[email protected] and © 2026 SoftwareLit
[email protected] and © 2026 SoftwareLit
Common terms, acronyms, and concepts in business software defined, explained, and searchable.
A specific form of MFA requiring exactly two verification factors to access an account.
Combines something you know (password) with something you have (phone) or something you are (biometric).
Money a business owes to its suppliers and vendors for goods or services received but not yet paid for.
AP software captures incoming bills, routes them for approval, schedules payments, and records them in the accounting system.
Money customers owe a business for goods or services that have been delivered but not yet paid for.
Businesses send invoices, track what is due and overdue with an aging report, send payment reminders, and record payments when they arrive.
An iterative approach to software development that delivers work in short cycles called sprints.
Teams break projects into small increments, review progress after each sprint, and adapt based on feedback.
Technology that enables software to perform tasks that normally require human judgment, such as understanding language, recognizing patterns, and making predictions.
AI systems learn patterns from large amounts of data, then apply those patterns to new inputs to answer questions, classify information, or recommend actions.
AI software that can take actions to complete a multi-step task, not just answer a question.
An agent is given a goal and access to tools, such as email, a CRM, or a calendar, then plans and carries out steps, often with a person approving key actions.
A set of rules that allows different software systems to communicate with each other.
Developers use APIs to build custom connections between systems, sending and receiving structured data.
The total value of predictable, recurring subscription revenue normalized over a year.
Calculated by multiplying monthly recurring revenue by 12; a key SaaS growth metric.
Software that manages the recruitment process from job posting through to hiring.
Recruiters post jobs, track applicants, schedule interviews, and collaborate on hiring decisions inside one platform.
Commerce or software designed for transactions and relationships between two businesses.
Products are tailored for organizational buying cycles, admin controls, contracts, and multi-seat licensing.
Commerce or software built for transactions between a business and individual end customers.
Prioritizes ease of use, low friction onboarding, and individual account management.
A copy of data stored separately so it can be restored after deletion, hardware failure, or a cyberattack.
A common guideline is the 3-2-1 rule: keep three copies of data on two types of storage, with one copy offsite. Restores should be tested regularly.
Comparing a company's accounting records to its bank statements to confirm that both match.
Accounting software imports bank transactions through bank feeds and suggests matches, and users investigate and correct any differences.
Tools and processes that analyze data to provide actionable insights for decision-making.
Collects data from multiple sources, visualizes trends through dashboards, and enables self-serve reporting.
A discipline that models, automates, monitors, and optimizes end-to-end business workflows.
Teams map existing processes, identify bottlenecks, then use automation or redesign to improve efficiency.
A policy allowing employees to use personal devices to access company systems and data.
Requires MDM or EMM software to enforce security policies, encryption, and remote wipe on personal devices.
The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses.
Divide total sales and marketing spend by the number of new customers acquired in the same period.
A California law that gives residents rights over the personal information businesses collect about them.
Covered businesses must disclose what data they collect and honor requests to know, delete, or correct data and to opt out of its sale or sharing. It was expanded by the CPRA.
A distributed network of servers that delivers web content quickly to users based on geographic location.
Caches static assets on edge servers worldwide, reducing latency for end users.
Software that creates unified, persistent customer profiles by consolidating data from all touchpoints.
Ingests behavioral, transactional, and demographic data; resolves identities; makes profiles available to other tools.
Software that holds a text or voice conversation with users, often to answer questions or complete simple requests.
Rule-based chatbots follow scripted paths, while AI chatbots use language models to understand questions and pull answers from a knowledge base.
The rate at which customers stop doing business with a company or cancel a subscription during a period.
Churn rate is the number of customers lost during a period divided by the number at the start. Lowering churn is often cheaper than winning new customers.
Development practices that automate code testing and deployment to ship software faster and reliably.
Every code commit triggers automated tests; passing builds are automatically deployed to staging or production.
The on-demand delivery of computing services, such as servers, storage, databases, and software, over the internet.
Providers host infrastructure remotely; users access resources via browser or API without managing hardware.
Software that enables users to create, manage, and publish digital content without coding knowledge.
Provides a GUI for building pages, writing blog posts, uploading assets, and managing site structure.
A cloud-based platform enabling developers to add real-time communication features to apps via APIs.
Embed SMS, voice, video, or messaging into existing software without building telecom infrastructure.
Software that helps sales reps quickly generate accurate quotes for complex or configurable products.
Guides reps through product configuration options, applies pricing rules, and generates a formatted quote.
Software that manages a company's interactions with current and potential customers.
Centralizes contact data, tracks deals through a sales pipeline, and enables automated follow-ups.
A metric measuring how satisfied customers are with a product, service, or interaction.
Collected via post-interaction surveys; customers rate experience on a 1–5 or 1–10 scale.
A simple file format that stores table data as plain text, with commas separating each value.
Most business software can export and import CSV files, which makes them a common way to move lists and records between systems.
A cloud-based model that provides on-demand data access and management as a subscription.
Organizations subscribe to curated, clean datasets via APIs rather than building their own data pipelines.
A system for storing, organizing, and distributing digital media files like images, videos, and documents.
Teams upload assets with metadata tags; others search and download approved files from a central library.
A visual screen that shows key metrics and trends at a glance.
Dashboards pull live data from business systems and display it as charts and numbers so teams can monitor performance and spot problems quickly.
Moving existing data, such as customers, products, or transactions, from an old system into a new one.
Teams clean the data, map old fields to new fields, run a test import, check the results, and then complete the final migration.
A centralized repository that stores large volumes of structured data from multiple sources for reporting.
ETL processes move data from operational systems into the warehouse; analysts query it with SQL or BI tools.
An organized collection of data stored electronically so it can be searched, updated, and managed efficiently.
Business apps store their records in databases behind the scenes. Relational databases organize data into related tables.
A formula language used in Microsoft Power BI and Analysis Services for data modeling and calculations.
Users write DAX formulas to create calculated columns, measures, and KPIs in Power BI data models.
A culture and set of practices that unify software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops).
Teams collaborate across the full software lifecycle using automation, monitoring, and rapid iteration.
An auto repair tool that lets technicians document vehicle inspections with photos, videos, and notes.
Technicians complete a digital checklist, and the shop texts the report to the customer, who can review and approve recommended repairs from a phone.
The computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard electronic format.
Trading partners agree on EDI standards; transactions are transmitted automatically without manual re-keying.
A digital version of a patient's complete medical history, accessible across healthcare providers.
Clinicians record visits, diagnoses, medications, and lab results; authorized providers share records securely.
A modern variant of ETL where raw data is loaded into the destination first, then transformed inside it.
Cloud data warehouses handle transformation at query time, preserving raw data for flexible analysis.
A digital record of a patient's history within a single healthcare practice.
Similar to EHR but scoped to one organization; not designed for sharing across providers.
Scrambling data so only people or systems with the correct key can read it.
Data is encrypted in transit, such as over HTTPS, and at rest, such as on servers and laptops, so stolen data is unreadable without the key.
Integrated software that manages core business processes, including finance, HR, supply chain, and manufacturing, in one system.
Modules share a common database so changes in one area (e.g., sales) automatically update others (inventory).
Middleware architecture that connects disparate enterprise applications through a shared communication layer.
Applications publish and subscribe to a central bus, which routes messages and transforms data between systems.
A legally binding digital equivalent of a handwritten signature applied to electronic documents.
Signees verify identity and apply a signature; the platform creates a tamper-evident audit trail.
A data integration process that pulls data from sources, cleans or reformats it, and loads it into a destination.
Scheduled jobs extract raw data from databases or APIs, apply transformation logic, and insert it into a data warehouse.
A limited period of free access to a paid software plan so buyers can test it before purchasing.
Trials usually last 7 to 30 days. Some require a credit card and convert to a paid plan automatically, so buyers should note the end date.
A pricing strategy offering a free tier with limited features and paid tiers with advanced functionality.
Users start free to reduce adoption friction; conversion to paid happens when they hit usage limits.
Software that helps service businesses manage work done at customer locations.
FSM tools handle quoting, scheduling, dispatching technicians, mobile job details, invoicing, and payment collection in the field.
A unit measuring workload equal to one employee working full-time hours.
Used in budgeting and capacity planning; two 0.5 FTE part-timers equal 1 FTE.
EU regulation governing the collection, processing, and storage of personal data of EU residents.
Organizations must obtain consent, enable data access/deletion requests, and report breaches within 72 hours.
The master record of all of a company's financial transactions, organized by account.
Every transaction is posted to accounts in the chart of accounts, and the ledger feeds financial statements like the balance sheet and income statement.
A type of AI that creates new content, such as text, images, audio, code, or video, based on a request.
Users describe what they want in a prompt, and the model produces a draft that they review, edit, and approve before using it.
A strategy defining how a company will launch a product and reach target customers.
Covers pricing, messaging, sales channels, and customer segments for a product launch or expansion.
A visual interface that allows users to interact with software through icons and windows rather than text commands.
Renders clickable elements, forms, and navigation that abstract underlying code from end users.
A broader term for HR software that covers recruiting, onboarding, development, and workforce planning.
Unifies HR data across the employee lifecycle in one platform with analytics and compliance tools.
A backend-only content management system that delivers content via API to any front-end or device.
Content editors manage structured content; developers fetch it via API and render it on websites, apps, or IoT devices.
A US federal law that sets rules for protecting the privacy and security of patients' health information.
Healthcare providers, health plans, and their business associates must safeguard health data. Software vendors that handle it typically sign a Business Associate Agreement.
Software designed to serve a broad range of industries and business functions, solving common needs regardless of sector.
Built for mass-market appeal, horizontal software ships general-purpose features, such as project management, communication, and HR, that work for any company without industry-specific customization. Vendors prioritize breadth over depth, earning revenue across many verticals.
A system for storing and managing employee data including payroll, benefits, and compliance.
Serves as the system of record for all people data; often integrated with payroll and ATS platforms.
The discipline of managing the operational side of an organization's workforce, including hiring, payroll, benefits, compliance, and employee relations, along with the software that supports it.
HRM software automates day-to-day people operations: tracking employee records, processing payroll, administering benefits, managing time off, and ensuring labor law compliance. It is narrower than HCM, which extends into strategic talent management and workforce planning.
A setup that combines cloud-based software or services with on-premise systems.
A business might keep sensitive data on its own servers while using cloud apps for collaboration, with the two connected by integrations.
Cloud-based infrastructure (servers, storage, networking) provided on a pay-per-use basis.
Organizations rent virtual machines and storage from cloud providers instead of owning physical hardware.
Policies and technology controlling who has access to what systems and data in an organization.
Administrators define user roles and permissions; IAM tools enforce these rules and audit access logs.
The process of setting up new software so it is ready for a business to use every day.
Implementation typically includes planning, configuration, data migration, integrations, testing, training, and go-live. Complex systems can take months.
Tracking the quantity, location, and value of products or materials a business keeps on hand.
Software updates stock levels as items are received and sold, sets reorder points, and alerts staff before items run out.
A document a business sends a customer that lists what was provided, the amount owed, and the payment terms.
Invoicing software creates branded invoices, sends them by email, accepts online payments, and sends reminders for unpaid balances.
A cloud-based platform for connecting applications and automating data flows without custom code.
Provides pre-built connectors and a visual designer to map data between systems and trigger workflows.
A company that develops and sells software products built on a third-party platform or independently.
ISVs build apps that extend platforms (e.g., Salesforce AppExchange) or sell standalone solutions to end users.
A widely used framework of best practices for managing IT services.
IT teams use ITIL practices, such as incident, problem, and change management, to deliver reliable services. ITSM software is often built around these practices.
A strategic approach to designing, delivering, and managing IT services aligned with business needs.
Tracks incidents, service requests, changes, and assets using frameworks like ITIL.
Tracking all labor, materials, equipment, and overhead costs for a specific job or project to see whether it made a profit.
Field teams log hours and materials against each job, and the software compares actual costs to the estimate so owners can adjust pricing.
A lightweight, human-readable data format used for exchanging information between systems.
APIs send and receive data as JSON objects; applications parse the structure to extract values.
A visual workflow management method using boards and cards to track tasks through stages.
Work items move from left to right across columns (To Do → In Progress → Done) with WIP limits.
A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving its key objectives.
Leadership sets KPIs tied to goals; BI tools and dashboards track them in real time.
The legal right to use software. A seat is one license assigned to one user.
Many SaaS products charge per seat per month, so costs grow as users are added. Removing inactive users is an easy way to cut spending.
An AI model trained on large amounts of text so it can understand and generate human language.
LLMs power chat assistants and AI features inside business apps, predicting the most useful response to a prompt based on patterns learned during training.
A platform for creating, delivering, and tracking online training and education content.
Administrators upload courses; learners complete modules; the system tracks progress and certifications.
A development environment that minimizes hand-coding, requiring code only for complex logic.
Developers and power users use drag-and-drop components; code is written only for custom requirements.
The total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire relationship.
Calculated as average purchase value × purchase frequency × customer lifespan.
A branch of AI in which software improves at a task by learning from data rather than following only hand-written rules.
A model is trained on historical examples, such as past fraudulent transactions, then uses what it learned to make predictions about new data.
Any software designed to damage, disrupt, spy on, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system.
Malware spreads through infected downloads, attachments, and websites. Security software detects and blocks it, and users avoid opening unexpected files.
A process that creates a single, authoritative source of core business data.
Consolidates duplicate records across systems, enforces data standards, and governs data quality centrally.
A security process requiring users to verify identity using two or more independent factors.
After entering a password, users provide a second factor such as a TOTP code, push notification, or biometric.
Practices for deploying, monitoring, and maintaining machine learning models in production.
Adapts DevOps principles to ML; covers model versioning, data pipelines, performance monitoring, and retraining.
The predictable monthly revenue generated from active subscriptions.
Summing all active subscription values for a given month; used to track growth and health of SaaS businesses.
The average time it takes to fully resolve a system failure or support incident.
Calculated by dividing total downtime by the number of incidents; used to benchmark IT operations.
Tools that allow users to build applications and automate processes without writing code.
Drag-and-drop builders and visual logic editors let non-technical users create workflows and apps.
A loyalty metric measuring how likely customers are to recommend a product to others (scale 0–10).
Subtracting percentage of detractors (0–6) from promoters (9–10); scores range from -100 to +100.
Technology that converts images of text (scanned documents, photos) into machine-readable text.
Image processing algorithms detect and classify characters; output is searchable, editable text.
A goal-setting framework linking ambitious objectives to measurable key results.
Teams define an inspiring Objective, then set 3–5 quantifiable Key Results that indicate progress.
Software installed and run on a company's own servers and computers rather than hosted by the vendor in the cloud.
The business manages hardware, security, updates, and backups. It offers more control but requires more IT resources than cloud software.
The process of helping new users or new employees get set up and productive.
Customer onboarding introduces users to software through setup guides and training. Employee onboarding covers paperwork, accounts, and orientation.
A cloud environment providing a platform for developers to build, run, and manage applications.
Handles OS, runtime, and middleware so developers focus only on application code and data.
An app that securely stores and fills in passwords so users can have a strong, unique password for every account.
Passwords are kept in an encrypted vault unlocked by one master password. Business versions add shared vaults and admin controls.
The process of calculating and paying employee wages, withholding taxes, and filing required payroll tax reports.
Payroll software uses hours, pay rates, and tax settings to calculate paychecks, pays employees by direct deposit, and prepares tax filings and year-end forms.
Security requirements for any business that accepts, processes, stores, or transmits credit card information.
Businesses reduce their compliance burden by using payment processors that tokenize card data so card numbers never touch their own systems.
Settings that control what each user can see and do inside a software system.
Admins assign roles such as Admin, Editor, or Viewer and follow the principle of least privilege, giving people only the access their job requires.
A scam in which attackers pretend to be a trusted person or company to trick someone into sharing passwords, sending money, or opening a harmful file.
Messages often create urgency, such as a fake invoice or password reset. Employee training, email filtering, and MFA reduce the risk.
Any data that can be used to identify a specific individual, such as name, email, or SSN.
Regulated by laws like GDPR and CCPA; systems handling PII require encryption, access controls, and audit logs.
A system that centralizes, enriches, and distributes product data across sales channels.
Teams manage product specs, images, and descriptions in one place; data is syndicated to e-commerce and marketplaces.
A go-to-market strategy where the product itself is the primary driver of customer acquisition and expansion.
Users self-serve, experience value quickly, and naturally upgrade or invite teammates as they reach limits.
A system that processes retail transactions at the moment and place of purchase.
POS software runs the checkout, tracks inventory, and reports sales. POS hardware is the physical equipment, such as card readers, terminals, receipt printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers. Many systems require their own hardware.
An online advertising model in which advertisers pay each time someone clicks their ad.
Advertisers bid on keywords or audiences and set budgets, and the platform shows ads and charges per click.
The instructions, question, or information a user gives an AI tool to get a response.
Clear prompts include the task, relevant context, the desired format, and examples. Better prompts generally produce more accurate and useful results.
A document a buyer sends a supplier to formally request goods or services at an agreed price and quantity.
Once approved, the PO is sent to the vendor. When the bill arrives, it is compared to the PO and the receiving record before payment, a process called three-way matching.
Malicious software that locks or encrypts a company's files and demands payment to restore access.
It usually enters through phishing or unpatched systems. Offline backups, software updates, and an incident response plan help businesses recover without paying.
A security model that restricts system access based on a user's defined role within an organization.
Admins assign roles (e.g., Editor, Admin, Viewer); permissions are inherited from the role, not set individually.
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of a technology investment.
Calculate as (Net Benefit ÷ Cost) × 100; used to justify software purchases and measure outcomes.
A software delivery model where applications are hosted in the cloud and accessed via subscription.
Vendors maintain infrastructure, security, and updates; customers access the software through a browser.
An open standard that lets an identity provider tell a software application that a user has already signed in.
When a user opens an app, the app redirects to the company's identity provider, which verifies the user and sends back a secure approval. This is how many SSO setups work.
A software's ability to support a growing organization by adapting to increased users, data, and complexity.
Software expands to accommodate more users, advanced features, integrations, security, and deployment options.
An open standard for automatically creating, updating, and removing user accounts across applications.
When HR adds or removes an employee in the identity system, SCIM automatically provisions or deprovisions their accounts in connected apps.
Software that manages the flow of goods, data, and finances from supplier to end customer.
Tracks procurement, production, inventory levels, logistics, and demand forecasting in one system.
A set of tools, libraries, and documentation for developers to build applications on a specific platform.
Developers integrate an SDK into their code to access the platform's features, APIs, and UI components.
Paid advertising on search engines to increase visibility for target keywords.
Advertisers bid on keywords; ads appear in search results and are charged per click (PPC).
Improving a website so it ranks higher in unpaid search engine results.
SEO involves useful content, relevant keywords, fast and mobile-friendly pages, and links from other reputable websites.
A contractual commitment between a vendor and customer defining expected service quality and uptime.
Specifies metrics like uptime percentage, response times, and remedies for breaches.
Businesses below a certain size threshold, often used to classify software buyer segments.
SMB pricing and features differ from enterprise; vendors often offer lighter-weight products for this segment.
An audit framework evaluating a vendor's controls around security, availability, and data confidentiality.
An independent auditor tests technical and operational controls; companies share the resulting report with customers.
A grid of rows and columns used to organize, calculate, and analyze data.
Users enter data in cells and use formulas, functions, charts, and pivot tables to summarize and analyze it.
The standard language for retrieving and working with data in relational databases.
Analysts write queries that select, filter, join, and summarize data from database tables, often feeding reports and dashboards.
An authentication scheme allowing users to log in once and access multiple applications.
An identity provider authenticates the user; a token is passed to connected apps to grant access.
The full cost of a software investment including license, implementation, training, and ongoing maintenance.
A complete TCO analysis prevents underestimating costs by including hidden fees beyond the subscription price.
A temporary authentication code generated from a shared secret and the current timestamp.
An authenticator app generates a 6-digit code refreshing every 30 seconds; used as an MFA factor.
The visual elements through which a user interacts with software, such as buttons, menus, forms, and icons.
Designed to be intuitive and efficient; poor UI increases training costs and reduces product adoption.
The percentage of time a system is operational and accessible to users.
Measured as (Total Time − Downtime) ÷ Total Time × 100; often expressed in 'nines' (99.9%, 99.99%).
The overall quality of a user's interaction with a product, encompassing usability, accessibility, and satisfaction.
UX research informs design decisions; usability testing validates that the product meets user needs.
The dependence on a single vendor's ecosystem, making it difficult to switch without significant cost.
Arises from proprietary data formats, deep integrations, or switching costs in people and process.
Software purpose-built for a specific industry or niche, embedding domain workflows, compliance requirements, and terminology out of the box.
Developed with deep expertise in one sector, vertical software reduces implementation time and customization by shipping industry-specific features (such as dental charting for healthcare or load boards for trucking) that horizontal tools cannot offer natively. Vendors trade market breadth for deeper customer retention.
A secure, encrypted connection between a device and a private network over the internet.
Remote employees connect through a VPN to reach company systems safely. Many organizations are adding or shifting to Zero Trust access tools.
International guidelines for making websites and digital content usable by people with disabilities.
Published by the W3C, WCAG has three conformance levels (A, AA, and AAA). Level AA is the target most organizations and accessibility policies reference.
A real-time HTTP notification sent by one application to another when a specific event occurs.
The source app POSTs a JSON payload to a configured URL on the receiving app whenever a trigger fires.
Software that manages warehouse operations including receiving, picking, packing, and shipping inventory.
Tracks inventory locations, directs warehouse staff via handheld devices, and integrates with ERP and shipping carriers.
The use of software to execute repeatable tasks and processes without manual intervention.
Triggers (an event or schedule) initiate a sequence of automated actions across one or more applications.
A markup language for encoding documents in a format readable by both humans and machines.
Used in legacy enterprise integrations, SOAP APIs, and configuration files; largely succeeded by JSON.
A security model that requires continuous verification of every user and device, regardless of network location.
Follows the principle of 'never trust, always verify,' so every access request is authenticated, authorized, and encrypted.