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 411–420 (page 42 of 50).

S

Service design

Designing the whole experience of being a customer, not just the product.

Service level agreement in contracts

The measurable promises in a service contract, and what happens if you miss them.

Settlement agreement

A contract ending employment and waiving claims. Requires independent legal advice to be binding.

Shadow IT

Software the business depends on that nobody in charge knows about.

Share classes

Different types of share with different rights. How dividends get flexed and control gets kept.

Share purchase agreement

Also called SPA, Asset purchase agreement, APA

The document that actually sells the business, and where the risk you keep is decided.

Shareholders' agreement

A private contract between the owners of a company about how they will behave towards each other. The most-skipped, most-regretted document in small business.

Shrinkage

Stock that disappears. Theft, damage, error and fraud, in that order of frequency.

Signing and execution

Who can sign, and how. Getting it wrong can make a document ineffective.

Single customer view

One record per customer, joined across every system.

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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