Some terms have a meaning very wide but its habitual use is limited to a meaning. That does not mean that the rest of the meanings are wrong or never used, but that a certain definition is the most used by people in their daily lives.
That is what happens with consignment , a concept that derives from Latin remissa and that is linked to sending something from one place to another . Although it could refer to various objects, the word is most often used to name the turn of money that migrants realize to their families, who continue to live in their homeland.
For example: “Uncle Arnaldo told me that he has already made the shipment”, “A good part of this country's income comes from remittances made by those workers who have emigrated”, “Do not worry: as soon as I charge, I will send you a remittance so you can pay the debt”.
Remittances increased after the Industrial Revolution and, above all, from the globalization , when millions of people began to move and work in countries other than those of their origin. As many of these workers travel alone, the money they earn is sent to their families who continue to live in their nation. In this way, remittances multiplied.
We have to establish that, at the banking level, we usually talk about two types of remittances:
• Simple. These are the ones that allow the sending of promissory notes or bills of exchange, among others, with the clear objective of being able to liquidate a sale that has been made with the object of any type of merchandise. Specifically, they serve to enable the exporter, through the corresponding financial document, to get his bank to proceed with the collection of said sale.
• Documentaries. These remittances are those in which what we proceed to send are the commercial documents that have to do with the merchandise of sale. Those can be accompanied by receipts or promissory notes, for example, and will only be delivered to the buyer if he has agreed to pay the agreed amount or if he pays it directly.
Many are the banking entities around the world that offer these two types of remittances, within the international areas, to facilitate their commercial transactions to their clients.
At the accounting level, the term in question is also used. In that case, it is used to refer to the group of grouped payments that are made and that shape one accounting entry per group. Hence, they become a fundamental part of the work of an accountant who must keep an exhaustive record in this regard.
It should be noted, taking back what we said at the beginning of this article, that a shipment may be another type of shipment that does not involve money. So you can talk about a "Remittance of documents" or one "Consignment of merchandise".
Do not forget that in the past, the term remittance was also used with another meaning. Specifically, it was used to refer to the existing place to store cars.
