How to Build a Business Glossary in Make.com
A well-structured business glossary in make.com helps everyone in your organization use the same language, understand data the same way, and avoid miscommunication across teams and tools.
This guide explains how to design, create, and maintain a consistent glossary so that terms, metrics, and processes are clearly defined and easy to share.
What Is a Business Glossary in Make.com?
A business glossary is a centralized list of terms, definitions, and examples that describe how your organization uses language around data, processes, and metrics.
When you use make.com to orchestrate workflows, this glossary acts as a reference for automation builders, analysts, and business users.
A solid glossary typically includes:
- Business term – the concept or phrase your teams use.
- Clear definition – what the term means in your organization.
- Data mapping – where that concept lives in your systems.
- Owner – the person or team responsible for the term.
- Usage examples – how the term is used in reports or workflows.
Why Your Make.com Workflows Need a Glossary
As processes grow in complexity, more people depend on the same flows and dashboards. A business glossary aligned with make.com reduces confusion and keeps stakeholders synchronized.
Key benefits include:
- Consistent language across teams, tools, and documentation.
- Faster onboarding of new colleagues who must understand existing flows.
- More accurate reporting because metrics are defined once and reused.
- Reduced risk of misinterpreting KPIs or automation logic.
Plan Your Make.com Business Glossary
Before documenting terms, take time to design how your glossary will work for your organization.
Define the Scope for Make.com Use Cases
Start by listing the domains that strongly intersect with your make.com workflows, such as:
- Sales and CRM data
- Marketing campaigns and events
- Finance and billing metrics
- Customer support and ticketing
- Product usage and lifecycle stages
Limit the initial scope to high-impact areas where inconsistent terminology causes confusion or errors.
Choose an Ownership Model
A business glossary should be governed, not crowdsourced without structure. Decide:
- Who can propose new terms related to make.com scenarios.
- Who approves definitions (data team, operations lead, or domain experts).
- Who maintains the glossary as processes and automation evolve.
Having named owners ensures definitions stay accurate and aligned with live integrations.
Design the Structure of Your Make.com Glossary
Next, define what each glossary entry must contain. Clear structure makes it easier to connect glossary items to automation flows running in make.com.
Core Fields for Every Term
At minimum, each term should include:
- Term name – the label people use day to day.
- Short definition – one or two sentences.
- Business domain – such as Sales, Marketing, or Finance.
- Primary system of record – CRM, billing software, analytics tool, etc.
- Data attributes – fields and tables that represent the term.
- Term owner – responsible team or person.
Optional Details for Make.com Integrations
For terms heavily used in automation, add more technical context:
- Source applications connected through make.com.
- Key flows or scenarios where the term is transformed.
- Data refresh cadence or sync rules.
- Quality rules or validation checks in your scenarios.
How to Capture Terms Used in Make.com
To build a useful glossary, collect terms from real usage instead of inventing them in isolation.
Step 1: Mine Existing Documentation
Review these sources:
- Internal process docs and SOPs
- BI dashboards and KPI reports
- Existing data dictionaries
- Ticketing tags and categories
Highlight terms that appear often, carry financial impact, or create confusion when misused.
Step 2: Analyze Make.com Scenarios
Look through your existing and planned make.com automations:
- Scenario names and descriptions
- Field mappings between apps
- Filters, conditions, and formulas
- Custom variables and labels
Identify terms that clearly represent core business concepts, not just technical field names.
Step 3: Interview Stakeholders
Speak to domain experts and automation builders. Ask:
- Which metrics or terms are most misunderstood?
- Where do definitions change between teams?
- Which concepts must never be interpreted differently?
Use these insights to prioritize what goes into your glossary first.
Documenting Glossary Entries for Make.com
Once you have a list of terms, start documenting them in a structured way that is easy to maintain alongside make.com projects.
Step 4: Write Clear, Business-First Definitions
For each term:
- Explain the concept in simple language without tool-specific jargon.
- Clarify what is included and what is excluded.
- Add one or two examples that show how the term appears in reports or scenarios.
Keep definitions concise so they are easy to scan in automation and analytics contexts.
Step 5: Map Terms to Data and Make.com Flows
After defining the business meaning, connect each term to the data and automation layers:
- List primary tables, objects, and fields in each source system.
- Reference the make.com scenarios where the term is created, updated, or transformed.
- Specify which system is the source of truth if conflicts appear.
This mapping ensures the glossary is not just conceptual but directly actionable.
Maintaining Your Make.com Business Glossary
A glossary is only valuable when it stays aligned with reality. As your workflows in make.com evolve, so must your terminology.
Step 6: Set Change Management Rules
Define a simple lifecycle for glossary entries:
- Proposed – new term suggested by a stakeholder.
- Approved – definition validated by the owner.
- Deprecated – no longer in use or replaced by another term.
Track who changed what and why, especially when related make.com flows are updated.
Step 7: Align With Projects and Onboarding
Integrate your glossary into daily work by:
- Referencing terms in requirement documents for new automations.
- Adding links to glossary entries from internal runbooks.
- Including key definitions in onboarding for new automation builders.
This encourages consistent usage and keeps your investment in documentation alive.
Connecting the Glossary to Make.com and Other Resources
To deepen your understanding of business glossary concepts and how they relate to automation, review the original how-to guide on the make.com website at this business glossary resource.
If you need expert help with automation strategy, documentation, or SEO-friendly content around tools like make.com, you can also consult specialists such as Consultevo for advisory and implementation support.
Next Steps
Start small: define the handful of terms that appear most often in your critical dashboards and automations. Document them using the structure above, connect them to your existing systems, and reference them in your make.com projects. As your glossary grows, your teams will share a common language that makes data, processes, and workflows far easier to build, maintain, and trust.
Need Help With Make.com?
If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your Make scenarios, work with ConsultEvo — certified workflow and automation specialists.