Small Business Data Glossary

API

APIs, or application programming interfaces, connect different data sources and allow them to communicate with each other.

Balance Sheet

A balance sheet is a type of financial statement that summarizes a company’s health and overall worth at a single date in time. It lists all of a business’ assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity—what it owns, what it owes, and how much is left for the owner(s).

Business Fraud

Business fraud is any illegal or dishonest activity intended to deceive, conceal, or mislead a government body, company, financial institution, or individuals, often for the purpose of financial gain. It can also sometimes be known as corporate fraud. Business fraud schemes can have severe repercussions for the companies that fall victim to it, including financial losses, legal risks, and critical public relations damage.

Business Insights

A business insight is any piece of information on a company and its performance. This may include a view into customer needs and preferences, the competitive environment and market dynamics, resource capabilities, technology stack, cost drivers, production processes, and industry trends. These pieces of information are designed to help companies make better short and long-term business decisions.

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence refers to a broad range of strategies, tools, processes, and capabilities that help an organization learn information about itself, its competitors, and the market as a whole. This information can come from a variety of online and offline data sources, including first- and third-party data, quantitative performance statistics, qualitative feedback and surveys, legal and financial filings, and more.

Business Monitoring

Business monitoring is the practice of tracking and analyzing the operations and performance of a business over a set period of time.

Business Record

A business record is any formal documentation of a business activity, event, action, decision, or discussion. Business records are storable, retrievable pieces of information that can serve as official records for a company’s operations, both internal and external. They can be hard copy, digital, or both.

Business Revenue

Business revenue is the income a company makes in a given time period. It refers to the total monetary value of the sales and/or services it renders to customers. If a company’s revenue is less than the expenses it has over the same time period, it suffers a loss. If a company’s revenue is greater than its expenses and debts, it enjoys a profit.

Business Underwriting

Business underwriting is the practice of assessing the risk and repayment potential of small business owners, typically when they apply for loans, insurance, or other financing. Underwriters use a similar set of criteria (credit history, income, credit score) to review these applications as they would for personal loans or personal insurance. These elements may include loan amounts, loan term, type of loans, interest rates, and more.

Business bankruptcy

Business bankruptcy occurs when a business no longer has enough cash flow or access to credit to pay its debts or cover operating expenses. Filing for business bankruptcy provides legal protection to companies in financial trouble and creates a reasonable path to repay debt.

Business benchmarking

Business benchmarking is the process where organizations compare their performance against competitors, other companies, or industry standards. Benchmarking can be used to examine many different key performance indicators (KPIs), including products and services, sales and revenue totals, internal practices, and more.

Business credit bureaus

Business credit bureaus are organizations that exist to evaluate the creditworthiness of a business entity, much like a consumer credit bureau. They do this by tracking current and historical financial information about a business, and developing a credit score.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a form of short-term credit that is available to businesses at the time of purchase. Under BNPL, businesses can acquire the goods and services they need immediately, but delay payment until a later date.

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement, also known as a statement of cash flow, is a type of financial statement that focuses on the movement of cash in and out of a business. It shows how much cash a company spends and receives, and the sources for both.

Corporate structures

Corporate structure refers to the setup of a business; this typically includes business registration information, and may also refer to leadership structure and organizational chart.

Credit Decisioning

While it falls under the broader spectrum of credit risk management, credit decisioning is the act of accepting or rejecting a credit application. A critical function within the financial services industry, this credit decisioning focuses on assessing and determining the eligibility of applicants seeking credit.

Credit Risk

Credit risk is the probability that a debtor will not pay back a loan or other credit extended to them by a financial lender. Credit risk applies to both individual consumers and business borrowers, whether they are applying for loans, lines of credit, credit cards, insurance policies, and more.

Customer Management

Customer management is a collection of tools, strategies, and processes designed to manage a company’s relationship with its customers. Successful customer management is a multi-faceted initiative that connects with and validates the customer experience at different touchpoints.

Data Enablement

Data enablement is a practice employed by businesses to help employees work more efficiently and effectively with company data. It typically comprises a variety of methodologies, workflows, and safeguards to empower employees to access, curate, and use important data in their everyday work.

Data Marketplace

A data marketplace, sometimes known as a data market, is an online store or platform where businesses can buy or sell different types of data. Due to the growth of big data and its importance to business intelligence, operations, and forecasting, data marketplaces can be a critical tool for organizations to either profit from their data resources or acquire the information they need to run their business.

Data enrichment

Data enrichment, also known as data appending, is the process of adding new or more accurate information to the data a company already has. This data can include customer contact data, demographic and employment data, business firmographic data, financial and revenue data, and more. For sales, marketing, and customer service teams, this information is often stored in a centralized internal database, known as a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Dataset

A dataset is a single collection of data records which are connected. It usually includes values, statistics, or images that were collected for a unified purpose. This data can be extracted and used by research teams, data analysts and other stakeholders to analyze correlations, gain insights, create predictive models, and otherwise draw meaningful conclusions about a given matter.

Financial Data

Financial data refers to a number of verified, quantifiable sources of information about the financial health, performance, and prospects of an enterprise. Financial data can come in many different forms, both internal and external, and is used to drive both short- and long-term business strategies.

Financial Statements

Financial statements are formal, written records that a business produces to show its financial health and overall performance. These records offer in-depth information about a company’s revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, cash flow, ownership, and more.

Fraud Detection

Fraud detection is a series of policies, procedures, and technological safeguards designed to identify and protect individuals and businesses from fraud. Because corporate fraud poses such large financial and legal ramifications for businesses, ongoing and proactive fraud detection is a critical part of any enterprise security strategy.

Ideal Customer Profile

An ideal customer profile (ICP) refers to a type of customer that is the best possible fit for a company’s products or services. ICPs are based on a variety of factors and firmographic data, all designed to help a business determine who it should target.

Income Statement

An income statement is a type of financial document that shows how much of a profit or loss a business had during a specific time period. In its most basic form, an income statement calculates the amount of total revenue (sales plus other sources of income) and subtracts the amount of total expenses (cost of products / services sold plus other operating and administrative expenses).

Industry Verticals

Industry verticals are narrowly-defined industries, markets, or business lines that focus on a specialized customer audience. They are also known as business verticals, market segments, or vertical markets.

Industry classification

Industry classification is the act of categorizing a business by industry, and in some cases, by sub-industry.

Know Your Business (KYB)

Know your business (KYB) refers to the process of identifying and verifying a business customer, particularly legal entity customers of certain industries such as banks and payments businesses. It is a regulatory requirement of certain industries, such as banking investment, insurance, and other financial institutions, to perform due diligence on and verify the identity of any businesses that they partner with or onboard as a customer. It is also a critical tool for any organization that wants to be confident about its business relationships or that may partner with regulated companies to provide related services to them.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

Know your customer (KYC) is the process of verifying the identity and background of an individual customer. It is a set of regulatory guidelines and standards used by insurance and financial companies to ensure that new customers are who they claim to be, and that they are an acceptable customer given the risk profile of their background and of the business examining them.

LLC

A limited liability company, also known as an LLC, is a common type of business structure. LLCs are formal business entities that create a full legal separation between the owner(s) and the company.

Merchant Cash Advance

A merchant cash advance (MCA) is a type of business financing that is characterized by advance lump sum payments that are made to a business in exchange for a percentage of future credit card transactions.

Merchant transaction data

Merchant transaction data is an umbrella term used to describe data derived from the transactions for goods or services occurring at a business.

NAICS

“NAICS” stands for the North American Industry Classification System. The North American Industry Classification system is one of the most widely used approaches to industry classification in the United States.

Operating status

Operating status refers to whether a company is still active. It’s typically defined as either “open” or “closed.” An “open” status means the entity is actively conducting business. A “closed” status means the business isn't open or conducting business. Business closures can be temporary or permanent.

PPP (Paycheck Protection Program)

The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, is a federal program designed to provide low-interest loans to businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Revenue Growth

Revenue growth is the increase in a company’s income over a certain length of time. To calculate growth in revenue, a company will take the current revenue total, subtract the revenue from a previous period of their choosing, and divide that total by the same previous period revenue.

SBA

The U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, is an independent federal agency dedicated to serving the needs of small business owners and entrepreneurs.

SMB

Small- and medium-sized business (SMB) is a major category of business that is typically defined by private, independent ownership, limited size and geographic scope, and lower employment and revenue totals compared to larger organizations. SMBs can also be known as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting involves identifying, qualifying, and engaging with leads in the hopes of converting them into customers. It requires defining expectations, scopes, budgets, and goals to help determine which leads have legitimate purchasing power and intent. It is often the first step in the sales process, and a key activity for sales teams looking to fill their pipelines with promising opportunities based on access to relevant and accurate data.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is a type of unincorporated business that is operated by a single individual. Unlike a corporation, limited liability corporation (LLC), or limited liability partnership (LLP), in a sole proprietorship there is no legal distinction between the owner and the company. Sole proprietorships can also be known as sole traders.

Standard Industrial Classification

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a system of codes that the United States government uses to sort and categorize companies by their primary industries and business activity. Developed in the 1930s, SIC codes were designed to provide the government with a uniform, consistent way to gather, analyze, and share economic activity data across all agencies and departments.