PCB jumper

Hello,

I am curious as to what the function of jumpers are in PCBs.

Are they basically pads? If I were to throw down two pads instead of using a 2 pin jumper, would that be the same thing?

I’m trying to connect a bare LiPo battery onto my PCB. The original schematic required me to use a 2pin jumper, but I threw down 2 pads instead. The battery doesn’t seem to be functioning at all when connected to their respective pads on the PCB. Could this be because I used pads instead of a jumper?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You.