← Glossary

Reference data

The small, slow-changing lookup datasets that classify master data — country codes, currency codes, industry classifications, product categories.

Reference data is the smaller cousin of master data. Where master data is "your customers and your vendors," reference data is "the list of valid country codes you classify them with."

It's slow-changing (ISO country codes get one update a year), small (hundreds to thousands of rows), and mostly globally-defined (standards bodies own most of it). The MDM tool's job is to keep your reference data in sync with the canonical source AND ensure your master records use it consistently — e.g., reject a customer record with country code "USA" if the canonical list says "US."