# Terminology

> Learn key terms used by the Qualy API.

When working with the Qualy API you may find in our documentation and our API specific terms that may not be used outside of the payments industry or Qualy itself. Use this table to understand what these terms mean.

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These are the most common terms used by Qualy:

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Contact | Contact is the end-user, it's your customer. The one performing the payment. The term "Customer" may also be used interchangeably. |
| Tenant | This is Qualy's customer, a business that is using Qualy to receive payments. |
| Payment intent | A payment intent is a payment entry. It may be on different `status` and it's what Qualy uses to send reminders, and accept payments/transactions against. It's called a payment intent, as it may never become "paid". |
| Transaction | A transaction is created when Qualy needs to receive money or register money has been received. It's also used for refunds. |
| Method/Payment method | A payment may be paid by different methods (e.g. Credit Card, PayID, etc). Different entities in Qualy will have multiple methods associated to them. |
| User | A user is created by a "super admin" on Qualy, and it has access to the Dashboard. |
| Order / Order item | An order groups what a contact bought; each product or service in it is an order item. An order can be paid by one or many payment intents (e.g. a payment plan). See [Creating orders](/docs/guides/creating-orders.md). |
| Service | A product or service in your catalog (e.g. "Diploma of Business"). Orders, order items, and subscriptions reference services. |
| Subscription | A recurring billing arrangement that automatically generates payment intents on a schedule. See [Creating subscriptions](/docs/guides/creating-subscriptions.md). |
| Partnership | Another party you transact with or on behalf of — an agent, institution, or supplier. Suppliers on orders and splits affect how money is divided. See [payment splits](/docs/guides/creating-payment-splits.md). |
| Payment split | The portion of a payment owed to a partnership (also called a split intent). Splits are calculated from the payment's items and the supplier attached to them. |
| Payout | Money Qualy sends out — to you (settlement) or to your partners. Distinct from a transaction, which records money coming in. |
| Settlement currency | When you want a contact to pay in a currency different from the payment's currency, the settlement currency is what they actually pay in. Qualy handles the FX. See [Creating payment intents](/docs/guides/creating-payment-intents.md). |
| Amounts (minor units) | Every monetary amount in the API is an integer in the currency's minor units (cents). `100000` means $1,000.00. |
| Authorization | A direct-debit mandate — a contact's standing permission to debit their bank account (e.g. PayTo, PayID). Not to be confused with API authorization (your API key). |
| Dispute | A chargeback: a cardholder questions a payment with their bank, and the amount is held until it resolves. See [Handling disputes](/docs/guides/handling-disputes.md). |
| Dunning | Chasing overdue receivables — sending reminders (notices), logging attempts (chases), and tracking responses. Communications only; it never moves money. See [Dunning](/docs/guides/dunning.md). |
| Approval | A maker-checker sign-off. An approval policy can require one or more approvers to authorize a money-moving action before it proceeds. See [Approvals](/docs/guides/approvals.md). |