Glossary
A working engineering glossary
Definitions of the fintech, CRM, and dashboard engineering terms our studio uses every day, written for engineers shipping production systems.
Payments
2 terms-
Idempotency Key
An idempotency key is a client-supplied identifier that lets a server treat repeated requests as a single operation. In fintech APIs, it is what keeps retried payment requests from creating duplicate charges or duplicate ledger entries.
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Payment Platform
A payment platform is the infrastructure that lets a company move money on behalf of itself or its users. It sits above payment processors and below product surfaces, orchestrating ledgers, payouts, KYC, fraud, and reporting into one system.
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Ledger systems
2 terms-
Append-Only Ledger
An append-only ledger never updates or deletes existing entries. Every state change becomes a new insert, preserving full history so reconciliation, audits, and balance reconstruction are deterministic at any point in time.
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Double-Entry Ledger
A double-entry ledger records every value movement as two balanced entries — a debit and a credit — so the books never drift, balances reconstruct deterministically, and auditors can trace any number to its source.
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KYC and onboarding
3 terms-
AML Screening
AML screening is the regulated process of checking customers, businesses, and transactions against sanctions lists, PEP lists, and adverse-media indices. It is the compliance backbone every fintech platform runs through KYC and beyond.
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KYB Onboarding
KYB onboarding is the regulated process of verifying a business's identity, structure, and beneficial owners before allowing it to transact on a fintech or marketplace platform. It collects incorporation records, UBO data, and tax IDs and runs sanctions screening on every party involved.
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KYC Onboarding
KYC onboarding is the regulated identity-verification flow every fintech runs before a user can transact. It collects identity documents, runs sanctions and PEP screening, and produces a verified-customer record that downstream systems can trust.
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CRM platforms
2 terms-
Custom CRM
A custom CRM is a sales-and-customer system built from the ground up around a specific revenue motion. It is the right choice when off-the-shelf platforms cannot represent the data, workflows, or integrations that the business actually depends on.
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Lead Routing
Lead routing is the CRM logic that assigns inbound leads to the right rep, queue, or workflow. Done well, it cuts speed-to-first-contact to under a minute and keeps territory and capacity rules fair under load.
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Operator dashboards
2 terms-
Embedded Analytics
Embedded analytics are charts, dashboards, and reports rendered inside a SaaS product so customers can analyze their own data without leaving the app. They are the difference between a SaaS that holds data and a SaaS that helps customers act on it.
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Operator Dashboard
An operator dashboard is the internal interface support, ops, and risk teams use to investigate accounts, resolve tickets, and run day-to-day operations. It prioritizes data density, speed, and audit-grade actions over the polish of a customer-facing surface.
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Internal tools
2 terms-
Admin Panel
An admin panel is the configuration and tenancy surface of a SaaS product, typically separated from the customer-facing UI. It controls users, permissions, billing, feature flags, and audit logs, and it is one of the highest-stakes internal tools any company runs.
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Internal Tool
An internal tool is software a company builds for its own employees, not its customers. The category covers operator dashboards, admin panels, ops consoles, and the ad-hoc apps that quietly run a business behind the scenes.
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