---
title: "Glossary"
url: "https://docs.4hse.com/first-steps/glossary"
description: "The recurring terms of 4HSE, with the distinctions between the ones that look alike: person and user, supplier and external worker, permission and permit to work."
---

# Glossary

Term

What it means

**Approval**

The check by which a project manager validates a certificate issued by a supplier. Until it is approved, the certificate does not make the action valid. See [Approvals](/suppliers/approvals/).

**Archive**

The 4HSE file system, organised into folders, at project or office level. See [Files and attachments](/files-and-attachments/).

**Associated user**

The account associated with a person, which lets them see their own safety position. See [The associated user](/users-and-permissions/related-user).

**Attachment**

A file linked to an element. It is a link to the archive, not a copy: the same document can be attached in several places. See [Where attachments live](/files-and-attachments/where-attachments-live).

**Certificate**

The proof that an obligation has been met, carrying the expiry date from which the renewal is calculated. It is what moves a status from New to Valid.

**Company**

The organisation whose safety is being managed. In 4HSE it is represented by a **project**.

**Course**

The definition of a training action. Its delivery on a given date is the **edition**.

**Customer**

In the multi-company panel, an organisation for which a partner manages one or more projects. It is not a role inside a project. See [The multi-company panel](/multi-company/).

**Desktop**

The screen with the project icons and the taskbar. The other one is the **Home**.

**Digest**

The periodic email summary of activities that are due, overdue or new. It is a personal preference, distinct from **notifications**. See [Configure the digest](/account-and-preferences/digest).

**Edition**

The session of a training action: the course delivered on a given date.

**Employee**

What the product calls a person assigned to a project. It is the unit the licence counts: _active employees_, _assigned employees_. The documentation uses **person**.

**Equipment**

A material resource: a machine or a tool used in the work.

**Event**

An accident, an incident or near miss, a non-compliance, a report or a request, recorded in the office event register. See [Incidents and events](/incidents/).

**Existence period**

The interval during which an element was part of the project. An element with no period of its own inherits its parent’s. See [Existence periods](/first-steps/existence-periods).

**External worker**

A person who does not belong to the organisation. Registered like any other: what makes them external is what they are linked to, not where they are registered.

**Fitness for the job**

The outcome of a health surveillance examination: it is what the certificate attests in that area.

**Form**

A checklist or a register attached to an action, filled in during the activity and attached to the certificate. See [Forms](/forms/).

**Hazard**

A potential source of harm. It becomes a **risk** when it is present in a work phase where people work.

**Home**

The screen with the dashboards and the schedule. The other one is the **desktop**.

**Homogeneous group**

A set of workers exposed to similar risks, regardless of their individual activity or role. See [Worker groups](/worker-groups/).

**Incident**

An event that caused damage or interrupted the activity, without consequences for people. Different from an **injury**.

**Initial and residual risk**

The value of a risk without the prevention measures, and what is left after applying them. See [Initial and residual risk](/risk-assessment/initial-and-residual-risk).

**Injury**

An event that caused harm to a worker.

**Job**

The professional role a person holds. It can be the aggregator the risk is assessed around. See [Worker groups](/worker-groups/).

**Maintenance order**

The session of a maintenance action: the job carried out on a given date.

**Maintenance plan**

The definition of a maintenance action: what has to be maintained, and how often.

**Material resource**

The equipment, the work environments and the substances used in the work. They are where hazards come from.

**Medical examination**

The session of a health surveillance action: the check carried out on a given date.

**Multi company**

The panel that gathers several projects under a single login. See [The multi-company panel](/multi-company/).

**Near miss**

An event that could have caused harm and did not, by chance or because someone intervened.

**Non-conformity**

A departure from a procedure, a standard or a requirement, without any event having occurred.

**Notification**

An automatic message tied to one event or one deadline. Different from the **digest**, which is a summary. See [Enable notifications](/scheduler-and-notifications/enable-notifications).

**Office**

An operational site of the organisation: a plant, a warehouse, a construction site. It is where safety is managed. See [Company, offices and workers](/company-offices-and-workers/).

**Organization unit**

A department or division of the company organization chart, which a person can belong to with a company role. See [Build the company organization chart](/company-offices-and-workers/org-chart).

**Partner**

Someone who manages 4HSE projects on behalf of their own customers, from the multi-company panel.

**Past compliance**

An obligation already met in the past, recorded without scheduling a session. See [Register past compliance](/prevention-and-protection/register-past-compliance).

**Permission**

What a user can do on an entity. Not to be confused with a **permit to work**. See [Set permissions](/users-and-permissions/set-permissions).

**Permission group**

The predefined set of permissions of an entity — `admin`, `manager`, `user`. Permissions are assigned by putting a user in a group, never one by one. See [The permission system](/users-and-permissions/).

**Permit to work**

The authorisation to carry out a hazardous job within a defined interval, verifiable on site through a QR code. See [Permits to work](/permit-to-work/).

**Person**

Someone who works, registered with their personal data and their safety position. **Not a user**: connecting the two is optional. See [Users and people](/users-and-permissions/users-and-people).

**PPE**

Personal protective equipment: helmets, gloves, footwear, harnesses. See [PPE delivery](/ppe-delivery/).

**PPE delivery**

The session of a personal protection action: the record of the device handed over.

**PPE equipment**

The definition of a personal protection action: which device is due to whom.

**Prescription**

The definition of a health surveillance action: which checks are due to whom.

**Prevention action**

An obligation tracked over time, in five types: training, health surveillance, maintenance, PPE delivery, procedure. It defines the need; its execution is the **session**. See [Prevention and protection actions](/prevention-and-protection/).

**Procedure**

The fifth type of action: a document or a process to be reviewed periodically. Its execution is the **report**. Not to be confused with the _wizards_ of the interface. See [Procedures](/procedures/).

**Project**

The container for the safety management of a single organisation: offices, people, suppliers and configuration.

**PxD matrix**

The probability × damage grid used to give a risk its value. See [The PxD matrix](/risk-assessment/pxd-matrix).

**Recipient**

Who or what is subject to an action. Not always a person: for maintenance it is a piece of equipment, an environment or a substance. See [Terminology by action type](/prevention-and-protection/terminology-by-action-type).

**Report**

The session of a procedure action: the review or application recorded on a given date.

**Risk**

A hazard present in a work phase where people operate. It is measured twice, before and after the measures. See [Risk assessment](/risk-assessment/).

**Risk aggregator**

The structure a project’s assessment is organised around: work phase, job or homogeneous group. See [Risk aggregators](/risk-assessment/risk-aggregators).

**Role on an action**

Manager, Assignee, Observer or Recipient. It decides who receives the notifications of that action, and it applies to events too.

**Safety organisation chart**

The structure of the organisation’s safety roles, and who holds them. See [Safety roles](/safety-roles/).

**Safety role**

A figure in the safety organisation chart: safety manager, workers’ representative, supervisor, fire warden. See [Safety roles](/safety-roles/).

**Scheduler**

The point where all the deadlines of a project or an office converge. See [Scheduler and notifications](/scheduler-and-notifications/).

**Session**

The execution of an action on a given date. Each type calls it by its own name: edition, examination, order, delivery, report.

**Status**

New, Valid, Expiring, Expired, Revoked, Rejected. Never set by hand: always derived from the certificates and their dates. See [Statuses](/scheduler-and-notifications/statuses).

**Substance**

A material resource: a chemical product used in the work.

**Template**

It has two senses. In [Copy, templates and import](/copy-templates-and-import/) it is a model office or project to copy from; in [Printing and exporting](/reports/) it is the layout of a document.

**User**

An account that logs in to 4HSE, identified by an email address. Permissions are assigned to it. Not a **person**.

**Widget**

A form built in the 4HSE Designer and saved as a file in the archive, rather than attached to an action. See [Widgets](/forms/widgets/).

**Work environment**

A material resource: the physical place where an activity is carried out.

**Work phase**

The description of an activity actually carried out in an office. It is the unit the risk assessment is built around, and the point where people, resources and hazards meet.

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