PINATA Dictionary

Unsure what we mean by certain words? You can find out here.

Tom Conneely avatar
Written by Tom Conneely
Updated over a week ago

PINATA has compiled a list of key terminology for you below!

Pro Tip: If you're looking for a specific word. Try pressing CTRL & F on PC or CMD & F on Mac at the same time to bring up a search box on this page. Type in the word you're looking for and hit enter, this will show you each time that word pops up in this article! 

PINATA Terminology

Task

  • A task is a single activation or shift executed by a single person — whether that’s an internal team member, a freelancer, or partner-supplied user. Your company might use the term event, activation, demo, sample, etc.

    Remember: One task means a single person. If you’re planning a trade-show event that requires 8 people, you’ll need to create 8 separate tasks on PINATA.

Program

  • A program is a way to organize tasks, team members, and partners. You might create separate programs by region, season, holiday, or division of your company. User permissions are based on programs. You can invite internal and external users to view and edit each program, according to their responsibilities.

Program Group

  • A program group is a way to organize programs. You can use these to quickly access several programs at once. You can also use them to add users to multiple programs in one go as well.

Product

  • A product is a single SKU that you can assign to tasks. You can add information to products like a custom name, training material, and tags.

    Remember: Many reporting questions are asked on a per-product basis. By creating saved products on PINATA and assigning them to individual task, you’ll generate more useful analytics.

Location

  • A location is a place where a task occurs. You can create individual tasks with just an address, or save additional information about specific locations, to make it easy to share location-specific details (like a contact person) and track performance.

    Remember: You should create saved locations to reconcile activity on PINATA with your company’s internal location database (e.g. VIP or other identification systems).

User

  • Many organizations use different terminology for the person who performs a task — brand ambassador, market trainer, freelancer, etc. To reconcile these differences, PINATA uses a general term of our coinage — “User.”

    Remember: User simply means “the person who does the task.”

Activity

  • Your organization most likely executes a variety of event types in the field — trade show demos, street team canvassing, on-premise activations, etc. Each type of event has its own set of expectations for user (such as attire or responsibilities) and its own type of field reporting. PINATA calls this "activities".

  • You can define as many activities as you like — with custom names — to capture the breadth of your field initiatives. Whenever you create a new program, you’ll define which activities will be needed. From there, it’s easy to create a new task with just a few clicks, by assigning it the appropriate activity.

Report

  • A report is what the user is required to fill out in the field after completing a task.

Tags

  • Tags can be added to team members, locations & products. You can then search using tags as a quick way to filter team members, locations & products.

User Permissions

Permissions

  • Permissions refers to what certain users can and cannot do on your dashboard. These are the different levels of users: Owner, Administrator, Manager, Member & User

Owner

  • This is the highest permission level. This user can change other user permissions, schedule tasks without need of approval, cancel tasks, invite new users & more.

Administrator

  • This is the second-highest permission level. This user can change other user permissions unless they are an 'Owner', schedule tasks without need of approval, cancel tasks, invite new users & more.

Manager

  • A Manager has full program control (including the ability to create new programs or edit existing ones) -- but only for those programs to which they are given access. Managers' program access can be selected from the My Company dropdown and designated by an Admin/Owner. Any new program they create will only be visible to them and Admins/Owners, but not other Managers. Managers can edit/invite users who have a status lower than their own, include Members and User.

Member

  • This user can submit tasks for approval if required & assign themselves to their own tasks.

Status Bar

Status Bar

  • This is shown on the dashboard, with the following statuses: Draft, Upcoming, Live, Review, Finished

Draft (Status Bar)

  • Request Approval - tasks that have been not yet been submitted for approval

  • Awaiting Approval - tasks that have been submitted for approval but are not yet approved

  • Approval Required (Manager) - tasks that have been submitted for your approval

  • Assign Partner - tasks that have not yet been assigned to a partner

Upcoming (Status Bar)

  • Finalize Details - tasks that are missing critical details (location, date/time, product). Missing details will be in bold blue on the task

  • Not yet Staffed - tasks that don't have user assigned

  • Ready to Go - tasks that have all details entered and user assigned

Live (Status Bar)

  • Live - tasks happening today

  • Awaiting Check-in - tasks happening today that user have not yet checked into

  • Checked in - tasks happening today that user have checked in

Review (Status Bar)

  • Awaiting Report - User have not yet submitted their field report

  • Verify Report - User has submitted their report for you to verify for accuracy and completion

  • Returned to User - Reports that were returned to user to edit or complete.

Finished (Status Bar)

  • Finished: These are Verified or Cancelled tasks that should be paid.

  • Closed: These have been marked as closed and are complete.

  • Invoiced: These are verified and canceled tasks that have been added to an invoice.

Trash

  • These are canceled tasks. You can cancel tasks for a number of different reasons, open the task to see why it was canceled.

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