# Glossary

> The words Continual uses, in plain language, each with the page that explains it.

Each word names one thing, the same in the app and in these docs. Words for building on Continual,
such as operations and queries, are in [Developers](/docs/developers).

## A

**Acting for**: Whom Continual works for: a member today, and **Coming**, a position. It has that
member's or position's access, and its own authority decides what needs a yes. See
[People and access](/docs/concepts/members#acting-for-someone).

**Account**: In Finance, a **ledger account**, such as Bank or Revenue, or a **customer** or
**vendor account**. The account you sign in with is your **user**.

**Action**: A named change, such as **Issue invoice**. Creating, editing, and deleting are Actions
too, and every change to a record is one. See [Records](/docs/concepts/records#every-change-is-an-action).

**Activity**: A record's history on its **Activity** tab: every change, who made it, for whom, and
why, with the comments about it. See [Activity](/docs/concepts/activity).

**Actor**: Who acts: a member or a service account. Every change names its actor. See
[People and access](/docs/concepts/members#who-acts).

**Adopt**: **Coming.** To make a change Continual held your own, so it runs as yours, under your
limits and every control.

**App**: The records, Actions, roles, skills, and metrics for one area of the business, such as
Sales or Finance, that your organization installs. See [Apps](/docs/apps).

**Approval**: A change held until a reviewer approves or declines it. See
[Approvals](/docs/concepts/approvals).

**Archived**: A record put away instead of deleted, because other records still name it. Lists leave
it out.

**Authority limit**: **Coming.** How much an actor, agent or person, may do without review, such as
paying up to 5,000. See [Approvals](/docs/concepts/approvals#authority-how-much-anyone-may-do-alone).

## B

**Balance**: The sum of a ledger's entries up to a moment, such as cash today or open deals on
Monday.

**Book**: One legal entity's books for a ledger, in one currency, such as its US GAAP books. Each
entry balances within its book. See [Books](/docs/apps/finance/books).

**Business superintelligence**: An intelligence that knows the whole business, works in its world
model, and runs and grows the business with its team. It is what Continual is building. See
[Why Continual](/docs/why-continual).

**Business world model**: Your business as Continual models it: its records, ledgers, history,
access, and goals. It is live, because the work happens in it. See
[How it fits together](/docs/concepts).

## C

**Comment**: A post under a record, which anyone who can read the record can read. See
[Posts and the Feed](/docs/concepts/posts-and-feed).

**Condition**: A fact Continual concludes about a record, such as **Ready** or **Overdue**. You
never set one.

**Connection**: An outside account linked to Continual, such as a Gmail mailbox.

**Continual**: The AI-native operating system for business, and its always-on agent, which has the
same name in the app. See [Continual's agent](/docs/concepts/continual).

**Control**: A business rule that holds a change for review, whoever makes it, such as large
invoices needing an admin. See [Approvals](/docs/concepts/approvals#controls-rules-for-everyone).

**Control account**: A ledger account, such as accounts receivable, that only invoices and payments
post to, so its balance always agrees with the customers behind it.

## D

**Debit, credit**: The two sides of every financial entry, always equal. Assets and expenses grow
with debits; liabilities, equity, and revenue grow with credits. See
[Ledgers and money](/docs/concepts/ledgers#financial-ledgers-double-entry-plainly).

**Document**: A record that becomes final, such as a quote, an invoice, or a payment. It is a draft
until its own Action finalizes it. See [Documents](/docs/concepts/records/documents).

**Draft**: A Document not yet finalized. It changes freely and has no number.

## E

**Entity**: A legal entity of your organization, with its own currency and its own books. **Coming:**
the documents that post live under it.

**Entry**: One movement in a ledger: how much, along which details, when it counts, and who made
it. Entries are only ever added.

## F

**Feed**: **Coming.** A stream of stories Continual writes about what matters across the business.
See [Posts and the Feed](/docs/concepts/posts-and-feed#the-feed).

**Finalize**: To make a Document final with its own Action, such as **Issue invoice**. Finalizing
numbers it, locks it, and posts what it records to the ledger.

## G

**Goal**: **Coming.** A metric with a target and an owner, and optionally the larger goal it serves. See
[Metrics and goals](/docs/concepts/metrics#goals).

## H

**Handle**: A readable name for a record that isn't numbered, such as a company's web domain.

## L

**Ledger**: A running tally kept as entries that are only ever added. A **financial** ledger, such
as the general ledger, counts money in double entry; a **statistical** ledger counts records by
status. See [Ledgers and money](/docs/concepts/ledgers).

**Lock date**: The date through which a book is closed; entries dated on or before it are refused.

## M

**Member**: A person in your organization. See [People and access](/docs/concepts/members).

**Metric**: A named sum of a ledger, such as pipeline or win rate, read over any period. It opens to
the records behind it. See [Metrics and goals](/docs/concepts/metrics).

## N

**Number**: A short name a record's type gives it, such as `DEAL-7` or `INV-US-12`. Documents are
numbered when finalized, with no gaps; other records when created.

## O

**Object**: A kind of record that changes whenever the facts change, such as a company or a deal.
The other kind is a Document.

**On behalf of**: See **Acting for**.

**Open item**: What a customer still owes on an invoice, kept open until a payment settles it.

**Organization**: Your business in Continual. Everything in it belongs to it.

**Owner**: Who answers for a record. Today, whoever starts a project is its **Owner**. **Coming:**
the position that answers for a team or a project, to which approvals and problems escalate.

## P

**Parent**: The record another lives under, such as a task's project. Records form one tree under
your organization, and roles reach down it.

**Policy**: Today's setting for autonomy and controls: which changes need a yes, or are refused. See
[Approvals](/docs/concepts/approvals#set-the-rules-today-policies).

**Position**: **Coming.** A job in a team, such as AP manager, held by one or many people, Continual,
or equipment. It holds roles and authority limits. See
[People and access](/docs/concepts/members#how-the-business-is-organized).

**Post**: Anything written for others to read, once: a message, a comment, or a story. Only its
author can take it back. See [Posts and the Feed](/docs/concepts/posts-and-feed).

**Post to a ledger**: To write a Document's entries into a ledger, as finalizing does.

**Private**: A place, such as a project or your own work, that roles from above do not reach into.

**Project**: Work with an outcome and an owner, made of tasks. See [Projects](/docs/apps/projects).

## R

**Reaction**: An emoji on a message or a comment, one per person per post.

**Record**: One thing your business knows, such as the company Northstar Robotics or invoice
`INV-US-12`. See [Records](/docs/concepts/records).

**Reference**: A record pointing at another, such as an invoice naming its customer. It works both
ways.

**Reversal**: Entries equal and opposite to an earlier set, which correct a final Document without
changing it.

**Reviewer**: Whoever decides an approval. Today, a person with the approver role; **Coming**, any
holder of the reviewer position with enough authority, a person or an agent. See
[Approvals](/docs/concepts/approvals#reviewers).

**Role**: A set of permissions, given to a member at one place and reaching the records under it.
**Coming:** roles given to positions and teams too. See [People and access](/docs/concepts/members#roles).

## S

**Service account**: An actor that is not a person, such as Continual's agent or an integration. It
holds only the roles an admin gives it.

**Skill**: A kind of work an app teaches Continual, such as Finance's **Bookkeeping**.

**Status**: Where a record is in its life, such as a deal's **Qualified** or an invoice's **Issued**.
Deals show it as **Stage**. See [Records](/docs/concepts/records#status-where-a-record-is-in-its-life).

## T

**Team**: **Coming.** The positions that work together, holding their work and settings; your
organization is the top team. See [People and access](/docs/concepts/members#how-the-business-is-organized).

**Task**: Planned work in a project, with a duration and the tasks it waits for. A task is not a
to-do. See [Projects](/docs/apps/projects).

**Thread**: A private conversation with Continual, about anything or about one to-do. See
[Threads](/docs/concepts/threads).

**Timer, watch**: What wakes Continual besides your messages: a timer at a set time, a watch when a
record changes. Continual sets both for you.

**Title**: What a record is about, such as an invoice's customer. It never repeats the number.

**To-do**: A request for one person to act on one record, or to decide an approval. See
[To-dos](/docs/concepts/to-dos).

## U

**User**: Your sign-in, which can belong to several organizations. In each, you are a member.

## V

**Void**: To cancel a final Document, such as an invoice, which reverses what it posted and keeps
its number.

<Cards>
  <Card title="How it fits together" href="/docs/concepts" icon="book">
    How these ideas form one model.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Core concepts" href="/docs/core-concepts" icon="list">
    Each idea in a few sentences.
  </Card>
</Cards>