into most often when you’re working with ISP and filing reports with the FEC, FPPC, or another agency.
Who this is for
New treasurers, committee staff handling their first reporting cycle, and anyone who wants a quick refresher on the language of compliance reporting.
What you’ll find here
Plain-English definitions of the terms used across compliance reports and throughout the ISP help library. Skim or search for what you need — there’s no need to read in order.
Key terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Committee | A formally registered organization formed to raise and spend money for a political purpose. Includes candidate committees (campaigns), party committees, and political action committees (PACs). |
| Filer | The organization responsible for filing compliance reports — another name for a committee. In ISP, the filer is the organization whose information populates all of your generated compliance reports. |
| Campaign | An organization formed to elect a candidate to public office. Also called a candidate committee. |
| Political Action Committee (PAC) | An organization formed to raise and spend funds supporting or opposing more than one candidate or committee. |
| Donor / contributor | An individual or organization giving money voluntarily to a committee. |
| Candidate | An individual seeking election to public office. |
| Treasurer | The person legally responsible for a committee’s finances and compliance reporting. |
| Transaction | Any financial event recorded by your committee. Some have a cash impact (contributions received, expenses) and some don’t (in-kinds, memos). |
| Contribution | A cash transaction received by your committee from a voluntary contributor. |
| Expense | Funds your committee spends in exchange for goods or services. |
| In-kind (expenditure or receipt) | A receipt or gift of goods or services where the cost is paid by someone other than your committee. Does not apply to volunteer time, which is donated activity by an individual on their own behalf for the benefit of the committee. |
| Aggregate | The running total of similar transactions, usually used to track itemization thresholds. Example: a donor might make several small contributions, but once those add up to the agency’s itemization threshold, you’ll need to itemize the donor’s publicly reportable information. |
| Threshold | The dollar amount above which transactions must be itemized. |
| Itemization | Reporting individual transactions on a report’s schedules, with the contributor or payee identified, when those transactions meet or exceed the agency’s threshold. ISP handles the mechanics of which transactions itemize and how, based on each agency’s specifications. |
Related help files
If you need help
Not sure which term applies to your situation, or how it shows up in your ISP setup? Contact ISP support — we’re happy to walk through it with you.
