The money words, in plain English.
Net 30, a credit note, markup vs. margin — the terms that show up in a client email or a quote, defined in a sentence, with a real example each. No jargon explaining other jargon.
Quoting
Quote vs. Estimate
A quote is a fixed price you commit to; an estimate is your best guess and can move once you see the job up close.
Scope of Work
The scope of work is the written list of exactly what you will and won’t do on a job — the tasks, the materials, and the boundaries.
Change Order (Variation)
A change order is a written record that the job grew past the original quote, and what the new price is.
Markup vs. Margin
Markup is the percentage you add on top of your cost to get your selling price.
Overhead
Overhead is everything it costs you to be in business at all, whether or not you work today — insurance, your vehicle, tools, software, a phone line.
Call-Out Fee
A call-out fee is a flat charge for showing up — covering your travel time and the trip itself — separate from whatever the job turns out to need once you’re there.
Fixed Price vs. Time and Materials
A fixed price is one total for the whole job, agreed before work starts.
Quote Validity
Quote validity is the date after which a quoted price no longer applies.
Client-Supplied Materials
Client-supplied materials are parts or products the client buys themselves, instead of through your quote.
Lead Time
Lead time is how long a material takes to arrive once you order it.
Provisional Sum
A provisional sum is a placeholder figure for materials you can’t price exactly yet, written into the quote and settled up once the real cost is known — up or down.
Free Estimate
A free estimate is a quote visit you don’t charge for, because winning the job pays you back for the time.
Diagnostic Visit
A diagnostic visit is a paid visit whose job is finding out what is wrong, not pricing the fix.
Out-of-Hours Rate
An out-of-hours rate is a stated premium added to a job priced outside your normal working hours — an evening, a weekend, or a genuine emergency.
Pipeline
Your pipeline is the total value of every quote you have sent and not yet had a decision on.
Win Rate
Win rate is the share of quotes that turn into jobs, out of every quote you send.
Stale Quote
A stale quote is one that has passed its validity date and has not been marked won, lost, or re-quoted.
Scope Creep
Scope creep is a job growing past what you quoted, one small request at a time, with no extra charge agreed.
Invoicing
Pro Forma Invoice
A pro forma invoice is a preview of an invoice sent before the work is done or the real invoice is issued — it shows what a client will owe, but it isn’t a bill yet.
Invoice vs. Receipt
An invoice is a request for payment, sent before or when the money is owed.
Credit Note
A credit note is a document that reduces or cancels what a client owes on a specific invoice — for an overcharge, a returned item, or work that didn’t happen.
Deposit vs. Retainer
A deposit is an upfront part-payment for one specific job, applied to that job’s final invoice.
Progress Invoice
A progress invoice bills for a portion of a bigger job at a defined milestone — materials delivered, a phase completed — rather than waiting for one invoice at the end.
Line Item
A line item is one row on a quote or invoice — a single piece of work or material, with its own quantity, unit price, and total.
Recurring Invoice
A recurring invoice is a template that generates and sends itself on a set schedule — weekly, monthly, whatever the client’s arrangement is — for work you bill the same way every time.
Purchase Order (PO Number)
A purchase order is a business’s own reference number for work it has already approved internally, issued before you invoice.
Getting paid
Net 30 (Payment Terms)
Net 30 means payment is due 30 days after the invoice date — net simply means the full amount, with no discount attached.
Due on Receipt
Due on receipt means payment is expected the moment the client gets the invoice — no fixed date, no grace window.
Late Payment Fee
A late payment fee is an extra charge, usually a flat amount or a monthly percentage, applied once an invoice passes its due date.
Part Payment
A part payment is any amount a client pays toward an invoice that’s less than the full balance.
Remittance Advice
Remittance advice is a short note a client sends saying a payment is on its way, or has been sent, and which invoice it covers.
Bad Debt
Bad debt is money you’re owed that you’ve decided you’re realistically never going to collect — a client who’s vanished, gone under, or simply isn’t worth pursuing further.
Retention (Retainage)
Retention is a slice of a job’s price, commonly around five percent, that a client withholds until after completion or a defects period ends — proof the work holds up, not a discount you gave away.
Merchant Fee
A merchant fee is what a card processor charges you for accepting a card payment — usually a cut of the sale plus a small fixed amount.
Card Surcharge
A card surcharge is an extra amount added when a client pays by card, meant to cover the merchant fee.
Payment Link
A payment link is a web address on an invoice that lets a client pay by card without you there in person.
Cleared Funds
Cleared funds are money that has actually settled in your account and can no longer be reversed, not just a balance that shows as paid.
Statement of Account
A statement of account is a summary you send a client listing several jobs or invoices at once, with what is paid, what is still owed, and the running total.
Staying organized
Cash Flow
Cash flow is the actual timing of money moving in and out of your business — not how much you’ve earned on paper, but what’s really in the bank on any given day.
Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable is the total of every invoice you’ve sent that hasn’t been paid yet — the money owed to you, across however many clients.
Aged Receivables
Aged receivables sorts everything you’re owed by how overdue it is — current, 1–30 days late, 31–60, 61–90, and beyond.
Profit vs. Revenue
Revenue is everything you’ve billed, before anything’s subtracted.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is checking your invoice records against your actual bank statement to confirm every payment you think came in really did, and every payment that landed is accounted for.
Break-Even
Break-even is the point where your revenue exactly covers your costs — no profit, no loss.
Work in Progress (WIP)
Work in progress is a job you have finished, or partly finished, that has not been invoiced yet.
Billing Cycle
A billing cycle is how often you send an invoice — per job, weekly, or monthly.
Force Majeure
Force majeure is a delay caused by something outside your control — weather, a late part, or another trade who has not finished.
Goodwill Gesture
A goodwill gesture is something small you offer, unprompted, after your own delay — a discount, a free extra, or priority on the next job.
Seasonality
Seasonality is the yearly shape of your demand — the months that run busy and the months that run quiet, on a pattern that repeats most years.
Cash Reserve
A cash reserve is money set aside, ahead of time, to pay your fixed costs through a quiet stretch you already know is coming.
Maintenance Contract
A maintenance contract is a standing agreement to do planned work for a client at a set interval — an annual service, a quarterly round, a monthly check.
Billable Weeks
Billable weeks are the weeks in a year you actually invoice, out of 52 — every week off, bank holiday, and lost week already subtracted.
Annual Shutdown
An annual shutdown is a block of weeks you choose to take no bookings in — a holiday, a family break, or simply time off.
Cover Arrangement
A cover arrangement is another trade agreeing to take an emergency call for you during a break — one of two honest answers to "what happens if something comes up," the other being a plain "not available."
Response Time
Response time is the promise of how fast you reply to a call or a message — a stated window, not a best-effort guess.
On-Call
On-call means reachable outside your stated working hours, whether or not you meant to be.
Non-Billable Time
Non-billable time is every hour that goes into the business but never reaches an invoice — quoting, admin, and answering calls or messages outside a job.
After the job
Repeat Rate
Repeat rate is the share of your clients who hire you again, out of everyone you’ve done a job for.
Client Lifetime Value
Client lifetime value is the total amount a client is likely to spend with you across every job over the whole relationship, not just the one in front of you.
Referral
A referral is a new client who comes to you because an existing client actively recommended you, not just because they happened to mention your name.
Workmanship Guarantee
A workmanship guarantee is a promise that your own labor will hold up for a set period after the job.
Callback (Return Visit)
A callback is a second visit to a finished job, usually because something the client reported doesn’t seem right.
Snag List
A snag list is a written list of small defects found at the end of a job, agreed with the client before you leave.
Public Reply
A public reply is the reply posted directly under a review, for anyone who reads it afterward.
Review Gating
Review gating is contacting only the clients you expect to say something good, and quietly skipping the rest.
Fake Review
A fake review comes from someone who was never actually your client — a competitor, a mistaken identity, or someone with no real job behind the claim.
What It Takes to Serve a Client
Cost to serve is everything a client actually costs you beyond the job price — the unbilled hours, the extras given away, and the costs you absorbed.
Effective Hourly Rate
Effective hourly rate is what you actually earned per hour once every hour is counted, not just the billed ones.
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