Glossary
Every Manuall term defined in plain English.
Definitions for the terms you'll see around Manuall.
- Activity Log
- The event stream of create / update / delete actions across your shop. Drives the Dashboard's activity feed. Distinct from the *Audit Log* (which is field-level).
- Audit Log
- Field-level before/after history of every change. Forensic-grade. Distinct from the *Activity Log*. Business tier.
- Billing Address vs Service Address
- Two separate addresses on a customer. Billing is where the invoice (or check) goes; Service is where the work happens. The Service Address is geocoded for the Map and the slot finder.
- Bring-Your-Own (BYO)
- An integration where you supply your own vendor credentials. Email works this way (Settings -> Integrations -> Email Provider Mode -> BYO, to send from your own domain). Contrast with *Platform-Managed* (Stripe, SMS, QuickBooks), which connect without pasting credentials.
- Change Order
- A scope-change addendum on a job. Tracks what changed, who approved it, and the cost delta. Kept separate from the original estimate or invoice so the trail stays clean.
- Check-in / Check-out
- Tech actions on My Jobs that capture GPS and a timestamp. Check-in moves the job to In Progress. Time is tracked separately, with the timer or a manual entry.
- Company Code
- The short handle your team types at login (for example `acme-hvac`). Also forms your public booking URL. Unchangeable after signup.
- Compliance Item
- A certification, license, or insurance policy tracked against a team member, a vehicle, or a piece of equipment, with an expiry date that drives 30-day warnings.
- CSAT / NPS / CES
- Customer Satisfaction / Net Promoter / Customer Effort scores. In Manuall: Happiness, Loyalty, Effort.
- Custom Field
- A field you define on a record (customer, job, equipment, and more). Defining fields is Business tier; filling them in isn't.
- Custom Role
- A role you create with your own V/C/E/D matrix, alongside the four built-ins.
- Deposit (on an estimate)
- An up-front payment collected when a customer approves an estimate. Mints a deposit invoice, Stripe collects, and the balance is invoiced on job completion.
- Dispatch Board
- A drag-and-drop board with a lane per active tech plus an Unassigned lane. Used to assign and reassign jobs.
- End Rule (Recurring)
- A condition that stops a recurring schedule: an End Date, a Max Occurrences cap, or both.
- Equipment
- Customer-side serviced assets: an HVAC system, water heater, pool pump. Carries manufacturer, model, serial, warranty dates, and a service history.
- Estimate
- A formal quote. Status flows Draft -> Sent -> Approved (or Declined), then converts to a Job; Expired if it lapses.
- Geocoding
- Converting a street address to lat/lng coordinates. Powers the Map and the slot finder's distance math.
- Idempotency Key
- A client-supplied unique identifier on a request. If the same key arrives twice (an offline-queue replay, say), Manuall runs the operation at most once.
- Impersonation
- Manuall support signing in as a tenant Admin for diagnostics. Always with consent, always with a banner (red, or amber for read-only) visible to everyone in the tenant. Rate-limited and audit-logged.
- Job
- The unit of work: a customer, a scheduled time, assigned tech(s), line items, a status. Everything orbits the Job.
- Job Template
- A reusable job recipe. Pre-fills description, required skills, estimated duration, and default checklists.
- Lead
- A prospect, interested but not yet a customer. Has a source, a status pipeline, and an activity log.
- Lead-to-Cash
- The end-to-end revenue cycle: lead, estimate, job, invoice, payment.
- Line Item
- One row on an estimate or invoice: a service or part, quantity, unit price, line total.
- Member (Customer)
- A customer flagged as a Member, which auto-selects the Member price tier on the Price Book.
- My Jobs
- The technician's view: only their own jobs, ordered by scheduled start. Mobile-first.
- Offline Queue
- An on-device queue holding actions made offline. Drains automatically when the signal returns. Duplicates prevented even if you retap.
- Permit
- A work authorization linked to a job. Tracks the authority, number, fee, inspection date, and status.
- Platform-Managed
- An integration where Manuall runs the vendor relationship (Stripe payments, SMS, QuickBooks). You don't paste credentials.
- Portal
- The customer-facing page at `/portal/{tenantId}/{token}`. No login; the token authenticates.
- Public Booking
- An anonymous landing page at `/book/{CompanyCode}` where a net-new prospect submits a request that becomes a Lead.
- PWA
- Progressive Web App: installable, full-screen, offline-capable, auto-updating. Manuall's mobile story.
- Recurring Schedule
- A definition that auto-generates jobs or invoices on a cadence. Behind both Recurring Jobs and Recurring Invoices.
- EPA 608
- EPA Section 608 Universal certification, required to handle refrigerant. Tracked as a compliance item on HVAC techs.
- Role (System)
- One of four built-ins: Admin, Manager, Dispatcher, Technician. Each carries a default V/C/E/D matrix.
- Service (Price Book)
- An entry in your catalog: cost, three-tier pricing (Default / Member / Commercial), estimated minutes, and an optional parts bill of materials.
- Service Contract
- A maintenance agreement with a customer: a term, terms, and a renewal date. Links to a Recurring Job and a Recurring Invoice for execution.
- Service Request
- A request a customer submits from the portal. Inbox at Sidebar -> Service Requests; convert it straight to a Job.
- Site (Customer)
- One of several service addresses on a customer record, for multi-property customers.
- Slot Finder
- The capacity-aware scheduler. Ranks open windows by skills, schedule, service radius, current assignments, and drive time.
- Soft Delete
- Sending a record to Trash instead of removing it. Recoverable.
- SystemAdmin
- A Manuall platform admin (separate from a tenant Admin). Manages tenants and subscriptions. Manuall staff only.
- Tenant
- One business workspace. A user's email can belong to several; the topbar switcher swaps between them.
- Three-Tier Pricing
- Each Service has Default, Member, and Commercial prices. The customer's type and membership status auto-pick the tier on a new line.
- Trade Pack / Vertical Pack
- Same thing: a trade-specific bundle of custom fields, job templates, services, and checklists. Ten ship (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Cleaning, Lawn Care, Pool Service, Pest Control, Garage Door, Appliance Repair, Carpet Cleaning).
- V/C/E/D
- The permission flags: View, Create, Edit, Delete. A role's permission for a feature is a combination (for example "VCE" = no Delete).
- Webhook
- An outbound HTTP POST to a URL you specify when an event happens (invoice paid, estimate approved, and so on). Signed with HMAC-SHA256.