Cancelling An Event

It's never pleasant to have to cancel an Event. Below are a list of steps to follow that assist with the Refund or Exchange process.

Cancelling An Event

Step Purpose
Step 1 Take the Performance(s) off sale

If the Event has cancelled, its important to make sure patrons can no longer purchase tickets to the Performance. Tickets can still be refunded when the Performance is no longer available for sale. However the Event should not be closed as this prevents financial transactions and the refund process.

  1. Click the Event button at the top of the window in Theatre Manager.
  2. Search for and Open the desired Event.
  3. Select the Performance tab.
  4. Select the Performance(s) that should no longer be available for sale.
  5. Remove the check from the At The Box Office box at the top of the window.
  6. Remove the check from the Via The Internet box.
  7. If applicable, remove the check from the At ALL Other Outlets box.
  8. Save and close the window
Step 2 Run a Tickets Sold by Price Code and Promotion report.

Often a count of the number of tickets sold is requested after the refund process has taken place. Generating this report will provide a count and breakdown by promotion for future reference.

Step 3 Run a Revenues by Payment Method-Ticket Based report.

This report will tell you the number of tickets sold based on Payment Method. If the Promoter will be charged a percentage fee on credit card transactions, this report will determine the value of tickets purchased on cards.

Step 4 Any other Sales reports traditionally used for settlement.

Each organization varies in their process for completing a settlement. Generate all reports traditionally required as a part of the settlement. Once the tickets have been refunded this information is no longer available.

Step 5 Run a Transaction History List report.

We recommend generating this report using the criteria Ticket Count-Times Printed. Run the report once with a count of 0 and PDF or print the resulting report. Run the report again with a count of 1 or more and PDF or print the results. This will give you a count of the number of tickets printed. If the Promoter is responsible for paying a fee per printed ticket this report will provide your count on the final page. It will also provide a list of patrons who purchased the tickets.

Step 6 Generate a Mail List of patrons who purchased to the Event.

Generating a Mail List before refunding the ticket will provide a list of patrons who need to be contacted regarding the cancellation of the Event. It can also be helpful in contacting patrons should the Event book again in the future.

Step 7 Contact Patrons to inform them of the cancellation.

There are several methods that can be used to contact patrons. Using the mail list above you could:

  1. Email the patron. An email sent from Theatre Manager is often a quick and efficient way to send a customized letter informing the patron of the cancellation and how their refund will be processed.
  2. Print a Patron Contact report. The contact report will list the patrons telephone number. Patrons can then be phoned and informed of the cancellation.
  3. Print Mailing Labels. A letter may be generated to send to the patron informing them of the cancellation or how their refund was processed.
Step 8 Refund tickets and process the credit owed to patron.

There are several methods that can be used while refunding tickets to the patron. The options are listed below:

  1. Refund to the individual Patron Record. This allows for a hands on approach and provides the ability to review payments and orders prior to the refund process.
  2. Refund "en masse" from the Attendance tab. The en masse feature is a quick and effective way of refunding multiple orders at once. The tickets are returned to the system and options are provided for how payments should be allocated. An option is provided to refund credit card payments directly to the card that was originally used for the order (this feature will only work if credit cards have not been previously shredded in Theatre Manager). All orders not processed on credit cards will create balances on the individual patron records to be refunded at the organization's discretion.
  3. Refund to a Ticket Voucher. Refunding to a Voucher rather than a Gift Certificate provides the option of adding an expiry date to encourage patrons to redeem within a set period of time.
  4. Refund to a Donation. This option allows the organization to keep the money associated with the ticket sale and offer the patron a tax receipt in exchange.
  5. Refund to a Ticket Voucher. Refunding to a Voucher rather than a Gift Certificate provides the option of adding an expiry date to encourage patrons to redeem within a set period of time.
  6. Batch Functions, Unprint or Refund a Batch of Tickets. This method allows for multiple data fields search. This is ideal for refunding season subscribers or single ticket buyers with multi events in one refund.
Step 9 Exchange the Tickets.

  1. Exchange from one Performance to Another. Often, if a single performance of a series cancels, an organization will allow exchanges within the same event. This means the ticket moves but the money says within the same G/L accounts.
  2. Exchange to Another Event. Occasionally an exception is made and an Exchange from one Event to another is allowed. Depending on the Event setup this can mean revenue moves from one G/L account to another.
  3. Exchange Tickets to Another Performance. Theatre Manager can move the patrons from the current performance to a completely different one for you. In order to complete this type of exchange, the corresponding seats within the map need to be available. Theatre Manager will not alter the value of the ticket but keep the original purchase price from the first Event.

Refund Management

When a decision to cancel an event is made, there are lots of moving pieces to manage. The box office is focused on how to handle patrons who have purchased tickets to the cancelled event. Take a moment to decide on the best practice for the organization before starting any exchanges or refunds.

Things to consider when facing overwhelming task of managing large amount of ticket transactions for patrons:

  • Is there another event in the season to exchange into?
  • What is the organization policy when an event is cancelled?
  • Offer Refunds in the form of:
    • Convert to a donation
    • Convert to a Pass/Gift Certificate
    • Back to credit card
    • Issue a cheque from the organization
  • Are there season subscribers or single ticket buyers with multiple events remaining in the season to refund?

Refunding patrons with multiple events like season subscribers is a good place to start. These patrons can be further divided into refund sub groups for en mass refunding:

  • Donation
  • Gift Certificate
  • Cheque Request
  • Credit Card