Glossary

The words Supply Lens uses, and what they mean. Terms in the product, such as Integration or Party, are capitalised as they are on screen.

A · B · C · D · E · G · I · L · M · O · P · R · S · T · U

A

Access Point: A Peppol Access Point (AP) is a certified, secure gateway that connects businesses to the Peppol network, so they can exchange electronic documents such as invoices, orders and shipping notices. Supply Lens connects you to Peppol as an Access Point. See Peppol FAQs.

Ambiguous match: When two different records carry the same identifier, at the same scope, and an incoming Document uses it. Supply Lens reports an error naming both records instead of guessing. See How Supply Lens matches codes.

Automatic: A switch on a Mapping. On: the Mapping runs as soon as a Document is created. Off (manual): the Document stops at Ready until someone processes it. See Document statuses.

B

Bill of materials: A list of component Products held on a Product, each linking to its own Product page. See Products explained.

BOS: Back-office system. An application that handles core business operations such as accounting, inventory, orders and fulfilment.

Buyer Product Code: A Product identifier type for a customer's own code for your item. See Product identifiers.

C

Cancelled: A status. On source data or a Document it is informational. On target data it usually means Supply Lens stopped a duplicate. See Document statuses and Communication statuses.

Communication status: Whether source data actually arrived, or target data was actually delivered: Received, Pending, In progress, Sent, Failed, Cancelled. See Communication statuses.

Configuration: A setting on an Integration that defines which document type (such as Orders or Invoices) the Integration sends and/or receives, and any options for that type. You add one Configuration per message type you want to use on that Integration. See Add a Configuration.

Conversion: See UoM conversion.

Cross-reference: The step where Supply Lens matches the codes on a Document (product codes, party codes, location codes, units) to your records, using their identifiers. See How Supply Lens matches codes.

Customer: One of the two trading roles on a Document, alongside Supplier. You are the Customer on buy-side Documents such as purchase orders. See Parties on Documents.

Customer Assigned Code: A Party identifier type for the code a customer has given a business. Added to your organisation party, one per EDI trading partner, it routes their messages to you. See Party identifier types.

D

Default fulfilment Location: The Location a Product ships from when no fulfilment Location is provided. See Set a default fulfilment Location.

Default unit of measure: The unit Supply Lens assumes when a line has none. It can be set on a Product, on a Product for one Integration, or on an Integration. See Units of Measure explained.

Direction: Whether a document type comes to you (inbound) or goes from you (outbound). It is fixed for each type and tells you which Party is you. See Parties on Documents.

Document: The normalised version of a business record (such as an order, invoice or shipment) as it flows through Supply Lens. The platform receives source data from one system, turns it into a Document, and can then produce target data for another system. See Documents explained.

Document status: Whether data was processed: Pending, In progress, Ready, Complete, Failed, Cancelled. Shown in lists as the translation status. See Document statuses.

Document type: The kind of business message or record, such as Order, Invoice, Shipment, Product Update or Purchase Order. Document types are used when adding Configurations to an Integration and when creating Mappings. See Document types.

E

EDI: Electronic Data Interchange. A standard way for businesses to exchange documents (orders, invoices, despatch advice and so on) in a structured format. Supply Lens supports EDI with many trading partners, often over AS2 or SFTP. See Prepare for an EDI retailer.

Enrichment: The step after cross-referencing where Supply Lens fills in what a sender left out using your defaults, such as the unit of measure on a line. See How Supply Lens matches codes.

G

Global Location: A Location shared across all organisations, created by Supply Lens system administrators. You can add your own codes to it. See Locations explained.

GLN: Global Location Number. A unique 13-digit identifier for physical locations and legal entities in the supply chain. GLNs are commonly used in EDI and Peppol so that documents are routed correctly. Your organisation party in Supply Lens can hold a GLN identifier, and so can other Parties and Locations.

GTIN-13 and GTIN-14: Product barcodes. A GTIN-13 (13 digits) usually identifies the single consumer unit; a GTIN-14 (14 digits) usually identifies the case or outer. See Product identifiers.

I

Identifier: A code that a system or partner uses for one of your records. It has a type (such as SKU, GLN or Unleashed Customer Code) and a value. Products, Parties, Locations and Units of Measure all carry identifiers. See How Supply Lens matches codes.

IMS: Inventory management system. An application that tracks stock levels, warehouses and movements. Supply Lens can send inventory and fulfilment data to an IMS, and receive from it where supported.

Integration: A connection in Supply Lens to an external application (such as Shopify, Unleashed or an EDI partner). Each Integration has settings and Configurations that define what data is sent and received. See Integrations explained.

Item master: The list of products held in your ERP or inventory system. A Supply Lens Product records how other systems' and partners' codes line up with it. See Products explained.

L

Location: A physical place, such as a warehouse, store or depot, with the codes each system uses for it. See Locations explained.

M

Mapping: A rule in Supply Lens that "joins the dots" between two Integrations. It defines which document type flows from which Integration (the source) to which Integration (the target), and under what conditions. Mappings decide how data moves through your connected systems. See Mappings explained.

Metadata (Peppol): Structured information used to build Peppol documents, such as your organisation's bank details, tax information and payment terms, and your trading partners' identifiers and requirements. It is stored in Supply Lens so documents can be generated consistently.

O

Organisation: Your company's workspace in Supply Lens. You configure Integrations, Mappings, Products, Parties and Locations within an Organisation. Each Organisation has a default organisation party.

Organisation party: The Party that represents your own organisation in Supply Lens, created automatically and marked with a building icon. It holds your core details (name, address, identifiers such as VAT and GLN) and is used when sending or receiving documents. See Parties explained.

Owning party: The Party a Location belongs to. Every Location must have one. See Locations explained.

P

Party: A business entity you exchange data with (such as a customer, supplier or trading partner). Parties can have multiple party identifiers so that incoming and outbound data is matched and routed correctly. See Parties explained.

Party identifier: A code, ID or reference that identifies a Party in a given system or standard (such as a GLN, VAT number, Customer Assigned Code or Shopify Company ID). Parties can have many identifiers for different Integrations and trading relationships. See Party identifier types.

Peppol: Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL). A network that lets businesses and public bodies exchange electronic documents, such as e-invoices and orders, in a standard way. Supply Lens connects you to Peppol as an Access Point so you can send and receive Peppol messages. See Peppol FAQs.

Peppol Participant: A business or public body registered on the Peppol network. Each Participant has a unique Peppol Participant ID, often based on a VAT or company registration number, so documents can be addressed to them.

Product: The Supply Lens record of something you sell or buy, with its codes, units, prices and defaults. See Products explained.

R

Ready: A Document status: processed, but its Mapping is manual, so it is waiting for someone to process it. See Document statuses.

Reference data: The section of the Settings menu holding countries, currencies, Products and the other lookup tables.

S

Scope: A limit on where an identifier applies, such as one Party, country, currency or Integration. An identifier scoped to something else is ignored on Documents outside its scope. See How Supply Lens matches codes.

Shared party: A Party shared across organisations and managed by Supply Lens, marked with a shared party icon. You can add your own identifiers to it. See Parties explained.

Ship to and ship from: Where goods go to and come from on a Document. They identify places (Locations), not trading roles.

SKU: Stock keeping unit: your own code for a product, as held in your ERP or inventory system.

Source data: The raw data that Supply Lens receives from an external system (such as an order from Shopify). The platform converts source data into a Document and may then produce target data for another system. See Documents explained.

Supplier: One of the two trading roles on a Document, alongside Customer. You are the Supplier on sell-side Documents such as orders, invoices and shipments. See Parties on Documents.

T

Target data: The data that Supply Lens sends out to an external system after processing a Document (such as an order sent to Unleashed). Target data is the counterpart to source data. See Documents explained.

Trace: A diagram of a record's whole chain, from its source data to every piece of target data made from it, with each record's status.

Traded unit size: A pack size sent on an order line, such as "packs of 6". Supply Lens looks for a conversion on the Product that holds that many single units. See Fix: no conversion to this size.

Trading partner: An organisation you exchange business documents with (such as a customer or supplier). In Peppol, you add trading partners so you can address and send documents to them on the network. See Add a Peppol trading partner.

Translation status: The name document lists use for the Document status. See Document statuses.

U

UN/CEFACT Recommendation 21: The United Nations' international list of codes for types of package. You can add any of its codes as a Unit of Measure. See Available Units of Measure.

UoM: Unit of measure, also written UOM. The standard in which a quantity is expressed, such as pieces, kilograms, litres or boxes. Supply Lens lets you define UoMs and UoM conversions so quantities are translated correctly between systems that use different units. See Units of Measure explained.

UoM conversion: A rule that translates a quantity from one unit of measure to another (such as 1 box = 12 units). Used when different systems or trading partners use different UoMs for the same product. In Supply Lens, conversions live on each Product. See Add a unit conversion.

UPC: A barcode used mainly in North America. One of the Product identifier types.