Business Acumen

Gross profit margin

Ratio of gross profit to net sales.

Net profit margin

Ratio of net income (gross sales minus expenses and taxes) to net sales.

Value

The benefit created when an organization meets its strategic goals; measure of usefulness, worth, or importance.

Value chain

The process by which an organization creates the product or service it offers to the customer.

Analytical processing

Applications that can analyze data faster and in more ways than traditional relational databases, offering a multidimensional analysis of business data.

Business intelligence

Ability to use information to gain a deeper understanding of an organization and make sound business decisions.

Equity

Amount of owners' or shareholders' portion of a business.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Business management software, usually a suite of integrated applications, that a company can use to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from many business activities.

Service-level agreement

Document that defines the output customers can expect.

Assets

Financial, physical, and sometimes intangible properties an organization owns.

Accounts payable

Money an organization owes its vendors and suppliers.

Accounts receivable

Money an organization's customers owe the organization.

Liabilities

Organization's debts and other financial obligations.

Balanced scorecard

Performance management tool that depicts an organization's overall performance, as measured against goals, lagging indicators, and leading indicators.

Business case

Presentation to management that establishes that a specific problem exists and argues for a proposed solution.

Cash flow statement

Statement of an organization's ability to meet its current and short-term obligations, showing incoming and outgoing cash and cash reserves in operations, investments, and financing.

Balance sheet

Statement of an organization's financial position at a specific point in time, showing assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity.

Income statement

Statement that reports revenues, expenses, and profits for a specified period of time, for example, quarterly or annually.