Glossary

Plain-English definitions for the words PBHQ uses. If a term on screen doesn't make sense, it's probably here.

Activity: A thing people come to your field to do. PBHQ ships with three built-in activities — paintball, airsoft, and laser tag — and you can add unlimited activities of your own (Gellyball, Nerf wars, axe throwing, anything). Each activity gets its own card on your booking page, its own gear, its own packages, and its own day restrictions. See Activities.

Add-on / Extra: Something a customer can buy on top of their booking — a case of paint, an air fill, a rental mask, a pizza. Add-ons are attached to gear tiers and appear during checkout. See Extras and add-ons.

Balance: The part of a booking that's still owed on game day, after the deposit. Balance = total price minus what was collected at checkout. Your customer sees it on their confirmation and in their reminder emails.

Booking: One reservation. A booking has a date, a time, a player count, gear, a price, and a roster of participants. Every kind of reservation in PBHQ is a booking — walk-ons, parties, event registrations, and kiosk walk-ins.

Booking URL / slug: The short name in your public booking link. If your slug is sunset-paintball, your booking page is yourdomain.com/book/sunset-paintball/. Set in Field profile.

Buffer minutes: Cleanup and turnaround time between sessions. PBHQ blocks out this many extra minutes after each booking before the same gear or play area can be booked again. Set once for your whole field in Operations settings.

Check-in: Marking a player as physically present and ready to play. Always a deliberate action — signing a waiver never checks anyone in by itself. See Checking players in.

Combo party: A party package that chains two activities back to back — laser tag then paintball, for example. Each half is a "phase" with its own play area and gear. See Combo parties.

Custom reservation: A booking made by your staff with the schedule rules lifted — you can book 10am on a day you don't open until 1pm. Invisible to the public; it never opens those hours to online customers. See Booking for a customer.

Deposit: Money collected at checkout when the full price isn't due yet. Party packages have a flat deposit; gear tiers can have a per-player deposit. The rest becomes the balance. See Gear deposits and How the money works.

Discount code: A coupon your customers type at checkout. Percentage or flat dollar, optionally restricted to certain gear tiers, packages, or booking types. See Discount codes.

Event: A scheduled special — a Big Game (individuals register against a player cap) or a Tournament (captains register whole teams). Events reserve play areas when published. See Events overview.

Faction / Team: On a Big Game, factions are the sides players pick when they register ("Red Team", "Blue Team"). On a Tournament, a team is one registration made by a captain.

Field: Your business as a whole — your PBHQ account. Not to be confused with a play area, which is one physical playing surface. Everything in PBHQ belongs to a field.

Gear tier: One rental option with a price and a stock level — "Standard .68cal", "Low-Impact .50cal", "Own Gear". Players pick a tier when they book, and PBHQ won't sell more of it than you own. See Gear tiers.

General pool: Your gear inventory that hasn't been assigned to any specific play area. Walk-ons always draw from the general pool. See Gear allocations.

Kiosk: A tablet or laptop at your front desk running PBHQ's self check-in screen. PIN-protected. See Kiosk mode.

Manager: A team role. Managers can do everything with bookings, players, and your catalog, but not settings, reports, or waiver configuration. See Roles and permissions.

Organizer: The person who made a booking and whose name and email are on it. On a party, the organizer gets the group waiver page and can add and edit guests.

Participant / Player: One person on a booking. Each participant has their own waiver link and their own check-in status.

Party package / Party type: A private group booking option — "Birthday Party", "Corporate Event". Has its own price per player, flat deposit, minimum and maximum players, duration, and its own URL. See Party packages.

Pay on site: A staff-only checkout option that reserves a booking without charging a card. The customer pays at your counter when they arrive. These bookings sit in "Pending" status on purpose.

Per-game activity: An activity booked in short rounds rather than one block of time — laser tag works this way. The customer picks how many games they want.

Play area: One physical playing surface — "Indoor Field 1", "Speedball". Play areas belong to groups, and groups can cap how many parties run at once. See Play areas.

Roster: The list of players on a booking. Expand it from the chevron button on any booking row.

Session activity: An activity booked as one block of time, the way paintball works. Contrast with per-game.

Special hours: A one-off override of your normal schedule for a specific window — closing a field for a rain-out, or opening it after hours for an event. See Special hours.

Staff: A team role limited to day-of operations — the dashboard, the bookings list, and check-in. Staff can't see the Players directory, your catalog, reports, or settings.

Walk-on: An individual or small-group booking for open play, as opposed to a private party. Walk-ons pay in full at checkout unless the gear tier they picked carries a deposit.

Waiver: The liability release each player signs before playing. PBHQ emails every player a unique link. Signed waivers are stored as PDFs you can download any time. See What customers sign.