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.

12 terms filed under W, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 2).

W

Wage inflation and pay reviews

Deciding what to pay, and when to change it.

Warranty

A contractual promise that something is true. Breach gives damages, not a right to walk away.

Website analytics

Measuring what people do on your site, lawfully.

Website hosting and domains

Where your site lives and the name that points at it. Both easy to lose.

Whistleblowing

Reporting wrongdoing, and the strong legal protection that comes with it.

Win-loss analysis

Finding out why you won and why you lost. Ask, and people usually tell you.

Work in progress

Work you have done and not yet billed. Real value that is invisible in the bank.

Working capital

The money tied up in running the business day to day — stock you have bought, invoices you are waiting on, bills you have not yet paid.

Working capital cycle

How many days your money is tied up between paying suppliers and being paid.

Working time

Limits on hours, and the rest breaks people are entitled to.

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.

Ask us to add a term