Overview
When starting with Tropic, it's essential to understand the key terms and concepts used throughout the procurement process. Below is a glossary of common Tropic terms, providing quick, easy definitions to ensure you’re aligned with how we define key concepts.
Tropic Terms Glossary
| Term | Definition |
| Account Manager (AM) | Your Tropic point of contact responsible for managing your commercial relationship with Tropic. If you are interested in a few features, have updated business goals or priorities, reach out to your AM! |
| Account Executive (AE) | Your Tropic point of contact responsible for managing your commercial relationship before you signed your initial Tropic contract. |
| Action Center | A centralized space in the Tropic platform to manage all tasks, approvals, and requests. |
| Addressability | Refers to a request’s ability to be managed by Tropic. Tropic facilitates contract negotiations if a contract or supplier is addressable. |
| Approval | An action within a Request where specific parties must give consent in order for the Request to proceed. |
| Commercial Executive (CE) | The Tropic team member responsible for negotiating with suppliers on behalf of your organization. |
| Contract | The agreement between you (the customer) and the Supplier, which can sometimes be a click-through or online sign-up, rather than a formal document. It represents an obligation to spend money, regardless of its formality. |
| Contract Owner | The person responsible for managing the contract and receiving renewal reminders, and typically leading any negotiations. |
| Contract Renewal | The process of renewing for another term of a contract, typically involving renegotiation of terms and pricing. |
| Customer/Organization | Refers to the companies that partner with Tropic to handle their spend management needs. |
| Customer-Managed Workflow | A workflow managed and owned by your organization, without Tropic involvement. |
| Credits | A credit can be purchased to deploy Tropic’s procurement services for one supplier such as Expert Advisory, Negotiation Services, or Cloud. |
| Credit Tracking | The process of monitoring and managing the usage, allocation, and remaining balance of purchased credits within the Tropic platform. |
| Earmarks | The strategic allocation of specific credits for a particular contract renewal, ensuring credits are reserved for anticipated expenses. |
| Earmark Status | The current status of an earmark, which can be either "Candidate" (a possible future allocation) or "Allocated" (a confirmed credit allocation). |
| Earmark Type | The category of credit assigned to a contract renewal, such as Expert Advisory or Negotiation Services. |
| Document | Documents include all relevant files, such as Proposals or existing Contracts, needed to complete a contract. |
| Extraction | The process by which Tropic reviews your documents and data to automatically populate fields in the contract record. |
| GL Account | A unique account used to track financial transactions in accounting. |
| iCon (Implementation Consultant) | The Tropic team member who works directly with you to ensure smooth implementation and usage of the platform. |
| Integration | Integration refers to connecting Tropic’s platform with other tools or software that your organization uses, such as financial, SSO or HRsystems, to streamline workflows and data management. |
| Permissions | The specific rights or access levels granted to users within the Tropic platform, controlling what actions they can perform. |
| Portal | The Portal is a limited-access area within the Tropic platform. Users can only manage their own Requests and Contracts and cannot view the full list of active Requests. |
| Portal User | A restricted role user who can only access the contracts they own or Requests they have submitted. They can also submit new Requests. |
| Procurement Specialist | A member of the Tropic team who works alongside the Commercial Executive to ensure Tropic-Managed Requests progress smoothly and are completed on time. |
| Proposal | A Proposal is a document uploaded to the Request, outlining the terms of a proposed contract between you and a supplier. |
| Request | A Request is the object created to initiate a purchase or change to your software applications. It includes tasks and approvals to guide both you and Tropic through the procurement process. |
| Request Form | This is a customizable form that customers submit to kick off a Request within Tropic. |
| Role | The specific responsibilities and permissions assigned to users within the Tropic platform. |
| Supplier | A Supplier is a vendor providing software or non-SaaS goods or services whose contract or documentation is managed within the Tropic platform. |
| Tropic-Managed Spend | The total value of contracts that Tropic has negotiated on your behalf. |
| Tropic-Managed Workflow | A workflow that includes tasks or approvals that require action by Tropic staff to complete. These workflows are typically Addressable. |
| Task | A Task is an action item within a Request that needs to be completed before the request can move forward. This may include uploading documents or providing other necessary details. |
| User | An individual who has access to the Tropic platform, with specific roles and permissions assigned. |
| Workflow | A Workflow is the series of predefined tasks and approvals that must be completed to finalize a Request. These are configurable by your organization to systematize your spend policy. |