Plug (accounting)
A plug, also known as reconciling amount, is an unsupported adjustment to an accounting record or general ledger. Ideally, bookkeeping should account for all numbers during reconciliation, i.e. when comparing two sets of accounting records to make sure they are in agreement. However, discrepancies, i.e. unintentional accounting errors can occur, for example due to data entry, or an adding or a rounding error. An organization may use a plug for an immaterial amount, because it may not be cost effective to search through numerous pages of transactions to find the error. The acceptability of a plug depends upon the amount: a plug must be immaterial in order to be justified.
Definition
The most basic definition of a plug may be "a placeholder number which is used in an overall cost or budget estimate until a more accurate figure can be obtained".Plugging has been described as "the use of false numbers in financial ledgers that forces balances, and effectively masks accounting errors and control deficiencies".