# Terms that collide

URL: /business/terms · Id: `page:business/terms`

> Words that mean two things in other tools, the one meaning each keeps here, and the word to use for the other.

Every term in these docs has one meaning. Where another tool, Stripe or the E-Myth uses a word differently, the tables below name the meaning it keeps and the word to use instead.

## Five words, one meaning each
Each of these words means two things in other tools. Here it means one, and the other meaning has its own word.

| Word | Means here | For the other meaning, say |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Founding Team](/agents/founding) | The [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) and the seats that decide what the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) pursues | "your team" for everyone who works in the Startup, agents and humans |
| [Policy](/business/nouns/policy) | A ruling on how numbers are computed, such as revenue recognition | [Conduct](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/conduct) for the rules every [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) acts under, enforced by [Guards](/business/nouns/guard) |
| Run | Nothing. One execution of a [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow) is an [Action](/business/nouns/action), with a status and its [Events](/business/nouns/event) | Action |
| [Role](/business/nouns/role) | A seat that owns work, filled by an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) or a [Human](/business/nouns/human) | [Access Level](/business/nouns/access-level) for a preset of [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission), such as owner or viewer |
| Scorecard | Nothing. The weekly check of every seat is the [Role review](/workflows/processes/role-review) [Process](/business/nouns/process), which records one [Role Review](/business/nouns/role-review) per filled Role | Role review |

A founder who says "give her admin" means an Access Level. A founder who says "hire a bookkeeper" means a Role, and the [Finance Lead](/agents/finance/finance-lead) seat answers to that name.

## One word each
| These look alike | The difference |
| --- | --- |
| Startup, [Company](/business/nouns/company) | A Startup is one business with its own P&L. A Company is the legal entity that holds one or more Startups. |
| [Product](/business/nouns/product), [Offer](/business/nouns/offer), [Price](/business/nouns/price) | A Product is what the [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) gets. An Offer sells a Product at a Price on terms. A Price lives inside its Offer. |
| [Contact](/business/nouns/contact), [Lead](/business/nouns/lead), Customer, [Persona](/business/nouns/persona) | A Contact is someone the Startup can reach. A Lead raised a hand. A Customer accepted an Offer. A Persona is a type of person, never a record of one. |
| Process, Workflow, [Play](/business/nouns/play) | A Process is repeatable business work a [Team](/business/nouns/team) owns. A Workflow is the code that runs one Action of it. A Play is a strategy run as a Process. |
| [System](/business/nouns/system), [Integration](/business/nouns/integration), [Capability](/business/nouns/capability) | A System is the software for one job, such as billing. An Integration connects an outside account to a System. A Capability is a metered set of [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb) every Startup calls. |
| [Account](/business/nouns/account), [Tenant](/business/nouns/tenant) | An Account is a line in the chart of accounts. A Customer's own space in the product, with its people and data, is a Tenant. |
| Event, [Gathering](/business/nouns/gathering) | An Event is the record that something happened. A webinar or a meetup is a Gathering. |

## Stripe's names
Stripe holds the money side of every Startup, and some of its words name different things here. Stripe's `Product` is an Offer, because Stripe sells what an Offer sells. A charge, a payout and a refund are each a [Transaction](/business/nouns/transaction) with that `kind`.

| Noun | Stripe object | When | Source of truth |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Account](/business/nouns/account) | **Treasury FinancialAccount** (`treasury.financial_account`) | `heldAt` is `treasury` | Stripe |
| [Card](/business/nouns/card) | **Issuing Card** (`issuing.card`) | Always | db.sb |
| [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) | **Customer** (`customer`) | Always | db.sb |
| [Dispute](/business/nouns/dispute) | **Dispute** (`dispute`) | `kind` is `chargeback` | Stripe |
| [Invoice](/business/nouns/invoice) | **Invoice** (`invoice`) | Always | db.sb |
| [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) | **Product** (`product`) | Always | db.sb |
| [Price](/business/nouns/price) | **Price** (`price`) | Always | db.sb |
| [Subscription](/business/nouns/subscription) | **Subscription** (`subscription`) | Always | db.sb |
| [Transaction](/business/nouns/transaction) | **PaymentIntent** (`payment_intent`) | `kind` is `charge` | Stripe |
| [Transaction](/business/nouns/transaction) | **Payout** (`payout`) | `kind` is `payout` | Stripe |
| [Transaction](/business/nouns/transaction) | **Refund** (`refund`) | `kind` is `refund` | Stripe |

Stripe's field names keep Stripe's casing and appear only in these mappings. Every call here takes camelCase.

## The E-Myth's names
Michael Gerber's E-Myth runs a business through seats, each with a contract, and through routines that make the work repeatable. Teams and Roles here follow that shape, and two words change.

| E-Myth | Here |
| --- | --- |
| org chart | [Teams](/agents) and the Roles in each |
| position contract | The Role contract on every Role page |
| a system for doing the work | A Process, run by Workflows |
| the owner who works on the business | The Founder, who holds the [Approvals](/business/nouns/approval), not the seats |

A System here is software. The E-Myth's "system" is a Process.