Automation glossary
Plain-English definitions for every automation and business tech term you'll encounter. No jargon, no fluff.
Looking for agent words like MCP, RAG, or tool calling? Those are in the AI agent glossary. Product guides are under AI apps for business.
A
A/B Testing
Sending two slightly different versions of an email (or page, or ad) to separate audience segments to determine which version performs better.
A
Abandoned Cart
When a shopper adds items to an online shopping cart but leaves without completing the purchase.
A
Accounts Payable
Money your business owes to suppliers, vendors, and contractors for goods or services you've received but not yet paid for.
A
Accounts Receivable
Money that customers owe your business for goods or services already delivered but not yet paid for.
A
Action
The task that an automation performs after a trigger fires. Examples include sending an email, creating a record, or updating a spreadsheet.
A
API (Application Programming Interface)
A set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate with each other and share data.
A
Approval Workflow
An automated process that routes requests — such as expense reports, contracts, or content — to the right person for review and approval before proceeding.
A
Autoresponder
An automatic email reply sent immediately when someone takes an action, such as joining your list or submitting a contact form.
B
Bank Reconciliation
The process of matching your business's internal financial records with your bank statement to ensure they agree and catch any discrepancies.
B
Bot
An automated software program that performs repetitive tasks, often simulating human interactions such as answering questions or filling out forms.
B
Bounce Rate
The percentage of emails that could not be delivered to the recipient's inbox, either because the address doesn't exist (hard bounce) or due to a temporary issue (soft bounce).
B
Broadcast Email
A one-time email sent to your entire list or a segment of it at a specific point in time, such as a promotional announcement or newsletter.
C
Cash Flow
The movement of money into and out of your business over a specific period — the difference between what comes in and what goes out.
C
Chart of Accounts
A complete list of every financial account in your business, organized to categorize all income, expenses, assets, and liabilities.
C
Churn Rate
The percentage of customers who stop doing business with you over a given period, often expressed as monthly or annual churn.
C
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of email recipients who click on a link within your email, measuring how compelling your content and call-to-action are.
C
Condition
A rule within an automation that checks whether certain criteria are met before allowing the workflow to continue or branch.
C
Contact Segmentation
Dividing your contacts or customers into groups based on shared characteristics so you can send more relevant, targeted communications.
C
Conversion Rate
The percentage of people who take a desired action — such as making a purchase, signing up, or filling out a form — out of the total who had the opportunity.
C
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Software that manages a company's interactions with current and potential customers, centralizing contact data, communication history, and deal pipelines.
C
CRM Automation
Using your CRM's built-in automation features to handle routine sales and marketing tasks like follow-ups, deal updates, and contact assignment.
C
Cross-Sell
Recommending complementary or related products to an existing customer based on what they have already purchased.
C
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship.
D
Dashboard
A visual display of key business metrics and data, updated in real time or on a schedule, giving stakeholders a quick overview of business performance.
D
Data Mapping
The process of connecting data fields from one system to the corresponding fields in another system during an integration.
D
Deal Velocity
The speed at which deals move through your sales pipeline from initial contact to closed sale.
D
Drip Campaign
A series of pre-written emails sent automatically to contacts over a period of time based on their behavior or a trigger event.
E
Email Deliverability
The ability of your emails to actually reach recipients' inboxes rather than being filtered into spam or blocked by mail servers.
E
Email Sequence
A series of emails sent automatically to contacts in a specific order and at specific time intervals, triggered by an event or action.
E
Error Handling
The way an automation detects, manages, and responds when something goes wrong during a workflow run.
E
Escalation Workflow
An automated process that routes unresolved issues or high-priority situations to a higher-level person or team when certain conditions are met.
E
Event-Driven Automation
An automation that starts immediately in response to a specific event, such as a new sign-up, a payment received, or a status change.
E
Expense Tracking
Recording and categorizing all business expenditures to maintain accurate financial records and control spending.
F
Field Mapping
Specifying which data field in one app corresponds to which data field in another app when setting up an integration.
F
Filter
A condition that stops an automation from continuing unless specific criteria are met, letting you control exactly when actions run.
F
Financial Reporting
The automated generation of key financial statements and dashboards — such as profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow reports — from your accounting data.
F
Follow-Up Sequence
A series of pre-scheduled messages sent automatically to a contact after a specific event, such as a demo, a quote, or an initial inquiry.
F
Fulfillment Automation
Using software to automatically process, route, and track orders through your fulfillment process without manual intervention.
I
Instant Trigger
A trigger that fires in real time via a webhook the moment an event occurs, with no delay between the event and the automation starting.
I
Integration
A connection between two or more software applications that allows them to share data and work together automatically.
I
Inventory Sync
Automatically keeping product stock levels consistent across all your sales channels and systems in real time.
I
Invoice Automation
Using software to automatically generate, send, track, and follow up on invoices without manual creation or emailing.
K
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a business is achieving its key objectives.
L
Lead Nurturing
The process of building relationships with prospects over time through relevant content and communications until they are ready to buy.
L
Lead Scoring
A system for ranking prospects based on their likelihood to become customers, using behavior, demographics, and engagement signals.
L
List Segmentation
Dividing your email list into smaller groups based on shared attributes so you can send more targeted, relevant messages.
L
Loop
An automation step that repeats an action for each item in a list, such as sending a message for every new row in a spreadsheet.
L
Low-Code
Platforms that simplify software development by providing visual tools and pre-built components, requiring only minimal custom coding.
M
Module
Make's term for an individual step within a scenario — either retrieving data, transforming it, or sending it to another app.
M
Multi-Step Zap
A Zapier automation with one trigger and two or more actions that all execute sequentially when the trigger fires.
n
n8n
An open-source workflow automation tool that lets you self-host your automations for complete data control and lower costs at scale.
N
No-Code
Software tools that let you build automations, apps, and workflows using visual interfaces instead of writing programming code.
N
Notification Automation
Automatically sending alerts to team members or customers when specific events occur, via email, SMS, Slack, or other channels.
O
Offboarding Automation
Automating the process of transitioning a departing employee or ending customer relationship, including access revocation and final communications.
O
Onboarding Automation
Automating the steps required to welcome and set up a new customer, employee, or user so they can get value quickly and consistently.
O
Open Rate
The percentage of email recipients who open your email, used as a measure of how well your subject line and sender name are performing.
O
Order Fulfillment
The complete process of receiving, processing, picking, packing, and shipping a customer's order.
P
Payroll Automation
Using software to automatically calculate employee wages, withhold taxes, and process payments on a regular schedule.
P
Pipeline Stage
A defined step in your sales process that represents where a deal currently stands, such as 'Proposal Sent' or 'Negotiation.'
P
Polling Trigger
A trigger that checks for new data at regular intervals (every 1-15 minutes) rather than responding instantly when an event occurs.
P
Post-Purchase Sequence
A series of automated emails sent to customers after they make a purchase, covering confirmation, shipping updates, onboarding, and follow-up offers.
P
Product Feed
A data file containing your product information — titles, descriptions, prices, images, and stock status — used to distribute listings across marketplaces and advertising channels.
R
Reporting Automation
Automatically compiling and distributing reports on a schedule, pulling live data so stakeholders always have current information.
R
Retry Logic
An automation setting that automatically re-attempts a failed step after a short delay, rather than giving up immediately.
R
Returns Automation
Automating the process of handling customer product returns, including return authorization, label generation, restocking, and refund processing.
R
Review Request
An automated email sent to customers after a purchase asking them to leave a product or business review on platforms like Google, Yelp, or your store.
R
ROI (Return on Investment)
A measure of the financial return gained relative to the cost of an investment, expressed as a percentage.
R
RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
Technology that uses software robots to mimic human actions in a computer interface, automating tasks that normally require a person to click, type, and navigate.
S
Sales Cadence
A structured sequence of outreach touchpoints — emails, calls, LinkedIn messages — delivered over a set period to convert a prospect.
S
Sales Funnel
The stages a prospect moves through from first becoming aware of your business to completing a purchase.
S
Scenario
Make's term for an automation workflow — the equivalent of a Zap in Zapier — consisting of connected modules that process data.
S
Scheduled Automation
An automation that runs at a specific time or on a recurring schedule, rather than being triggered by an event.
S
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
A unique identifier assigned to each distinct product variant in your inventory, used to track stock levels and sales.
S
SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)
A documented, step-by-step process that defines exactly how a recurring business task should be performed consistently every time.
S
Spam Score
A rating assigned to an email based on characteristics that spam filters use to determine whether to deliver it to the inbox or the spam folder.
T
Task Automation
The process of setting up software to handle a specific, repetitive task so a human doesn't have to do it manually each time.
T
Task History
A log in Zapier that records every time an automation ran, what data was processed, and whether it succeeded or failed.
T
Tax Automation
Using software to automatically calculate, collect, and remit sales taxes and other business taxes based on your transactions.
T
Transactional Email
An automated email triggered by a specific action a user takes, such as a purchase confirmation, password reset, or shipping notification.
T
Trigger
An event that starts an automated workflow. Examples: new form submission, invoice marked paid, customer added to a list.
U
Unsubscribe Rate
The percentage of email recipients who opt out of your list after receiving a particular email.
U
Upsell
Encouraging an existing customer to purchase a higher-tier product, additional quantity, or premium add-on to what they've already bought.
U
Upsell Automation
Automated workflows that present upgrade offers or premium product recommendations to customers at key moments in the buying journey.
W
Webhook
A way for one app to send real-time data to another app the moment an event happens, without needing to poll for updates.
W
Workflow Automation
Using software to automatically execute a series of tasks without human intervention, based on predefined rules or triggers.
Z
Zap
A Zapier automation consisting of a trigger and one or more actions. When the trigger fires, the actions execute automatically.
Z
Zap Template
A pre-built Zapier automation that you can activate with a few clicks, with the workflow and app connections already configured.