Tribe CRM Terminology Glossary

Table of contents:

Entity — A core data structure or record type within Tribe (e.g., Contact, Organisation, Lead, Sales Opportunity). Entities are the fundamental objects users interact with.

Contact — A person record within Tribe; part of the relationship data model. Always links to Organisations.

Organisation — An organisational entity representing a business. Contacts (people) link to Organisations.

Lead — A potential customer record in the early qualification stage. It captures first interest and contact details, before anyone has judged whether it is worth pursuing. Part of the Sales module. A Lead becomes a Prospect once it passes qualification.

Prospect — An organisation that has been evaluated and qualified as a potential customer. It moves through the sales pipeline towards a deal. In B2B, it is the company-level representation of a qualified lead.

Individual Prospect — A person record used for B2C sales; B2C equivalent of a Prospect.

Business Partner — A third-party relationship entity; typically vendors, resellers or affiliates.

Sales Opportunity — A specific potential sale with a defined value, stage and expected timeline. It is linked to either a Prospect (a potential customer, for a new sale) or a Customer (an existing customer, for additional sales and renewals). It is tracked until it is closed as won or lost.

Activity — A record of any work, interaction or information connected to a relationship or another record in Tribe. It covers planned work (such as tasks and appointments), communication (such as emails and calls) and documented information (such as notes and files). Activities can be linked to records such as Leads, Prospects, Customers and Opportunities, and together they form the history of what has happened and what is still to be done.

Task — A to-do item assigned to a user; a type of activity linked to an entity.

Appointment — A scheduled meeting or event; a type of activity with date/time.

Note — A free-form written entry attached to a record, used to capture context, decisions or observations; part of the activity timeline.

Attachment — A file linked to an entity or activity (document, image, etc.).

Email — An electronic message activity; can be synced from Gmail or Outlook.

Segment — A defined group of records (contacts, companies, opportunities) based on filters and criteria. Used for targeting and analysis.

Custom Entity — A type of record that you create yourself to store information that Tribe's standard records (such as Organisations, Contacts or Opportunities) do not cover, for example Contracts or Equipment. Custom Entities work like standard records and can be linked to them. Available in the Advanced and Ultimate plans.

Field — An individual data attribute within an entity; can be standard (platform-defined) or custom (user-defined).

Standard Field — A field defined by the Tribe platform and included in every environment. Cannot be deleted but can be hidden on entity pages.

Custom Field — A user-created field on an entity. Available in the Advanced and Ultimate plans.

Connection/Link — A connection between two entities (e.g., Contact → Organisation, Opportunity → Prospect).

Option list — A predefined list of values (dropdown options) for a field; centralised reusable list.

Phase — The stage within a pipeline process (e.g., Lead phases: New, Working, MQL, SQL, Qualified, Disqualified).

Status — A field value indicating the current state of a record (e.g., Active, Inactive, Closed).

Label — A user-assigned label or keyword attached to records for quick categorisation.

Tabbed UI — The modern interface layout organising entity details into tabs (e.g., Overview, Timeline, Related Records).

List View — A table format displaying multiple records with columns for key fields. Sortable, filterable, adjustable.

Bulk Action — An action that you apply to several records at once instead of one by one. You select the records in a list, then choose the action, such as editing or deleting.

Bulk Edit — Changing the same field on many selected records in one step, for example giving 50 Leads a new owner or setting a new Lead Source.

Bulk Delete — Removing many selected records in one step, for example cleaning up duplicates after an import. Check your selection carefully before you confirm.

Column View — A visual board layout grouping records by pipeline stages or other categorical fields.

Dashboard — A customisable page containing widgets, charts and real-time metrics. Can be linked to an entity.

Widget — A discrete visualisation component on a dashboard (chart, metric, list, etc.).

Card-sidebar — The panel on the right showing the key details of a record.

Module — A main area of Tribe that groups the features for one type of work, such as Projects. The modules you can use depend on your plan.

Add-on — An optional extra that you can switch on to expand what a module or your plan offers, such as an additional feature or integration. Add-ons are not part of the standard modules, so you only use them if you need them.

Filter — Criteria applied to a list or view to display only matching records.

Saved Filter / Saved View — A persistent filter configuration saved for reuse.

Advanced Filter — Complex multi-condition filtering using AND/OR logic.

Search — Full-text search across record names, descriptions, and fields.

Global Search — The search bar in the top bar, which searches across all of Tribe at once. Use it to find any record quickly, without first opening the module it belongs to.

Segment Builder — A UI tool for creating complex segments using visual condition builders.

Pack — A ready-made bundle of settings for one purpose, such as managing events or tracking projects. A Pack can include extra record types, fields, automations and templates, so you can switch on everything you need in one step instead of building each part yourself.

Base Pack — The foundational pack included in every Tribe environment; contains standard entities and fields. Managed by Tribe.

Application Pack — A module-specific pack containing configuration for a feature (e.g., Sales, Projects, Marketing). Managed by Tribe.

Environment Pack — Customer-specific pack storing all custom configurations (fields, automations, views).

Share Pack — A pack created and shared between environments; enables configuration reuse.

Standard Data Pack — Predefined content (templates, automations, standard workflows) shared with customer environments.

Plan — Pricing level determining available features and customisation rights (Essential, Advanced, Ultimate).

Feature Flag — A system toggle enabling/disabling features for testing or gradual rollout. Managed via Flagsmith.

Configuration Environment — Tribe’s master environment where all packs and standard configurations are managed.

Customer Environment — An individual customer’s Tribe instance where they work with data.

Sandbox — A non-production copy of a customer environment used for testing. Available in Ultimate plans.

Master Account / Master-Sub Account — A way to link related organisations in your CRM. You can mark any organisation as a Master Account and link other organisations to it as its Sub-accounts. This suits a company group, for example, where a head office has several branches or subsidiaries and you want to see them together.

Organisation — The top-level entity representing a customer’s company within Tribe. Contains multiple users and data.

Licence Contract — A document specifying plan, module entitlements, and terms.

Trial — A time-limited evaluation environment for prospective customers.

Disabled Entity — An entity deactivated by an admin but not deleted; is hidden from menus and views.

Role — A set of access rules that you give to users. It decides what they can view, create, edit or delete in the CRM.

Permission — An individual access right granted to a role (e.g., view contacts, edit opportunities).

Record-Level Security — Rules that control which individual records a user can see. For example, a sales representative may see only their own customers and the ones shared with them.

Field-Level Permission — A rule that hides a specific field from certain users, or lets them see it without changing it. For example, only managers can edit an opportunity’s discount.

Admin — A user role with full system access; manages configuration and permissions in Tribe.

Support User — A member of the Tribe support team who can access your account to help solve a problem you have reported.

Team — A group of users, such as the Sales team. You can assign work to a whole team and give the team shared access to records.

Connector — A microservice bridging Tribe with external systems (accounting, ERP, email, marketing).

Integration — The act of connecting Tribe with another platform; includes data sync and two-way communication.

Sync — The process of synchronising data between Tribe and external systems.

Webhook — A real-time callback from an external system triggering actions in Tribe.

API — Application Programming Interface; structured method for programmatic system access.

REST API — RESTful API architecture used by Tribe’s public integration interface.

OAuth 2.0 — Authentication standard used for secure third-party integrations.

MCP / Model Context Protocol — A protocol enabling Claude and other AI models to interact with Tribe as a data source.

Marketplace — The platform where customers discover and install integrations and custom configurations.

n8n — A workflow automation platform used for complex integrations and AI orchestration within Tribe.

Entity Framework — The flexible foundation that lets you adapt Tribe to your business. Every kind of record in Tribe, such as Organisations, Contacts or Opportunities, is built on it.

MySQL (Truth Store) — Centralised single-source-of-truth database; stores all customer data in key-value format.

PostgreSQL (Indexed Store) — Per-customer relational/indexed database; derives from MySQL for query performance.

Multi-Tenancy — Single application serving multiple customers with complete data isolation.

Pub/Sub — Google Cloud publish-subscribe messaging service for event-driven architecture.

Cloud Functions — Google Cloud serverless compute; runs microservices and connectors.

Event-Driven Architecture — System design where components communicate via events.

Pipeline — A sequence of stages representing the deal progression journey.

Opportunity Stage — A specific phase within a sales pipeline.

Opportunity Value — The monetary amount of an opportunity.

MQL / Marketing Qualified Lead — A lead deemed ready for sales engagement by marketing criteria.

SQL / Sales Qualified Lead — A lead confirmed by sales as a genuine prospect worth pursuing.

Prospect — A qualified company or individual actively being pursued for business.

Customer — A company or individual with an active business relationship/contract.

Win Rate — Percentage of opportunities converted to closed/won opportunity.

Close Date — The target or actual date for finalising/closing an opportunity.

Lead Source — The channel or origin of a new lead (e.g., LinkedIn, referral, conference).

Conversion — Movement of a lead to the next status (e.g., Lead → Prospect → Customer).

Email Marketing Campaign — A marketing email sent to a target group in one go, such as a newsletter or an invitation. You can see who opened it and who clicked.

Web Form — A form, for example on your website, that visitors fill in to request information or register. The details go straight into Tribe.

Marketing Automation — A set of steps that Tribe runs for you after a trigger, such as sending a follow-up email when someone fills in a form.

Lead Scoring — Points given to a lead based on who they are and what they do, such as opening emails. A higher score means they are more ready for sales, and it is often used to decide when a lead becomes an MQL.

Consent (or Subscription) — A person’s permission to receive your marketing messages. Tribe records it so that you contact only people who agreed, as data protection rules require.

Unsubscribe — A person’s choice to stop receiving marketing emails. Tribe respects it automatically.

Campaign Response — An action by a contact because of a campaign, such as a click, a registration or a reply.

Quote — A priced offer that you send to a Prospect or Customer before they agree to buy. A quote is linked to a Sales Opportunity, and once it is accepted it can become an invoice.

Product — Something you sell, with its price, VAT and billing settings. Products are kept in the Product Catalogue.

Product Line — A single product or service on a quote or invoice, with its quantity, discount and price.

Product Catalogue — The list of products and services you sell, with their standard prices, so you do not have to type them in each time.

Invoice — A document that asks a Customer to pay for products or services. It can be created from a Sales Opportunity or a quote.

Recurring Invoice — An invoice that Tribe creates automatically at regular intervals, such as monthly, for a subscription or an ongoing service.

Invoice Phase — Where an invoice is in its life: ‘Concept’ (draft), ‘Sent’, ‘First reminder’, ‘Second reminder’, ‘Paid’ or ‘Credited’.

Credit Note — A document that cancels or reduces an invoice you have already sent, for example after a mistake or a return.

Invoice Status — Where an invoice is in its life, such as Draft, Sent, Paid or Overdue.

Payment Terms — The agreed time a Customer has to pay, such as 30 days after the invoice date.

Due Date — The last day on which the Customer can pay without being late.

Payment Link — A button or web link on an invoice that lets the Customer pay online straight away.

Payment Provider — A service, such as Mollie, that handles online payments. When a Customer pays, Tribe updates the invoice status automatically.

E-invoice (Electronic Invoice) — An invoice in a structured digital format that meets legal requirements and can be processed automatically by the receiver’s system. Some countries now require it.

Accounting Integration — A link between Tribe and your accounting software, so that invoices and payments are shared and not typed twice.

Subscription — A record that creates invoices for a customer automatically at a regular interval, such as monthly or yearly, until it is stopped. It contains one or more product lines, and any one-off items on it are charged only on the first invoice.

Subscription Phase — The current stage of a Subscription: ‘Waiting for activation’, ‘Activated’ or ‘Cancelled’.

Activate (Subscription) — Starts a Subscription and creates its first invoice straight away, dated today. It cannot be scheduled for a later date, so activate it on the day it should start.

Recurring Invoice — An invoice that a Subscription creates for each billing period. It is either sent to the customer automatically or saved as a draft for you to check first.

Send Invoices Automatically — A Subscription setting that sends each new invoice to the customer without waiting for you. If it is off, invoices are saved as drafts.

Interval — How often a Subscription creates an invoice: daily, weekly, monthly or annually.

Start Date — The date a Subscription begins.

Billing Start Date — The date on which invoicing begins. If you leave it empty, the Start Date is used.

Different First Period — An option for when the first billing period differs from the rest, such as a subscription that starts mid-month but is billed on the 1st afterwards. You choose whether to bill the first period ‘Pro rata’ or not at all.

Pro Rata — A charge for part of a period only, worked out from the number of days used.

Pre-billing Period — How long before a period starts that its invoice is created, for example one month in advance. A negative value creates the invoice after the period has started.

Invoiced Until — The date up to which a Subscription has already been invoiced.

Recurring Product — A product marked to be charged on every billing period, such as monthly or yearly. Products without this setting are charged only once.

Renewal — The start of each new subscription period. A Subscription continues into the next period unless it has an End Date or Cancellation Date, or you choose ‘Stop after this subscription period’.

End Date — The date on which a Subscription is set to finish. Without one, it carries on until it is cancelled.

Cancellation Date — The date on which a cancelled Subscription stops. You can also choose ‘Stop after this subscription period’ to end it at the next renewal.

Deactivate — Ends a Subscription immediately, for example when it was created by mistake.

Automation — A rule triggering actions when specific conditions are met.

Trigger — An event or condition initiating an automation.

Action — The outcome executed when a trigger fires.

Condition — A criterion checked before executing an automation.

Automation Template — A predefined automation available for reuse.

Workflow — A multi-step automated process orchestrating multiple actions.

n8n Workflow — Complex automation orchestrated via n8n platform.

CRM User — Any person who has a login to Tribe. What they can see and do depends on their role.

Admin — A user role with full system access; manages configuration and permissions in Tribe.

API Consumer / Integration User — Non-human user (service). A login used by another system, not a person, so that it can exchange data with Tribe automatically.

GDPR — EU regulation protecting personal data privacy.

Data Retention — Policy determining how long data is stored.

Audit Log — Complete record of all system changes for compliance.

Compliance — Adherence to legal and regulatory requirements.

Security — Measures protecting system and data from unauthorised access.

Partner — External company integrating with or extending Tribe.

ISV / Independent Software Vendor — Third-party vendor building applications on Tribe platform.

Marketplace — Platform where customers discover and install integrations/configurations.

Beta — Feature in testing phase; may have issues or change.

AI Assistant — A built-in helper that you can ask questions or give tasks in everyday language, such as ‘show me my open opportunities for this month’.

Prompt — The question or instruction you type to an AI. Clear, specific prompts give better answers.

AI-generated Content — Text that AI writes for you in Tribe. It is a starting point, so always check it before you use it.

AI Suggestion — A recommendation from AI, such as the next best action. You decide whether to accept it.

Meeting Brief — A short summary, prepared by AI before a call or appointment, of the company, recent contact and open deals.

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) — A description of the type of company that buys from you most successfully, worked out from your own CRM data. It helps you decide which Leads deserve attention first.

Competitive Landscape — An AI-prepared overview of the competitors you meet most often.

AI Agent — An AI that carries out a task for you in Tribe, such as updating records or logging a follow-up, instead of only answering questions. It can only do what its user’s role and permissions allow.

MCP — A standard way to connect an AI assistant, such as Claude, to Tribe so that it can look up and work with your CRM data. It sees only what the connected user is allowed to see.

Large Language Model (LLM) — The AI technology behind assistants such as Claude. It reads and writes text in everyday language.

AI Accuracy — AI can sometimes give wrong or invented answers with great confidence. Check anything important, such as figures, names and dates, before you act on it.

Data Enrichment — An AI feature that finds useful details in emails, such as a job title or phone number, and adds them to the contact’s profile so that you do not have to type them in.

Support Ticket — A record of a customer’s request for help or report of a problem. It is linked to the customer (the organisation) and to the contact who raised it, and it moves through phases until it is solved.

Ticket Phase — The stage a Support Ticket has reached on its way to being solved.

Open Ticket / Closed Ticket — An open ticket still needs work. A closed ticket is finished, and you can filter your lists to show only one kind.

Linked Activities — Other activities connected to a ticket, such as tasks, appointments or emails, that record the work done to solve it.

Complaint — A record of a customer’s expression of dissatisfaction, kept separate from an ordinary support request so that it can be followed up on its own.

Priority — How urgent a ticket is, such as low, normal or high. It decides which tickets are dealt with first.

Ticket Category — The kind of issue a ticket is about, such as a question, a bug or a request. It makes reporting easier.

Ticket Source (Channel) — How the request arrived, such as email, phone, portal or a web form.

Internal Note — A comment on a ticket that only your team can see. It is not shared with the customer.

Sentiment — The tone that the AI detects in a message: positive, neutral or negative.

Work Order — A record of practical work to be done for a customer, such as an installation or repair, often started from a ticket.

Customer Portal — A secure website where your customers sign in to follow their own support tickets, share information with you and see documents and updates, without calling or emailing your team.

Project — A record for delivering agreed work to a customer, such as an implementation or a service. It is linked to the customer and a contact, and it brings together the phases, milestones, hours, people and products of the work.

Project Phase — The stage a Project has reached, from start to completion.

Milestone — An important point in a Project, such as a delivery or an approval, which shows whether the work is on track.

Time Registration — A record of the hours someone has worked on a Project. It shows how much time the work has taken.

Employee Allocation — The assignment of a team member to a Project, often with the time they are expected to spend on it, so that you can plan who works on what.

Open Project / Closed Project — An open project is still in progress. A closed project is finished, and you can filter your lists to show only one kind.

Project Manager — The user responsible for a Project, for its planning, progress and delivery.

Hour Budget / Actual Hours — The hours you expect a Project to take compared with the hours registered so far. The difference shows whether the work is over or under budget.

Billable Hours — Hours registered on a Project that you can charge to the customer, as opposed to internal time.

Project Budget — The amount of money set aside for a Project.

Deliverable — A specific result that you promise to hand over to the customer, such as a report, a configured system or a training session.

Project Template — A ready-made Project, with standard phases, milestones and tasks, that you copy when you start a similar one.

Sub-project — A smaller Project that belongs to a larger one, used to split big pieces of work.

Project Invoicing — Creating invoices for a Project, either as a fixed amount or from the hours registered.

Work Order — A record of practical work to be done at a customer’s site or for a customer, such as an installation or repair, usually smaller than a Project.

Time Registration — A record of the hours someone has worked, linked to a Project or Work Order. It shows how much time the work has taken and who did it.

Time-Registration Line— A single line of registered time: who worked, on which day, for how many hours, on which project and with what description.

Timesheet — An overview of the time entries of one person for a period, usually a week, so that they can check and complete their hours in one place.

Timer — A start and stop button that measures the time of a piece of work as you do it, so that you do not have to remember the hours afterwards.

Billable Hours / Non-billable Hours — Billable hours are registered hours that you can charge to the customer. Non-billable hours are internal time, such as meetings or training, that you do not charge.

Hourly Rate — The amount charged for one hour of work. It can differ by person, role or project.

Hours-based Invoicing — Creating an invoice from the billable hours registered on a Project or Work Order, so that the customer pays for the time actually spent.

Time Type — The kind of work an entry records, such as work, travel or training.

Mileage Tracking (Mileage Registration) — Recording the distance travelled for work, such as visiting a customer, so that it can be paid back to the employee or charged to the customer.

Trip — A single journey for work, with its date, start, destination, distance and purpose. A trip can be linked to the customer, project or appointment that it was made for.

Distance — The number of kilometres or miles travelled on a trip.

Mileage Rate — The amount paid or charged for each kilometre or mile, which can differ by country, vehicle or customer agreement.

Billable Mileage — Travel that you charge to the customer, for example as a line on an invoice, as opposed to travel that you carry as an internal cost.

Event — A gathering that you organise for a specific purpose, such as generating Leads. Examples are a webinar, a seminar, an open day or a stand at a trade show. You invite or register participants, record who comes and follow up afterwards.

Event Phase — The stage an Event has reached, from planning to completion.

Event Participation — The record of a person’s involvement in an Event, such as whether they were invited, registered or attended.

Participant (Attendee) — A person who is invited to, registers for or takes part in an Event.

Course — A training programme that you offer, with its content, duration and price. A course can be run many times.

Course Edition (Session) — A single scheduled run of a Course, with its own dates, location, trainer and participants. This is the course equivalent of an Event.

Trainer (Instructor) — The person who delivers a Course Edition.

Course Participant — A contact who is registered for a Course Edition.

Duplicate — Two or more records that describe the same person or organisation, for example a contact entered twice with slightly different spellings.

Deduplication — Finding duplicates and fixing them, usually by merging them into one record, so that each person or organisation appears only once.

Duplicate Detection — A check that finds records which are probably the same. It can run when you save a record, when you import data or as a scan of your existing data.

Matching Rule — The fields that are compared to decide whether two records are the same, such as email address, name or phone number. Stricter rules find fewer duplicates but make fewer mistakes.

Potential Duplicate — A pair of records that the system thinks may be the same. A person has to check them before anything changes.

Merge — Combining duplicate records into one. You choose which record to keep, and the details and history of the other records are moved into it.

Record to Keep (Main Record) — The record that remains after a merge. The others are removed, and their linked items, such as activities, opportunities and invoices, move to the record you keep.

Field Selection (in a Merge) — Choosing which value to keep for each field when two records differ, for example which phone number or address is correct.

Not a Duplicate (Ignore) — Marking a pair as two genuinely different records, so that it is not suggested again.

Duplicate Prevention — A warning that appears when you create a record that looks like one that already exists, so that you can open the existing record instead.