Productivity glossary
Glossary of productivity, time management, & work-life balance terms.
A
Ageing report
A breakdown of receivables or payables by how long they have been outstanding, usually in 30, 60, 90 and 90-plus day buckets.
AI agent
Software that completes a defined task end to end rather than presenting information about it. On easyto.work, agents are priced on the outcome they produce.
AMC
Annual Maintenance Contract. A recurring agreement covering servicing of equipment, tracked against assets so renewals and cost per machine stay visible.
Attrition
The rate at which employees leave over a period. Read alongside tenure, pay and performance data, it becomes predictive rather than historical.
Audit trail
An immutable record of every change made to a record, including who made it and when. Required for statutory audit and for any AI action taken on your data.
B
Batch tracking
Recording stock by production or purchase batch, so expiry, recall and quality issues can be traced to a specific set of units.
Beat plan
A permanent journey plan defining which outlets a field sales representative visits on which day, used heavily in distribution.
Bin location
A specific storage position within a warehouse, allowing stock to be found without searching an entire aisle.
BOM
Bill of Materials. The structured list of components and quantities needed to manufacture one unit, and the basis for MRP planning.
C
CAPA
Corrective and Preventive Action. The workflow that follows a quality non-conformance, tracked to closure with an owner and a due date.
Cash flow forecast
A rolling projection of cash position, typically over thirteen weeks, built from receivables, payables, payroll and loan schedules.
CFDI
Comprobante Fiscal Digital por Internet. Mexico’s mandatory electronic invoice, stamped by an authorised provider before it is valid.
Chart of accounts
The structured list of ledgers a business posts to. Shared across every module so operations and finance never disagree on classification.
Cost centre
A unit of the business against which costs are recorded, allowing profitability to be measured by department, site or project.
Credit limit
The maximum outstanding a customer may carry. Enforced at order entry rather than discovered at dispatch.
D
Data residency
The requirement that data is stored, and sometimes processed, within a defined geography. Distinct from data sovereignty, which concerns whose law applies to it.
DSO
Days Sales Outstanding. The average number of days taken to collect payment after a sale. The single most useful working-capital metric for most SMEs.
Dunning
The structured sequence of reminders sent to recover an overdue payment, escalating in tone and channel over time.
E
E-invoicing
Issuing invoices in a machine-readable format registered with, or transmitted through, a government-mandated network. Peppol and EN 16931 in Europe, CFDI in Mexico, NF-e in Brazil, IRN in India.
Economic nexus
The threshold of sales or transactions that creates an obligation to register for and collect sales tax in a US state, even without physical presence.
EMR
Electronic Medical Record. The digital clinical record of a patient, including history, prescriptions and results.
EN 16931
The European standard defining the semantic model for an electronic invoice, underpinning e-invoicing mandates across EU member states.
ESOP
Employee Stock Option Plan. Options granted to employees, with vesting schedules and perquisite tax treatment handled through payroll.
F
Field service
Work performed at a customer site rather than your own, involving dispatch, an offline technician app, van stock and a signed job card.
FIFO
First In, First Out. An inventory valuation method assuming the oldest stock is consumed first, common where goods have shelf life.
Full and final settlement
The closing payment on an employee's exit, including notice recovery, leave encashment and gratuity where applicable.
Functional currency
The currency of the primary economic environment in which an entity operates, and the currency its books are kept in before translation for consolidation.
G
GDPR
The EU General Data Protection Regulation. Governs processing of personal data of people in the EU, with parallel regimes in the UK, Brazil (LGPD), Canada (PIPEDA), Singapore (PDPA) and India (DPDP).
Geofencing
Restricting an action, usually attendance check-in, to a defined geographic boundary, verified by the mobile device.
Goods movement document
An electronic document required for the movement of goods above a threshold value. E-way bill in India, and comparable regimes in several other jurisdictions.
Gratuity
A statutory lump sum payable to employees on exit after a qualifying period of continuous service.
GRN
Goods Receipt Note. The record confirming what was physically received against a purchase order, and the second leg of three-way matching.
GST
Goods and Services Tax. A value-added consumption tax used in India, Australia, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand and elsewhere, each with its own rates, thresholds and return formats.
H
HRMS
Human Resource Management System. The employee record of truth, covering the full lifecycle from offer to full and final settlement.
HSN code
Harmonised System of Nomenclature. The classification code determining the GST rate applicable to a good.
I
Input tax credit
GST paid on purchases that can be offset against GST collected on sales, subject to the supplier having filed correctly.
Input tax reconciliation
Matching the tax your suppliers reported against your own purchase register, so input credit is not lost. Automated in most jurisdictions where the tax authority publishes supplier data.
Intercompany elimination
Removing transactions between group entities during consolidation, so group revenue is not overstated.
Inventory valuation
The monetary value assigned to stock on hand, calculated by FIFO, weighted average or another consistent method.
IRN
Invoice Reference Number. The unique identifier returned by the e-invoicing portal, without which a covered B2B invoice is not valid.
ISO/IEC 27001
The international standard for an information security management system. Certification requires an audit by an accredited body.
J
Job card
The work instruction issued for a production run or a service visit, capturing labour, material and machine time actually consumed.
Job work
Sending material to a third party for processing and receiving it back, requiring specific challans and statutory reconciliation.
K
KYC
Know Your Customer. Verification of identity and registration details, including tax registration and bank account validation for vendors.
L
Landed cost
The true cost of a purchased item including freight, duty, insurance and handling, rather than just the invoice price.
Ledger
An account against which financial transactions are posted, forming the basis of the trial balance and financial statements.
Ledger sync
Two-way exchange of masters, vouchers and stock with an existing accounting system — Tally, QuickBooks, Xero or SAP — so finance teams can keep the ledger they know.
Localisation
Interfaces, documents and AI that work in the language, script, date format and currency of each market — including right-to-left layouts.
M
MRP run
Material Requirements Planning. Calculating what to purchase and produce, and when, from demand, stock and lead times.
MTBF
Mean Time Between Failures. An equipment reliability measure used to justify preventive maintenance schedules or replacement.
Multi-entity
Operating several legal entities, requiring separate books and consolidated group reporting with intercompany elimination.
N
NF-e
Nota Fiscal Eletrônica. Brazil’s electronic invoice for goods, authorised by the state tax authority before dispatch.
Non-conformance
A quality failure against a defined specification, recorded with evidence and driven to closure through CAPA.
O
OEE
Overall Equipment Effectiveness. A composite measure of availability, performance and quality for a machine or line.
OKR
Objectives and Key Results. A goal framework where key results are measured, ideally from live operational data rather than self-reports.
Omni AI
The reasoning layer that reads across every module, so questions spanning HR, sales, finance and operations can be answered in one pass.
OSS / IOSS
One Stop Shop and Import One Stop Shop. EU schemes letting a seller declare VAT on cross-border B2C sales through a single registration.
Outcome pricing
Charging for the result an AI agent produces rather than per seat. An agent that produces nothing costs nothing.
P
Payroll tax
A tax on employment levied by a state, province or municipality in addition to national income tax.
Pension contribution
Mandatory retirement saving deducted through payroll — Provident Fund in India, workplace pension in the UK, 401(k) and Social Security in the US, superannuation in Australia.
Peppol
An international network for exchanging electronic procurement and invoicing documents, mandated or adopted in much of Europe, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Permanent establishment
A taxable presence created in a country by the nature or duration of activity there, potentially triggering corporate tax and payroll obligations.
POS
Point of Sale. The billing counter, which should keep operating through a network outage and sync when connectivity returns.
Promise to pay
A recorded commitment from a customer to settle by a specific date, tracked so the follow-up happens if it is missed.
Purchase order
The formal instruction to a vendor to supply goods or services at agreed terms, and the first leg of three-way matching.
Q
R
Reorder point
The stock level that triggers replenishment, ideally accounting for supplier lead time and demand variability.
Retention money
A portion of a contractor's bill withheld until defect liability expires, common in construction.
Reverse charge
A mechanism shifting liability for tax from the supplier to the buyer, common on cross-border services within the EU and on imported services elsewhere.
Right to erasure
A data subject’s right to have personal data deleted, subject to overriding legal retention obligations. Must be actionable in-product to be practical at scale.
RTO
Return to Origin. An e-commerce shipment returned undelivered, carrying freight cost in both directions.
Running account bill
A progressive bill raised against work completed to date on a construction contract, net of advances and retention.
S
SCIM
System for Cross-domain Identity Management. The standard for provisioning and de-provisioning user accounts automatically from your identity provider.
Secondary sales
What your dealers sell on to end customers, as distinct from what you sell to dealers. Usually invisible without a partner portal.
Serial tracking
Recording stock at individual unit level, required for warranty, service history and recall.
Shrinkage
Stock lost to theft, damage or error, measured as the gap between book stock and a physical count.
Single Touch Payroll
Australia’s regime requiring payroll information to be reported to the tax office each pay run rather than annually.
SLA
Service Level Agreement. A committed response or resolution time, with escalation when the clock is breached.
SOC 2
An attestation report on controls relevant to security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity and privacy. Type I tests design at a point in time; Type II tests operation over a period.
Social insurance
Statutory contributions funding health, unemployment or injury benefits — ESI in India, National Insurance in the UK, FICA in the United States, and equivalents elsewhere.
SSO
Single Sign-On. Authenticating through a central identity provider. Included on every easyto.work plan rather than an enterprise upsell.
Statutory reporting format
The presentation format prescribed by local company law — Schedule III in India, Companies Act formats in the UK, and local GAAP layouts elsewhere.
Sub-processor
A third party engaged by a processor to handle personal data. Data protection law generally requires these to be disclosed and change-notified.
Subcontracting
Outsourcing part of production, tracked through challans so material sent and received back reconciles.
T
Tax registration number
A jurisdiction-issued identifier for an entity registered for indirect tax — GSTIN in India, VAT number in the EU and UK, ABN in Australia, EIN in the United States.
Three-way matching
Verifying a vendor invoice against the purchase order and the goods receipt note before it is approved for payment.
Transfer pricing
The rules governing how transactions between related entities are priced, and the documentation tax authorities expect to support them.
Translation reserve
The equity reserve capturing gains and losses from translating a subsidiary’s results into the group presentation currency.
Trial balance
A listing of all ledger balances, which must agree before financial statements can be prepared.
U
Unified data model
One database beneath every module, so there is nothing to synchronise and nothing to reconcile between systems.
Utilisation
The proportion of available time that is billable, the central profitability measure for services businesses.
V
VAT/GST return
The periodic filing declaring supplies made and tax collected. Called GSTR-1 and 3B in India, VAT return in the EU and UK, BAS in Australia, and a sales tax return in the US.
Vesting
The schedule over which granted stock options become exercisable, usually with a cliff followed by periodic vesting.
W
Warehouse management
Put-away, picking, packing and cycle counting, increasingly driven by phone-camera barcode scanning rather than dedicated hardware.
Weighted average cost
An inventory valuation method using the average cost of all units on hand, smoothing price fluctuations.
WIP
Work In Progress. Value of work performed but not yet billed, and a common source of overstated profitability if unmanaged.
Withholding tax
Tax deducted at source on specified payments and remitted on the recipient’s behalf. TDS in India, PAYE in the UK and Ireland, backup withholding in the US.
Working capital
The cash tied up in receivables and inventory less payables. Reducing DSO is usually the fastest way to release it.
X
Y
Z
Zero-rated supply
A supply taxed at zero percent, such as most exports, where input credit generally remains claimable.