While there is a single business object describing a business element in the configuration mode, there may be many objects in the operation mode representing the same business element. For example, a customer object may be defined in the configuration mode, and then many customer objects would be registered in the operation mode, each representing a different customer.

A formal way of making the distinction between objects in the two modes is to refer to the configuration-mode object as object type and to the operation-mode object as object instance. When it is necessary to avoid confusion between the two modes this formal notation is used. When it is clear which mode is being described, the term object is used.