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Key Concepts & Terminology

Before you dive into the detailed guides, it helps to understand the terms you will see used throughout EquipDash. This page serves as a quick-reference glossary you can come back to at any time.

What You'll Learn​

  • The meaning of every core term used in EquipDash
  • How the main concepts relate to each other
  • Where to go to learn more about each one

Supplier​

A Supplier is your business within EquipDash. When you create an account and set up your company information, you are creating a Supplier. Everything in EquipDash — products, experiences, bookings, customers, staff — belongs to your Supplier.

If you operate more than one business (for example, a bike rental shop and a separate kayak tour company), each one would be a separate Supplier.

Learn more: Setting Up Your Business

Product​

A Product is a rental item that customers can book. It could be a mountain bike, a surfboard, a tent, a pair of skis, or any other piece of equipment you rent out.

Each product has a name, description, photos, and pricing rules. Products have Inventory Units associated with them that represent the physical items available for rent. Products are grouped under Categories and can be combined into Bundles.

Learn more: Creating Products

Inventory Unit​

An Inventory Unit is a single physical item of a product. If you have a product called "Mountain Bike" with a quantity of 10, then you have 10 inventory units.

Each inventory unit can optionally be given a unique name or identifier (e.g., "Bike #3" or a barcode), making it easy to track which specific item was rented to which customer, and which items are in the Workshop for maintenance.

Learn more: Inventory Units

Variation​

A Variation lets you offer different options of the same product — such as size, color, or model — without creating a separate product for each one. For example, a "Wetsuit" product might have variations for Small, Medium, and Large, each with its own quantity and pricing.

Learn more: Product Variations

Store Product​

A Store Product is a physical item that customers can purchase outright (as opposed to renting). Store products have a fixed price, optional inventory tracking, and do not require dates. Examples include accessories, merchandise, maintenance kits, and replacement parts.

Store products can be marked as standalone (available in the store widget), as a booking add-on (offered during the booking process), or both.

Learn more: How the Store Works and Creating Store Products

Experience​

An Experience is a scheduled activity or tour that customers can join. Examples include a sunset kayak tour, a beginner surf lesson, or a guided mountain hike.

Unlike products (which are rented for a date range), experiences run at specific time slots with a maximum number of participants. Experiences use Rate Categories for pricing and can have staff guides assigned to each session.

Learn more: Creating Experiences and Experiences vs Rentals

Booking​

A Booking is a reservation made by a customer. There are two types:

  • Rental Booking — A customer reserves one or more products for a specific date range.
  • Experience Booking — A customer reserves spots in a scheduled experience session.

Every booking has a unique reference number, a status (e.g., confirmed, pending, completed, canceled), and is linked to a customer. Bookings are the central record that ties together payments, fulfillment, waivers, and more.

Learn more: Bookings Overview and Creating Bookings

Fulfillment​

Fulfillment is the process of tracking the lifecycle of a booking from start to finish. The steps differ depending on the booking type:

Rental bookings:

  1. Pick up — Marking inventory units as picked up by the customer
  2. Return — Marking inventory units as returned when the customer brings them back

Experience bookings:

  1. Check in — Marking participants as checked in when they arrive for their session
  2. Complete — Marking the session as completed once it has finished

Tracking fulfillment helps you know exactly what is out with customers, who has arrived for their session, and what still needs attention.

Learn more: Booking Fulfillment

Widget​

The Widget is a customer-facing booking interface that you embed on your own website. It lets visitors browse your products and experiences, check real-time availability, and complete bookings — all without leaving your site.

You can customize the widget's colors and branding to match your website, and choose which products and experiences to display.

Learn more: Booking Widget Overview and Embedding the Widget

Bundle Growth+This feature requires the Growth+ plan or higher​

A Bundle is a pre-packaged group of products sold together at a combined price. For example, you might create a "Weekend Adventure Kit" bundle that includes a tent, sleeping bag, and camping stove at a discounted rate compared to renting each item individually.

Bundles make it easy to upsell and simplify the booking process for customers who need multiple items.

Learn more: Creating Bundles

Rate Category​

A Rate Category is a pricing tier for experiences. It lets you charge different prices for different types of participants — for example, "Adult", "Child", "Senior", or "Student".

Each experience can have multiple rate categories, and customers choose how many participants of each type when they book.

Learn more: Rate Categories

Season ProThis feature requires the Pro plan​

A Season is a defined date range during which you apply different pricing rules. Seasons let you charge more during peak periods (school holidays, summer) and less during quiet periods.

You can create named seasons (e.g., "Peak Summer", "Off-Season") and assign specific prices to each one. Both rental products and experiences support seasonal pricing.

Learn more: Seasonal Pricing for Rentals and Seasonal Pricing for Experiences

Category​

A Category is used to organize your products, store products, or experiences into logical groups. For example, you might have rental categories like "Bikes" and "Kayaks", or store categories like "Accessories" and "Apparel".

Categories appear in your booking widget and help customers find what they are looking for more quickly. Rental categories, store categories, and experience categories are managed separately.

Learn more: Creating Categories, Store Categories, and Experience Categories

Customer​

A Customer is anyone who makes a booking with your business. EquipDash automatically creates a customer record when a booking is made, storing their name, email, phone number, and booking history.

You can also add customers manually, import them from a spreadsheet, and add notes or custom fields to each profile.

Learn more: Customers Overview

Workshop​

The Workshop is where you track equipment that needs maintenance, repair, or cleaning. When an inventory unit needs attention, you send it to the workshop. While it is there, it is excluded from availability — so customers cannot accidentally book a broken item.

Once the item is fixed, you mark it as complete and it goes back into your available inventory.

Learn more: How the Workshop Works

Waiver Growth+This feature requires the Growth+ plan or higher​

A Waiver (or form) is a digital document that customers complete before their booking — typically a liability release, health declaration, or terms agreement. You build them using a drag-and-drop form builder and can attach them to specific products or experiences.

Responses are stored in EquipDash and can be viewed or exported at any time.

Learn more: Waivers & Forms Overview

Promo Code Growth+This feature requires the Growth+ plan or higher​

A Promo Code is a discount code that customers can enter during checkout to receive a percentage or fixed-amount discount. You control the code value, the discount amount, usage limits, and valid date ranges.

Learn more: Creating Promo Codes

Voucher Growth+This feature requires the Growth+ plan or higher​

A Voucher (also known as a gift card) is a prepaid credit that can be redeemed against future bookings. You can sell vouchers through your widget or create them manually for special promotions.

Learn more: Creating Vouchers

Guide​

A Guide is a staff member who is assigned to run an experience session. When setting up experience schedules, you can assign guides to specific time slots based on their availability.

Learn more: Assigning Guides

API Key ProThis feature requires the Pro plan​

An API Key is a credential that allows external applications to connect to your EquipDash data programmatically. Each key is given specific scopes that control what it can access.

Learn more: Creating API Keys

How It All Fits Together​

Here is a simplified view of how the main concepts relate to each other:

Supplier (your business)
├── Products → Inventory Units → Fulfillment (pick up / return)
│   ├── Pricing Rules (with optional Seasons)
│   ├── Categories
│   └── Bundles (groups of products)
├── Store Products → Stock Quantities
│   ├── Fixed Pricing (with optional compare-at price)
│   ├── Store Categories
│   └── Variations (sizes, colors, etc.)
├── Experiences → Schedules & Time Slots → Guides
│   ├── Fulfillment (check in / complete)
│   ├── Rate Categories (Adult, Child, etc.)
│   ├── Categories
│   └── Seasonal Pricing
├── Bookings (rental, experience, or store)
│   ├── Customer
│   ├── Payments
│   ├── Waivers & Forms
│   └── Fulfillment
├── Widget (customer-facing online booking & store)
├── Staff (team members with roles & permissions)
└── Settings (business details, payments, taxes, etc.)