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The TimbaTicket dictionary — how everything connects

Short definitions of the terms used across TimbaTicket documentation, in the words the product itself uses.

A detailed A-Z word list is in Glossary overview. This page teaches how concepts connect to each other — the mental model.

The core chain​

Organisation ──contains──▶ Events ──contain──▶ Ticket Types
                                        │
                        generate         ▼
                                        Orders ──contain──▶ Tickets
                                        │
                              assigned to│
                                         ▼
                                        Attendees (a ticket's named holder)

Organisation​

Your workspace on TimbaTicket. Every event, order, team member and payment setting belongs to an organisation. You can belong to more than one organisation — the combined finances view shows a read-only sum across all of them, but does not split money.

Event​

Something you sell tickets for — a concert, class, conference or party. An event belongs to exactly one organisation. An event has a status that moves through a lifecycle:

  • Draft — still being built, not public.
  • Pending approval — the organiser has asked to publish, before going public.
  • Published — live on its public page, people can buy tickets.
  • Sales closed — past the sales window; tickets can no longer be purchased.

Ticket type​

A priced category on an event — e.g. "General Admission", "Early Bird", "VIP". Each ticket type has a price, a name and optional limits. The ticket type is what people buy; the ticket is the proof of purchase.

Order​

The record of a purchase. One order can contain many tickets (e.g. a buyer purchasing 3 tickets in a single checkout). An order tracks the buyer's details, the total amount and the payment status: pending, paid, failed or complimentary.

Ticket​

The proof that someone has paid for (or been given) access to an event. A ticket belongs to exactly one order and is assigned to one attendee. A ticket's status is one of: valid, used (checked in) or refunded. Each ticket carries a unique QR code for check-in.

Attendee​

The named holder of a ticket. There is no separate attendees table — the attendee is the person named on the ticket record itself. When someone buys a ticket for a friend, each friend becomes an attendee by being named on their own ticket.

Supporting relations​

Roles​

Four roles define what each person can do in an organisation, in a strict hierarchy:

  • Owner — can do everything: refunds, payment setup, team management, event publishing.
  • Manager — runs events day-to-day, sees financial and sales reports; cannot refund or change payment settings.
  • Team — limited access: can check in guests, view attendee lists and guest lists for events they are assigned to; cannot see financial reports.
  • door_staff — per-event check-in access only; not a standing team seat. Door staff can scan QR codes but cannot see financial data or edit events.

A person's effective role for a specific event is the higher of their organisation-level role and their event-level assignment.

Collaboration​

Links organisations together for joint events. A partner organisation's members can manage events they are linked to, but are capped at Manager level even if they are an Owner in their own organisation. Collaboration does not split revenue — each organisation keeps its own payments.

Plans​

Three subscription tiers set per-ticket fees, seat limits and storage quotas:

PlanMonthlyPer-ticket feeSeatsStorage
Start£0£0.601100 MB
Grow£29£0.4531 GB
Pro£99£0.35105 GB

A Trial is 30 days of the full Pro configuration, no card required.

Fee policy​

Whether the per-ticket platform fee is absorbed or passed through:

  • Absorb — the fee comes out of the organiser's proceeds. The buyer pays exactly the ticket price. This is the default.
  • Pass-through — the fee is added to the buyer's price. The organiser receives the full ticket price.

The fee policy can be set at organisation level and overridden per event. It is the single most-misunderstood concept in the product — see Plans & pricing for the full explanation.

Guest list vs ticket type​

A ticket type defines what you sell and at what price. A guest list pre-authorises specific names for entry — useful for VIP lists, press or staff who attend for free. Guest lists and ticket types can coexist on the same event.

A discount code is a typed code that reduces the price at checkout (e.g. "EARLYBIRD20"). An auto-apply link is a URL that automatically applies the discount when someone opens it — no code to type. Both achieve the same result; the difference is how the buyer activates the discount.

Recount​

A post-event settlement tool. It compares how many tickets were sold against how many people were admitted at the door, highlighting discrepancies (e.g. no-shows, unscanned tickets). Useful for reconciling revenue and verifying door staff activity.

Referral partner​

A person or organisation that promotes your events. When someone buys a ticket through a referral partner's link, the conversion is tracked by the platform. Referral partners do not access the organiser's dashboard — they have their own portal.

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