The Glossary.
Plain-English definitions of the 208 concepts our templates are built on — grouped by what you're running, so the terms map to the lines they belong to. Every entry links to a full explainer and the templates that put it to work.
Operator OS
Pricing, costing, inventory and selling for a small operation.
- SOP (standard operating procedure) A written procedure for one repeated task — its purpose, what triggers it, who owns it, the steps in order, and the quality check that says the result is acceptable. One page, or it does not get read.
- Work instruction A step-by-step sheet for one hands-on task, usually with a photograph at each step. It sits underneath an SOP and carries the physical technique a paragraph cannot transfer.
- Stitch-count pricing Pricing embroidery by the thousands of stitches in the digitized design rather than by how big it looks — because stitches, not inches, are what the machine time and the thread actually spend.
- Billable utilization The share of the hours you PAY a crew for that can actually go on a customer's invoice — paid hours less toolbox talks, apprentice class time, drive time and shop time. Every hourly rate is divided by it, and almost every tool asks you to type it in rather than measure it.
- Bid markup The percentage a contractor adds to a job's cost to set the price — not the same as margin.
- Change order A signed amendment to a construction contract recording one scope change, its price, the days it adds to the schedule, and — on a well-drafted form — what the contract is now worth in total. Signed before the work, it is an instruction; signed after, it is just a bill.
- Materials allowance A budgeted sum carried in a contract for an item the customer has not chosen yet — tile, fixtures, cabinets. It normally covers the material only, which is the half people forget when the heavier slab needs more labor.
- Machine-hour cost What one hour on a machine actually costs you — its purchase price over the hours it will work, plus the wear part (a laser tube, a diode module) over its rated hours, plus what it draws from the wall at your electricity rate. The number that makes a 40-minute job on a cheap blank stop looking free.
- Effective hourly rate What a freelancer actually earns per hour once you count every hour behind the money — revenue ÷ hours worked, not the rate you quoted.
- Retainer A recurring monthly fee a client pays a bookkeeper, virtual assistant or other service provider for an agreed block of hours or scope — with written rules for what happens to unused hours (rollover or expiry) and to hours past the block (overage).
- Scope creep Work that drifts past what a retainer or project was priced for — extra tasks, meetings and one-off requests that nobody re-prices, so the fee stays flat while the hours grow and the effective hourly rate falls.
- Jewelry markup The multiple a jewelry maker applies to a piece's total cost — metal by weight, components, studio overhead and bench time — to set its price. The handmade convention is about 2x total cost, because that is what still leaves room for a stockist to buy at half and double it.
- Price per serving What a custom cake is sold by — the quoted total divided by the servings its tiers yield at a slice size the baker sets, computed from each tier’s top area rather than read off a printed chart. Party portions are cut larger than wedding ones, so one cake ‘feeds’ two numbers; and priced alone it underprices decorated work, scaling the cake but not the decorating hours.
- Flat-rate pricing Charging a fixed, up-front price for each service task instead of billing by the hour — the price book service trades quote from.
- Cost-per-mile What it costs an owner-operator to run their truck one mile — the floor under every freight rate.
- Route density The share of a service business's working day a client is actually paying for — on-site hours divided by on-site plus drive hours. It quietly sets what an hour of a mobile operator's day is really worth.
- Standard mileage deduction A method for eligible taxpayers to calculate business car expenses using documented business miles and the IRS rate applicable to the travel date. Eligibility, commuting and method-selection rules apply.
- 1099-K The information return a payment processor files reporting the gross payment volume it handled for you — everything before fees, refunds, shipping and discounts come out. Not your earnings, and not your taxable profit, which is why it is almost always bigger than what reached your bank.
- Marketplace facilitator A platform that lists your goods and processes the buyer's payment, and is therefore required by state law to collect and remit the sales tax itself. That tax never reaches your payout and is not your income — but it does not cover your own website, your craft-fair table, or your wholesale invoices.
- Cost basis (for resellers) A reseller's tax basis and inventory costs depend on accounting rules. A broader per-item profit estimate can include allocated packaging and travel, but those amounts are not automatically all cost of goods sold.
- RevPAR Revenue per available night for a short-term rental — accommodation revenue divided by available nights, blending nightly rate and occupancy into one number to compare listings fairly.
- Schedule E The US tax form where landlords report rental income and expenses — rents received minus operating costs, line by line, to a net rental income; the form a landlord workbook keeps ready all year.
- Cost of doing business A photographer's yearly overhead plus target pay over billable hours — the cost per hour that's the floor under every package price.
- Model release A signed permission from the person in a photo or video that lets the photographer use their likeness in the ways the release names — portfolio, marketing, or commercial use. A minor needs a parent or guardian to sign; a recognizable private property can need its own property release.
- Print release A photographer's written permission for a client to print their delivered images for personal use. It does not transfer copyright and does not cover commercial use — that takes a usage license.
- Booth rent A flat fee a hairstylist or barber pays a salon to use a chair — you keep your income and tips and run as an independent 1099 business.
- Booth price card The small printed card on a market table that answers the two questions a shopper is least likely to ask out loud — what it is and what it costs. Flat on the table or tented so it reads from standing height, and sized to a shared trim so a whole table's worth prints and cuts in one pass.
- Build-ahead inventory Stock a maker deliberately makes before demand arrives, so a holiday peak sells out of a shelf instead of out of a workweek — and compulsory rather than optional wherever a cure or drying time stands between making a thing and selling it.
- Cost per service What one appointment costs a beauty pro to deliver — the supplies it consumes at their cost per use, plus the share of room overhead the chair time occupies. The floor under every menu price.
- Loan signing agent A commissioned notary who handles the signing of a mortgage loan package for a title company, signing service or lender — paid one fee per signing, out of which come printing, mileage and time.
- COGS The cost assigned to goods sold during a period under the business’s accounting method. A pricing estimate that includes owner time or selling costs is not automatically deductible COGS.
- Recipe costing Pricing a made product by costing every ingredient and step that goes into it.
- Cottage food law The state rule that lets you sell certain low-risk, shelf-stable foods made in a home kitchen without a commercial kitchen or a full food-establishment license — in exchange for limits on what and where you sell, a compliant label, and records.
- Profit margin What's left after costs, as a percentage of price — the number that says if a product pays.
- Print-on-demand margin The profit left on a print-on-demand sale after base cost, fees, and shipping, as a percent of what the buyer pays.
- Material yield How many sellable pieces you actually get from one sheet or roll — after bleed, gutters, trim and spoilage. The number that turns a sheet price into a real cost per sticker.
- Makeup-lesson policy The rule a private teacher sets for when a canceled lesson earns a makeup credit versus is charged — the notice window, late cancels, no-shows, and credit expiration.
- Training package A prepaid block of personal-training sessions with a validity window — and the unearned revenue a trainer holds until each session is delivered or deducted under a late-cancel or no-show policy, or the package expires or is refunded.
- Keystone pricing The old retail rule of doubling your cost — a 100% markup, a 50% margin — and where it fits (and doesn't) for handmade work.
- Agritourism admission pricing How a pumpkin patch, U-pick farm, corn maze or Christmas tree farm sets its gate price — splitting fixed cost from variable cost per visitor, so break-even attendance tells you how many people the season actually has to draw.
- Etsy SEO How Etsy ranks listings, and the titles, tags and attributes that get you found.
- SKU system A consistent code scheme for products and variants so inventory stays unambiguous.
- Restricted fund accounting How a nonprofit tracks money a donor gave for a specific purpose separately from money it can spend freely — restricted vs. unrestricted net assets.
- Operating reserve Unrestricted money an organization can actually spend, usually stated as months of runway — unrestricted operating cash divided by monthly operating cost. A restricted balance is not runway, so it comes out of the numerator first.
- Indirect cost rate The share of an organization's shared overhead costs, expressed against a stated basis of direct costs. The rate means nothing without naming the basis — the same organization can honestly quote different rates on different denominators.
- Conflict of interest policy A nonprofit board's written rule for disclosing when a leader stands to benefit from a decision, and how the disinterested directors handle it and record it.
- Gift acceptance policy A nonprofit's written rule for which gifts it accepts routinely, which non-cash or conditional gifts need review before anyone says yes, and which it declines.
- Letter of inquiry (LOI) The one-to-two-page letter a nonprofit sends a funder before a full proposal — the ask, the need, the project, the outcomes and who you are, compressed to a page and a half.
- Statement of need The section of a grant application that proves the problem exists locally, is not already solved by something else, and is the problem this project closes.
- Year-end giving statement The annual summary a congregation gives each household of what they contributed that year — the total, often split by fund — for the household's own records and taxes.
- Effective CPM What a brand deal actually pays per 1,000 people reached — fee ÷ reach × 1,000 — the honest verdict on whether a sponsorship was priced fairly against your floor.
- Usage rights A brand's permission to use your content beyond the organic post — ads, whitelisting, or a buyout — priced as a separate line, commonly +25–50% for paid usage.
- Commission split How a real-estate commission is divided between an agent and their brokerage — the brokerage's share until you hit your annual cap, then you keep 100%. The biggest deduction between gross commission and take-home.
- GCI (gross commission income) A real-estate agent's commission before any split or fee — sale price times the commission rate. The number agents quote and set goals by, but the top line, not take-home.
Team & Talent
Seeing a team's capability and risk on one grid.
- Joiner-mover-leaver (JML) The three points at which a person's access has to change — joining, changing role, and leaving. The middle one is the leg a fixed checklist has no way to compute: a role change needs the new access granted and the old access removed.
- 30-60-90 plan An onboarding plan splitting a new hire's first three months into three phases — learn and set up, contribute and connect, own and grow — with goals, owners, and check-ins for each.
- Onboarding buddy A peer assigned to a new hire for their first few weeks — not their manager and not their trainer — whose job is to make the questions that feel too small to ask the boss cheap to ask.
- 9-box grid A 3×3 grid plotting people on performance × potential, from Talent Risk to Star — for talent reviews and succession planning.
- Eisenhower matrix A four-box way to sort tasks by two questions — is it important, is it urgent? — into Do, Schedule, Delegate and Drop. Popularly attributed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- Interactive process A good-faith exchange about disability-related workplace barriers and reasonable accommodations. Document communication, limited information requests, options, implementation and follow-up. JAN's log offers one workflow; employers should act promptly and check applicable federal and state requirements.
- Headcount plan The roles a business intends to hire over a defined period, each with a target start date and a fully-loaded cost, rolled up into what the plan spends month by month and whether the budget covers it. Not an org chart, and not a recruiting pipeline.
- Individual development plan (IDP) A written plan for one person's growth toward a next role: the competencies they need, the gap between their current and target level on each, the goals that close those gaps, the learning that gets them there, and dated check-ins. Growth-oriented, unlike a PIP.
- 70-20-10 model A development-planning heuristic: roughly 70% of learning from challenging work, 20% from other people (feedback, coaching, mentoring), 10% from formal courses. Drawn from executives' self-reports at the Center for Creative Leadership, so it is a planning guide, not a measured law.
- Performance improvement plan (PIP) A formal, time-bound plan setting out specific performance objectives, the support the employer will provide, the review points, and the consequence stated in policy if the objectives are not met. What has to exist before one starts matters as much as what is in it.
- Employee handbook The document that records the decisions a business has already made about how it works, so they are not re-decided case by case. Its hard part is not the prose — which is free everywhere — but knowing which policies a business of your size is actually subject to, and whether the wording you chose turned a description into a promise.
- At-will acknowledgment A handbook acknowledgment commonly records who received which version and when. Its legal effect depends on applicable law, the wording and other agreements; receipt wording alone does not guarantee that a handbook has no contractual effect.
- Personnel file An organized employment record covering hiring, job terms, performance and separation. Access and retention requirements vary by record type; medical information requires separate confidential handling under applicable law.
- Written warning A formal, dated record that a standard was not met, what has to change, and by when — issued after less formal steps have not worked. The wording is the easy part; the sequence behind it and the specificity in it are what make it useful later.
- Progressive discipline A staged approach to workplace conduct — an informal conversation, a documented one, then the employer's own formal process — each step recorded, with a genuine chance to change between them. The exact steps are set by policy; the rung managers skip is the second documented conversation.
- Mentorship program A structured effort pairing mentors with mentees to work on development goals, with a coordinator matching pairings and tracking participation, goal completion, and satisfaction.
- One-on-one meeting A short, regular, recurring conversation between a manager and one of their people — for progress, blockers, feedback, and development, kept on track by a running record.
- Performance calibration The review-cycle step where managers compare rating distributions across the team and across raters before ratings are final — to catch rating inflation and rater-to-rater drift.
- OKR Objectives and Key Results — a qualitative goal paired with measurable key results scored each cycle, to set and track team goals and roll them up.
- Skills matrix A grid scoring people against skills — to spot gaps, plan staffing and find key-person risk.
- Behavior-based feedback Feedback that describes an observable action and its effect rather than a quality of the person — so it can be checked, repeated on purpose, and acted on.
- Competency matrix A grid scoring people against a role's competency framework — the level each is expected to reach, and where they stand — for reviews, progression, and development.
- Structured interview A hiring interview that asks every candidate the same job-related questions and scores the answers on the same anchored scale — a fairer, more consistent way to hire than a free-form chat.
- Stay interview A short conversation with a current employee to learn what keeps them and what would make them leave — the opposite of an exit interview, asked while you can still act on it.
- ILUO matrix A skills matrix using the four-step In training / Limited / Unsupervised / Operator scale to show coverage and key-person risk.
- Cross-training Teaching people to run tasks beyond their main role, so more than one person can cover each task — a fix for single points of failure.
- Toolbox talk A short, focused safety briefing — five to fifteen minutes on one hazard, given to a crew before a shift or task, then logged as a record that it happened.
- DVIR (driver vehicle inspection report) The written report a commercial-vehicle driver files when a day's work turns up a defect that would affect safe operation — none is required on a clean day. The carrier certifies the repair before the vehicle runs again, and the report is kept three months.
- Near miss An unplanned event that could have caused injury or damage but didn't — the same event as an incident with the timing slightly different, and the only chance to learn the lesson for free.
- TRIR (total recordable incident rate) OSHA-recordable cases multiplied by 200,000 and divided by hours worked — the number of recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers over a year.
- PTO accrual How employees earn paid time off over time — a set amount each pay period — instead of a lump annual grant. The balance is the part you track.
- Volunteer skills matrix A grid of volunteers against roles, recording who's ready for each — to see coverage, build the roster, and spot gaps.
- Gap analysis The structured distance between where you are and where you need to be.
- Training-needs analysis Comparing the skills a team needs against the skills it has, then ranking and costing the training that closes the gap — a TNA.
- Pay band A salary range — minimum, midpoint, and maximum — for a level of work, the building block of a pay structure.
- Compa-ratio A salary divided by its band midpoint — 1.00 sits at the midpoint — so pay is comparable across roles.
- Succession planning Naming and developing who could step into each critical role, so a key departure doesn't stall the business.
- Bus factor How many people would have to be lost before the work stops — a bus factor of one is a single point of failure.
- Regrettable turnover The share of departures you'd have preferred to keep — separating a real retention problem from healthy, expected churn, and the most useful split in any turnover number.
- Cost of turnover The fully-loaded cost of losing and replacing one person — recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, and ramp time — commonly a fraction of annual salary and up.
- Reduction in force (RIF) The permanent elimination of roles for business reasons rather than performance — run by setting selection criteria before the names, comparing genuinely interchangeable roles, and keeping the file that shows how and why.
- Labor cost percentage Total labor cost divided by sales for the same period — the number shift-based businesses use to judge whether a schedule is affordable.
- Utilization rate Booked or billable hours divided by available hours — the share of a person's capacity spent on client work, and the number teams that sell time watch for idle cost and overload.
- Capacity planning Matching committed work against available people-hours ahead of time — spotting over-allocation and slack so you can answer whether the team can take on the next project.
- Seasonal staffing Hiring a temporary workforce to meet a predictable peak — holiday retail, a summer rush, harvest, warehouse Q4 — then unwinding it; sized from a demand forecast, timed backward from opening day, and costed against revenue.
- Freelancer bench The roster of contractors and freelancers an agency or studio can call on to staff projects — who they are, what they can do and at what level, their rate, and whether they're available.
- On-the-job training Structured learning done while doing the real work, under a mentor — logged by hours against the competencies it builds, and verified by sign-off. The hands-on half of an apprenticeship.
- Registered apprenticeship A formal earn-and-learn program registered with a government agency, combining paid on-the-job training with related classroom instruction, that leads to a recognized credential.
Life Admin
Keeping health, home and records in order before you need them.
- Executor A person who administers an estate under a will and the applicable legal process. Confirm authority, required notices, payment priorities, accounting and distribution approvals; a nomination alone does not establish every power.
- Probate The court-supervised process of settling a deceased person's estate: proving the will, appointing an executor, giving creditors notice, paying valid debts and taxes, and approving distribution. Only the probate estate goes through it — assets with a named beneficiary or a survivorship title generally pass outside. State law, so the periods and thresholds differ.
- Final-arrangements plan A written record of what you want done after your death, what those choices would cost, and what money is already set aside to pay for it — wishes and locations, not a will.
- Security deposit Money a tenant pays at the start of a tenancy that the landlord holds as security against unpaid rent and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear. It stays the tenant's money; caps, how it must be held, permitted deductions and the return deadline are set by state law and the lease. General information, not legal advice.
- Normal wear and tear The gradual deterioration a rental suffers from ordinary, careful use over time — worn traffic paths, faded paint, softened caulk. Generally not deductible from a security deposit, in contrast to damage. Where the line falls is set by state law and the lease.
- Life-admin binder One organized place recording where a household's documents, accounts, insurance and wishes live — a map, not a vault.
- Emergency binder One organized record of a household's evacuation plan, documents to grab, home inventory and contacts — ready before an emergency. A readiness record, not professional advice.
- Family command center One place a household keeps its shared schedule, deadlines, forms and contacts — physical, digital or both — so the information stops living in one person's memory.
- Pet records binder One organized place for the records of every animal in a household — identity, microchip and its registration, vaccination certificates, vet history, medications, feeding routine and the handoff a sitter needs. A record the owner keeps, not a policy number or a login — and not veterinary advice.
- Homeschool portfolio review A review of a homeschooled learner's dated work samples, reading list and records to assess a year's progress — one of the ways some states let families show progress.
- Loop scheduling A homeschool schedule where a set of subjects rotates — each school day takes the next few in the loop — instead of each subject being pinned to a weekday, so a missed day skips nothing; it just comes around again.
- Household operations manual One organized reference for how a home runs — utilities, shutoffs, maintenance, emergency contacts and an if-I'm-away handoff. A map to the house, not the codes.
- Roommate agreement A written understanding between housemates covering rent and bill splits, the deposit, guests, quiet hours, chores, and moving out — agreed and dated before any of it is a live problem. Not a lease, and not legal advice.
- Home warranty A service contract — not insurance — that repairs or replaces listed systems and appliances that fail from normal use. It covers the wear-and-age gap homeowner's insurance explicitly excludes, with per-item caps, a service fee per visit, and a pre-existing-condition exclusion. A seller-paid one often starts before your closing.
- Utility shutoff The valve or switch that stops water, gas or electricity entering a home — the main water valve, the curb stop, the gas meter tab, the main breaker, and the smaller stops on fixtures. Each has a location, a direction, and sometimes a tool.
- Demand letter A written request for a specific sum, showing the arithmetic behind the figure, the dated history of what was asked and what came back, and a deadline with a named next step. Not a court filing. This definition is general guidance, not legal advice.
- Vehicle service history The dated, mileage-stamped record of every service and repair a vehicle has had — what was done, when, at what odometer, by whom. The proof a buyer, a mechanic, or a warranty claim asks for.
- Preventive home maintenance Doing a home's recurring upkeep on a fixed schedule — monthly, seasonal, annual, every few years — rather than after a failure. The jobs are easy; the hard part is that they are invisible until something breaks.
- Home maintenance log One record of a home's appliances, warranties, repairs and seasonal upkeep — so coverage, model numbers and service history are findable when something breaks.
- Estate binder An organized record of where a person's will, accounts, insurance and wishes are kept — what an executor needs. Not a will.
- Advance directive An umbrella term for documents doing two separable jobs: naming who decides about your medical care if you cannot, and recording what you would and would not want. Names, formalities and legal effect vary by country and by state or province. General information, not legal, medical, tax, or financial advice.
- Letter of instruction An informal, unwitnessed letter telling the people who come after you where everything is and what you would want. It binds nobody and overrides nothing — its job is answering the practical questions a family faces first, which a will was never built to answer. General information, not legal, medical, tax, or financial advice.
- Caregiver authorization A document recording permission for another adult to help care for a child. Pickup permission, statutory affidavits and medical-consent authority can have different requirements; a generic letter does not transfer legal custody.
- Bill of sale A dated record that a specific item passed from a named seller to a named buyer for an agreed price, usually sold as-is. Ordinary paperwork for a private sale.
- Caregiver binder One organized record of an aging parent's care — medications, appointments, providers, insurance and documents. A record of care, not medical advice.
- Medication reconciliation A clinical process of establishing an accurate medication list, comparing it with orders at transitions of care, and resolving discrepancies. Family records can support the process; a worksheet alone does not complete it.
- Discharge summary The document a hospital produces when someone leaves: why they were admitted, what was found and done, the medicine list on leaving, and the follow-ups. Written for the next clinician rather than the family, and not always ready on the day of discharge — turnaround varies, so it is worth asking. Records guidance, not medical advice.
- Geriatric care manager A professional who helps assess an older adult’s needs, plan care and coordinate services. Verify credentials, scope, client and employer relationships, fees and coverage for the particular service.
- Household employer A family that hires someone — a nanny, housekeeper or in-home caregiver — to work in its home and controls not only what work is done but how. Records guidance, not tax, payroll or legal advice.
- Nanny tax The informal name for the employment taxes a household employer may owe on a nanny's or other household employee's cash wages — Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment — as set out in IRS Publication 926. Thresholds change by year. Records guidance, not tax advice.
- Family caregiver agreement A written agreement describing care a relative provides and how it is paid. Tax treatment, employment obligations and effects on benefit eligibility require separate checks; the agreement does not itself grant decision-making authority.
- Senior downsizing Moving an older adult out of a long-time home into a smaller one — sorting decades of belongings against the space that actually exists at the other end, under a fixed move date.
- Renewal lead time How far ahead of an expiry date a renewal has to be started for it to finish on time — set by the processing queue, appointment, repair, course or waiting period standing in the way.
- Aging in place Staying in your own home safely as you get older, rather than moving to assisted living — usually with home-safety modifications like grab bars, better lighting, and removed trip hazards.
- IEP An Individualized Education Program — the written plan a public school develops for a student who qualifies for special education, setting their goals, services and accommodations. Not the same as a 504 plan, and not legal or educational advice.
- Keepsake interview The same questions asked in the same words once a year and written down verbatim, so the answers can be read side by side. A keepsake practice, not a developmental assessment.
- Baby records binder One organized place for a baby's first years — growth, milestones, feeding and sleep, appointments and where documents live. Records and memories, not medical advice.
- Legacy or memory book A record of one person's life told in their own words — built from guided questions, grouped by era, and kept by the family. Not genealogy, which documents dates and relationships, and not a scrapbook, which collects images.
- Time-capsule keepsake A set of letters and objects put aside now and opened later — not on one day, but staggered across a life, each tied to its own occasion and handed over by someone who knows the box exists.
- Heritage recipe A family recipe handed down by cooking, not writing — measured 'by feel' and tied to the cook who made it. It carries a family's history, and it vanishes with the person who knows it unless it's written down.
- Medication tracker One organized record of the medications someone takes — the dose, the schedule, refills, and the appointments around them. Not medical advice.
- Home inventory A room-by-room record of what you own, for insurance claims and peace of mind.
- Blood pressure What the two numbers mean, and how to log readings between appointments.
- Resting heart rate Your heart rate while resting, factors that affect it, and how a record can support a conversation with your care team.
- A1C A lab test that estimates your average blood glucose over about three months — the long-arc companion to your daily readings. Not medical advice.
- Financial affidavit A verified statement of income, expenses, assets and debts used in some court proceedings. Forms, signatures, service and filing requirements vary by jurisdiction; not every financial disclosure is filed with the court.
- Extraordinary expense (co-parenting) A child cost outside base support — uninsured medical, childcare, school fees, activities — that co-parents share by an agreed percentage. What counts is set by your own plan or order, not by this page.
- Zakat Islam's obligatory annual almsgiving — commonly 2.5% of qualifying wealth held a full lunar year, once it passes the nisab threshold. General background, not a religious ruling.
- Tithe Traditionally a tenth — 10% — of income given to one's church or faith community, with offerings often given on top. General background, not religious advice.
- EOB (Explanation of Benefits) The statement a health insurer sends after processing a claim — not a bill. It shows what was charged, allowed, and paid, and what your responsibility is: the number to check a medical bill against.
- Insurance appeal A formal request asking a health insurer to reconsider a denial or coverage decision. Follow the notice and plan instructions for deadlines, supporting information and review options.
- Proof of loss A formal statement of an insurance loss and the amount claimed. Required documents, signatures, any notarization and filing deadlines depend on the policy and applicable rules.
- Insurance adjuster The person who inspects a property claim and works out what the insurer will pay. Staff, independent, and public adjusters differ in the thing that matters most: who pays them.
- SSDI Social Security Disability Insurance provides benefits to eligible workers who meet insured-status and disability requirements. Appeal deadlines depend on the decision and notice; related choices such as benefit continuation can have shorter deadlines.
- ALJ hearing Usually the second level of a Social Security disability appeal, after reconsideration. An ALJ reviews the issues and evidence; hearing requests, evidence submissions and any benefit-continuation request have distinct rules and deadlines.
- Travel points program A loyalty program that rewards flying, staying, or spending with points or miles you redeem for travel — airline miles, hotel points, and card points. Balances often expire, frequently on inactivity.
- Binding moving estimate A mover's guaranteed price for the services it lists — on an interstate move you pay that amount at delivery unless services are added or impracticable-operations charges apply, while a non-binding estimate can require up to 110% of the estimate at delivery with the rest billed later. General information, not legal advice.
Big Decisions
Scoring a high-stakes choice instead of agonizing over it.
- Cost of attendance (COA) A college's own published estimate of what one year there costs in full — the tuition, fees, housing and meals it bills, plus the books, travel and everyday costs it does not.
- Net price Cost of attendance less grants and scholarships, and nothing else. A loan defers the cost rather than reducing it, and work-study is a job — so neither belongs in the subtraction.
- Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) Your total monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income — the ratio lenders underwrite to. Because it works backwards from a payment, one small existing payment removes a surprisingly large amount of purchase price from what you qualify for.
- PITI What the four letters of a mortgage payment mean — principal, interest, taxes and insurance — and the costs the payment still leaves out.
- Pre-purchase inspection (PPI) An independent mechanic's inspection of a used car, booked and paid for by the buyer before money changes hands. It is the one opinion on the car that nobody with a stake in the sale is paying for, and it typically runs $180–$220 mobile.
- Total cost of ownership (TCO) Every cost of owning something across the whole time you own it — purchase, financing, carrying costs, replacements and the cost to exit — not just the sticker price.
- Depreciation The fall in an asset's market value over the time you own it. On a car it is usually the largest cost of ownership and the only one nobody ever invoices you for — and it is a curve, steepest in the first year, not a flat annual rate.
- Decision journal Write down what you decided and what you expect before you know the outcome — then grade it later against what you actually wrote.
- Decision matrix Score options against weighted criteria to make a hard choice defensible.
- Weighted decision scoring Rate each option against criteria that each carry a weight, so the best overall fit — not the loudest factor — wins.
- One-way door decision A choice you cannot undo at any price you would pay. Reversibility, not how anxious you feel, is what should decide how much checking a decision earns.
- Pre-mortem Assume the decision has already gone badly and write the story of how, in the past tense — it surfaces particulars a list of risks never produces.
- Total compensation The full annual value of a job offer — base, bonus, equity, and benefits, minus what you pay back — not just the base salary.
- Travel-nurse pay package A travel assignment's pay split into a taxable hourly wage plus housing and meals stipends that are tax-free only if a tax-home condition is met — and why the headline blended rate says little about what actually lands in your bank.
- BATNA Your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement — what you'll do if the deal falls through, and the true source of your leverage.
- Full retirement age (FRA) The age Social Security pays a worker's full, unreduced benefit — 66 for anyone born January 2, 1943 through January 1, 1955, stepping up to 67 for anyone born January 2, 1960 or later. It is what the early-claiming reduction and the delayed retirement credits are measured from — not the earliest claiming age, and not automatically the best one.
- Delayed retirement credit (DRC) The increase a Social Security retirement benefit earns for each month it goes unclaimed between full retirement age and 70 — 2/3 of 1% a month, or 8% a year, and nothing at all after 70. Credits raise the worker's own benefit and a survivor's, but never a spousal benefit.
- Amortization How a loan's balance, interest and principal change over its life.
- Amortization schedule The row-by-row table behind a fixed-payment loan — payment, interest, principal and remaining balance for every month from the first payment to the one that zeroes the balance out.
- Earnest money The deposit that shows a home offer is serious. It is credited at closing — and whether you get it back if the deal ends turns mostly on the contingencies you signed rather than on what went wrong. General information, not legal advice.
- Repair credit Money at closing instead of a repair — what a buyer can ask for after an inspection when they would rather hire their own contractor than have the seller's do the work under deadline pressure. Lenders typically cap how large a seller credit can be, and it is negotiated, never automatic. General information, not legal advice.
- Auto-renewal clause A term that extends a contract for a further term unless you cancel inside a specific window. It is the only clause that works by your doing nothing, which is exactly why it works. Rules on consumer auto-renewal vary by state — general information, not legal advice.
Trackers
Cataloging the things you love.
- Manhwa The Korean word for comics, and in English the name for Korean comics specifically — how it differs from manhua and manga, and why a running series is usually further along in Korean than in official English.
- Webtoon A comic drawn to be scrolled vertically on a phone, one long strip per episode — and how it differs from manhwa, manhua, manga and a light novel, which are all counted in different units.
- Wuxia The Chinese martial-arts genre of the jianghu, where skill comes from training, not divinity — and how it differs from xianxia, xuanhuan, and guzhuang.
- K-pop photocard The small collectible idol cards fans trade and collect — where they come from and how trading works.
- Media backlog The pile of shows, games and books you mean to get to — and how to tame it.
- Book-club question What separates a question that opens a room from one that stalls it — answerable without certainty, no right answer the host is waiting for, grounded in the text rather than in how much you liked it, and askable by someone who has not finished.
- Record grading The condition scale collectors use for used records — Mint down to Poor, with the disc and the sleeve graded separately, and value that falls steeply with every rung.
- R-multiple A trade's net profit or loss divided by the risk you planned on it — +2R made twice what you risked, −1R lost exactly the plan — so trades of any size and market land on one scale.
- Trading expectancy What an average trade has returned, in dollars or in R — the number that says whether a method has paid, and why a high win rate can still lose money.
- Sneaker condition grading The vocabulary sneaker collectors use for wear — deadstock down to beaters — and what each rung does to what a pair is worth. A market convention rather than a standard, which is why no two marketplaces apply it identically.
- Set retirement When a construction-toy set stops being produced — what it really means for a LEGO® collection's value, and what it doesn't.
- TTRPG A tabletop role-playing game — and how its vocabulary (system, campaign, GM) differs from board-game terms.
- Session zero The conversation a tabletop group has before anyone rolls a die — tone, schedule, character death, and what the table does and does not want to play.
- Lines and veils The pair of tabletop safety tools for agreeing what content never appears (a line) and what happens off-screen (a veil) — and how to collect the answers privately.
- Cost per hour watched A streaming service's monthly cost divided by the hours your household actually watched on it — the per-service unit price that turns "should we cancel this?" into arithmetic.
- League constitution The written charter a fantasy league adopts before the season — scoring, waivers, trades, keepers, dues, tie-breakers, and the amendment clause that makes every other clause binding.
- Keeper league A fantasy league where each team carries a few players into the next season at a stated cost, usually a draft pick that gets more expensive every year the player is held.
- Subscription rotation Keeping a streaming service only for the months you are actually watching something on it, then canceling and resubscribing later — paying for two or three months instead of twelve for the same viewing.
- Season pass break-even The date a ski or snowboard season pass pays for itself — when the walk-up window value of the days you rode on it first reaches what you paid for the pass.
- VTuber A streamer who performs as an animated avatar rather than on camera — how agency talents and indies differ, and what oshi, zatsudan, utawaku and graduation actually mean.
- Succession planting Sowing a crop in rounds a set number of days apart, so the harvest is spread across the season — each round only worth sowing if it can be ready by the first fall frost, plus a grace period for cold-tolerant crops.
- Card grading Sending a trading card or sports card to a third-party company that authenticates it, scores it 1–10 and seals it in a slab — the four major scales side by side, what "raw" means, and why grading only pays above a break-even comp.
More terms
Planning and process frameworks that aren't tied to a single line.
- Kanban board Visualize work as cards moving across columns from to-do to done.
- RACI matrix Settle who's Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed for each task.
- Risk register A log of what could go wrong, how likely, how bad, and what you'll do about it.
- Stakeholder register Who has a stake in the work, their influence, and how to keep them engaged.
- SWOT analysis Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats — a quick strategic snapshot.