APIApplication Programming Interface. The contract between two software systems that lets them talk. Razorpay's API lets your site charge a card; Tally's API lets your CRM post invoices.
BSP (Business Solution Provider)Authorised partner who provides WhatsApp Business API access. You don't integrate directly with Meta — you go through a BSP like Interakt, Wati, AiSensy, Gupshup, or Twilio.
Custom CRMSoftware built around YOUR sales/operations workflow, instead of forcing your workflow into Salesforce/Zoho templates. Better fit + cheaper at scale; needs upfront build cost.
DPA (Data Processing Agreement)Contract between you and a third party (cloud, analytics, email vendor) that defines how they handle your user data. Required under DPDP Act for every "data processor".
DPDP ActIndia's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Governs how Indian websites/apps collect, store, and process personal data. Notified rules took effect 2024-25.
DPO (Data Protection Officer)Person responsible for data protection compliance under DPDP. Required if you're a "Significant Data Fiduciary". SMEs typically designate the founder or ops head.
e-InvoicingGST e-invoicing — required for B2B invoices if your turnover >₹3 crore. Get IRN (Invoice Reference Number) + QR code from IRP before raising the invoice.
EmbeddingAI representation of text as a high-dimensional vector. Used in RAG to find content similar to a user's query. Generated via models like text-embedding-3 or open alternatives.
FIRC (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate)Document from your bank or payment gateway proving you received foreign currency. Required for tax claims on export of services.
Headless CMSBackend-only CMS where you store content (Sanity, Strapi, Contentful) and a separate frontend (Next.js, Nuxt) renders it. Decouples content from presentation.
HSN codeHarmonised System of Nomenclature — international product code system used in GST invoices to classify goods and services.
Intent flow (UPI)UPI payment pattern where user picks their UPI app from OS picker. Best UX, ~92% success rate. Default for mobile-app payments.
IRNInvoice Reference Number — 64-character hash issued by GSTN's IRP for each B2B e-invoice. Without it, the invoice isn't valid for input tax credit.
LighthouseGoogle's performance audit tool. Measures load speed, accessibility, SEO, best practices. 90+ score is the standard for production websites.
LLM (Large Language Model)AI model trained on massive text data. GPT-4, Claude Sonnet, Llama 70B are examples. Used for chatbots, content generation, summarisation, RAG.
LLM optimisation (LLM-O)SEO for AI search. Structuring content + authority signals so ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini cite you as a source. Emerging discipline in 2025-26.
Mandate (UPI AutoPay)User's standing instruction allowing recurring UPI debits. Cap of ₹15,000 per debit (raised from ₹5,000). Used for SaaS subscriptions, EMIs, etc.
MDR (Merchant Discount Rate)Fee charged by payment gateways per transaction. UPI = 0% (RBI capped). Cards = 1.95-2% domestic, 3-3.5% international.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)Smallest functional version of your product that real users can use to validate the idea. Not a prototype — a real shipping product with real auth and payments.
PostHogOpen-source product analytics. Best free tier among modern alternatives. Tracks user events, funnels, feature flags, session replay. Default at Big Helpers.
Purpose codeRBI code assigned to incoming foreign currency transactions (e.g. P0802 = software services). Determines tax treatment.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)AI pattern where the model retrieves relevant content from your knowledge base before generating an answer. Lets a chatbot "know" your specific data without retraining.
RazorpayIndia's leading payment gateway. UPI + cards + netbanking + wallets + subscriptions + payouts. Default at Big Helpers for Indian SaaS and SMB builds.
Schema.orgStructured data vocabulary that tells search engines (and AI engines) what your content represents — Product, Article, LocalBusiness, etc. Enables rich results in search.
ShiprocketIndian logistics aggregator. Connects to multiple courier partners (Delhivery, Bluedart, Ekart, etc.). Auto-AWB generation, tracking, COD reconciliation.
SSR (Server-Side Rendering)Generating HTML on the server before sending to the browser. Critical for SEO. Default in Next.js. Faster perceived load on mobile.
Stripe IndiaStripe's India entity. Live mid-2022, expanded since. Best DX for international card collections from India-incorporated businesses.
T+N (settlement)Time delay between transaction and money hitting your bank. T+1 = next working day. T+2 = 2 working days. Affects working capital.
Tally PrimeIndia's most-used SME accounting software. Big Helpers integrates via XML/HTTP API or 3rd-party gateways (TallyConnect, ClearTax).
Token (LLM)Unit of text the AI processes. Roughly 4 characters or 0.75 words. OpenAI / Claude charge per token. Self-hosted = no per-token cost (you pay GPU).
UPI AutoPayNPCI's recurring UPI mandate. ₹15,000 cap per debit. Used for SaaS subscriptions, EMIs, OTT, insurance. Renewal success ~70-85%.
Vector DBDatabase optimised for storing and querying embeddings (high-dimensional vectors). Used for RAG. Examples: Qdrant, Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector.
WAF (Web Application Firewall)Filters malicious HTTP traffic before it hits your app. Cloudflare WAF is the SMB default. Blocks SQL injection, XSS, brute-force, etc.
WebhookHTTP callback fired by a third-party system when an event happens (e.g. Razorpay → 'payment success'). Critical for asynchronous integrations.