The language of running a children’s activity business
33 plain-English definitions of the terms you’ll meet when you run classes, courses and camps in Zooza — from how a programme is structured to how make-ups, trials and payments work.
Programme structure
- Programme
- The top-level container that defines an activity type. It holds the pricing, payment settings, booking-form configuration, and scheduling rules. One Programme can contain multiple Classes.
- Class
- A scheduled group within a Programme, usually differentiated by day and time, level, or location. A Class inherits all of its Programme’s settings automatically and contains multiple Sessions.
- Session
- A single scheduled meeting within a Class, with a specific date and time. Attendance is recorded at the Session level. (Commonly called a “lesson” or “class date”.)
- Block
- A separately purchasable segment of Sessions within a single Class — used when not all clients attend every session (for example Mondays-only vs. Tuesdays-only vs. both). Each Block has its own price and clients buy only the Block(s) they need.
- Venue
- A physical location where Sessions take place. A Venue is assigned at Class level.
Programme types
- Pay-as-you-go
- A flexible programme type where clients book and pay for individual Sessions rather than committing to a full term. Often used for drop-in classes.
- Membership
- An ongoing programme with a recurring fixed charge and no fixed end date. Clients are billed on a regular cycle — monthly, quarterly, and so on.
- One-off Event
- A single Session on a specific date with no repeating schedule. Used for workshops, lectures, consultations, or special events.
- 1-to-1 (private) class
- A class with a single attendee — an individual or private lesson.
Bookings & enrolment
- Booking
- A client’s formal commitment to attend a Class. It creates a payment obligation tied to one specific Class.
- Enrolment
- The client-facing word for a Booking — the same record, named “enrolment” in the client portal and booking widget.
- Trial
- A feature that lets prospective clients try selected Classes before committing to full enrolment. It automates the journey — trial booking → attendance → automated follow-up → enrolment — and tracks each trial from started to won (converted) or lost. Each trial has its own price (which can be zero) and its own registration form.
- Transfer
- Moving a booking from one Class or Programme to another. The original booking ends and a new one is created in the target Class.
- Copy
- Duplicating a booking into another Class or Programme while the original stays unchanged. Payment schedules do not carry over to the copy.
- Cancellation
- Marking a registration as inactive. The record stays in the system and can be reactivated later — different from deleting it.
People
- Client
- The person who holds the account, pays, and manages bookings — identified by their email address. A client may book on behalf of family members (the attendees).
- Attendee
- The person who physically attends Sessions. This may differ from the client — for example, a parent (client) books for their child (attendee). For adult learners the client and attendee are the same person.
- Instructor
- The person who leads Sessions — the coach, teacher, or tutor.
Attendance & make-ups
- Make-up session
- A replacement Session a client can attend after cancelling a scheduled Session in advance (before the cancellation deadline). The make-up credit is generated automatically on cancellation, and the client picks an available slot in any compatible class that has space.
- Free credits
- An allowance granted to a specific booking that lets the client attend extra Sessions without paying. Different from make-up credits, which are generated automatically by a cancellation.
- Billable session
- A Session that counts toward the total used to calculate a Class’s price. Marking a Session as non-billable — for example a public holiday — excludes it from the price formula.
Payments & billing
- Payment plan
- The configuration that defines when and how often a client is billed for a booking — one-time, monthly, quarterly, per-block, and so on.
- Term payment
- A payment covering a specific term or billing period, as opposed to a single Session or a full-programme upfront payment.
- Down payment
- An upfront partial payment collected at the time of booking as a commitment fee, with the balance charged later according to the payment plan. It can be a fixed amount or a percentage — commonly used for camps, retreats, and multi-day events.
- Aliquot (pro-rata)
- A pro-rata pricing method for clients who join after a class or programme has already started. The first payment is calculated automatically from the number of remaining Sessions (or days) in the billing period rather than the full-period price.
- Entry pass
- A prepaid bundle that grants access to a set number of Sessions (visit-based) or a credit amount (money-based). Used mainly with pay-as-you-go programmes.
- Credit
- A positive balance on a client’s booking that arises when they have paid more than they owe (an overpayment). It can be applied to future invoices or refunded.
- Loyalty program
- A set of three automatic discount and reward mechanisms: a sibling discount (for families with two or more children enrolled), a returning-client discount (for clients who re-enrol), and a referral reward (for referring new clients). Each can be turned on independently.
- Inbound payment
- A bank transfer received from a client that the system automatically attempts to match to the right booking — detected via bank-account data, bank email notifications, or CSV import.
- Reference number
- A unique identifier included with a bank-transfer payment so the system can automatically match the incoming money to the correct client booking.
Platform
- Booking widget
- An embeddable booking interface placed on the activity provider’s own website. The widget is the client-facing surface, so everything it shows uses client-facing terminology.
- Client profile (parent portal)
- The self-service dashboard where clients manage their bookings, payments, and family members — accessed via an email link, with no password required.
- Feedback
- Structured feedback collected from clients after Sessions or at the end of a programme, available in reports.
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