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Zendo glossary

Zendo is built around a small number of parts. When you see a name you do not know, look it up here: each entry says what the part is for and where you find it.

Clients, requests and orders

Client. A person you work for, with their own account in your client portal. A client has an email address, a status that shows how far their account has got, and optionally a position, a phone number and a company. You find clients under Clients. See Add clients.

Clients do not receive emails from Zendo until they verify their account.

Request. One piece of work, and the only item in Zendo with a status that you move from one stage to the next. A request has its own conversation, files and participants, and optionally a checklist and custom fields. See Work a request from arrival to done.

Order. One sale: what was sold, the price, the payment method and whether the payment has been made. You find orders under Sales › Orders. See Follow orders: fulfillment and payment.

A request is for the work and an order is for the sale, so you can have one without the other. A request can have no order, because not all work is sold through Zendo. An order can have no request when you track delivery on the order itself. See Track delivery on the order, without requests.

Client teams

Client team. A group of clients who see each other's requests and orders. It has an owner, can have administrators, and its ownership can be transferred. Clients can create their own teams, and you find teams under Clients › Teams. See Put clients into a team.

Services, the Front Desk and payment methods

Service. Something you sell, which clients can buy on the Front Desk or through the service's own link. Every service has one of three types, which you choose when you create the service and cannot change later. You find services under Settings › Sales › Services, and each service has its own address as well as a place on the Front Desk. See Choose a service type.

One-off. A service with a fixed scope at a price you set, made up of items. See Sell a fixed-price service.

Subscription. A service with packages charged on a cycle, each with its own prices and request limits. See Sell a subscription with packages.

Custom. A service without a fixed price. The client describes the work, and you answer with a quote. See Quote for custom work priced case by case.

Front Desk. Your public page at …/order, where people can buy your services and submit requests. See Set up your Front Desk.

Payment method. A way a client can pay you. Zendo works with Stripe for card payments, and with any number of manual methods that you define yourself, each with its own name and payment instructions. See Connect Stripe and Add a manual payment method.

Quotes and invoices

Quote. A proposal with a price, which the client approves or declines. It is numbered in a format you set and can be attached to an order. See Send a quote.

Invoice. A billing document that either asks the client to pay or confirms a payment they have already made. It is numbered in a format you set and can be attached to an order. See Issue an invoice.

You find both under Sales › Billing. See Edit a quote or invoice.

Request types, statuses and automations

Request type. A kind of work. Each request type has its own name, so you can call the work tickets, projects, jobs or whatever you like. A type also has its own form, its own statuses, its own automations, a setting for who can submit it, and a setting for whether it appears on the Front Desk. You find request types under Settings › Requests › Request types. See Create a request type.

Status. The stage a request is at, such as "In progress" or "Waiting for Client". Each status has a name, two colours for its label and one of three states. You manage statuses at Settings › Requests › Statuses. See Understand statuses and the three states.

State. One of three fixed groups that Zendo uses for counting: Pending, Active, Completed. Every status has one state, set on the status itself, so a status means the same thing in every request type that uses it. See Understand statuses and the three states.

Automation. A trigger and an action on a request type: when something happens to a request, Zendo changes a status, posts a message or sends an Intake Form. See Automate a request type.

Checklist. A set of tasks attached to a request type, so that every request of that type starts with the same tasks. See Use a checklist on a request.

Custom fields. Fields your team fills in on a request, so that every request of a type keeps the same information in the same format. You add them to a request type. See Add custom fields to a request.

Request Forms, Order Forms and Intake Forms

Request Forms and Intake Forms share one builder, with form logic; Order Forms have a simpler builder of their own. They differ in what they belong to and in when the client fills them in.

Request Form. A form that belongs to a request type. The client fills it in when submitting a request of that type. See Build a Request Form.

Order Form. A form that belongs to a service. The client fills it in during checkout. See Add an Order Form to a service.

Intake Form. A stand-alone form that does not belong to a request type or a service. The client fills it in when you or an automation sends it to them, or when somebody opens its link. You find Intake Forms under Library › Forms. See Send an Intake Form to a client.

Sidebars, dashboards, onboarding cards and themes

Sidebar. The list of elements a person can open in Zendo. You can make versions for your clients and for your own team, and limit each one to particular clients, teams or roles. A single element can also be shown only to selected clients or teams, or only to clients who bought a particular service. You find sidebars under Settings › Portal. See Change what is in the client sidebar.

Dashboard. The first screen your team and your clients see when they sign in. Like the sidebar, you can make versions of it and limit each one to particular clients, teams or roles, under Settings › Portal. See Build a dashboard.

Onboarding. A card on a client's dashboard that tells them what to do next. You can show it only after the client buys a particular service or submits a particular request type. You find onboarding cards under Settings › Portal. See Create an onboarding card.

Appearance. The look of Zendo: its colours, background, fonts, and light and dark mode. There is one Appearance for the whole workspace, including your team, and you find it under Settings › Brand. See Set your workspace appearance.

Client theme. A separate look for particular clients or client teams, which replaces parts of Appearance for them. You find client themes under Settings › Brand. See Create a client theme.

Your team and the system bot

Team member. A person on your team, with one of five roles: Owner, Admin, Manager, Agent, Watcher. Watchers do not use a seat. You find team members under Settings › Workspace › Team. See Invite your team and choose roles.

System bot. The author Zendo shows when it writes to a client automatically: automation messages, order history and automatic form shares. You give it a name and an avatar. See Name the system bot and set your help links.

Updated on: 09/11/2026

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