The Entity Dictionary
Ten records every enterprise holds more than once. A metric divides by an entity, so if the same customer exists three times, every retention and lifetime-value number is computed on a base that does not exist. This is what each entity is, how to match it, and which value should win.
01 The ten
The records you hold more than once
Each page names the systems that hold a version of the entity, the keys that actually match it, the survivorship rules that decide which value survives a merge, and what stays broken until the resolution exists.
Customer
The organisation or person that buys from you — at group, entity and site level, which are three different things that reporting routinely collapses into one.
Also: Account, party, buyer, client, guest, subscriberSUPPSupplier
The party you buy from, including the parent group behind a dozen operating subsidiaries you contract with separately.
Also: Vendor, contractor, subcontractor, intermediaryITEMProduct and item
The thing you sell or consume, and its variants, packs and equivalents across sites and systems.
Also: SKU, material, article, part, service line, menu itemENTLegal entity
The registered company that owns a transaction, and its place in the group reporting hierarchy.
Also: Company code, reporting unit, subsidiary, branchEMPEmployee
The person doing the work, and the position they occupy — which are separate records that most reporting merges incorrectly.
Also: Worker, colleague, contractor, crew member, technicianASSETAsset
The physical thing that produces, moves or houses something, and its history of failing and being repaired.
Also: Equipment, machine, vehicle, plant item, deviceSITELocation and site
The physical place where something is sold, made, stored or served, and its place in an operational and commercial hierarchy.
Also: Store, plant, branch, depot, outlet, facility, ship-toCTRContract
The commercial terms that govern a relationship: scope, price, duration, service levels and the escalation and exit conditions attached.
Also: Agreement, framework, subscription, service contract, policy wordingACCTAccount
The individual product a customer holds — a current account, a loan, a policy, a mobile line or a subscription — as distinct from the customer holding it.
Also: Facility, product holding, subscription, policy, planPATPatient
The person receiving care, across encounters, departments, sites and time.
Also: Service user, member, resident, beneficiary— Why this exists
Resolution comes before measurement
Entity resolution is usually presented as data hygiene. It is not: it is the precondition for the numbers meaning anything. Churn, exposure, share of wallet, cost per episode and spend leverage are all computed per entity, so an unresolved base does not make them slightly wrong — it makes them measurements of something else.
The hard part is rarely the matching algorithm. It is agreeing the survivorship rules with the business, keeping local codes as aliases so history still matches, and deciding which merges a human has to approve.
Resolve one entity on your own data
Bring the entity you argue about most — we will show the duplicates and what they cost.