Advanced Ticket Settings

Tickets can be created when the defaults for an event are set up, when an existing package is being edited, or created before a package and then linked to it. Remember, by default, when you create a package Bookings will automatically create basic tickets for you.

Ticket Details

Tickets can be created and edited separately from the packages that people book. This allows us to create more complex packages, with a package containing multiple tickets, or a single ticket filling multiple places in our event capacity. If each package that a user books represents one place of your event's capacity, there is often no need to use these settings.

Description

The ticket description is only seen by administrators when creating tickets and packages. It is not visible to users during booking.

Maximum

This number sets the maximum number of this ticket that will be available to be compiled into packages.

For example, if there are ten tickets available, and you create a package that includes two tickets, only five packages will be able to be booked. This will be true even if the maximum packages value is greater than five.

This setting could be used to create ten tickets, which are compiled into two different packages, and the combined bookings for each package will not be able to exceed ten.

Size

The number of places from the event capacity this ticket occupies.

For example, if your event has a capacity of ten, and you create a ticket with a size of two, only five tickets will be able to be sold, no matter how many packages they are compiled into. Note, this could also be achieved by creating a ticket with a size of one, but adding two of them to each package.

Other examples include creating size zero tickets, which won't use up any of your event's capacity, but can be used to buy add-ons that compliment the standard tickets.

Cost Centre

A drop-down list of cost centre information that will be recorded when this ticket type is sold. The options are set in the ticketCostCentres property of the configuration End Point.

Expense Code

A drop-down list of expense code information that will be recorded when this ticket type is sold. The options are set in the ticketExpenseCodes property of the configuration End Point.

VAT Code

A drop-down list of VAT code information that will be recorded when this ticket type is sold. The options are set in the ticketVatCodes property of the configuration End Point.

Creating Tickets

Check the "Show Ticket Details" checkbox when creating a package to reveal the ticket details form. Enter a description, maximum number and size, then press "Add" to add them to the list of available tickets. Other drop-downs options will also be present if enabled in the configuration (see above).

Pressing "Edit" next to an existing ticket type will load its details into the form to be updated. Pressing "Update" will update the ticket in the list.

Editing a Package's Existing Tickets

When a package is created, it can automatically create the tickets it needs, which will have the same name as the package, a size of one, and a maximum number that is the same as the number of packages. The cost of each ticket will be the same as the package.

To edit the tickets in a package, press "Edit" next to the package. This will display the package's existing tickets. It is possible to change the quantity of tickets assigned to each package, but remember that if you do, the number of available packages that can be booked will change.

For example, if you create an event with a capacity of ten, and a single package with a maximum of ten, Bookings will create you ten tickets, each with a size of one. Increasing the quantity of tickets to two would mean that each package now has two tickets in it, so although you created ten packages, your ten tickets will run out after only five packages have been compiled. Only five packages will be available to be booked and each booking will reduce the available spaces in your capacity of ten by two.

Ticket Prices

In normal use, tickets don't have prices, only packages do. You can compile whichever tickets you like into a package, and simply set the price that someone will pay when they buy one package.

For advanced use, where the tickets in your package may have different VAT or cost centre codes, or the tickets in a package represent different parts of a purchase (a coach trip with entrance to an attraction for example) you'll probably also need to assign different prices to each ticket. To enable this, set the ticketCosts property in the configuration End Point to true.

Now when editing the tickets in a package you can change the cost as well as the quantity. The value you enter for the cost is the total cost of all of the tickets.

When you add costed tickets to your package Bookings will validate that the package price is the same as the price of all of the types of ticket in it.

Assigning New Tickets to a Package

If tickets for an event have been created prior to a package, they will need to be added to a package before they can be booked.

Create an occurrence using the information in Creating and Scheduling Event Occurrences. Set the maximum capacity for the occurrence as 10.

Before creating the package, first create some tickets. Adding your tickets to a package is a two stage process. First the package needs to be created, then it will be edited and the tickets added to it.

Create your package, but uncheck the "Create Ticket" checkbox.

Now edit the package. The bottom section displays a drop-down list with the available tickets for this event. Select your ticket from the list and the number (and price if enabled) you want to add to the package. Click "Add" so they appear in the list of tickets in this package. Click "Update" to update the package. Finally complete package creation as normal.

When adding tickets to packages it is vital to remember the following:

The quantity of tickets being added to a package is the quantity that will be used up when each package is booked. It is not the number of tickets available for your event.

For example, imagine your event has a capacity of ten, and you create five tickets, each with a size of two. What quantity of tickets should be assigned to a package? If you assign all five, one package (a single booking) will use up all of your tickets. In most cases you will only want to add one ticket, which will mean each package will allow someone to book one ticket which is for two places. The number that can be booked will be determined by the number of packages that can be compiled from the tickets, or the maximum value set for the number of packages, whichever is smaller.

Creating More Complex Packages

This is an advanced example showing a complicated set of ticket and package requirements - unless you are building a range of packages and tickets, it can be skipped.

The tickets assigned to packages can be used to create bookable packages that contain different types of ticket. Tickets could have different size values (each table at a restaurant has a different number of seats), or different maximum numbers (a cinema has a different number of standard and VIP seats).

In this example, imagine a quiz. The quiz can have a maximum of four teams, and each team must have one captain and between two and five additional team members. That gives us a potential twenty four people (four teams, each with a captain and five additional members). However our room only has eighteen chairs. We can use Bookings to build packages that will prevent more than eighteen people coming to the event, and ensure the teams are of the desired sizes.

Create the Event Occurrence

Create the event occurrence. Set the date, time and location, and set the maximum capacity as eighteen (the number of chairs in our room).

Create the Tickets

For this event we will need two ticket types. One for the team captains and one for the team members. We have a maximum of four teams, so we need four team captain tickets. We could have a potential fifteen team member tickets (three teams at the maximum size would fill our capacity).

Note that although our combined captain and team member tickets now exceed our capacity, the capacity will always take precedence, preventing too many tickets from being booked.

Click on the ticket detail advance settings and create the two ticket types. Each ticket will have a size of one. Once created you'll see the two ticket types:

Create the Packages

Close the ticket details section and click "Add Package". We'll be creating packages for each of our team sizes. Each package will have one team captain and a varying number of additional team members.

Create the first package for a team captain and two team members. As we want up to four quiz teams, set the maximum available as four. Users will book at least one ticket, so set the minimum as one. Remember to uncheck "Create ticket" as we have already created our tickets and don't need Bookings to do this for us.

Repeat this step, creating packages for teams with three, four and five additional members, plus the team captain.

Add the Tickets to the Package

Click "Edit" next to each package to edit the packages and add tickets to them. In the package tickets section, add a single team captain ticket and two team member tickets to our first package.

Repeat this step for each package, adding a single team captain ticket and an increasing number of team member tickets to each package.

Once each package has had the correct number of tickets assigned to it, complete the package and event occurrence, making it available to be booked.

The Booking

Our event has now been created, with a maximum capacity of eighteen and four team size packages that can be booked. As each booking is made the available spaces left (the capacity) is reduced, as are the number of available packages.

As packages are booked, the pool of tickets reduces, preventing the larger size packages from being booked as team member tickets are used up.

Note how, from the outset, the larger packages have a smaller number available. This is because, although we have four team captain tickets, our fifteen team member tickets prevent invalid combinations from being compiled.