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.

500 terms, showing 311–320 (page 32 of 50).

O

Outsourcing

Paying somebody else to do part of your operation.

Overdraft and revolving credit

Borrowing on demand up to a limit. Flexible, repayable on demand, and increasingly hard to get.

Overheads

Also called Fixed costs, Operating expenses, Opex

The costs that turn up whether or not you sell anything this month.

Overtrading

Growing faster than your cash can support it. The reason successful businesses fail.

P

Partial exemption

When you make both VATable and exempt supplies, you cannot reclaim all your input VAT.

Partnership

Also called General partnership, LLP, Limited liability partnership

Two or more people in business together. In a general partnership each is liable for all of it.

Partnerships and channel

Selling through somebody else, or alongside them.

Passing off

The common law action against someone trading off your reputation. The fallback when there is no registration.

Patching and updates

Keeping software current. The dullest and most effective security control.

Patent

A monopoly on an invention for up to twenty years, in exchange for publishing it.

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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