ERP glossary
What thedocumentsin your ERP mean
For owners, finance and operations teams choosing or running an ERP: what each document is, the rules it must follow, what goes wrong in real businesses, and only then how ERPNext models it.
ERPNext is one representation; CRM, commerce and analytics systems may model the same document differently. The glossary is also published as /concepts.json.
Sales
- CustomerA customer is a party that has an established commercial relationship with a business and can be billed for goods or services.
- Sales OrderA sales order is a seller's confirmed commitment to supply specified goods or services to a customer at agreed prices and dates.
- QuotationA quotation is a seller's formal offer to supply specified goods or services at stated prices, valid for a stated period.
- ContactA contact is a person associated with one or more parties a business deals with, reachable by name and channel.
- AddressAn address is a physical or registered location associated with a party, used for delivery, billing or statutory identification.
Procurement
- Purchase OrderA purchase order is a buyer's binding commitment to acquire specified goods or services from a supplier at agreed terms.
- SupplierA supplier is a party from which a business acquires goods or services and to which it therefore owes payment.
- Purchase ReceiptA purchase receipt is the record that specified goods physically arrived from a supplier and entered the buyer's control.
- Purchase InvoiceA purchase invoice is a supplier's demand for payment that creates a liability in the buyer's accounts.
Inventory
- Delivery NoteA delivery note is the record that specified goods physically left the seller's control and were transferred to the buyer.
- ItemAn item is a distinct good or service that a business buys, sells, stocks or manufactures, identified by a unique code.
- WarehouseA warehouse is a defined location at which stock is held and against which stock movements are recorded.
- ReturnA return is the movement of goods back from a buyer to a seller, reversing all or part of a completed delivery.
Finance
- InvoiceAn invoice is a document that creates a legally enforceable obligation for a buyer to pay a seller a stated amount by a stated date.
- PaymentA payment is a transfer of money that discharges some or all of an obligation between two parties.
- Credit NoteA credit note is a document that reduces or cancels an amount a customer owes, by reversing all or part of a previously issued invoice.
- General LedgerThe general ledger is the complete, permanent record of every financial transaction a business has posted, organised by account.
- Chart of AccountsA chart of accounts is the structured list of every account against which a business records financial transactions.
- Bank StatementA bank statement is the bank's record of every movement into and out of an account over a period, against which a business reconciles its own books.
Systems
- GSTINA GSTIN is a 15-character registration number issued to a business for a specific Indian state, under which that business collects and remits GST for operations in that state.
- CompanyA company is a legal entity that owns assets, incurs liabilities, files its own statutory accounts, and under which all transactions of a business unit are recorded.
- Tax RuleA tax rule is the logic that determines which tax rates apply to a transaction, based on what is being sold, who is buying, and where the supply takes place.
- Approval WorkflowAn approval workflow is a defined sequence of authorisations a document must obtain before it becomes binding or actionable.
- EmployeeAn employee is a person engaged by a business under a contract of employment, carrying a payroll identity and a set of system permissions.
More coming, one chain at a time
Next: events, consent, lead identity, customer versus prospect, cross-system ownership and analytical signals. Each entry links its invariant, failure mode, system representation and related objects as the published graph grows.