Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms used on this site.
What do the terms on this site mean?
This glossary explains, in plain English, the terms used across OpenAtoZ: enquiry automation words such as speed-to-lead and reply clock, UK rules such as PECR and UK GDPR, tools such as Apps Script and n8n, and product terms such as print on demand and KDP. Definitions are short and practical.
- Amazon KDP
- Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s free self-publishing service for e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks.
- Controller
- The person or business that decides why and how personal data is used and is responsible for it.
- Deduplication
- Spotting when the same enquiry is submitted twice so it is not replied to twice.
- Direct marketing
- Under UK law, “the communication (by whatever means) of advertising or marketing material which is directed to particular individuals”.
- Email quota
- The daily limit on emails a script can send. Google lists 100 recipients a day for free Gmail and 1,500 for Workspace.
- Email Routing
- A Cloudflare service that forwards email sent to your domain to an inbox you already have, free of charge.
- Fixed-price scope
- A short written agreement listing what will be built, what you own, what is out of scope, the delivery date and the price.
- Form-submit trigger
- An Apps Script setting that runs code automatically when someone submits a Google Form.
- Google Apps Script
- Google’s free scripting tool that automates Gmail, Sheets, Forms, Calendar and Drive inside your own account.
- Handover guide
- A short written guide left after a build, listing every trigger and permission and how to switch it off.
- Lead-platform alert
- An email from a lead marketplace such as Bark, Checkatrade or MyBuilder telling you a new lead is available.
- Legal form
- Whether a business is a company, a sole trader or a partnership. It affects which marketing rules apply.
- llms.txt
- A plain-text file at the root of a website that summarises the site for large language models and AI answer engines.
- Low-content book
- A book such as a journal, log or planner that is mostly prompts, lines or space for the reader to fill in.
- Make.com and Zapier
- Hosted automation platforms that connect apps with triggers and actions, usually billed by usage.
- n8n
- A workflow automation tool that can be self-hosted on your own server.
- Owner alert
- An email or notification telling the business owner that a new enquiry has arrived, with the key details.
- PECR
- The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations: UK rules on electronic marketing by email, text, phone and other channels.
- Print on demand
- Products printed only when ordered, by a partner who prints and ships them, so nothing is stocked in advance.
- Reply clock
- A column in the enquiry sheet showing the seconds between an enquiry arriving and the auto-reply being sent.
- Service message
- A message that is not promotional but is for administrative or customer service purposes, such as replying to an enquiry. Defined in ICO guidance.
- Special category data
- More sensitive personal data under UK GDPR, including health information. Enquiry automations should not ask for it.
- Speed-to-lead
- How quickly a business responds to a new enquiry. Shorter is usually better because the enquirer is still interested and may be contacting other firms.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Email authentication records that prove mail from your domain is genuine and tell receivers what to do with mail that fails.
- Static site
- A website made of ready-built pages rather than pages generated on each visit, which makes it fast and simple to host.
- Structured data (JSON-LD)
- Machine-readable descriptions of a page’s content, using the schema.org vocabulary, that help search engines and AI tools understand it.
- TPS and CTPS
- The Telephone Preference Service and Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Numbers should be checked against them before sales calls.
- UK GDPR
- The UK’s main data protection law. It covers how personal data, such as names, emails and photos, is collected, used and kept.
- Webhook
- A web address that receives data from another system, for example a website form posting an enquiry to an automation.
Explore more
Is this legal advice?
No. Legal terms are plain-English summaries. For your situation, read the official guidance or ask a qualified adviser.
Can I suggest a term?
Yes, through the contact page.