In 30 seconds
- The vocabulary you'll see throughout the app, organised by topic.
- In the catalogue, the Design has no price, the Piece has a cost and the Variant has a price.
- A quote isn't an order: when accepted it creates the order, and the invoice is born from the order.
If you're new to BolloPrint (or to 3D printing in general), this glossary will help you understand the vocabulary you'll see throughout the app. You don't need to memorise it, but come back here whenever you run into a term you don't recognise.
Catalogue terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Design | The 3D file of a model (STL, 3MF…), with its photos and notes. The measurements, weight and time go on each Piece. It has no price. |
| Piece | The actual manufacturable unit: a Design + a specific material + colours + finish. It has a cost (what it costs you to produce it), but no sale price. |
| Variant | The SKU you sell to the customer. It has a price, a margin and is made up of one or more Pieces. It's what appears on the order. |
| Product | The commercial container: it groups related Variants and has a name, images and description for the catalogue. |
💡 Quick summary
Design → defines how it's printed · Piece → what you manufacture · Variant → what you sell · Product → what the catalogue shows
Order terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Order | A request from a customer. It can contain one or more lines. |
| Order line | Each individual item within an order: a catalogue Variant or a custom line, with its description and price typed by hand. |
| Quote | An offer to a customer before the order exists, with its lines, its price and its validity date. It has its own numbering and its states are Draft → Sent → Accepted / Rejected. When accepted, it creates the order. See Quotes. |
| Order status | The current stage of the order: Created → In production → Ready to dispatch → Dispatched → Completed, or Cancelled (see the Orders section). |
Role terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Owner | The top administrator of the workshop. Can do everything, including changing the subscription. |
| Admin | Administrator with full access except the subscription and turning invoicing on or off. See Roles and permissions. |
| Worker | Operational access: orders, customers, production. Can't touch settings. |
| Read-only | Can only view. Ideal for external people who need to look things up without modifying them. |
Printer terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Local agent | A small program you install on a computer in the workshop to connect your printers over your own network, without going through the manufacturer's cloud. |
| AMS | The Bambu Lab unit that loads several spools and switches from one to another on its own. On the printer's page, each spool is a circle in its colour with a ring showing what's left. |
| Issue | A warning or an error reported by the printer itself, with its severity: Critical, Serious, Warning or Info. |
| Thumbnail | The image of the piece your slicer generates: what should come out. It isn't the camera, which shows what is coming out. |
| Read-only | A printer whose status we can see but which we can't send commands to (pause, resume or cancel). |
Invoicing terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Invoice | A legal document, numbered and archived, that comes from an order. See Invoices. |
| Simplified invoice | An invoice without the customer's details. Only for individuals and below your country's limit. |
| Credit note | Cancels an issued invoice for its full amount. It has its own series, with an R in front. |
| ZUGFeRD | The German e-invoice: a normal PDF that carries the invoice data inside as XML. |
| Small business | In Germany, the § 19 UStG scheme; in the United Kingdom, not being registered for VAT. It invoices without VAT and with your country's legal statement. |
Finance terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Fee % | What a sales channel keeps from each sale. It's set on each sales channel and Finance uses it to estimate your fees. See Sales channels. |
| Recurring expense | An expense that repeats every month (rent, electricity, licences) and that BolloPrint records by itself on the day you choose. If the amount changes, it stays Estimated until you enter the real one. |
| VAT scheme | How your business handles VAT: standard VAT, small business or another scheme. You choose it in Tax information, and it decides what Finance → Taxes shows you. |
| What's left | What you collected in the period minus your channels' fees and your expenses. See Finance. |
Common technical terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| API token | A secret key that lets you connect BolloPrint with other tools (Make, Zapier, your own scripts). |
| Kanban | The visual production board, with columns for each status (Created, In production, Ready to dispatch…). |
| SKU | Unique identifier code for a Variant in the catalogue. |
| Margin | The difference between the sale price and the production cost, expressed as a percentage. |