Glossary

Plain definitions of every term in the guide. Skim it once and the chapters read faster.

Core ideas

Building block

One of the few fundamental things that can move in a transaction: retail, food, or service, plus access and rental as hybrids. Every business is a mixture of these. See the mental model.

Product type

The kind of thing a catalogue item is: Product (retail or food good), Service (a booking), Digital (access/rights), Bundle (a fixed package), or Composite (build-your-own). Chosen once per item; it decides inventory, scheduling, and fulfilment behaviour. The most consequential modelling choice. See getting started.

Retail

The building block where a finished physical thing changes hands and the unit you sell equals the unit you count. See retail.

Food

The building block where you make something from ingredients, so the unit you sell differs from the units you count, bridged by a recipe. Covers kitchens and light manufacturing. See food.

Service

The building block where you sell time, a person, or a space over a period — a booking. See services.

Access

A hybrid block: granting rights with nothing physical (membership, course, licence, ticket). Modelled as a digital product, usually with a billing plan.

Rental

A hybrid block: the customer takes a physical thing and returns it. Modelled as a multi-day service over a bookable resource.

Products and stock

Product

The thing a customer recognises and buys. Has a name, price, and one or more variants. See retail.

Variant

A specific form of a product the customer can choose — "Red / Large". Variants are the same product in interchangeable forms, not separate products. See retail.

Axis

A dimension a product varies along — "Size", "Colour". Holds values.

Value

One option on an axis — "Large", "Red".

Price difference (price adjustment)

The amount a variant adds to (or subtracts from) the base price. Relative, not the whole price restated.

SKU

A code identifying a variant for inventory matching and scanning.

Stock

The physical inventory you count. In retail it maps one-to-one to a variant; in food it's the ingredients a recipe consumes.

Recipe

The list of stock ingredients a food item consumes, with amounts and waste. The bridge between what you sell and what you count. See food.

Multiplier

A factor on a size variant that scales how much of the recipe it uses (Large 1.5×). Scales stock, not price. Only applies to axes marked as affecting the recipe.

Waste

The expected loss (spillage, trimming) added on top of a recipe amount, so stock forecasts stay accurate.

Backorder

Allowing a retail item to be bought when stock is zero.

Services and resources

Scheduling mode

Whether a service is booked within a day (time slots) or multi-day (date ranges). Must match the duration unit. See services.

Capacity

How many participants one service slot holds — a headcount. Right when there's nothing physical to assign; otherwise use bookable resources. See services.

Availability rule

A recurring weekly window when a service can be booked at a location.

Availability exception

A one-off override of availability — a holiday closure or special hours.

Bookable resource

A physical thing a booking occupies. A resource type is a class ("Deluxe Room"); a unit is one individual item ("Room 101"). See bookable resources.

Consumption mode

How a booking draws on a resource type: whole unit (takes a whole unit), shared capacity (draws from a seat pool), or fixed quantity (holds a set amount of gear). See bookable resources.

Assignment timing

Whether the specific unit is chosen now (at booking) or later (at check-in). Hotels use later; tables use now.

Deposit

An up-front payment on a service: none, a fixed amount, or a percentage. See services.

Staff requirement

A rule that a service needs a person — a count, optionally a role or skill, and whether any qualified staff or a specific one is needed.

Pricing and extras

Add-on

A modifier group on a product for small tweaks — "Toppings", "Milk" — with selection rules and per-option prices. See pricing.

Custom input field

A field that collects information at checkout (engraving, allergy, date), with optional validation, a surcharge, and a meaning tag. See pricing.

Tax mode

Whether entered prices are inclusive (tax already in the displayed price) or exclusive (tax added at checkout). See pricing.

Billing plan

A recurring (subscription) or split (instalment) payment arrangement on a product. See pricing.

Bundle

A fixed package of products sold as one line, priced flat or as a discount on the parts. You set the contents. See bundles.

Build-your-own (composite)

A product the customer assembles from groups of options, with per-group rules and a pricing mode. The customer sets the contents. See build-your-own.

Organizing

Category

Your shop's primary structure; a product has one home category. See organizing.

Collection

A flexible grouping a product can belong to many of, static or rule-driven — used for merchandising. See organizing.

Tag

A free-form label used for search and rule-driven collections.

Taxonomy

A global, standard classification code for marketplace and feed export — distinct from your own categories.

Channel

Where a product is sold — in-store, online, QR, marketplace, messaging. See organizing.

Location

A place your business operates. Prices, stock, availability, and resources all hang off a location; you need at least one.

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