ERP Upgrade for Ecommerce Brands Glossary
149 terms defined. An authoritative reference for ERP Upgrade for Ecommerce Brands.
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A
Account
Your company NetSuite instance — the entire environment including data, customizations, and users.
Accounts Payable (AP)
Money you owe to vendors and suppliers for goods or services received but not yet paid for.
Accounts Receivable (AR)
Money your customers owe you for products or services delivered but not yet paid for.
Accrual Accounting
Recording revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash changes hands. The standard method NetSuite uses.
Amortization
Spreading the cost of an intangible asset over the period it provides value, reducing its book value each period.
ASC 606
The US accounting standard for revenue recognition. Requires companies to recognize revenue when obligations are satisfied, not when cash is received.
Assembly / Build
Combining component items into a finished product per a BOM. NetSuite deducts components and adds the finished item.
Audit Trail
System log recording who changed what and when on every record. Critical for SOX compliance.
Average Costing
Inventory valuation where each unit cost equals the weighted average of all units purchased.
Average Order Value (AOV)
The average dollar amount per transaction. A key ecommerce metric for measuring customer spend.
B
Backorder
An order for an out-of-stock product. NetSuite tracks it and fulfills when inventory arrives.
Bank Reconciliation
Matching transactions in your NetSuite bank account against your actual bank statement to catch discrepancies.
Bill
What you receive from vendors — their invoice to you. In NetSuite, "Bill" means vendor invoice, "Invoice" means customer invoice.
Bill of Materials (BOM)
A recipe listing all components and quantities needed to manufacture or assemble a finished product.
Bin
A specific storage location in a warehouse. Bin management helps workers find and put away inventory faster.
Break-Even Point
Sales volume where total revenue equals total costs — not profiting but not losing money.
Budget
A financial plan estimating income and expenses for a future period. NetSuite lets you create budgets and compare to actuals.
Bundle
A packaged set of customizations that can be installed as a unit. SuiteApps are delivered as bundles.
Burn Rate
How quickly a company spends cash reserves, measured monthly. Critical for tracking runway.
C
Cart Abandonment
When a customer adds items to cart but does not complete checkout. Average rate is around 70%.
Cartonization
Determining optimal box sizes for shipping, minimizing packaging waste and costs.
Cash Basis Accounting
Recording revenue and expenses only when cash is actually received or paid. NetSuite supports this as a secondary reporting method.
Cash Flow
Movement of money in and out of your business. Positive means more coming in than going out.
Celigo (integrator.io)
The most popular NetSuite middleware platform with 400+ pre-built integration flows for connecting systems.
Center
The main navigation category in NetSuite. Each role sees different centers.
Change Management
Preparing your team for transition — training, communication, and managing resistance.
Chart of Accounts
The organized list of every account your company uses to categorize transactions — like bank accounts, revenue, and expenses.
Checkout Flow
The step-by-step purchase process: shipping address, method, payment, and confirmation.
Client Script
A script running in the browser as users interact with forms — for field validation and dynamic UI.
Configuration
Setting up NetSuite built-in options (features, preferences, roles) — no code required.
Connector
A pre-built integration syncing data between NetSuite and an external platform like Shopify or Amazon.
Consolidation
Combining financial results of multiple subsidiaries into a single set of statements for the parent company.
Contribution Margin
Revenue minus variable costs per unit. Shows how each sale contributes to covering fixed costs.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of website visitors who complete a purchase. Typical ecommerce is 1-3%.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
The direct costs of producing or purchasing the products you sell — materials, labor, and manufacturing overhead.
Credit Memo
A document reducing what a customer owes, used for returns, billing errors, or adjustments instead of a refund.
CSV Import
NetSuite built-in tool for bulk-loading data from spreadsheets. Used for migration and updates.
Custom Field
An additional field added to a standard record to capture data NetSuite does not track by default.
Custom Record
A user-defined data table for storing information that does not fit standard records.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Total cost of marketing and sales to acquire one new customer.
Customer Group
Segmentation for marketing, pricing, or access control — like separating wholesale from retail buyers.
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
Total expected revenue from a customer over the entire relationship. LTV should exceed CAC.
Customization
Any change to NetSuite defaults — from adding fields to writing SuiteScript. Persists through upgrades.
Cycle Count
Continuously counting small inventory portions on a rotating schedule instead of one annual full count.
D
Data Migration
Moving historical data from your old system into NetSuite during implementation.
Days Payable Outstanding (DPO)
Average days you take to pay vendors. Higher means holding cash longer.
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Average days to collect payment after a sale. Lower means you are getting paid faster.
Deferred Revenue
Money collected from customers for products or services not yet delivered. It sits as a liability until you fulfill the order.
Demand Planning
Forecasting future demand using historical data, seasonality, and trends to optimize purchasing.
Depreciation
Spreading the cost of a physical asset (equipment, vehicles) over its useful life, reducing its book value each period.
Drop Ship
Sending a customer order directly to a vendor who ships to the customer. You never touch the inventory.
Dunning
Systematically contacting customers with overdue invoices through automated reminder letters or emails.
E
EBITDA
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. Popular operating profitability measure in PE and M&A.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
Integrated software managing all core business processes — accounting, inventory, orders, HR — in one system.
Expense Report
A form employees submit for reimbursement of business expenses like travel, meals, or supplies.
External ID
A user-assigned identifier for matching NetSuite data with external systems during integrations.
F
Feature
A built-in capability that must be enabled in Setup before use. Many are off by default.
FIFO (First In, First Out)
Valuation where oldest inventory costs match revenue first. Common for perishable goods.
Financial Close
The end-of-period process of finalizing all accounting entries, reconciling accounts, and producing financial statements.
Fulfillment
Picking, packing, and shipping a customer order. An Item Fulfillment record marks which items were shipped.
G
General Ledger (GL)
The master record of all financial transactions in your company. Every sale, expense, and payment eventually posts here.
Go-Live
The day your company switches from the old system to NetSuite for real transactions.
Governance
NetSuite resource limit system preventing any single script from consuming excessive server resources.
Gross Margin
Revenue minus COGS, expressed as a percentage. Shows how much profit you keep per dollar before operating expenses.
Gross Profit
Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold. What remains after covering direct product costs.
H
I
Intercompany Transactions
Transactions between subsidiaries of the same parent company. NetSuite auto-generates the elimination entries.
Internal ID
A system-generated unique number for every record. Used heavily in integrations and scripting.
Inventory Adjustment
A transaction changing inventory quantities outside buying/selling — damaged goods, shrinkage, or count corrections.
Inventory Turnover
How many times you sell and replace inventory in a period. Higher turnover means more efficient management.
Invoice
A document sent to customers requesting payment for products or services delivered.
Item Fulfillment
The transaction created when you ship items. Triggers inventory deduction, tracking, and revenue recognition.
Item Record
The master record for a product in NetSuite containing description, pricing, cost, vendor info, and inventory levels.
J
L
Landed Cost
True total cost including purchase price, shipping, duties, tariffs, insurance, and handling fees.
Lead Time
Days between placing an order with a supplier and receiving goods. Critical for reorder point calculations.
LIFO (Last In, First Out)
Valuation where newest costs match revenue first. Used for tax advantages in some jurisdictions.
Lot Number
A tracking number for a batch of identical items. Used for quality control and recalls.
M
Map/Reduce Script
A script for processing large data volumes by splitting work into parallel stages.
Mass Update
Built-in tool for changing a field value across many records simultaneously.
Matrix Item
A parent item with variations like size and color. NetSuite creates child items for each combination automatically.
Multi-Book Accounting
Maintaining more than one set of accounting books from the same transactions — for example, US GAAP and IFRS simultaneously.
Multi-Channel
Selling through multiple platforms simultaneously — your site, Amazon, eBay, retail — managed from NetSuite.
Multi-Location Inventory
Tracking quantities separately for each physical location rather than one aggregate number.
N
O
Omnichannel
Unified customer experience across all channels with shared inventory, pricing, and order history.
OneWorld
The module enabling multi-subsidiary management with separate financials that consolidate to a parent.
Operating Expenses (OPEX)
Ongoing costs not tied to making products — rent, salaries, marketing, software.
Order-to-Cash (O2C)
The entire process from receiving a customer order through collecting payment.
P
Parallel Testing
Running old system and NetSuite simultaneously to verify they produce the same financial results.
Payment Gateway
Service processing credit card transactions between your store and the customer bank.
Payment Terms
Conditions for payment — "Net 30" means the customer has 30 days to pay after invoice date.
Period Close
Locking a specific accounting period in NetSuite so no new transactions can be posted, protecting financial statement integrity.
Physical Inventory Count
A full count of all inventory at a location at a specific time, typically done annually.
Pick, Pack, Ship
The three fulfillment stages: picking from shelves, packing in boxes, shipping to customer.
Portlet
A small dashboard widget showing specific data like a custom KPI, chart, or list.
Price Level
A pricing tier (Retail, Wholesale, VIP). Different customer groups get different prices for same items.
Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
The entire purchasing process from identifying a need through paying the vendor.
Promotion Code
A discount code applied at checkout, configured with rules for discount type and eligibility.
Purchase Order (PO)
A formal document sent to a vendor authorizing them to supply specific products at agreed prices.
R
Record Type
A category of data like Customer, Invoice, or Sales Order, each with its own fields and behaviors.
Release (Version Update)
NetSuite pushes two mandatory major releases per year adding features and potentially changing behavior.
Reorder Point
The inventory level triggering a new order. When stock drops to this quantity, NetSuite can auto-generate a PO.
RESTlet
A custom REST endpoint in NetSuite for external systems to send/receive data through a purpose-built API.
Return Authorization (RA/RMA)
Transaction authorizing a customer return — tracking what is returned, why, and refund/credit action.
Revenue
Total income from selling goods or services before costs are subtracted. Also called top line.
Revenue Recognition
Accounting rules (ASC 606 / IFRS 15) that determine when you can officially count revenue. Critical for subscription and ecommerce businesses.
RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization)
The tracking number and process for managing product returns from customers.
Role
A set of permissions controlling what a user can see and do. Each user gets one or more roles.
Run Rate
Current period performance extrapolated to a full year. $50K in January equals $600K run rate.
S
Safety Stock
Extra inventory kept as a buffer against unexpected demand or supply delays. Insurance against stockouts.
Sales Order
The central transaction when a customer orders. Links customer, items, pricing, and fulfillment status.
Sales Tax
Tax charged on sale of goods, calculated based on ship-to location and your nexus obligations.
Sandbox
A copy of your production NetSuite used for testing changes without affecting live data.
Saved Search
NetSuite primary reporting tool. A query builder that finds, filters, sorts, and displays data from any record.
Scheduled Script
A script running at specified times for batch processing, data cleanup, or scheduled integrations.
Script Deployment
Configuration connecting a SuiteScript to specific records or events — defining when and where it runs.
Serial Number
A unique identifier for each individual unit. Used for warranty tracking and asset management.
Shopping Cart
The temporary holding area where customers add items before checkout, connected to real-time inventory.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
A unique identifier for each distinct product. A t-shirt in 3 colors and 4 sizes equals 12 SKUs.
Solution Provider (VAR)
A NetSuite partner company hired to implement, customize, and support your instance. Quality varies significantly.
Sublist
A table of related line items within a record — like items on a sales order or contacts on a customer.
Subsidiary
A separate legal entity owned by a parent company. NetSuite OneWorld manages multiple subsidiaries with rollup.
SuiteApp
A third-party application installed from the SuiteApp Marketplace. Like an app store for NetSuite.
SuiteBuilder
Point-and-click customization tools for custom fields, records, forms, and roles without coding.
SuiteCloud Development Framework (SDF)
Tool for managing customizations as code — version control, sandbox deploy, production promote.
SuiteCommerce
NetSuite built-in ecommerce platform for B2B and B2C web stores connected to your ERP data.
SuiteCommerce Advanced (SCA)
Developer-extensible version with complete front-end design control and custom checkout flows.
SuiteFlow
Visual drag-and-drop workflow builder that automates business processes without code.
Suitelet
A script creating custom NetSuite pages — for building custom UIs, forms, or tools.
SuiteQL
SQL-like query language for retrieving data from NetSuite, accessible via REST API.
SuiteScript
NetSuite JavaScript-based programming language for extending and customizing the platform.
SuiteSuccess
NetSuite implementation methodology using pre-configured, industry-specific solutions for faster go-live.
SuiteTalk
NetSuite web services API (SOAP and REST) for integrating external applications.
T
Tax Nexus
The connection between your business and a tax jurisdiction requiring you to collect and remit sales tax.
Token-Based Authentication (TBA)
OAuth 1.0-based authentication for machine-to-machine integrations. Replaced email/password method.
Transfer Order
A document moving inventory between locations — warehouse to warehouse or warehouse to store.
U
UAT (User Acceptance Testing)
Final testing where business users verify NetSuite works correctly for their daily tasks before go-live.
Use Tax
Tax on purchases where sales tax was not collected — typically for out-of-state purchases used in your state.
User Event Script
A script running when records are loaded, submitted, or changed — for validation and cascading updates.
V
W
Wave Management
Grouping orders into waves for efficient picking — like all UPS orders shipping today.
Web Store
Your online store — either SuiteCommerce or a third-party platform like Shopify connected to NetSuite.
Work Order
An internal instruction to manufacture a specific quantity. References the BOM and tracks production.
Workflow
An automated sequence of actions triggered by events like record creation or edits.
Working Capital
Current assets minus current liabilities. Measures ability to cover short-term obligations.