---
title: Glossary
description: Business terms as FlowOS uses them. Where that differs from everyday use, the difference is stated.
sidebar:
  order: 3
---

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.