Kipper Glossary¶

The Kipper-specific terms used across this help center — what each one means, where to find it in the portal, and which page covers it in full.

Looking for finance or AI terminology? Terms like AR, AP, general ledger, ERP, SQL, MCP, and RAG are industry terms rather than Kipper features, and they are defined on the Finance and AI Glossary on kipper.com. That page also states which kinds of finance question Kipper answers and which fall outside it.

Workspace¶

Your company's isolated environment in Kipper. A workspace holds your data source connection, your members and their permissions, and your workspace settings. Nothing is shared between workspaces.

Each workspace connects to one finance system. To switch systems, disconnect the existing source from the Data Sources page and connect the new one.

If you belong to more than one workspace, switch between them from the menu under your name in the top-right of the portal. Settings, members, and the audit log are all per workspace.

Workspace admin¶

Regular sync The routine incremental sync. Kipper pulls only the records that changed since the last successful run, so it's quick. Admins can start one on demand. See Sync actions.

Full sync A complete re-pull of all data from a source rather than just recent changes. Runs on a schedule for some sources, and admins can start one on demand. It takes longer than a regular sync, and can run for several hours on large accounts. See Sync actions.

Workspace Your organisation's isolated environment in Kipper. It holds your data source connections, team members, and permissions. A user can belong to several workspaces and switch between them. See Working with Multiple Workspaces.

The important practical point: only the admin who connects a data source needs credentials for your finance system. Everyone else asks questions without a NetSuite, QuickBooks, or Xero login of their own.

Members with the Standard role can ask questions within their permission level but cannot manage the workspace. See User Access.

Data source¶

A connected finance system — NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or Xero — that Kipper queries to answer questions. Kipper maintains a read-only copy of your data on AWS servers in the United States and answers by running SQL against that copy.

Manage connections from Data Sources in the sidebar, where you can also check sync status, trigger a manual sync, and see each source's permission sets.

See Connecting Data Sources for setup, and the per-system pages for NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, and Xero.

Sync¶

The process by which Kipper copies the latest records from your finance system into its query layer. How it behaves depends on the source:

Only QuickBooks Online and Xero send change notifications, so on those two most updates appear within seconds. NetSuite and QuickBooks Desktop have no notification channel, so the 15-minute poll is the upper bound and the weekly full sync catches anything the incremental feed missed. On Desktop, each poll also reconciles records deleted in QuickBooks, so removals stop appearing within the same 15-minute window.

You can trigger a sync at any time from the Data Sources page. See QuickBooks Desktop sync details for the full behavior.

Permission set¶

The definition of what a member can query on a specific data source. Kipper ships three per source, and every one of them is read-only:

A member can hold different sets on different sources. A member with no assignment for a source cannot query it at all.

Permission sets are managed from the Permission Sets card on each data source's detail page, not from the Members list — the levels shown on Members are read-only. Only admins can change assignments. See Permission Sets and the permissions overview.

Read-only¶

Kipper can read your finance data to answer questions. It can never create, edit, or delete a record in your finance system. Data flows one direction only, from your system into Kipper's query layer, and this is enforced at the architecture level rather than by configuration — there is no write path to switch off.

Every permission set is read-only, so this holds at every access level. Because Kipper never writes to your finance system, there is nothing for it to record in that system's own audit trail.

Interface¶

The place where a person asks Kipper a question. Four are available:

You can enable several at once, and permissions carry through all of them: the same permission set applies wherever the question is asked. Conversation history lives with the interface it was asked in.

See Interfaces for the overview.

Audit log¶

Your workspace's record of who changed what, and when — covering workspace settings, members, invitations, and user account activity. Entries are written automatically and cannot be edited or deleted from the portal.

Find it under your name → Workspace Settings → Audit Log. Only admins can see it; Standard members do not see the link.

It is worth knowing what the audit log is not:

• It does not record the questions your team asks. Conversation history lives with each interface instead.
• It does not record data source activity — connections and sync runs appear on the Data Sources page.
• It does not record permission set assignments — those are shown on each data source.

See The Kipper Audit Log for what each column shows and how change details are recorded.

Related¶

• Finance and AI Glossary — AR, AP, general ledger, ERP, SQL, MCP, RAG, and which questions Kipper answers
• Getting Started — connect a source and ask a first question
• Permissions and Access — how access is enforced at query time
• Troubleshooting — common questions and quick checks