Glossary
Office Manager Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential office manager terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key office manager vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in office manager training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Accounts payable
- Money the business owes vendors.
- Expense report
- Records of employee expenses.
- Facilities
- Buildings, equipment and maintenance.
- Inventory
- Supplies on hand.
- Lease
- A rental agreement for space or equipment.
- Onboarding
- Bringing new employees into the organization.
- Operating budget
- Planned spending for daily operations.
- Performance review
- A formal evaluation of an employee.
- Petty cash
- Small amounts of cash for minor expenses.
- Procedure manual
- Written instructions for office processes.
- Purchase order
- A document authorizing a purchase.
- Service level agreement (SLA)
- A vendor’s committed service standards.
- Ticketing system
- Software for tracking requests.
- Vendor
- A company that provides goods or services.
- Workflow
- The steps a process follows.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Office Manager practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Office Manager training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.