Glossary — CRM and TatvaCRM terms

Plain-English definitions of every term we use across these docs. Alphabetical. Use Ctrl+F / ⌘+F to jump to a term.

A

Account Executive (AE)

The sales rep who closes deals — runs demos, sends proposals, negotiates contracts. Hands off from the SDR after qualification.

Activity

A past event logged against a record — call, email, meeting, note, WhatsApp summary. See Activities vs Tasks.

Admin (role)

One of the five built-in roles. Full access except billing and workspace deletion. See Roles and permissions.

Annual Contract Value (ACV)

The annual revenue from a single subscription contract. Used as the deal value for SaaS businesses.

B

B2B

Business-to-business. You sell to organisations, not individuals.

B2C

Business-to-consumer. You sell to individuals.

BFSI

Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance — TatvaCRM’s primary go-to-market vertical.

BCC logging

Sending an email from outside TatvaCRM and adding your workspace’s special BCC address — the email auto-logs as an Activity. See Email configuration.

Bulk action

An action performed on multiple records at once — bulk delete, bulk tag, bulk export, bulk update.

C

CA (Chartered Accountant)

An accounting professional, often a key referral source for debt advisory and corporate finance businesses.

CIN

Corporate Identification Number — 21-character ID issued by India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs to registered companies.

Closed-Lost

A deal that did not close. Always paired with a lost reason.

Closed-Won

A deal that successfully closed. Customer signed and paid (or committed).

Company

An organisation you do business with. Separate from the individual people (Contacts) who work there. See What is a Company?

Contact

A person you have an ongoing business relationship with. See What is a Contact?

Conversion

The one-way process of turning a Lead into a Contact + Company + Deal. See Convert a lead.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management software. See What is a CRM?

Custom field

A field you add to a module beyond the built-in ones. See Custom fields.

Custom role

A role you create with any combination of permissions and visibility. See Roles and permissions.

D

Deal

A specific revenue opportunity with a value, expected close date, and a stage. See What is a Deal?

Dormant

A lifecycle status for contacts or leads that haven’t been active in an extended period. Searchable for re-engagement; not in your active list.

DPDP Act

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023). Governs how Indian businesses must handle personal data.

DSA (Direct Selling Agent)

A third-party loan originator who sources borrowers for banks and NBFCs. Indian retail lending context only.

E

Expected close date

When you forecast a deal will close. Drives quarterly forecasting.

F

Forecast

Projected revenue based on open deals and their probability. Weighted forecast = sum of (deal value × probability).

Funnel

The journey from stranger to customer, with each stage narrower than the last. See The sales funnel.

G

GSTIN

Goods and Services Tax Identification Number. 15-character ID issued to GST-registered Indian businesses.

I

Inbound

Leads that came to you — website, phone, Justdial. The opposite of outbound.

Industry preset

A starter pack that configures TatvaCRM for a specific business shape (General, DSA, NBFC, Insurance, Debt Advisory). See Pick your industry preset.

K

Kanban

A visual board where each column is a stage and each card is a record. The default Deal view in TatvaCRM.

Key Account Manager (KAM)

The sales rep responsible for an existing major customer — not for finding new ones.

L

Lead

Someone who has shown interest but you haven’t yet confirmed they’re a real buyer. See What is a Lead?

Lead score

A numeric score (0-100) on each Lead based on your scoring rules. Higher = more likely to convert.

Lifecycle stage

Where a Contact is in your relationship — Subscriber, Lead, Opportunity, Customer, Evangelist. Different from a Deal’s stage.

Line items

Individual products on a Deal — each with its own quantity, unit price, and total. Deal value rolls up automatically.

M

Manager (role)

One of the five built-in roles. Sees their team’s records. Can create, edit, and export.

Mandate

(Debt advisory) A formal engagement letter where a borrower hires your firm to raise debt. Equivalent to a signed contract.

Member (role)

One of the five built-in roles. Sees only their own records. Can create and edit; no delete.

Merge

Combining two duplicate records into one, preserving history from both.

N

NBFC

Non-Banking Financial Company. Indian lender that’s not a bank — gives loans but can’t accept deposits the way banks do.

O

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)

A company that makes the final product — auto OEMs are Tata, Mahindra, Bajaj, etc.

Outbound

You went out and found the lead — cold call, cold email, LinkedIn DM. The opposite of inbound.

Owner

The team member responsible for a record. Drives visibility (who can see the record).

Owner (role)

One of the five built-in roles. Full access including billing and workspace deletion.

P

PAN

Permanent Account Number. 10-character Indian tax ID for individuals and companies.

Permission

A specific action a user can take — contacts.read, deals.delete, etc. Bundled into Roles.

Pipeline

One sales process with stages, used for Deals. You can have multiple per workspace. See Pipelines and stages.

Probability

The chance a deal will close, as a percentage (0-100). Often auto-set by stage.

Q

Qualified Lead

A lead you’ve confirmed has real intent, decision authority, and budget. Still a lead — converts to Contact + Deal next.

R

Recycle Bin

Where soft-deleted records sit for 30 days before permanent deletion. Recoverable during that window.

Referral

A lead that came from someone vouching for you — customer, banker, CA, friend. Typically the highest-converting source.

Relationship Manager (RM)

The sales rep who manages an account — typical in banking and advisory contexts. Equivalent to a hybrid SDR + AE.

Role

What actions a user can take. Five built-in roles plus custom roles. See Roles and permissions.

S

Saved view

A filter combination saved with a name — one click to re-apply. Per-user or shared.

SDR (Sales Development Rep)

The rep whose job is to find new prospects, not to close them. Hands off qualified leads to an AE.

Soft delete

Delete that moves a record to Recycle Bin for 30 days before permanent removal. The default in TatvaCRM.

Source

Where a Lead came from — Outbound, Inbound, Referral, Event, Paid. See Where do leads come from?

Stage

A position in a pipeline or in a lead’s qualification status.

T

Tag

A free-form label you can apply to any record for grouping. “VIP”, “Mumbai”, “BFSI”, etc.

Task

A future thing you need to do — call, email, follow-up. Has a due date. See Activities vs Tasks.

Team

A group of users that defines team-based visibility. See Teams and visibility.

Tenant

The technical name for your workspace. Each tenant is completely separate from every other.

U

UTM parameters

URL tags that track the source of a web visitor — utm_source, utm_campaign, etc. TatvaCRM captures these on webform submissions.

V

Viewer (role)

One of the five built-in roles. Read-only on records they own.

Visibility scope

What records a user can see — own, team, or everything. Separate from permissions (what they can do).

W

Webform

An embeddable form on your website that creates a Lead in TatvaCRM on submission.

Workspace

Your organisation’s area inside TatvaCRM. Each workspace is private and isolated. Also called a tenant. See Create your tenant.

A term you don’t see here?

Email docs@tatvacrm.com with what you’re looking for — we’ll add it.