Glossary
Contractor software terms, defined.
19 terms contractors, crews and suppliers use when they run jobs on one shared system.
About this glossary
This glossary defines the terms used across Sorsi OS in plain English, from three-way match and change orders to cost drift, stage gates, trade blueprints and MCP. Each definition is short enough to read between jobs.
B
- Bill of materials (BOM)
- The itemized list of materials, quantities and costs needed for a job. In Sorsi it is created automatically from the contract and sent out for supplier quotes.
C
- Change order
- A documented change to the original scope or price of a job. Recording change orders is how extra work gets billed instead of absorbed.
- Contractor operating system
- Software that runs the whole contracting business, from first lead to final service call, on one shared record instead of separate tools. It covers sales, estimating, scheduling, purchasing, field work, invoicing and follow-up service.
- Cost drift
- The gap between what a job was bid to cost and what it is actually costing as it progresses. Flagging cost drift early protects gross margin.
- Customer portal
- A white-labeled workspace where a customer follows project progress, photos and documents, makes milestone payments and rates the work.
F
- FlowBoard
- A Sorsi tool where you describe a process in plain English and it builds the stages, tasks, gates and automations for you.
G
- Gross margin
- Revenue minus the direct cost of the job, shown as a percentage of revenue. It is the number most affected when materials, labor or scope change after the bid.
K
- KPI-first
- Sorsi's approach of running on key performance indicators: track every KPI, recommend what to change, raise the bar when targets are met, and unlock the next features or tier.
L
- Live project record
- A single, always-current record of a job that every company on the project shares: contractor, subcontractors, suppliers, logistics, third parties and the customer. Each party sees its own workspace over the same facts.
M
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- An open standard that lets AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT connect to outside tools and data. Sorsi uses it so you can run your business from the assistant you already use.
O
- One-sentence command
- A plain-language instruction, such as "Kick off the Henderson job for Monday," that Sorsi turns into the work behind it: checking the contract, ordering materials, assigning crews and updating the customer.
P
- Partner portal
- The workspace where subcontractors and other partners accept work, follow scopes and checklists, submit photos and invoices, and see their scorecards.
- Punch list
- The final list of small items a contractor must fix or complete before a job is accepted as finished.
R
- Receivables aging
- A report that groups unpaid invoices by how long they have been outstanding, such as 30, 60 or 90 days, to prioritize collections.
- RFI (request for information)
- A formal question sent to a designer, engineer or customer to clarify plans or specifications before or during work.
S
- Stage gate
- A checkpoint that a job must pass before it moves to the next phase, such as confirming documents, equipment and margin before work is scheduled.
T
- Three-way match
- A control that compares the purchase order, the delivery receipt and the supplier invoice before paying, so mismatches show up as an exceptions list.
- Trade blueprint
- A prepackaged set of workflows, SOPs, playbooks and photo checklists for one trade, such as roofing or HVAC. Switching on a blueprint lets a contractor take on work outside their own trade without starting from scratch.
W
- Work order
- A written assignment that tells a crew or subcontractor what to do on a job, including scope, location and date.
See these terms in action on the features page.
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