Glossary
Key terms and definitions used throughout Ardent Seller
56 terms grouped into 8 categories
This glossary defines the inventory, transaction, production, financial, sales, and tax & compliance terms used throughout Ardent Seller and across the maker trades — from COGS, SKU, and batch tracking to wholesale, Section 179, the 1099-K, and producer terms like fragrance load and biological efficiency. Search by term or filter by category to find a definition; the entries are also grouped by category below for browsing.
56 terms found
Financial
Break-Even Point
The level of sales at which total revenue exactly covers total costs — the point where the business stops losing money and starts making it.
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)
The total cost of materials, labor, and overhead directly tied to producing the goods you sell. Tracked automatically through purchases, recipes, and production runs.
Depreciation
The gradual decrease in value of equipment over time. Ardent Seller tracks depreciation schedules for your equipment to help with tax reporting and replacement planning.
Gross Margin
Gross profit expressed as a percentage of the selling price — what fraction of each dollar of revenue is left after the direct cost of the goods sold.
Markup
The amount added to an item’s cost to reach its selling price, expressed as a percentage of cost — and distinct from margin, which is measured against the price.
Net Profit
What remains after all costs — direct costs of goods sold plus overhead, fees, and taxes — are subtracted from revenue. The true bottom line.
Overhead
The ongoing costs of running your business that are not tied to any single product — rent, utilities, software, insurance, and similar fixed expenses.
Schedule C
An IRS tax form (Schedule C - Profit or Loss from Business) used by sole proprietors. Ardent Seller can categorize expenses and generate reports aligned with Schedule C line items.
Tax Category
An IRS Schedule C expense or income category used to classify transactions for tax reporting. Helps organize your financial data for end-of-year tax preparation.
General
Account
Your organization or business in Ardent Seller. All data is scoped to your account, ensuring complete isolation from other businesses on the platform.
Entity
A location (primary, secondary, storage, production, sales) or a contact (vendor, customer, charity) in your business. Locations are used to scope inventory and transactions.
Location
A physical place where inventory is stored or business is conducted, such as a home kitchen, workshop, storage unit, or market stall. Inventory is tracked per location.
Unit Conversion
The automatic conversion between different units of measure (e.g., pounds to ounces, cups to milliliters). Allows purchasing in bulk units and using smaller units in recipes.
Inventory
Attributes
Custom properties you define to describe your inventory variants, such as color, size, scent, or material. Attributes help organize and filter your product catalog.
Deadstock
Inventory that is not selling and ties up cash without turning over — old materials or finished goods that have stalled on the shelf.
Finished Goods
Products you have manufactured or assembled from raw ingredients and components. These are the completed items ready for sale to customers.
Ingredient
A raw material or component purchased from vendors and used in recipes to produce finished goods. Examples: flour, beads, essential oils, fabric.
Lead Time
The time between placing an order with a supplier and having the goods in hand and ready to use, including the supplier’s processing time and shipping transit.
MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Operations)
Supplies that support your production process but don't become part of the finished product. Examples: cleaning supplies, equipment lubricant, disposable gloves, packaging tape.
Packaging
Materials used to package your products for sale or shipping. Tracked as inventory so costs are included in your product pricing and COGS calculations.
Par Level (Reorder Point)
The minimum stock level at which you place a new order — set so replenishment arrives before you run out, without sitting on months of excess.
Safety Stock
A buffer quantity held above the reorder point to absorb unexpected demand spikes or supplier delays without causing a stockout.
Shrinkage
Inventory lost to causes other than sales — spoilage, breakage, theft, miscounts, and waste — measured as the gap between recorded and actual stock.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
A unique code assigned to each product variant for identification and tracking. Helps organize your catalog and is commonly used in barcodes and inventory management.
Stocktake
The process of physically counting inventory at a location and comparing it to recorded quantities. Variances are reconciled by creating adjustment transactions.
Subassembly
A component that is produced from raw materials and then used as an input in another recipe or assembly process. Allows multi-level bills of materials.
Variant
A specific version of an inventory item distinguished by attributes like size, color, or scent. Each variant can have its own SKU, price, and stock level.
Production
Batch/Lot Number
A unique identifier assigned to a production run or group of items produced together. Enables traceability from raw ingredients to finished products for quality control and compliance.
Bill of Materials (BOM)
A complete list of ingredients, components, and quantities needed to produce a finished good. In Ardent Seller, this is represented through recipes and their ingredient lists.
Biological Efficiency
A yield measure used by mushroom growers — the weight of fresh mushrooms harvested as a percentage of the dry weight of the substrate they grew on.
Board Foot
A unit of lumber volume equal to 144 cubic inches — a piece one inch thick, one foot wide, and one foot long — used to buy and price wood.
Fragrance Load
The percentage of fragrance oil in a candle relative to the weight of the wax, a key driver of both scent strength and per-candle cost.
Production Run
A recorded instance of producing goods using a recipe. Deducts ingredients from inventory, adds finished goods to stock, and tracks batch/lot numbers for traceability.
Recipe
A defined set of ingredients, quantities, steps, and equipment needed to produce a finished good. Recipes automatically calculate production costs based on current ingredient prices.
Water Activity
A measure (from 0 to 1) of the unbound water available in a food to support microbial growth — a key threshold in cottage food law.
Yield
The amount of usable finished product a recipe or production run actually produces, after accounting for trim, waste, and loss.
Reports
Audit Trail
A chronological record of all changes made in the system, including who made each change and when. Used for accountability, compliance, and troubleshooting.
Inventory Valuation
The total monetary value of all inventory currently in stock, calculated based on purchase costs. A key report for understanding the assets held in your business.
Traceability
The ability to trace a finished product back to its source ingredients, production run, and batch numbers. Critical for food safety, quality control, and regulatory compliance.
Sales
Buyer's Premium
A percentage fee an auction house adds on top of the winning bid (the hammer price) that the buyer must pay, raising the real cost of every lot won.
Comps (Comparables)
Recent sale prices of comparable items, used to estimate what a one-of-a-kind or vintage piece is worth before buying or listing it.
Consignment
A sales arrangement where a shop or gallery displays your work but does not pay you until it sells, keeping an agreed percentage of the sale.
Final Value Fee
A marketplace's commission on a completed sale, charged as a percentage of the total the buyer pays — including shipping and tax.
Line Sheet
A one- or two-page sales document listing your products, wholesale prices, minimums, and terms — the catalog you send to prospective retail buyers.
Pricing Tier
A named pricing configuration (like retail, wholesale, or market) that applies a markup or adjustment formula to calculate prices. Useful for selling at different price points.
Wholesale
Selling your products in bulk to a retailer at a discounted price so they can resell them at full retail — distinct from selling direct to the end customer.
Tax & Compliance
1099-K
An IRS form that payment processors and marketplaces issue to sellers who exceed a gross-payment threshold in a year, reporting that income to the IRS.
Cost Basis
The total amount invested to acquire an item — purchase price plus associated costs — used to calculate profit and cost of goods sold when it sells.
Cottage Food Law
State laws that allow certain low-risk foods to be made in a home kitchen and sold without a commercial license, within defined limits.
Hobby Loss Rule
The IRS test (IRC §183) that decides whether an activity is a business — whose losses can offset other income — or a hobby, whose losses cannot.
Sales Tax Nexus
The connection between a seller and a state that obligates the seller to collect and remit that state’s sales tax — triggered by physical presence or sales volume.
Section 179
A US tax provision letting a business deduct the full cost of qualifying equipment in the year it is placed in service, instead of depreciating it over years.
Specific Identification
An inventory accounting method that tracks the actual cost of each individual item, rather than averaging or formula-based costs — ideal for one-of-a-kind goods.
Transactions
Adjustment
A transaction that corrects inventory quantities without a purchase or sale. Used for damaged goods, waste, samples, or other non-sale removals from stock.
Transaction Method
The payment method used for a transaction, such as cash, credit card, PayPal, or Venmo. Can include fixed or percentage-based fees for accurate cost tracking.
Transfer
The movement of inventory from one location to another within your business. Creates records at both the source and destination locations.