Business vocabulary for new starters: invoice, PO, SLA, KPI and more
For new starters in any role, especially office, operations, service desk and customer service staff who see purchase orders, invoices, SLAs and KPIs in their first weeks but were never told what they mean. No prerequisites. You'll put the documents of a purchase in order (purchase order, delivery record, invoice, receipt, credit note), check what an invoice must show and when it's due, tell accounts payable from receivable and cash from accrual, read what an SLA actually commits to, and tell a KPI from a target. Definitions come from UK and US government sources (GOV.UK and HMRC; the US Federal Acquisition Regulation, Treasury, IRS and SBA) and the NIST glossary, so examples are labelled UK or US. This is vocabulary only: it does not grant any licence or professional qualification and is not accounting, tax or legal advice; your organisation's finance procedures come first. For more depth, see the courses on three-way matching, purchasing controls, budget reports and service-desk SLAs. Ends with a supervisor-graded task.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 75 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Put the documents of a purchase in order (purchase order, delivery record, invoice, receipt, credit note) and say what each one shows
- Identify the details an invoice must show and the payment terms that decide when it's due
- Tell accounts payable from accounts receivable, and cash from accrual recording, when you hear them at work
- Read a service level agreement and say what the provider has committed to and how it's measured
- Identify whether a figure in a report is a KPI, a target or an SLA commitment, and what it tracks progress toward
Course outline
- 1.Put the documents of a purchase in order and say what each one showsLesson · 13 min
- 2.Identify the details an invoice must show and the payment terms that decide when it's dueLesson · 14 min
- 3.Tell accounts payable from accounts receivable, and cash from accrual recordingLesson · 11 min
- 4.Read a service level agreement and say what the provider has committed to and how it's measuredLesson · 12 min
- 5.Identify whether a figure in a report is a KPI, a target or an SLA commitmentLesson · 10 min
- 6.Business vocabulary for new starters: invoice, PO, SLA, KPI and more: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Business vocabulary for new starters: invoice, PO, SLA, KPI and more: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- GOV.UK: Invoicing and taking payment from customers
- GOV.UK: Invoices, what they must include
- GOV.UK: Late commercial payments, charging interest and debt recovery
- HMRC: VAT guide (VAT Notice 700), credit notes and pro-forma invoices
- US Federal Acquisition Regulation 2.101: Definitions (purchase order, invoice, receiving report)
- US Federal Acquisition Regulation 32.905: Payment documentation and process
- US Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service: Prompt Payment overview
- IRS: What kind of records should I keep
- IRS Publication 334: Tax Guide for Small Business
- IRS Publication 538: Accounting Periods and Methods
- US Small Business Administration: Manage your finances
- NIST CSRC glossary: service level agreement (SLA)
- NIST CSRC glossary: key performance indicator
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.