Data terms in plain words
The words that come up on a reporting project, each in two sentences. Nothing here needs another definition to read it.
- API
- A door one program opens so another can ask it for data or send it some. QuickBooks and most web tools have one, and that is how a dashboard pulls numbers out without anyone exporting a file.
- Backup
- A copy of your data kept somewhere else so a mistake or a failure does not cost you the original. We take one before any change and restore it once to prove it works.
- Backtest
- Running a forecast model on past data it has not seen, such as last year, to measure how close it would have come. We show you the result before you trust the output.
- BI (business intelligence)
- The practice of turning the numbers your systems already record into reports and dashboards you can act on. Everything on the Reporting and dashboards page is this.
- Change order
- A short written note that adds something to an approved project, with its price and its effect on the schedule. Work on it starts when you approve it, so the quote stays honest.
- Dashboard
- A page of charts and figures that answers a set of questions at a glance and updates on its own. The sample dashboards show three.
- Data model
- The arrangement that joins your separate tables (sales, customers, products, jobs) so one question can be asked across all of them. It is the part of a build you never see and the reason the numbers agree.
- Data source
- Any system or file a dashboard reads from: QuickBooks, a database, a spreadsheet, a web tool. The Starter dashboard covers up to two.
- Data warehouse
- One database that holds cleaned copies of data from several systems, arranged for reporting rather than for daily work. Small businesses rarely need one; a data model inside the dashboard usually does the job.
- Drill down
- Clicking a total to see the rows that make it up, for example from a month to the jobs in it. It is how a dashboard answers "why" after it answers "what".
- Embedded analytics
- Charts and filters placed inside the software your team already uses, instead of in a separate reporting tool. The portals and internal apps we build carry them.
- ETL
- Short for extract, transform, load: pull the data out of a system, clean and reshape it, and put it where the dashboard reads it. We set this to run on a schedule so nobody repeats it by hand.
- Event (live data)
- One thing that happened, reported the moment it did: a scan, a sale, a machine cycle. Live data screens read a stream of these instead of a nightly export.
- Forecast
- An estimate of what a number will do next, with the range it is likely to fall in, built from the pattern in your history. Ours come with a recommended action.
- Integration
- A connection that moves data between two systems automatically, such as pushing an invoice from an inventory tool into QuickBooks. It replaces re-keying and the errors that come with it.
- KPI
- A key performance indicator: one number you watch because the business moves with it, like gross margin or days of inventory on hand. A dashboard puts a handful of them at the top.
- Legacy system
- An older system the business still runs, often a text screen or a database only one person understands. We build modern screens on top of it rather than replace it.
- Portal
- A login where your customers or vendors see their own records, read from your systems as they change. It answers status questions before they become phone calls.
- Power BI
- Microsoft's dashboard tool. It suits teams already on Microsoft 365, and each viewer needs a licence from Microsoft.
- Power Query
- The part of Excel and Power BI that pulls data in and cleans it with repeatable steps instead of hand edits. Run it again and the same steps happen the same way.
- Read-only access
- An account that can look at data but not change it. It is what we ask for on your systems, so reporting can never alter the books.
- Reconcile (tie out)
- Checking that a dashboard total matches the same total in the accounting system, to the dollar. Every dashboard we build reconciles to the books before it goes live.
- Refresh
- The moment a dashboard pulls new data from its sources. We schedule it, hourly or nightly, so the page is current when you open it.
- Retainer (data team plan)
- A monthly fee for an agreed number of hours of data work, with the refreshes watched in between. Our data team plans are retainers that run month to month.
- Scoping
- A short paid step before a larger build where we map your data and workflow and write the plan and the fixed price. The fee comes off the build if you go ahead within 60 days.
- SQL
- The language used to ask a database questions. Most of the data work behind a dashboard is written in it.
- SQL Server
- Microsoft's database, common behind industry software such as manufacturing and inventory systems. We often read it directly, with a read-only account, instead of waiting for exports.
- Webhook
- A message one system sends the moment something happens, such as an order being placed, so another system can act on it right away. It is the push version of an API.
- Web dashboard
- A dashboard built as a web page your team opens in a browser, with a login and no per-user licence. It suits outside users and shop-floor screens.
- Workflow automation
- Software that moves a piece of work from one step to the next on its own: a request goes in, an approval comes back, an alert goes out. Our workflow tools are built around your steps.