Business A to Z

Every trade has words it uses without explaining. In business the cost of not knowing one is real: some of them are ordinary jargon and some of them are a decision that can take a house.

Please note: This page explains what a term means. It is general information, not legal, financial, tax or investment advice, and it does not know anything about your business. Before you sign, file or commit to anything, check it with an accountant, a solicitor, or the official guidance we link to.

Studying business? We write GCSE revision songs, and there is one for business studies. Listen to the revision playlist.

38 terms filed under B, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 4).

B

Backup and recovery

Also called Backups, 3-2-1 rule, RPO, RTO

Copies of your data you could actually restore from. The second half of that sentence is where most businesses fail.

BACS, Faster Payments and CHAPS

The ways money moves between UK bank accounts, and when to use which.

Bad debt relief

Reclaiming VAT you paid over on an invoice the customer never paid.

Balance sheet

Also called Statement of financial position

A photograph of what the business owns and owes on one particular day.

Bank reconciliation

Matching your books against the bank statement, line by line.

Benefits in kind and P11D

Non-cash benefits given to employees, and how they are taxed.

Board and governance for small companies

Running the company properly when it is just you and a co-founder.

Board meetings and minutes

Recording company decisions. Dull, and the evidence when it matters.

Bookkeeping

Recording what actually happened, accurately and on time. Everything else in your finances is built on it.

Bootstrapped growth versus funded

Two different games with different rules. Choosing deliberately matters.

Something missing?

If there is a word you have been nodding along to, tell us and we will write it up. This library exists because of the questions people were too polite to ask.

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