Glossary

One-off, “on demand” reports that can be easily created within BI software and quickly answers a specific business question that has arisen unexpectedly.

Formed or calculated by the combination of many separate units or items. For example, it’s a big part of financial analysis and often finance people use a platform to collate internal and external market to make recommendations and predictions about the company’s financial future.

The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. Phocas data analytics lets you dig into a consolidated view of your actual product, customer and financial data.

Computer code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other.

A balance sheet reports a business’s assets, liabilities and equity at a specific date. It provides a view of financial position rather than performance over a period.

A performance management tool that holistically captures an organization’s performance from several vantage points (e.g. sales results vs. inventory levels) on a single page.

Using data about people’s behaviour to understand intent and predict future actions.

Extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions.

Budgeting sets out a business’s financial plan for a period, including expected revenue, spending and the resources allocated to its goals. Actual results can then be compared with the plan.

A technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help executives, business managers and purchasing managers make more informed business decisions.

A cash flow statement reports cash received and cash paid over a specified period, explaining how the business’s cash balance changed. It helps readers assess cash generation and liquidity.

A chart of accounts is the organized set of accounts a business uses to classify financial transactions and structure its financial reporting.

Commingled data refers to multiple data sources including financial, operational, sales, HR, CRM consolidated into one single dataset.

A structuring of big data that attaches situational contexts to single elements of big data to enrich them with business meaning.

Conversational AI enables people to interact with software through everyday language, using text or voice. It interprets questions and instructions and responds in a conversational way. Businesses can use it to help people find information, explore data and complete tasks.

Conversational analytics lets people explore business data through everyday-language questions and follow-up conversations. It retains the context of the discussion, helping users investigate results, understand changes and explore insights without writing queries or building reports from scratch.

Customer churn is the loss of customers who stop buying from a business. Changes in purchase recency or frequency can help identify accounts at risk of leaving.

Denoting strategies and software that enable a company to organize and optimize its customer relations.

Customer segmentation divides customers into groups with shared characteristics or behaviors so a business can tailor its sales, service and retention activity.

A graphical summary of various pieces of important information, typically used to give an overview of a business. Phocas dashboards allow you to see at a glance how your business is performing with an option to go deeper into the underlying data sitting behind the dashboard.

Data analytics is the process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modelling data to uncover actionable intelligence. It’s a key process in business intelligence.

A data connector is a configured mechanism that enables a system to access or transfer data from another source. A connector can use an API, database access or another supported exchange method.

Data governance defines how business data is managed and used, including responsibilities, rules and controls for access, quality and appropriate use. It supports a trustworthy basis for decisions.

Data integration brings data from different systems together into a usable, consistent view. It supports analysis and planning across sources that would otherwise remain separate.

A data structure that contains the information about a specific database that an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver needs in order to connect to it.

Data standardization is the process of establishing and applying rules and guidelines to ensure that data points are uniformly represented.

A large store of data accumulated from a wide range of sources within a company and used to guide management decisions.

A database is a structured collection of data stored electronically so it can be accessed, managed and analyzed efficiently.

Dead stock is inventory that has stopped selling and is unlikely to sell at its original price without action such as clearance, a supplier return or a write-off.

Decision intelligence brings together business data, analytics and models to help people choose and evaluate actions. It connects insights with business goals, helps teams assess possible outcomes and uses feedback from results to improve future decisions.

Demand planning estimates future product demand and uses that view to coordinate purchasing, inventory and operational plans with business goals. Plans are reviewed as conditions change.

Driver-based planning links financial plans to the operational activities that influence results, such as sales volumes or staffing. Changing those drivers updates the associated budget or forecast.

An enterprise resource management system which manages information and resources involved in a company’s operations.

ERP migration moves a business from an existing ERP setup to a new system or version. It includes preparing and moving data while maintaining access to information needed during the transition.

Three separate functions combined into a single programming tool. First, the extract function reads data from a specified source database and extracts a desired subset of data. Next, the transform function works with the acquired data – using rules or lookup tables, or creating combinations with other data – to convert it to the desired state. Finally, the load function is used to write the resulting data (either all of the subset or just the changes) to a target database, which may or may not previously exist.

Financial consolidation combines financial information from multiple entities into a group view, with adjustments needed to present the group’s results consistently.

Financial forecasting uses historical performance and financial data to estimate future financial outcomes, helping businesses assess their financial position and plan for different scenarios.

Financial modeling represents a business’s financial relationships using historical data and assumptions. The model helps estimate outcomes, test decisions and support planning.

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is a combination of financial activities that support an organization's financial health: planning and budgeting, reporting, and forecasting and modeling. FP&A solutions enhance the finance department's ability to manage performance by linking corporate strategy to execution.

Financial statements are reports that describe a business’s financial performance, position and cash movements. The main statements are the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement.

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that creates content, such as text, images or code, using patterns learned during training and the context supplied to it. In business software, it can help produce summaries, explanations and responses to questions.

Generative BI applies generative AI to business intelligence, helping people ask questions of their data and generate explanations, summaries or visualizations. It combines language-based interaction with business data and analytical tools to make insights easier to explore.

An income statement reports a business’s revenue, expenses and resulting profit or loss over a specified period. It helps readers understand financial performance during that period.

An easy digital dashboard of key metrics that is easy to filter, edit and explore to focus on the data that is most important to your team and company.

Technology enables the exploration of data via the manipulation of chart images, with the color, brightness, size, shape and motion of visual objects representing aspects of the dataset being analysed. These products provide an array of visualization options that go beyond those of pie, bar and line charts, including heat and tree maps, geographic maps, scatter plots and other special-purpose visuals.

Inventory management is the process of overseeing goods held by a business, including their availability, movement and replenishment, so customer demand can be met.

Inventory optimization uses demand, stock and supply data to balance product availability with the cost and risk of holding inventory. It helps determine what to stock, where and in what quantities.

Inventory turnover measures how often inventory is sold or replaced during a specified period. The calculation must state the period and use consistent cost or quantity measures.

Is a methodology that involves the client or end user in the design and development of an application, through a succession of collaborative workshops called JAD sessions.

A quantifiable measure used to evaluate the success of an organization, employee in meeting objectives for performance.

A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on large amounts of text to interpret and generate language. It can support tasks such as answering questions, summarizing information and translating text. Its responses depend on its training and the context provided.

The use of a computer program, a database, the Internet, or a specialized service to obtain or receive information for the purpose of expanding the scope of business, increasing sales revenues, looking for a job or for new clients or conducting specialized research.

In purchasing and inventory planning, lead time is the time between placing an order and receiving the goods. Longer or less predictable lead times affect replenishment decisions and stock requirements.

A computerized information-processing system designed to support the activities of company or organizational management.

A method of measuring something, or the results obtained from this: ‘the report provides various metrics at the class and method level.’

Software that extends desktop business intelligence applications so they can be used on a mobile device. Phocas is a fully mobile software solution that allows access to your data, dashboards and reports wherever you are on smartphones and tablets.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external data sources and tools. An MCP server makes selected information and functions available to compatible applications, giving them context and capabilities beyond the AI model itself.

Month-end close is the recurring process of checking and finalizing financial records for a month so the business can produce its monthly financial reports.

Natural language querying lets people ask questions of data in everyday language instead of writing query code such as SQL. The system interprets the request, queries the relevant data and returns results for the user to review.

Refers to activities within a company or supply chain that do not directly contribute to satisfying end consumers’ requirements. It is useful to think of these as activities that consumers would not be happy to pay for.

Computer processing that enables a user to easily and selectively extract and view data from different points of view.

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) is a data processing approach for managing day-to-day transactions, such as orders, payments and record updates, while maintaining data accuracy and consistency.

Overstock is inventory held above the level needed for expected demand. It ties up cash and storage capacity and can increase the risk of discounting or obsolescence.

Pricing strategy is the approach a business uses to set and adjust prices to meet commercial goals. It considers factors such as customer value, costs, margins and sales behavior.

Rebate management administers rebate agreements, including tracking qualifying activity, calculating amounts and checking what is payable or receivable. It helps a business manage incentive programs accurately.

A reorder point is the inventory level at which a replenishment order should be triggered. It reflects expected demand during the replenishment lead time and the chosen protection against shortages.

RFM analysis groups customers using recency of purchase, frequency of purchase and monetary value of spending. It helps teams distinguish valuable, active and potentially at-risk customer groups.

A method of regulating access to computer or network resources based on the roles of individual users within an enterprise.

A rolling forecast is updated regularly and extends the forecast horizon as periods pass. It keeps a forward view of expected performance as actual results and assumptions change.

Safety stock is extra inventory held to reduce the risk of shortages caused by unexpected demand or delays in supply. The appropriate level depends on variability and the desired service level.

Sales forecasting estimates sales for a future period using historical performance and relevant assumptions. It supports revenue planning, resource allocation and purchasing decisions.

A sales pipeline organizes potential deals by their stage in the sales process. It helps teams track opportunities, next actions and expected future sales.

Scenario analysis compares possible outcomes under different sets of assumptions. It helps a business assess how alternative conditions or decisions could affect its plans.

Sensitivity analysis tests how changes in an individual assumption or driver affect a model’s results. It helps identify which inputs have the greatest influence on an outcome.

A single source of truth is a shared, trusted view of business data that teams use as a consistent basis for reporting and decisions. It reduces conflicting versions of the same information.

Slow-moving inventory is stock that continues to sell, but too slowly relative to the space and capital it uses. Monitoring its sales rate and age helps prevent it from becoming dead stock.

A brief look or summary. A record of the contents of a storage location or data file at a given time.

A software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over the internet.

Stock cover estimates how long current inventory will last at a stated rate of demand or sales. It is expressed in units of time, such as weeks or months, using a consistent period and demand basis.

A stockout occurs when an item is unavailable when it is needed to meet demand. It can lead to delayed orders, lost sales or disruption to operations.

An international standard for database manipulation.

The oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer.

The concept of forming one enterprise-wide view of the customer across all customer contact channels (i.e., sales, marketing, and customer service and support). It is a complex area, requiring complex solutions to problems of integration, data flow, data access and marketing strategy. A critical component is the database that serves as the customer information repository.

A three-statement financial model links an income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement so changes in assumptions flow through the business’s projected performance, position and cash.

Variance analysis compares actual results with a budget, forecast or other baseline, then investigates the reasons for the differences. It helps teams understand performance and decide where to act.