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Glossary

The play area glossary

A play area glossary is a plain-English reference to the words used when running a soft-play centre, indoor playground or family entertainment centre. Each term below opens with its meaning on the floor or in the back office, adds a line on what PlayAreaOS does with it, and points to the feature page and guide that go further.

Last reviewed September 3, 2026

Terms are listed alphabetically. Twelve of them have a page of their own, because people search for them on their own; those entries end with a link to the full page. The numbers you measure about these things, occupancy rate, overstay rate, party attach and so on, live in the separate play area KPI glossary.

Air ticket allowance

An air ticket allowance is a benefit some UAE employers owe an employee: a flight to their home country after a set period of service, on the terms written in the employment contract. Whether it is owed, how often and at what value depends on the contract and the rules that apply to the employer, so it is a contract question first and a payroll question second.

In PlayAreaOS: the air ticket rides along in payroll and settles with the employee's final pay.

Bill scanning

Bill scanning is photographing a supplier bill or receipt so its details are read into the books instead of typed in by hand. The point is to get the supplier, date, amount and tax off a piece of paper and into finance while the paper is still on the counter.

In PlayAreaOS: photograph a supplier bill and Finance turns it into an entry for you to check.

Related: Finance, AI in PlayAreaOS, Purchase order.

Child-hour

A child-hour is one child on the play floor for one hour, the unit a play area's costs and prices compare most easily in. Two children for half an hour each come to one child-hour, and a month of costs divided by the child-hours you sold gives the cost per child-hour a price has to clear.

In PlayAreaOS: the timers total the minutes of play sold over a period, and sixty into those minutes is the child-hours behind them.

Colour wristband

A colour wristband is a coloured band a child wears during a play session so staff can match the child to their timer at a glance. Venues use the colours in different ways: one for each session length, one for each start slot, or one for each child on a busy board. The band is the link between a child on the floor and a clock on a screen.

In PlayAreaOS: each child's clock on the board carries the colour of the band on their wrist.

Demand-vs-rota forecast

A demand-vs-rota forecast is a comparison of the staff you have scheduled against the number of children you expect, so gaps and overstaffing show before the day starts. It needs two inputs: a forecast of demand built from your own history, and the rota itself.

In PlayAreaOS: the rota shows the demand your own trading history points to beside the people you have rostered for it.

Digital waiver

A digital waiver is a liability waiver a parent reads and signs on their own phone or a venue tablet, stored as a record of who signed which wording and when. It replaces the clipboard at the door, and its value is in the record: the exact version signed, the family it belongs to and the moment it was signed.

In PlayAreaOS: waivers are signed by QR on the parent's own phone and kept as one versioned record per family.

Family entertainment centre

A family entertainment centre is an indoor venue that combines several attractions for families under one roof: typically a play structure, a café, parties, and often retail, games or rides. It is larger and more mixed than a single soft-play floor, and usually has an office and several teams behind it.

In PlayAreaOS: the play floor, café POS, parties, passes, staff and office run as one system across every branch.

Family record

A family record is one customer record per family that holds the children, the visit history, the passes and loyalty stamps, the waiver and what has been spent, instead of a fresh record for every transaction. It is what lets the person on the desk know who they are serving.

In PlayAreaOS: one record per family, which the POS, passes, waivers, parties and campaigns all read and write.

Free grace

Free grace is extra play time given to a child at no charge, as a goodwill gesture, distinct from a paid time extension. A venue uses it when a family has waited, when a party ran late, or when a child is a few minutes over and it is not worth a conversation.

In PlayAreaOS: complimentary time is handed over from the timer board and stays visibly apart from the time that was paid for.

Geo-located clock-in

Geo-located clock-in is a clock-in that checks the device's location so a shift can only start at the venue. It closes the gap where someone clocks in from the car park, or from home, and it removes the argument about who was where at what time.

In PlayAreaOS: staff clock in at the venue from their own account, and the rota, the timesheets and payroll all read that one record.

Related: Staff rota and clock-in, Staff rota, Payroll.

Gratuity (end of service)

Gratuity, also called end-of-service benefit, is the lump sum owed to an employee in the UAE when their employment ends, worked out from their pay and completed years of service under rules published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE). The rate steps up with length of service, so the calculation needs a reliable start date and a clean record of unpaid absence.

In PlayAreaOS: gratuity and end-of-service are worked out from the salary and dates already on the employee's record.

Import check report

An import check report is a report produced when data is brought into a new system, listing what was imported, what was skipped and why. Without one, a migration is an act of faith; with one, you know that the customer with the odd phone number and the product with a missing price were caught before day one.

In PlayAreaOS: customers, catalogue and balances come in from a spreadsheet or a previous POS's export, and every import produces a check report before anything goes live.

Indoor playground

An indoor playground is a commercial indoor venue where children pay to play on structures such as slides, climbing frames and ball pits, usually for a timed session with a parent present. The term is common in North America and Asia; in the UK the same venue is usually called a soft play centre.

In PlayAreaOS: admission at the POS, a timer and a wristband for each child, QR waivers, and parties, rota, finance and stock in the same browser.

Knowledge-only auto-reply

A knowledge-only auto-reply is an automatic message reply that answers only from text the venue wrote, and hands the conversation to a person when the answer is not in it. It is the opposite of an open-ended chatbot: it will only ever repeat what you gave it, so it will not invent an opening time, a price or a policy.

In PlayAreaOS: the WhatsApp auto-reply answers parents from the knowledge you typed in, and passes the conversation to the team when it runs out.

Lost-child alert

A lost-child alert is a venue-wide alarm raised when a child goes missing, carrying a short description and where they were last seen, and closed with an outcome when the search ends. A written procedure decides who raises it, who covers the exits and who talks to the parent.

In PlayAreaOS: one tap puts the alert on every signed-in screen in the building.

Loyalty stamp

A loyalty stamp is a mark a family earns on each qualifying visit or purchase that adds up to a reward. It is the paper coffee card, kept on the customer record instead of in a wallet, so the reward is never lost and the count is never argued over.

In PlayAreaOS: stamps are earned at the POS and live on the family record, so a reward never goes missing with a card.

Marketing consent

Marketing consent is a customer's recorded choice about whether a venue may send them marketing messages. It governs every campaign a venue runs, and a good system treats the family's choice as the thing that beats everything else, however a message was scheduled.

In PlayAreaOS: a family's choice is honoured across email and WhatsApp alike.

Multi-branch

Multi-branch is one organisation running several venue locations with records kept separately per site. The test of a multi-branch system is which things are per branch (capacity, POS, cash, shifts, rota) and which belong to the organisation as a whole (prices, packages, staff, customers).

In PlayAreaOS: each site keeps its own capacity, POS, shifts, cash and rota while prices, packages, staff and customers stay shared, and reports read one branch or every site side by side.

Multi-visit pass

A multi-visit pass is a prepaid bundle of a fixed number of play visits, used one visit at a time. The family pays up front for a discount and the venue gets cash now and a reason for the family to come back. Because the money arrives before the visits, a venue needs to know how many visits are still owed.

In PlayAreaOS: passes are sold and punched off at the POS, each punch leaving its own line on the family record.

Nightly backup

A nightly backup is an automatic copy of a venue's records taken every night and stored away from the live system, paired with a way to bring it back. A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a backup, so the restore step matters as much as the copy.

In PlayAreaOS: records are copied off-site every night, over an encrypted connection to storage that encrypts what it keeps, and you can ask for a copy of your own data whenever you want it.

Occupancy

Occupancy is the number of children on the play floor right now, read against the floor's capacity figure. It is a live number, not a daily total, and it is only as accurate as the method used to count children in and out.

In PlayAreaOS: the timer board shows the branch as X of capacity, and the POS repeats the figure as a sale adds a child.

Offline sales queue

An offline sales queue is a POS's ability to keep recording sales when the internet drops, holding them on the device until the connection returns and then sending them up in order. For a venue in a mall with patchy wifi it is the difference between a busy Saturday and a queue of angry parents.

In PlayAreaOS: the POS keeps selling when the internet drops and syncs when it returns.

Overstay

Overstay is time a child spends on the play floor after the session they paid for has ended. It is lost revenue, a capacity problem and a fairness problem for the family who paid for the next hour, and it is the reason a venue needs a visible timer board rather than a stopwatch in a drawer.

In PlayAreaOS: a child past their time stays visible on the board as an overstay until the team ends the session, sells more time or hands some over.

Party deposit

A party deposit is a part payment taken when a birthday party is booked, with the balance settled on or before the day. It holds the slot, funds the food order and shrinks the no-show, and the deposit policy needs to say plainly what happens on cancellation.

In PlayAreaOS: the deposit, the balance still owed and every message about the date sit together on the booking.

Party package

A party package is a bundled birthday offer: a set number of children, a room or table time, food and a host, sold at one price with add-ons and extra children charged on top. Packaging keeps the quote simple for the parent and keeps the margin visible for the venue.

In PlayAreaOS: packages, extras and deposits are yours to define, and the public booking form quotes from them.

Play area operating system

A play area operating system is one browser-based system that runs the whole of a kids' play venue, the POS, timers, waivers, parties, passes, messaging, rota, payroll, finance and stock, on one set of records. The word system matters: a sale at the POS starts a timer, punches a pass, checks a waiver and feeds the P&L without anyone copying anything.

In PlayAreaOS: this is the category the product is built to define, and every module reads and writes the same family record, branch and shift.

Play area POS

A play area POS is a point-of-sale POS built for a play venue, selling play time, food, socks and parties on one sale and starting timers as it does. A retail POS sells things; a play-area POS also starts clocks, punches passes and asks about waivers.

In PlayAreaOS: the POS is tile-based, runs in the browser on devices you already own, and keeps selling when the internet drops.

Play session

A play session is a block of play time sold to one child, with a start, a length and an end. Sessions are the usual unit of pricing, and their length drives capacity, turns per day and how often the desk has a time-up conversation.

In PlayAreaOS: a sale at the POS starts the session on the timer board under a wristband colour.

Play timer

A play timer is a clock that counts down one child's play session and shows when it has ended. On a shared board, one timer per child, it is the venue's live picture of who is playing and for how long.

In PlayAreaOS: every child appears on one board with their own clock and a matching wristband colour.

Public booking form

A public booking form is a web page where a parent books a party themselves, choosing a date, a package and the number of children, without a phone call. It turns a back-and-forth on the phone into a booking on the calendar with a deposit attached.

In PlayAreaOS: the party form has its own link and QR code, lands bookings on the calendar the team already works from, and sends the confirmation, the reminder and the thank-you itself.

Purchase order

A purchase order is a record of what a venue has ordered from a supplier, at what price, used to check the delivery and the bill against it. It is how a café stops paying for twelve cases when ten arrived.

In PlayAreaOS: suppliers, purchase orders and receiving sit in Stock and purchasing, wired to the POS and the finance books.

Refund reversal

A refund reversal is a refund recorded as a visible reversal of the original sale, which also undoes whatever that sale switched on. A silent delete hides the money; a reversal keeps both the sale and the refund on the record.

In PlayAreaOS: a refund stays on the record and undoes what the sale switched on, so refunding a paid time extension winds the child's clock back.

Related: Play area POS, Time extension, Reports.

Shift and cash count

A shift and cash count is a POS shift opened with a float and closed with a count, so takings are reconciled per person and per period. It is the smallest unit of cash control a venue has, and closing it is the one thing that must always be possible.

In PlayAreaOS: shifts and cash counts run per branch, each shift closing with its own Z-report.

SIF file

A SIF file, the Salary Information File, is the standard monthly file an employer produces for the UAE Wage Protection System: one row of details per employee and a control row with the totals, in the layout MOHRE and the banks expect. A rejected file means late wages, so the fields have to be right first time.

In PlayAreaOS: a completed pay run exports the WPS bank file, and the standard MOHRE SIF alongside it.

Single-use voucher

A single-use voucher is a code worth a discount or an item that is spent once and then dead. It differs from a running balance: nothing is left over to track, and the only real risk is one code being used twice.

In PlayAreaOS: vouchers are generated one at a time or as a printable batch, checked on a validator and redeemed once at the POS.

Related: Vouchers, Campaigns, Loyalty stamp.

Soft play

Soft play is padded, enclosed play equipment for young children, and by extension the indoor venues built around it. A soft play centre usually separates a toddler area from a junior frame, sells timed sessions, and pairs the floor with a café for the adults.

In PlayAreaOS: timers and wristbands for each area, QR waivers at the door, party rooms, and a café POS that sells sessions, drinks and grip socks on one sale.

Staff rota

A staff rota is the plan of who works which shift, at which site, on which day. For a play area it has to respect the staff-to-child ratio the venue works to, approved leave, and the shape of the week, which is nothing like a shop's.

In PlayAreaOS: the rota is planned per branch, approved leave blocks it, and clock-in happens at the venue.

Stock pool

A stock pool is the single count of stock an organisation holds, as opposed to a separate count per branch. One pool is simple to keep straight and suits a single site; a group with several kitchens eventually wants to know which branch the missing cases went to.

In PlayAreaOS: stock, suppliers and purchase orders are held for the organisation as a whole.

Time extension

A time extension is extra play time added to a running session and paid for, as opposed to a free grace. Priced well, it is the most natural upsell a play area has; priced badly, it is why families argue at the desk.

In PlayAreaOS: an extension is an ordinary sale at the POS that lengthens the child's clock, and refunding it winds the clock back.

Time-up alert

A time-up alert is the signal a timer board gives when a child's session has ended. It is what turns a timer from a record into a prompt: someone on the floor can act on it without keeping the times in their head.

In PlayAreaOS: the board shows a clear time-up state, and a child who stays on is tracked as an overstay.

Related: Play timers, Overstay, Live notifications.

Timed membership

A timed membership is a pass valid for a period of days rather than a number of visits. The family pays for a month or a term and comes as often as they like, which suits regulars and needs a clear rule on expiry and renewal.

In PlayAreaOS: a package can be a visit bundle or a timed pass, sold and punched off at the POS either way.

Timed play session

A timed play session is admission sold as a fixed block of minutes for one child, with a start, a length and a finish, rather than entry for as long as the family likes. The length is the venue's own decision, and it drives capacity, turns per day and how often the desk has a time-up conversation.

In PlayAreaOS: selling one at the POS starts that child's clock on the timer board under a wristband colour.

Trampoline park

A trampoline park is an indoor venue whose main attraction is a field of connected trampolines, sold in timed jump sessions with a signed waiver, grip socks and a briefing before the first bounce. Operationally it is a timed-session business with a stricter door.

In PlayAreaOS: QR waivers before the first jump, timed sessions with wristbands, live occupancy, and the POS, parties and back office in the same system.

VAT setting

A VAT setting is the tax rate and the inclusive-or-exclusive rule a venue applies to its prices, for its own jurisdiction. Whether a displayed price includes tax changes how a session is priced, how a receipt reads and what the finance report shows.

In PlayAreaOS: VAT and currency are configured per organisation, so the numbers on the board are yours from day one.

Venue capacity

Venue capacity is the maximum number of children a play floor may hold at once, drawn by the operator from the regulator's rules, the insurer's terms and the layout of the floor. It is a number the venue owns; software shows how close you are to it.

In PlayAreaOS: capacity is held per branch, and the timer board reads live occupancy against it.

WhatsApp inbox

A WhatsApp inbox is a shared view of a venue's WhatsApp conversations that any signed-in staff member can answer from, on the venue's own WhatsApp Business profile rather than someone's personal phone. The profile, the templates and the consent belong to the venue.

In PlayAreaOS: the inbox runs on the venue's own profile, with reminders and replies going out under it.

WPS

WPS is the UAE Wage Protection System: the scheme under which employers pay wages through approved banks and exchanges using a standard salary file, so that the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation can see that staff were paid in full and on time. It is monthly, it is file-based, and a wrong file bounces.

In PlayAreaOS: a completed pay run exports the file your bank takes, with payslips frozen at the same moment.

Questions

How is this glossary different from the play area KPI glossary?

This page defines the operating words of a play area: the things on the floor, at the POS, in the party diary and in payroll. The KPI glossary defines the numbers you measure about them, such as occupancy rate and pass utilisation. Where a term here has a matching KPI, the Related line points to it.

How do I move my venue's records across from what I use now?

Customers, your catalogue and outstanding balances come in from a spreadsheet or your current POS's export, and every import produces a check report you read before anything goes live. The switching page walks through the move in the order to do it in.

What does a venue need to buy to run PlayAreaOS?

A browser. It runs on the tablets, phones and laptops a venue already owns, and the pricing page sets out the plans.

How often is the glossary reviewed?

The page carries a visible Last reviewed date under the introduction. Entries are re-read whenever a module changes, and the date moves when the wording has been checked.

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