---
title: General concepts — TSync Intelligence glossary
description: A plain-language glossary of every core term in TSync Intelligence — lead, customer, contact, estimate, proposal, proforma, invoice, credit note, item, warehouse, project and more.
product: TSync Intelligence 11.3.6
language: en
canonical: https://docs.tsync.pro/general-concepts/
source: https://docs.tsync.pro/llms.txt
---

<h1>General concepts — TSync Intelligence glossary</h1>
<p>Core terms you'll meet across the UI. The order follows the natural commercial flow: <em>from prospect to payment</em>, then configuration entities. All concepts described correspond to modules active in the current version.</p>

<h2 id="commercial">Commercial flow</h2>

<h3 id="lead">Lead</h3>
<p>A person or company who showed interest but is <strong>not yet a customer</strong>. Has status, source, owner, temperature (Hot / Warm / Cold), activity history, optional tags and custom fields. Managed in <code>Sales → Leads</code>; the <a href="../modules/tsync-bx-leads/">BX Leads</a> module offers an alternative full-page view.</p>
<p><strong>Conversion:</strong> the <em>Convert to customer</em> button creates a Customer + Contact from the lead fields. The original lead is kept as archive.</p>

<h3 id="customer">Customer</h3>
<p>The company (or individual) you do business with. Holds:</p>
<ul>
  <li>name, VAT/TIN, registration number, address, default currency, language,</li>
  <li>contacts (see below) — at least one "primary",</li>
  <li>history: contracts, proformas, invoices, payments, estimates, proposals, projects, files, notes, tickets.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="contact">Contact</h3>
<p>A person tied to a Customer. Has its own email + password for the customer portal. Granular per-contact permissions: <em>can see invoices / contracts / estimates / projects</em>. One contact is <strong>primary</strong> = default notification recipient.</p>

<h3 id="estimate">Estimate (quote)</h3>
<p>Sales quote for a Customer or a Lead. Statuses: <em>Draft, Sent, Open, Revised, Declined, Accepted, Expired</em>. On <em>Accepted</em> it can be <strong>converted to Invoice</strong> or <strong>Project</strong> in one click.</p>

<h3 id="proposal">Proposal</h3>
<p>A more narrative variant of an estimate, with WYSIWYG body, electronic signature (signer, IP, date) and public-link acceptance. Can auto-convert to <em>Customer</em> and <em>Invoice</em> on accept (see setting <code>Auto convert leads to clients when proposal is accepted</code>).</p>

<h3 id="contract">Contract</h3>
<p>Agreement with a Customer over a period (start_date → end_date) or open-ended. Has WYSIWYG content, attachments, comments, internal notes, renewals and signature (manual or electronic). Full details in the <a href="../contracts/">Contracts guide</a>.</p>

<h3 id="invoice">Invoice</h3>
<p>Fiscal document issued to a Customer. Statuses: <em>Unpaid, Paid, Partially Paid, Overdue, Draft, Cancelled</em>. Supports multiple lines (Item / free description), discounts (percent or value), per-line VAT, own currency, recurrence, attachments, partial payments. For Romania/Moldova: built-in <a href="../modules/ro-anaf/">e-Factura ANAF</a> and <a href="../modules/md-fisc/">FISC MD</a>.</p>

<h3 id="proforma">Proforma</h3>
<p>"Pre-fiscal" document — payment request without immediate accounting obligation. On payment it converts into a fiscal Invoice.</p>

<h3 id="credit-note">Credit Note</h3>
<p>Reversal fiscal document — full or partial against an already-issued Invoice. Use cases: customer refund or credit applied to other invoices.</p>

<h3 id="payment">Payment</h3>
<p>Money transaction applied to an Invoice. Supports partial payments, multiple methods (bank transfer, cash, card, online gateway). Recording a payment automatically updates the invoice status (Paid / Partially Paid).</p>

<hr>

<h2 id="execution">Execution and delivery</h2>

<h3 id="project">Project</h3>
<p>Container for deliverables to a Customer. Has <em>start_date</em>, <em>deadline</em>, status, billing type, milestones, files, gantt, notes, time tracking. See the detailed <a href="../project-management/">Project Management</a> guide.</p>

<h3 id="task">Task</h3>
<p>Unit of work assigned to one or more Staff. Common fields: name, description, priority (1–4), start/due date, assignees, followers, milestone, custom fields, tags. Supports <strong>subtasks</strong> (hierarchy), <strong>dependencies</strong>, <strong>time tracking</strong> (live timer + manual), <strong>recurring</strong> (auto-repeat), <strong>checklists</strong>, <strong>comments</strong>, <strong>files</strong>.</p>

<h3 id="subtask">Subtask</h3>
<p>Child task of a parent. Useful for splitting a large task without polluting the top-level plan. Hierarchy depth is technically unlimited. <strong>Parent status does not auto-update</strong> when children complete — manual control by design.</p>

<h3 id="milestone">Milestone</h3>
<p>An important point on a project's timeline. Not a task — a marker. Renders as a vertical diamond in Gantt and as a counter on the project Overview.</p>

<h3 id="time-entry">Time entry</h3>
<p>A logged time interval against a task: start, end, duration, hourly_rate, billable yes/no, note. Created via live timer (Start/Stop) or manually. Drives invoices via <em>Project → Invoice tracked time</em> and timesheet reports.</p>

<hr>

<h2 id="catalog">Catalog</h2>

<h3 id="item">Item (product / service)</h3>
<p>Catalogable element that appears on lines of invoice / proforma / estimate / proposal / contract / purchase order. Has: name, description, unit price, currency, VAT, unit of measure, tags, attachments. The <a href="../modules/tsync-warehouse/">TSync Warehouse</a> module adds <strong>stock</strong>, AVCO, lot, GRN, transfers.</p>

<h3 id="category">Category</h3>
<p>Hierarchical grouping for Items, taxes, expenses, knowledge base articles. See <a href="../drag-drop-categories/">Drag-drop categories</a> for fast reorg.</p>

<h3 id="brand">Brand</h3>
<p>Commercial brand attached to an Item. Used in reports and filters; see <a href="../brand-management/">brand management</a>.</p>

<hr>

<h2 id="config">Configuration and users</h2>

<h3 id="staff">Staff (internal user)</h3>
<p>Admin / collaborator account. Has: name, email, phones, departments, role (or granular permissions), avatar, custom fields, active/inactive status. Different from Contact (which is a person at a customer).</p>

<h3 id="role">Role</h3>
<p>Predefined set of permissions (read/create/edit/delete) on entities: invoices, estimates, contracts, projects, tasks, items, leads etc. "own" vs "global" attribute — see only entities you created/are assigned to, or all of them.</p>

<h3 id="department">Department</h3>
<p>Logical group of Staff (Sales, Support, Production). Used for ticket routing and report filters.</p>

<h3 id="custom-field">Custom field</h3>
<p>Extra admin-defined field on any entity (Customer, Lead, Invoice, Project, Task, Item, Contract, Staff). Types: text, textarea, select, date, number, link. Shows in form, optionally in lists, optionally in PDF.</p>

<h3 id="tag">Tag</h3>
<p>Free-form label attachable to entities (most often Tasks, Leads, Items). Drives quick filters and report grouping.</p>

<hr>

<h2 id="comm">Communication</h2>

<h3 id="ticket">Ticket (support)</h3>
<p>Support request from a Contact (or internal). Has status, department, assignee, priority, attachments, message thread. Can be created from incoming email (IMAP cron).</p>

<h3 id="calendar-event">Calendar event</h3>
<p>An event on the calendar (internal or assigned to Staff). Shows in the global Calendar view + on project/task details. Syncs with Google Calendar when the integration is configured.</p>

<h3 id="kb">Knowledge Base article</h3>
<p>Public or internal knowledge base article. Used for customer self-service or staff onboarding. Supports categories, helpful-vote and search.</p>

<hr>

<h2 id="finance">Finance</h2>

<h3 id="currency">Currency</h3>
<p>The currency invoices are issued in. The system has a <strong>base currency</strong> (used for aggregated reports) and allows issuing documents in other currencies with a configurable rate.</p>

<h3 id="tax">Tax rate</h3>
<p>Tax percentage (e.g. VAT 19%, VAT 9%, VAT 0%, exempt). Defined in <a href="../tax-rates-crud/">Tax rates editor</a>. Applied per line, not per document.</p>

<h3 id="payment-mode">Payment mode</h3>
<p>Accepted payment method (bank transfer, cash, POS card, online gateway). Configurable globally or per Customer.</p>

<hr>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
  <li><a href="../project-management/">Project Management — full guide</a></li>
  <li><a href="../contracts/">Contracts — full guide</a></li>
  <li><a href="../modules/tsync-bx-leads/">BX Leads — full-page view</a></li>
  <li><a href="../support/">Common issues and support</a></li>
</ul>
