Reference

Glossary

The words Biosphere uses on screen, in Scout’s answers and in these articles.

Catalog terms

Item: an item groups sellable variants.
Option: an option is a choice category, such as Material or Packaging. Jade and Six-pack are option values; one value from each option makes a variant.
Variant: each variant is a sellable version of the item with one value for every option, its own SKU, and its own price. Different variants can use the same physical stock in different quantities.
SKU: the code that identifies one variant. Catalog variants use SKU.
Item reference: an item reference groups variants into one catalog item. It can group rows in a file or refer to a product ID issued by the selected source. It is never a catalog SKU.
Virtual pack: a virtual pack SKU can consume several loose units from one shared stock item. A sealed pack that is counted separately uses its own stock item.

Inventory item: inventory items define physical item identities and their base units. Inventory levels are tracked by location.
Base unit: the unit counted and moved at a location, such as each or kg. It can change until stock, SKUs or recipes use it.
Location: a place where you keep stock, such as a warehouse or a shop. See Manage locations.
Inventory level: one inventory item at one location. Counts establish on-hand; movements change it; confirmed sales commit stock and reduce availability.
On hand: the stock physically at a location, set by counts and changed by movements such as receipts and fulfillments.
Committed: committed stock is on-hand stock claimed by confirmed sales orders but not yet fulfilled. It is excluded from available stock.
Available: on hand minus committed: what you can still sell or use.
Shortage: committed stock that on-hand stock no longer covers, for example after a count finds less than was committed.
Incoming: stock on confirmed purchase orders that has not been received yet. It is not on hand or available until you receive it.
Recipe: recipes turn input stock into a different inventory item, such as unpacking a case into loose units.
Unknown: a quantity Biosphere does not know, such as stock that has never been counted. It is shown as Unknown, never as 0.

For how each stock quantity is worked out, see Stock terms.

Contact: a person or organization you do business with, marked as a customer, a vendor or both.
Source: the business system or account that issued a record ID. A source keeps its record IDs across uploads, email and API deliveries. Use separate sources for separate supplier or store accounts.
Reference: a permanent identifier Biosphere gives a record you create in Biosphere. It is read-only and has a copy button; you never have to make one up.
Inbox: where uploaded files, emailed attachments and connected-store data arrive to be mapped, reviewed and approved before they change your records.
Mapping: what a file’s rows represent and which of its fields fills which Biosphere field.
Activity: the history of one record, one row per recorded action, in the record’s details. See Read a record’s Activity.
Audit log: every recorded change across the business, in Configure. See Review the audit log.
Channel: how a change arrived: App, MCP, Scout, Job, Automation or System.
Background job: work that runs after you start it, such as reading a document or processing an import. See Track background jobs.

Scout: the assistant inside Biosphere. It reads your records, Knowledge documents and help, and it never changes records itself.
Knowledge: your business’s documents, such as policies and procedures, which Scout searches once they are published.
Proposal: a suggested decision, such as merging two catalog items, that Scout or a connected assistant submits. It changes nothing until a person approves it.
AI connection: another AI assistant you allowed to read your business through MCP. See Connect an AI assistant to Biosphere.
MCP: the standard that AI assistants use to connect to Biosphere.