Glossary of OFBiz Terms and Concepts
This glossary is intended to help beginners with OFBiz terms and concepts. Most of them come from the Data Model Resource Book some are OFBiz specific.
There is a such glossary which defines terms used by the Apache Software Fundation
Concept or Term | Definition | Example |
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Party | User, person, organisation or other entity (where entity is not an OFBiz "Entity" but rather entity in the legal sense) implied in at least one process modelled and implemented by OFBiz.
(from HR glossary) In OFBiz a party is a term used to simplify collecting information that used in a common manner by different people and things. The most common party types are people and groups. Both people and groups have contact information. A party is identified by a unique Party Id. Using this id OFBiz can collect and find contact (and other information and processes) for both people and groups in the same way. This is why you will often see Party Id as a field in a form or a filter as you work in OFBiz. | eg : administrator of the website; a company dealing goods and/or services via the website; an OFBiz customer assigned a unique party identifier, etc. |
| Party Id | The unique identifier for a party. The id is stored as text so in some cases you will see an id that helps you identify the party it is linked to (e.g. Party Id DemoEmployee, or DemoSupplier). Generally by default where the id is created by OFBiz, it will be a number that starts from the sequence 10000. | |
ERP | An acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning, an ERP is basically a category of software used for managing a business. It is often a package containing several individual, but integrated, applications. Some of those applications might be Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, General Ledger, or Point of Sale. | Apache OFBiz, OpenBravo, Odoo |
CRM |
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E-Business |
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E-Commerce | The buying and selling of goods or services over electronic systems. |
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MRP |
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SCM |
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CMMS/EAM |
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Vendor | Role of a party that sells something with the system |
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Supplier | Role of a party that something if purchased from |
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Component | An OFBiz component is a directory used by the OFBiz framework to specify and load application server resources necessary to execute an OFBiz instance. Each OFBiz component must have a unique name (typically the name of the root directory for the component) and a configuration file called: "ofbiz-component.xml". Component resources may include, but are not limited to: webapps, Java source/classes, classpath resources, scripts, entity definitions, entity data files, service definitions, service and entity ECA rules, test suites, and encryption keystores. A component contains applications and/or the lower level tools and definitions needed by applications. A component can be used for self-contained extensions, including applications and logic/data modifications, to the suite of tools and applications that come with OFBiz. | NOTE: This definition is too technical for end users. Might be OK in a tech glossary but not here |
Application | A part of Component (at the user level) beginning with the ~webapp directory. A single component may contain several applications each mounted on a unique URL. Within each component, the "ofbiz-component.xml" file defines the available applications and how those applications shall be mounted on URLs. | Examples: OOTB the Accounting component has three applications: Accounting, AP and AR. |
| Agreement | An agreement is a way of recording a business arrangement or contract that your business makes with other companies or individuals. | Examples: Customer or Supplier payment terms (eg.30 days to pay), Discounts (e.g products or volome), Commissions, Customer Contracts (agreement to sell x number of widgets for y price, or sell at y price for a certain time frame) |
Assets | These are all of the non-inventory "things" that the enterprise owns. These are items of value owned by the business. There are different types of assets (fixed, current, intangible) In accounting assets are shown as balance sheet accounts. | Examples :Furniture, computer or manufacturing equipment, vehicles, bank accounts, investments and goodwill. |
| Asset Maintenance | Any expense incurred during the process of maintaining an asset. | Real Estate assessor fees, stock broker fees, vehicle maintenance costs |
Accounts Payable | These are the debts that your business owes to suppliers. It is also called 'A/P' for short or 'Creditors'. | |
| Accounts Receivable | These are the outstanding debts that your customers owe to your business. It is also called 'A/R' for short or Debtors. | |
| Accounts Payable Invoice | AP invoice is a document raised by the customer and sent to the company with the details of the items sent, qty sent, price and other details. The company will enter this invoice details in the Payable module and then pay the customer according to the credit terms. This invoice may come along with the consignment or may be sent to the company separately. | |
| Accounts Receivable Invoice | AR Invoice is a document raised by the company and sent to the customer with the details of items sold, qty sold, price, tax and other details. Based on this invoice, the customer will send the payment in case of credit sales. | |