Glossary
Business terms as FlowOS uses them. Where that differs from everyday use, the difference is stated.
Business terms as this product uses them. Where the usage differs from the everyday one, the difference is stated — those are the ones that cause misunderstandings in meetings.
The work
| Term | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Conversation / thread | One email conversation. Every reply joins it. Not the same as an opportunity |
| Opportunity | One commercial job: this customer, this need, this office. Several conversations can belong to one opportunity. There is no separate “lead” record — lead and opportunity are stages on the same job |
| Line item | One instrument to be quoted. Grouped by distinct specification, not per tag: six tags on one specification are one line item carrying all six, because that is how the quotation is written |
| Tag number | The customer’s own identifier for a physical instrument on their plant. Several tags can sit on one line item |
| Enquiry / RFQ | A customer request for a quotation. Also a document type |
| Document | An enquiry, purchase order, order acknowledgement or revision request — distinguished by type, not four parallel trees. A thread’s type can drift as the job progresses |
| Open / closed | Whether we are finished with a conversation. Closing means “done for now” — new mail reopens it |
| Office | The scoping axis. A record belongs to one. A person sees a union of offices, not a switched mode |
| Grant | Extra office access with a written reason. Auditable. Not a mode |
What was read
| Term | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Stated | The customer wrote this value. The evidence is shown |
| Assumed (also inferred) | We derived or defaulted this value. It never satisfies a required parameter |
| Missing | Required for this category and not stated |
| Flag | Something raised during the reading that a person should look at — a dropped size, a dropped document, a failed reading |
| Evidence | The wording in the source document a value was taken from |
| Review item | Work the product would not guess: unknown sender, untyped document, PO mismatch |
Products and fit
| Term | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Item group / family | A product series as sold — electromagnetic flowmeter, metal tube rotameter. It owns the option menus and the variant axis. It is not one sellable size |
| Variant axis | The one attribute item codes fork on. Usually line size; sometimes pressure range, face-to-face length, or number of set points |
| Item code | A released sellable good in that family: VTFM-0014 is the DN50 EMF. Assigned in master data. Not the configured instrument |
| Model number / order code | The full configured string for this quotation line: FMIPL-VTFM-FT2-PC1-…. Built from the model prefix plus positional option codes. The composed decodification number is this string |
| Option position / menu | One decision in the model number — flowtube MOC, connection, output. Codes are positional: SS 304 on the tube is not the same code as SS 304 on the connection |
| Decodification master | The family’s menus and the rules that compose the model number. Published as immutable versions |
| Custom | The option that means “not from this menu; details stated separately”. Present in every menu and never ruled out |
| Default | The option Flowtech quotes when the customer states nothing |
| Wetted | A part the process fluid actually touches. Whether a part is wetted decides whether the fluid’s corrosiveness can rule it out |
| Allowed / ruled out / unconfirmed | The three verdicts on any option. Only “ruled out” hides anything |
| Deviation | We are offering something other than what the customer specified, or what they specified carries a rejection reason |
| Compliant | We are offering exactly what was asked for, with no rejection reason against it |
| Sizing | Whether the instrument can read the duty, from the published sizing tables — a different question from whether it survives the process |
| Decodification | The rules that turn a model number into a specification, segment by segment, and back again |
| Option library value | A shared, catalogue-wide choosable value — MS, SS 316, ASA 150. Carries a kind, a label and traits. Never call it an “item”: it owns no family, no header, and no rupee amount. The same value can sit on many headers across many item groups — the code that prints on the model number belongs to the header, not the value |
| Driver | A header decodification has marked as moving price. A header that is not a Driver has no price impact, whatever is chosen there |
| Charge method / “Priced by…” | How a Driver header’s chosen option is charged, set in decodification per option: Fixed amount (one figure, every model in the group), By parameter (an amount × a measured quantity — e.g. “₹1000 per 100 mm”), Rate table (one amount per model, the only method that varies by model), or Base variant (the choice changes the base itself rather than adding to it) |
| Pricing library | Where the rupee amounts themselves are entered and maintained, against the charge method decodification already decided. It does not decide the method — only the figure. A missing amount is unpriced, not zero |
Process vocabulary
| Term | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Service | The duty, vessel or destination — “hot water to reboiler”. Not the same as the fluid name |
| Fluid | The chemical or process stream itself — “acetic acid” |
| Operating pressure | What the line actually runs at |
| Design pressure | What the instrument must be rated for. Normally larger, and a separate check |
| Line size / process connection size | The same quantity — a nominal bore — differing only in what they describe |
| Centre to centre | A length in millimetres between two nozzle centrelines. Not a bore |
| Measuring range | The span the instrument reads. On a level gauge, effectively the tank height |
| Nominal bore | Pipe sizes named on a standard ladder. 4 inch is 100 NB by that ladder, not 101.6 |
| Corrosion band | A published A-to-D resistance letter for a fluid against a material. A is excellent, D severe |
| Corrosion rate | A measured thinning rate in millimetres per year, for a specific fluid, alloy, concentration and temperature |
Commercial
| Term | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Basic value | Gross, less line discounts, less the overall discount |
| Taxable value | Basic plus charges. GST is charged on this |
| Charges | Packing & forwarding, freight, transit insurance, installation, third-party inspection. Each individually switchable |
| Party | A customer or vendor, with billing and shipping addresses that land on a quotation letterhead |
| HSN | The code and GST rate referenced by every item and quotation line |
| Comparison | The check of an inbound PO (or revision) against the quotation it accepts, line by line |
| ERP handoff | Pushing a confirmed order into the ERP of record, with retry and reconciliation state |
A note on the delivery team’s own shorthand
The engineering team refers to the four stages of the reading as Layer 1 (splitting the enquiry into line items and categorising them), Layer 2 (extracting each line’s parameters), Layer 3 (suggesting products) and Layer 4 (building the quotation). Those names appear in their notes and tickets. This documentation uses the business descriptions instead; the mapping is here so the two conversations connect.