Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms you'll see across the docs.
- Account
- Your company’s isolated workspace in Arcova. Sometimes referred to internally as a tenant.
- Adjustment
- A manual change applied to a time entry, invoice, or payroll line to correct an error or apply a credit.
- Approval
- A supervisor or manager’s sign-off on a time entry, schedule change, or invoice before it moves to the next stage.
- Assignment
- The link between a specific officer and a specific shift on the schedule.
- BOLO (Be On the LookOut)
- A targeted alert distributed to officers describing a person, vehicle, or activity to watch for during patrols.
- Client (or Organization)
- A company you provide security services to. Each client can have multiple sites and contracts.
- Compliance Exception
- A flagged condition where an officer or assignment fails to meet a credential, training, or policy requirement.
- Credential
- A license, certification, or qualification an officer must hold to be assigned to certain shifts.
- Dispatch
- The act of sending an officer or response to a location, often in reaction to an incident or coverage gap.
- Geofence
- A virtual perimeter around a site used to verify on-site presence for clock-ins, patrols, and check points.
- Invoice
- A billable document sent to a client summarizing approved hours and services for a billing period.
- Iris
- Arcova’s built-in AI assistant for operations questions, scheduling help, and report drafting.
- Officer
- A security employee who works shifts, completes patrols, and reports incidents through Arcova.
- Post
- A specific position at a site (e.g., front gate, lobby desk) that needs to be staffed during a shift.
- Post Order
- The written instructions describing the duties, expectations, and procedures for a particular post.
- Rate
- A pay rate (officer side) or bill rate (client side) used to calculate payroll and invoicing for hours worked.
- Recurring Shift
- A shift template that repeats on a schedule (e.g., every Monday 6 AM–2 PM) so it doesn’t need to be created manually each week.
- Schedule
- The set of all shifts and assignments across your sites for a given time window.
- Shift
- A defined block of time at a specific post that needs to be covered by an officer.
- Site
- A physical location belonging to a client where security services are provided.
- Time Entry
- A record of an officer’s actual hours worked on a shift, used for both payroll and client billing.
- Tenant
- An Arcova internal term meaning your company’s isolated account. We use “your account” or “your company” in user-facing language.
- Webhook
- An HTTP callback Arcova sends to your systems when an event happens (e.g., a shift is completed) so you can sync data.
- Work Order
- A request for one-off or scheduled security work outside the standing contract, tracked from creation through completion.