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 enquiry, which can hold several |
| Enquiry (the job) | One commercial job: this customer, this requirement, this office. Several conversations can belong to one enquiry. There is no separate lead or opportunity record; the enquiry carries the job from first email to order |
| Card | One enquiry on the inbox board, with every email of its conversations. Not a quotation, and not a conversation |
| Linked by | What joined an email to the enquiry it follows: its conversation, a reply to our quotation email, a quote number it cites, the client’s subject or reference, the client and quoted lines, or a person. Shown in the email’s mail summary |
| Quote not in FlowOS | A quotation the client answers that was made elsewhere, such as in the ERP. Mail answering one can be linked to its enquiry, but is not compared with that quotation |
| Link doubtful | An email linked to an enquiry that it may not belong to: its client, products or tags differ from the enquiry’s and nothing strong shows it belongs (no shared tag, known quote number or project reference, and not the same conversation), under R110. Shown as “⚠ Link doubtful” on the enquiry’s card and “⚠ doubtful” in the mail summary until a person confirms it belongs (It belongs here) or relinks it |
| Stage | Which board column a card is in: New, To review, Ready to quote, Quoted, Revision requested or Ordered. Worked out from the enquiry’s mail, requirement lines and quotations, never chosen |
| Quiet | A Quoted or Ordered enquiry with no unread mail and no activity for 30 days. The board folds it into an “N quiet” row at the foot of its column |
| Regret | Flowtech’s reply that it does not supply what was asked for. FlowOS marks such lines outside range (R92); an enquiry whose every line is outside range reads Regret on the board |
| Opened / new mail | An email is new to a person until they open its conversation. Kept per person: one person opening it changes nothing for anyone else |
| Pinned item code | An exact item code a reviewer fixes a line to, in line review, instead of letting the line suggest one. The line takes that code’s item group and size, and the rows it fixes read From item code and cannot be edited. Picking another family drops it |
| Entered enquiry | An enquiry a salesperson typed into FlowOS after a call, a WhatsApp chat, a visit or an order on a marketplace such as IndiaMART, rather than one that arrived as email. Its card is marked Entered, with the channel when one was given, and the marketplace’s name for an enquiry that came through one. FlowOS reads its text and files like an email, and the person entering owns it |
| New customer | A customer typed in when entering an enquiry, by name and contact only, because the Party Master does not list it. Kept on the enquiry; it is added to the Party Master only when a sales order is raised. Its card carries a New customer tag, and its quotation takes the address, GSTIN and place of supply typed on the draft |
| Unassigned | On a card, an enquiry that no person owns. It may still belong to an office |
| 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 |
| Origin | The client an email really came from: its sender, or, for a colleague’s forward, the client in the forwarded original. Never the colleague who passed it on. Reading an enquiry also finds the client behind our own reply, or quoted below a colleague’s reply; an email with no outside sender has none |
| Quoted email | An email read out of a colleague’s forward of a whole conversation, listed under the forward and marked “in forward”. It is processed as if it had arrived by itself, and belongs to the same deal as the rest of that forward |
| Copy | A client email FlowOS already holds, arriving again within 30 days, at the same office, and adding nothing: the same files with the same words or none, or, with no files on either, the same words. A note that is only a greeting or filler, such as “PFA” or “kindly quote”, counts as none, and so does a note such as “FYI” from any colleague who forwarded it. Linked to the one FlowOS keeps, the earlier of the two unless the later one was typed before the earlier one arrived, shown as a copy of it, put on its enquiry, and not read again (R2a). A re-send with new files, or with any other words, even “revised qty 10” or a colleague’s “client now wants 20”, is not a copy, and is read in full. A colleague’s reply to colleagues, with nothing of its own and no files, over a client’s email forwarded inside Flowtech is a copy when the client’s words match an email already held from that client under the same subject, whatever files that email had |
| Revision request | A client’s reply to an issued quotation asking for changes. FlowOS lists each change on the quotation under Revision requested (R118). Accepting one marks it for the next revision, which writes it in when it gives one plain value, such as a quantity (R119). See Revision requests |
| 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 |
| Office | The scoping axis. A business record belongs to one. A user may be unassigned while being provisioned. 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 |
| Mapped | A menu value the reading model matched to a catalogue option, more than 80% sure; or, where it was that sure of none, its closest option at 50% or more that the line’s product offers (R76). The customer’s wording is shown beside it, with no percentage |
| Unresolved (a menu value) | A value the enquiry states that no option of the menu means, on a line with no product to decide it; or a menu the line’s product leaves open, such as one with two defaults and nothing to decide between them. It shows the customer’s wording or the reason, and up to three options for a person to pick |
[illegible] |
Written by the picture reader in place of a word or number on a scan or picture it cannot read with certainty. Requirement reading takes that value from the file instead, or leaves it unstated; it is never a value |
| Accessories | The parts supplied with an instrument, such as matching flanges or a controller. A line lists each one it asks for, with a quantity. Also a category of the item group master, with no job: asked for on its own, an accessory is its own line, and a person picks its family and item code because Accessories are never ranked (R27) |
| Inferred | We read this value from the fluid library for the line’s fluid (density, specific gravity or viscosity), or copied it from another field of the line that states the same range. It is filled in on the datasheet and never satisfies a required parameter (R16), except a steam line’s pressure or temperature read from the steam table, which counts as known (R84) |
| Saturated steam and superheated steam | Steam at the temperature its pressure gives it, found in the steam table, is saturated; steam hotter than that is superheated, which is legitimate and is sized as superheated. FlowOS takes steam as saturated: a line that states one of temperature and pressure is given the other from the steam sizing table’s columns, interpolated, and from the steam table formula past them, as Calculated or Assumed and not asked (R84). A stated temperature more than 5 °C below saturation is asked of the customer (R125) |
| Assumed | We defaulted this value where the enquiry gives nothing to infer it from: ambient conditions (1 bar g over 1–3 bar g, 40 °C over 28–52 °C), the range 30% either side of an operating value, or the design value at 1.3 times the maximum. It is filled in on the datasheet and never satisfies a required parameter, except ambient temperature and pressure on a liquid, which count as known when a product is chosen (R16) |
| Calculated | On a quotation, a figure worked out by a rule from stated figures alone: the mean of a stated minimum and maximum, a design value from a stated maximum, or a minimum flow of 0.7 × a stated normal flow beside a stated maximum. A figure worked out from anything assumed prints as Assumed (R87) |
| Suggested | On a quotation, a Flowtech range at the size the client stated, printed because no usable flow was given; not checked against a flow (R108) |
| Not stated | On a quotation, a temperature, pressure or flow figure that nothing stated and nothing could fill. It is printed, never left off (R87) |
| Condition | A menu the enquiry leaves blank that the line’s product decides from the rest of the line: a “Decided by” mapping, a process condition, the size, a material copied from another header, or the fluid’s corrosion grades. The reason is shown beneath it. A header another choice switches off also reads Condition, with the reason, such as “Not used with” that choice. Not saved: it follows the product |
| As enquired | A chip on a change the client asks for: the value asked is the one the enquiry already stated, so our quote missed it (R111) |
| New ask | A chip on a change the client asks for: the value asked is not one the enquiry stated (R111) |
| Edited in review | A person saved this value in review. Nothing is filled into its field afterwards |
| Checked | A value the check marked that a person accepted by confirming its line. The value shows who checked it in place of the check’s mark |
| Guessed fluid | A library fluid matched on shared words, a misspelling or the reading model’s choice, or at a strength the enquiry does not support. Shown for checking; nothing is read from it until a person confirms it |
| Confirmed automatically | A line confirmed with no person, also called auto-confirmed: when someone with inbox approval opens the enquiry’s lines, because its fluid is settled, its product fits with a size and nothing is open that holds it (R71). No line is confirmed as it is gathered. Editing a value returns it to review |
| Support | How sure the check is that a value was read correctly from the enquiry, as a percentage. Every percentage on a check mark is support, and a line shows the lowest of its values. |
| Not found in the enquiry | The check could not find the value for this line, with half or more of its vote. The passage the value was read from is shown beneath it |
| Unsure | The check leaned against the value with less than half its vote. Treated like “Check this value” |
| Check this value | The check found the value, but with 80% support or less |
| Not placed | A value the customer stated for a line that the reading put in no catalogue field. It is kept with the line under the customer’s own label; it holds the line for a person when it is a process value or names a quantity, spares or a total |
| Process value | A value about the process the instrument sees: flow, pressure, temperature, density or specific gravity, viscosity, vacuum, the medium, the service, the phase or the duty, or a figure in one of their units. Make, material, remarks and part numbers are not |
| Project (of a line) | The project, site or package heading a line is listed under in the enquiry. Lines are grouped and numbered by it where an enquiry names more than one |
| From the client | The first group of a line’s open items: a change the client asked for on that one line that waits for a person to accept or decline. Accepting applies the client’s value as the person’s own edit; declining leaves the line |
| Differs from the enquiry | The first group of a line’s open items: what the line offers that is not what the customer asked for, a family the enquiry did not name or a stated value no option of the product matches, shown as asked beside offered |
| Ask the customer | The last group of a line’s open items: what only the customer can state, which is an input the product needs, or the fluid. It is the list Raise query sends. An assumed value is not in it where the assumption counts for the product, and prints on the quotation as assumed |
| Shared requirement | Something the enquiry states once for several lines, or for all of them. Where it names a catalogue field it is filled into each of those lines as stated; a line’s own value stands over it |
| Unlisted fluid | A fluid a reviewer recorded on a line by name because the library does not hold it. Nothing is read from the library for it until it is added there |
| 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 |
| Category (of an enquiry) | A product category of the item group master the client asks to be quoted for. One enquiry can have several |
| Unresolved (an enquiry) | An enquiry whose categories could not be named from the email itself; every category is checked when its line items are identified |
| Ask | Something the client wants in or with the offer besides the products: a due date, delivery, price basis, payment, taxes, validity or warranty, documents, inspection, a make or model, or any other instruction about the offer or how to submit it |
| Due date | When the client wants the offer by, as they wrote it. “Today EOD”, “by tomorrow” or “within 3 days” is counted, in calendar days, from when they sent the email |
| Contact (of an enquiry) | Who the client is, as their signature and From line say: name, designation, company, email, phones, GSTIN and address. Not yet a party’s contact in the party master. Marked “by rule only” when the language model did not read the signature |
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 |
| Field source | Where a datasheet field’s value comes from for a product: Buyer (read from the enquiry), Flowtech (the product provides it) or After order (Flowtech works it out once the order is confirmed). Set on the product’s Fields list (R122) |
| Specification | A Product Limitations entry for what a product provides, such as its accuracy, rangeability or repeatability, as opposed to where it can be used. Never judged against a line (R122, R123) |
| Flowtech range | What a quoted meter measures at its size, printed beside the client’s flow on the quotation (R108). On a flow meter or rotameter’s datasheet, the Flowtech Flow Range row is Flowtech’s and is never read from the enquiry; a scale the client asks for is read as the line’s minimum and maximum flow (R122). Not the range of products Flowtech supplies, which R92 means |
| Readout | How a flow meter or rotameter shows its reading. Analogue is a needle, float or dial read by eye; Digital is an electronic display or electronics; Both is offered either way. Set per family. A line that asks for one is not offered a family marked the other (R124). A 4-20 mA analogue output is a signal, not a readout |
| 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: FVTFM0000006 is the DN50 vortex flowmeter. F, the family’s prefix, then a running number. Assigned in master data. Not the configured instrument |
| Customer item code | The customer’s own code for what they are buying, such as BO-61-0028 or a material code 8231000010, given in their row. Not a Flowtech item code. FlowOS prints it as the Tag No. of a line the enquiry gives no tag (R102) |
| 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 |
| Conditional default | A header’s rule that picks its default option from the enquiry’s process conditions, such as PTFE lining for 15–80 NB. It never stops another option being chosen on request |
| Custom | The option that means “not from this menu; details stated separately”. Present in most menus, not every one; chosen by a person, or for a stated material the line’s product does not offer; any other stated value no option means takes what the line’s product decides instead. Never ruled out |
| Sizing table | The published flow ranges a family is sized from, by line size, tube and float, connection or steam pressure. One table can serve several families, and a family can hold one per datasheet option. Kept on the family view of the Product Limitations page |
| Applies when (datasheet option) | A setting on a limit or on a family’s use of a sizing table that ties it to one option of a datasheet header, such as a PTFE lining. It counts when the line states that option, is set aside when the line states another, and when the line states none a breach takes the option off the menu |
| Try next | The families listed to follow first when a named family is ruled out, in order. The rules still apply to each. A bypass rotameter, made to the client’s flow, is listed only when named or when the line’s flow is above every glass tube’s range. A glass tube named for a flow above every tube’s range is cautioned, not ruled out (its sizing basis is marked assumed), and stays the pick, with the bypass tubes listed beside it; only a glass tube that is ruled out has them lead |
| Default | The option Flowtech quotes when the customer states nothing. Shown as Default on a line where the enquiry leaves a menu, yes/no field or accessories list blank, no condition decides it, and the product’s default or its only option fills it; on a stated accessories list, the product’s default components the list does not name |
| Hard limit | The range of a process condition an option works in. Outside it the option cannot be supplied, even on request |
| Ideal use | The duty a family suits best, entered as a limitation of its own kind. A line that matches it ranks the family higher (R28); a line outside it is not a breach and rules nothing out. The ones FlowOS ships are provisional: read from Flowtech’s or another maker’s page and kept until Flowtech confirms them |
| IBR | The Indian Boiler Regulations, which a steam or boiler instrument may have to be certified to. The vortex flowmeter is Non-IBR Certified unless the enquiry mentions IBR, boiler or the Indian Boiler Regulations anywhere, which offers the IBR vortex flowmeter on its steam lines in its place, unless the enquiry says Non-IBR or IBR: No (R28) |
| Not offered | A value the customer stated that one product cannot supply (R78). It stays shown as stated and counts as a warning when products are ordered (R28), but does not rule that product out; another product may offer it. One the product’s header does not list at all, on a header with Custom, is quoted as that Custom option, worded as the value; a size never is |
| 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 | The named family is ruled out by the process. The best fitting alternative is the suggestion, and the named family leads the Ruled out list with its reasons. A name FlowOS only inferred never makes one. A family a reviewer picks that is outside the families the enquiry asked for makes one too (R96) |
| Named family | The product family the enquiry asks for, by name, model number or item code. It is checked against the process, not trusted, and stays on the list unless it cannot be offered (R25) |
| On demand | A family FlowOS suggests only when the enquiry asks for it, by its name or one of its words, never just because it fits the line. Set on the family’s page. Not “available whenever wanted” |
| Inferred name | A family name FlowOS guessed rather than read. It can be the pick within the line’s own job, labelled inferred; it never makes a deviation and never brings in a family from another job. FlowOS does not infer a family name; names are read from the line, or from the enquiry’s subject or body |
| Unverified | A named family that fits what the line states while a key input is still missing |
| Can’t check | A limit the line gives nothing to judge: the value is missing, or written in words or a unit FlowOS cannot compare. It never rules anything out |
| Evidence | How much of what the line states a family’s limits could judge. A family with few published limits scores low rather than passing everything |
| Compliant | We are offering exactly what was asked for, with no rejection reason against it |
| Price band | One price for an item code at its size, for one flow range: ≤ 50 LPM — ₹1,750. Only in a family priced by flow range. A line takes the band holding the top of its Flowtech range, as water equivalent; a top on the edge of two bands takes the lower. Not the measuring range |
| Measuring range | The flow a size can read, from the published sizing tables. Says whether a size suits an enquiry; carries no price. On a code priced by price bands, the span of its bands |
| Sizing | Whether the instrument can read the duty, from the published sizing tables — a different question from whether it survives the process |
| Water-equivalent | The water flow that lifts a rotameter’s float as far as the customer’s fluid does. Rotameter tables are written for water, so another liquid, or a gas, is converted before a tube is chosen |
| 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 substance the instrument handles, in the customer’s own words: “raw water”, “NaClO2, 31%”. A tank, a pump or a line the instrument sits on says where it is installed and is kept separately. A service cell that names no plant is read as the line’s fluid, whether or not the library holds it |
| Fluid | The chemical or process stream itself — “acetic acid” |
| Substance | A chemical entity or process fluid catalogued with formula, physical constants, thermodynamic equations, and alloy corrosion observations |
| Operating pressure | What the line actually runs at |
| Design pressure | What the instrument must be rated for. Normally larger, and a separate check |
| Rated maximum | An instrument’s own maximum pressure or temperature as its datasheet prints it, such as a gauge rated to 350 °C. A line’s Maximum Pressure and Maximum Temperature are the client’s process maximum, not this |
| 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 (NB) | Pipe sizes named on a standard ladder: a designation, not a measured diameter. NB and DN carry the same number, and 1" is 25 NB by that ladder, as 4 inch is 100 NB, not 101.6. Process connection and jacketing sizes are held in NB |
| Outside diameter (OD) | The measured outside diameter of a pipe or tube in millimetres, as in “114.3 OD”. Pipes are made in standard series, so an OD names a nominal bore: 114.3 is a 100 NB steel pipe, 101.6 a 4 inch hygienic tube read as 100 NB, and 110 a 100 NB plastic pipe. A size written with OD is read as its nominal bore (R106); a bare size is read as an OD only on a thermoplastic line (R94) |
| Nm³ (normal cubic metre) | A cubic metre of gas at 0 °C and 1.01325 bar, whatever the line’s own pressure and temperature. A gas flow is standardised to Nm³/h; a cubic metre at the line’s own conditions, written m³, is a different quantity |
| Line MOC | The material of the pipe the instrument is fitted to, as the enquiry words it under a heading such as Line MOC or Pipe MOC. It is not the instrument’s own material: a float pipe MOC or a bare MOC heading describes the instrument. FlowOS sorts it into metal, thermoplastic, FRP or lined, and a plastic line steers the end connection (R93) |
| 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 each line’s share of this |
| Charges | Packing & forwarding, freight, transit insurance, installation, third-party inspection. Each individually switchable |
| Issue | Freeze a quotation version: its number, date, lines, totals and letterhead stop changing. Not the same as sending it |
| Revision | The next draft made from an issued quotation, printed as -R1, -R2 after the number |
| Withheld override | A rate, discount, quantity or skip typed on a quotation line that is no longer on the enquiry or now offers another item code. It is listed with what it set and not applied, and the quotation cannot be issued until it is entered again on its line or dismissed (R36) |
| Place of supply | The state or union territory a quotation supplies to, chosen on the quotation header from a list. It starts as the state of the enquiry’s contact or of the party picked; the delivery address does not decide it. Inside the company’s state GST is CGST and SGST; elsewhere it is IGST. A quotation cannot be issued without one (R86) |
| Party | A customer or vendor, held as a company with one record per billing location: its billing address, GSTIN and sector. Picking one on a quotation fills the buyer’s name, address, GSTIN and place of supply |
| Net rate | A line’s unit price less its discount, rounded to the paisa. The line amount is worked from the unit price, so net rate × quantity can differ from it by paise |
| Sales representatives | The people a quotation names under FROM: the enquiry’s assignee, then each user who created, edited or issued a revision of it |
| Party match | The Party Master record an enquiry’s customer is taken to be: by GSTIN, else by company name with legal-form words such as “Pvt”, “Ltd” and “M/s” ignored, the branch chosen by PIN, city or state. A match fills a new quotation; a suggestion is only shown. Matching never creates or changes a party |
| 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. For a PO see Checking a purchase order |
| Not quoted | A PO line that pairs with no line of the quotation, because the quotation never held it or a person marked it so. It holds up the order |
| Not ordered | A quoted line the PO leaves out. A note; it does not hold up the order (R114) |
| Deemed acceptance | A PO term that deems the order accepted if Flowtech does not answer within a number of days. FlowOS shows the date it falls on and sends no alert (R115) |
| PO deviation | A difference between a PO and the quotation it accepts, settled on the PO check. It is not a product suggestion’s Deviation, which is a named family the process rules out |
| 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.