Customers and Billing Glossary · Field Operations

10DLC: registered ten-digit long codes for business texting (Calls, Texts & Email).
Abandonment rate, short abandon: calls hung up in queue divided by calls queued; a short abandon is a hang-up under a stated threshold, reported separately (Calls and Leads).
Account updater: the card networks' service that refreshes stored card numbers and expiry dates when a card is reissued, run before billing to prevent declines (Billing Recurring Service).
AR aging: receivables grouped by how long they've been overdue (Operating Metrics).
ASA (average speed of answer): the average time callers wait in queue before a person answers (Calls and Leads).
Automatic stay: the bar on collecting a pre-bankruptcy debt that takes effect when a bankruptcy petition is filed (Collections & Retention).
Call outcome: how every inbound call ends: booked, unbooked (with a reason), excused or abandoned, stamped with the rule version that classified it (Call Outcomes and Booking Rate).
Chargeback: a card payment reversed by the cardholder's bank after a dispute; field records (signatures, photos, visit times) are the evidence (Disputes & Chargebacks).
Churn type: why a terminated agreement ended: voluntary (the customer chose to leave; a move counts unless the agreement transfers), involuntary (non-payment) or administrative (neither side's behavior explains it, such as a deceased customer or a demolished property), always with a reason (Operating Metrics).
Collection stop: an account flag (dispute, bankruptcy, deceased) that every collection path checks: retries, notices, fees, holds and agency placement (Collections & Retention).
Consent ledger: the record of each consent and opt-out by channel and purpose, which every send checks (The Consent Ledger).
Consolidated invoice: several invoices grouped so a property manager or a commercial client pays once (Billing Recurring Service).
Credit note: the correction to a finalized invoice, reversing amounts and tax at their original rates; finalized invoices are never edited (Billing Recurring Service).
CSR (customer service representative): the person who answers calls, identifies the caller and property, triages and books (Who Answers).
CTIA message types: conversational, informational and promotional texts, each needing stronger consent (Calls, Texts & Email).
Days sales outstanding (DSO): ending receivables divided by credit revenue for the period, times the days in it; report residential and commercial separately (Operating Metrics).
Deferred revenue: cash collected for service not yet performed, such as an annual prepay, released as earned, per visit or over the term, as the accountant decides (Billing Recurring Service).
DTMF masking: hiding the tones of card digits a caller keys in, so neither the agent nor the recording hears them (Recording, Coaching and QA).
Dunning: the sequence of notices and retries after a failed payment; in the field, the technician is one of its channels (Collections & Retention; the general shape is in Dunning).
Excused call: a call that was never an opportunity to book (a vendor, a wrong number, a job applicant), left out of booking rate; excusal comes from a call reason and later edits are audited (Call Outcomes and Booking Rate).
Hard and soft decline: a failed charge that needs a new payment method (a closed account, a revoked authorization), versus one that may clear on retry (insufficient funds) (Collections & Retention).
Hosted payment fields: a processor's fields embedded in your page so card data never touches your servers (Customer Self-Service).
IVR (interactive voice response): the phone menu that sorts calls before a person answers, emergency first (Routing, Overflow and After Hours).
Lead call: a call that is a chance to book, by a duration threshold, a call reason or both; a booked call is always a lead (Call Outcomes and Booking Rate).
Level billing: the annual price divided into equal periodic charges whatever the visit schedule, which runs ahead of the work early in the season and behind it late (Billing Recurring Service).
Magic link: a one-time sign-in URL sent to an email or phone already on the customer record, used by portals instead of passwords; good enough for viewing, not for changing payment methods (Customer Self-Service).
MRR: monthly recurring revenue, the normalized monthly value of active agreements (Billing Recurring Service).
Net Promoter Score (NPS): a 0 to 10 survey score: percent promoters (9 or 10) minus percent detractors (0 to 6) (Customer Communications).
Outbound gate: the one path every message and call goes through, checking consent, opt-outs, quiet hours and frequency caps before it sends (One Outbound Gate).
Overflow: what happens to calls when every CSR is busy or the office is closed: another queue, an answering service, an AI agent, a callback offer (Routing, Overflow and After Hours).
Placement file: the record sent to a collection agency when an account is placed: debtor identity and contacts, service address, the itemized balance, invoice dates, last payment, the agreement and any dispute history (Collections & Retention).
Portal grant: a customer-portal user's access to one account or property, with a role, so one login can see a household or several commercial sites (Customer Self-Service).
Production value: the amount credited to a technician for a completed service, kept separate from the billed price; callbacks and re-services carry none (Billing Recurring Service).
Quiet hours: federal rules limit telephone solicitations to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called party's local time, and states set stricter windows; many businesses apply quiet hours to every message by policy (Calls, Texts & Email).
Recording announcement: the notice played at the start of every recorded call, its version logged per call, built to the all-party consent rule (Recording, Coaching and QA).
Regulation F: the CFPB rule implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Collections & Retention).
SAQ A: the shortest PCI DSS self-assessment, for merchants whose payment pages fully outsource card capture to a compliant provider (PCI DSS).
Save: a cancellation turned around with an offer (Collections & Retention).
Scorecard: a versioned set of weighted sections a call is scored against, exactly one per call, by a person or a model (Recording, Coaching and QA).
Screen pop: the account and property matches shown to a CSR from the caller's number before they speak, always as a list (The CSR's Screen).
Service balance: visits paid for to date against visits delivered to date, valued at the plan's per-visit price; it drives the true-up when a customer cancels (Billing Recurring Service).
Service level (calls): the share of calls answered within a target number of seconds, under a formula named with the target (Calls and Leads).
Service-driven and calendar-driven billing: billing that follows completed visits (the service clock: no visit, no invoice) versus billing that runs on its date whatever happened (the billing clock) (Billing Recurring Service).
Skills-based routing: sending a call to someone who can handle it (a language, a brand, commercial accounts, billing) (Routing, Overflow and After Hours).
Staff view as customer: support seeing the portal as a customer sees it, with both identities recorded (Customer Self-Service; the general rules are in Delegation, Not Impersonation).
Statement: a snapshot of everything outstanding on an account at a date, possibly covering several unpaid invoices, as opposed to an invoice for specific work (Billing Recurring Service).
STIR/SHAKEN: the caller ID authentication carriers use, with attestation levels A, B and C, behind spam labeling of outbound calls (Outbound Calls).
Validation notice: the notice a debt collector sends in its first communication or within five days, itemizing the debt and opening the period in which the consumer can dispute it (Collections & Retention).
Win-back: a campaign to return a former customer, who comes back with history, possibly a balance, and a known property (Collections & Retention).
Write-off: a ledger entry, with a reason and approver, recognizing a receivable as uncollectible, under the direct write-off or the allowance method; it doesn't forgive the debt (Write-Offs; the agency twist is in Collections & Retention).

10DLC: registered ten-digit long codes for business texting (Calls, Texts & Email).
Abandonment rate, short abandon: calls hung up in queue divided by calls queued; a short abandon is a hang-up under a stated threshold, reported separately (Calls and Leads).
Account updater: the card networks' service that refreshes stored card numbers and expiry dates when a card is reissued, run before billing to prevent declines (Billing Recurring Service).
AR aging: receivables grouped by how long they've been overdue (Operating Metrics).
ASA (average speed of answer): the average time callers wait in queue before a person answers (Calls and Leads).
Automatic stay: the bar on collecting a pre-bankruptcy debt that takes effect when a bankruptcy petition is filed (Collections & Retention).
Call outcome: how every inbound call ends: booked, unbooked (with a reason), excused or abandoned, stamped with the rule version that classified it (Call Outcomes and Booking Rate).
Chargeback: a card payment reversed by the cardholder's bank after a dispute; field records (signatures, photos, visit times) are the evidence (Disputes & Chargebacks).
Churn type: why a terminated agreement ended: voluntary (the customer chose to leave; a move counts unless the agreement transfers), involuntary (non-payment) or administrative (neither side's behavior explains it, such as a deceased customer or a demolished property), always with a reason (Operating Metrics).
Collection stop: an account flag (dispute, bankruptcy, deceased) that every collection path checks: retries, notices, fees, holds and agency placement (Collections & Retention).
Consent ledger: the record of each consent and opt-out by channel and purpose, which every send checks (The Consent Ledger).
Consolidated invoice: several invoices grouped so a property manager or a commercial client pays once (Billing Recurring Service).
Credit note: the correction to a finalized invoice, reversing amounts and tax at their original rates; finalized invoices are never edited (Billing Recurring Service).
CSR (customer service representative): the person who answers calls, identifies the caller and property, triages and books (Who Answers).
CTIA message types: conversational, informational and promotional texts, each needing stronger consent (Calls, Texts & Email).
Days sales outstanding (DSO): ending receivables divided by credit revenue for the period, times the days in it; report residential and commercial separately (Operating Metrics).
Deferred revenue: cash collected for service not yet performed, such as an annual prepay, released as earned, per visit or over the term, as the accountant decides (Billing Recurring Service).
DTMF masking: hiding the tones of card digits a caller keys in, so neither the agent nor the recording hears them (Recording, Coaching and QA).
Dunning: the sequence of notices and retries after a failed payment; in the field, the technician is one of its channels (Collections & Retention; the general shape is in Dunning).
Excused call: a call that was never an opportunity to book (a vendor, a wrong number, a job applicant), left out of booking rate; excusal comes from a call reason and later edits are audited (Call Outcomes and Booking Rate).
Hard and soft decline: a failed charge that needs a new payment method (a closed account, a revoked authorization), versus one that may clear on retry (insufficient funds) (Collections & Retention).
Hosted payment fields: a processor's fields embedded in your page so card data never touches your servers (Customer Self-Service).
IVR (interactive voice response): the phone menu that sorts calls before a person answers, emergency first (Routing, Overflow and After Hours).
Lead call: a call that is a chance to book, by a duration threshold, a call reason or both; a booked call is always a lead (Call Outcomes and Booking Rate).
Level billing: the annual price divided into equal periodic charges whatever the visit schedule, which runs ahead of the work early in the season and behind it late (Billing Recurring Service).
Magic link: a one-time sign-in URL sent to an email or phone already on the customer record, used by portals instead of passwords; good enough for viewing, not for changing payment methods (Customer Self-Service).
MRR: monthly recurring revenue, the normalized monthly value of active agreements (Billing Recurring Service).
Net Promoter Score (NPS): a 0 to 10 survey score: percent promoters (9 or 10) minus percent detractors (0 to 6) (Customer Communications).
Outbound gate: the one path every message and call goes through, checking consent, opt-outs, quiet hours and frequency caps before it sends (One Outbound Gate).
Overflow: what happens to calls when every CSR is busy or the office is closed: another queue, an answering service, an AI agent, a callback offer (Routing, Overflow and After Hours).
Placement file: the record sent to a collection agency when an account is placed: debtor identity and contacts, service address, the itemized balance, invoice dates, last payment, the agreement and any dispute history (Collections & Retention).
Portal grant: a customer-portal user's access to one account or property, with a role, so one login can see a household or several commercial sites (Customer Self-Service).
Production value: the amount credited to a technician for a completed service, kept separate from the billed price; callbacks and re-services carry none (Billing Recurring Service).
Quiet hours: federal rules limit telephone solicitations to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called party's local time, and states set stricter windows; many businesses apply quiet hours to every message by policy (Calls, Texts & Email).
Recording announcement: the notice played at the start of every recorded call, its version logged per call, built to the all-party consent rule (Recording, Coaching and QA).
Regulation F: the CFPB rule implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Collections & Retention).
SAQ A: the shortest PCI DSS self-assessment, for merchants whose payment pages fully outsource card capture to a compliant provider (PCI DSS).
Save: a cancellation turned around with an offer (Collections & Retention).
Scorecard: a versioned set of weighted sections a call is scored against, exactly one per call, by a person or a model (Recording, Coaching and QA).
Screen pop: the account and property matches shown to a CSR from the caller's number before they speak, always as a list (The CSR's Screen).
Service balance: visits paid for to date against visits delivered to date, valued at the plan's per-visit price; it drives the true-up when a customer cancels (Billing Recurring Service).
Service level (calls): the share of calls answered within a target number of seconds, under a formula named with the target (Calls and Leads).
Service-driven and calendar-driven billing: billing that follows completed visits (the service clock: no visit, no invoice) versus billing that runs on its date whatever happened (the billing clock) (Billing Recurring Service).
Skills-based routing: sending a call to someone who can handle it (a language, a brand, commercial accounts, billing) (Routing, Overflow and After Hours).
Staff view as customer: support seeing the portal as a customer sees it, with both identities recorded (Customer Self-Service; the general rules are in Delegation, Not Impersonation).
Statement: a snapshot of everything outstanding on an account at a date, possibly covering several unpaid invoices, as opposed to an invoice for specific work (Billing Recurring Service).
STIR/SHAKEN: the caller ID authentication carriers use, with attestation levels A, B and C, behind spam labeling of outbound calls (Outbound Calls).
Validation notice: the notice a debt collector sends in its first communication or within five days, itemizing the debt and opening the period in which the consumer can dispute it (Collections & Retention).
Win-back: a campaign to return a former customer, who comes back with history, possibly a balance, and a known property (Collections & Retention).
Write-off: a ledger entry, with a reason and approver, recognizing a receivable as uncollectible, under the direct write-off or the allowance method; it doesn't forgive the debt (Write-Offs; the agency twist is in Collections & Retention).