How to create a Show

In this article we will walk you through how to create a Show. This includes setting up a Show with description and image, Run, Event date(s) and time(s) and Ticket Allocations. 

Before you start, you will need to have a Venue and a Pricing Scheme already created. 

Create a Show

Go to Manage > Shows

To create a new show, click the Add New + button. 

You now need to input the Show details. The only required field is Name, the rest are optional:

1. Name of the show.

2. Program that the show sits within.

3. Production company if relevant.

4. Priority of the show. This not commonly used although you will see it elsewhere in the system and it can be very helpful. Shows(and other things in Ticketsolve) are listed chronologically by default. Setting the Priority allows you to set the order in which things (in this case, shows) are listed on the booking page. The higher the number, the higher the show displays in the list, with 99 being the highest priority - thus being listed first. You'll also need to change the "default order by" setting.

5. The Event category e.g., family, theatre, music. 

6. Any required Tags. To add a tag, type the tag name into the box and then select the tag or press enter to add a new tag. If you have multiple subdomains, you will need to add the subdomain tag so the show lists on the correct subdomain.

7. Reference if required. This is usually used for accounting / reporting purposes. 

8. Date description allows you to enter text that overwrites where the event date is displayed on the online listing page with custom text. For example, if you have a show with 30 events, the website can appear cluttered, or the dates might not appear in order, in this case, you could write something like 'Runs from 1st to 30th August'.

9. Exclude from order batch is used if you don't want any tickets to be printed for this show. 

10. Revenue target allows you to report on whether a program, a show or an event is hitting targets. 

11. When you are ready, click Save New Show. 

Show Description & Image

You can now add a Show Description using the tools provided to edit the font, styles, sizes, etc. as well as adding hyperlinks. 

To add an image (ideal size 600px x 972px):

• Drag and drop the image file into the box or, 
• Click into the file uploader

When you first save your show, 3 tabs will also appear which allow you to make further customisations - Properties, Recommendations and Settings. 

Show Properties

Properties can be used to add text that you want to highlight to the customer or to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video. Properties will appear on the online show page underneath the Show image.

1. Click on the Properties tab.

2. Click on + Create New Property

3. Add a title under Name. 

4. Add text or the video URL under Value. 

Important!

If you are using a YouTube link, this must be the full URL, not the shortened one that you get from the video share button or it won't work.

5. Click Update to save. 

To edit or delete the Property, just click the Additional Options (3 dots) icon.

Show Recommendations

Recommendations are a powerful tool in upselling. They appear during the booking process based on what a customer has purchased so far, and can be a powerful way to persuading people to buy more than they initially intended. In Ticketsolve, Recommendations need to be set manually for each Show. 

To add a Recommendation:

Go to Manage > Shows and select the show you want to set up with Recommendations.

1. Click on the Recommendations tab along the top of the screen.

2. Click on + Create New Recommendation. 

3. Select the Item Category e.g., Shows, Product, etc., from the drop down which you want to recommend. 

4. In Summary, add text that will be to displayed to customers. 

5. Enter a Priority if required - this allows you to set the order in which Recommendations appear to customers, the highest priority is 99 (listing first). 

6. Click Add New to save. 

Show Settings

Settings on Show level are often tweaked to override the account settings. You can view and change these under the Settings tab. Some examples of show specific settings:

• "email note" allows you to add an extra message that will pull through into the customer's email confirmation that is relevant for this specific show.
• The "fulfilment options" setting allows you to specify which account-level fulfilment options are available for this show. 
• The "online booking fee amount", "box office booking fee amount" and "phone booking fee amount" for the show.
• "max tickets per event" is the maximum amount of tickets any one person can buy per event, per transaction.
• The "onsale time" option allows you to set the show to go live at a certain time and date automatically.
• "upcoming_event_customer_alert_enabled" and "post_event_customer_alert_enabled" allow you to change whether or not these emails go out for a specific show. 

Create a Run

A Run is a way of keeping track of shows which may have multiple 'blocks' of dates – such as a play or other timed entry events. In most cases, an event will only have one Run.

Once you save the first page of your show set up, the margin on the left side of the page will now be headed with Runs. You will you already have a 'Default' Run name in the column. There is no need to add a new Run or rename the Default Run unless you need to create multiple runs. 

1. If you are only need one Run, click Default in the left column to continue Creating an Event. 

2. To edit the name of the Default Run, click Default, overwrite the name, and click Update Run. 

3. To create multiple Runs:

• Click on the Add New + button
• Create a Name for the Run
• Click Add Run to save.

Create an Event

After clicking into your Default Run, you will see the Run name, followed by an Events listing on the left hand side which will say 'No events found'.

To create your first Event, click the Add New + button. 

A new screen will appear, so you can fill in the Event details. The Event date, Venue layout and Default Pricing scheme are all required; the others are optional. 

1. To create an event with an existing template, click on the Use existing event template? dropdown and select the template from the list. Note: If you are not using a template, just leave this dropdown blank and continue to step 2. 

2. Select the Event date from the calendar dropdown. (use the event start date - we'll cover adding additional dates below). 

3. Set the Start time (curtain up time). Times can be typed in 12 or 24-hour format (e.g., 7pm or 19:00. Note: You must use a full colon between the hours and minutes if using the 24-hour format and "am" or "pm" if using the 12-hour format.

4. Set the (doors) Open time. Times can be typed in 12 or 24-hour format (e.g., 7pm or 19:00. Note: You must use a full colon between the hours and minutes if using the 24-hour format and "am" or "pm" if using the 12-hour format.

5. Input the Duration of the Event in minutes. This will not display online but it will display on the Box Office. 

6. Select the Venue layout from the dropdown by clicking and selecting from the list or by typing the name of the layout in the field to refine your search. Note: Once the venue layout has been selected and saved at this stage, it cannot be changed.

7. Select the Default pricing scheme from the dropdown by clicking and selecting from the list or by typing the name of the scheme in the field to refine your search. You can change this and/or add additional pricing once the event is created.

8. To add additional information for customers, you can add Comments. This information will appear online on the cart page. Comments are usually used to advise customers of age sensitive performances, strobe lighting, etc.

9. As with the Show level, to apply Event tags, click into the field to select from the list or type and click enter to create a tag.

10. Reference if required.

11. Revenue target if required.

12. There are also a number of toggles to turn on (blue) / off on the Event. 

• Enable booking? sets the Event for sale so that tickets can be purchased via the Box Office.
• List online? sets the Event so that it is listed on the online listings page. It means that the tickets will be on sale to the general public online.  
• Online sales disabled? will keep the Event listed online but disable sales. This is best used when you want to advertise a show on your website but you don't want people to buy tickets just yet. 
• Taxed? is set to on if you want to apply VAT to this Event.
• Treat as sold out? will display a message online stating that the Event is 'Sold Out', and will mean this it is no longer available to purchase through the Box Office or online.
• Seat choice as best available? removes the ability of customers to choose their own seats online. When a ticket is purchased it will automatically assign those tickets into the best available seats in the venue based on the 'priority' and 'grouping' of those seats created in the venue layout. 

A standard Event set up with tickets for sale online and at the Box Office, and with VAT applied will look be set up as such:

• Enable booking? = On
• List online? = On
• Online sales disabled? = Off
• Taxed? = On
• Treat as sold out? = Off
• Seat choice best available? = Off

13. Click Add Event when complete.

Once your event is saved, 3 tabs will now appear - Comments, Settings and Clone this Event. 

Event Comments

The Comments tab on is where comments about the Event can be left for Box Office staff.

To add a Comment click the Comments tab along the top of your screen.

1. Add a new comment in this box and when you are ready to save click the Add Comment button. 

2. Existing comments added manually will be listed here. 

3. To see the hidden / automated system comments, click the Eye icon. These comments can give information about when an Event was put on sale and by which user, any event emails sent out to customers via Ticketsolve, and any changes to the event settings such as date, time, etc. 

In the Box Office, to view any manual comments left by staff (but not the hidden system comments), click the Comments icon.

Event Settings

Settings at Event level are often tweaked to override the account, subdomain or show settings. You can view and change these under the Settings tab in exactly the same way that you would change settings at Show level. 

Clone this Event

If you have an event with another date or multiple dates, using the Clone this event tab make this simple, easy and quick. Cloning an event is simply copying one Event's set up to another date or dates as required.

Cloning Events is very straight forward to do and is not very time consuming.

However, it's important that all your ticket allocations are set up correctly BEFORE using the clone feature.

Make sure that before you clone, all the Event set-up is correct (including venue, master allocation size, ticket allocations, etc.)

To clone an event, click the Clone this event tab. 

1. The date you are cloning from is the date in the breadcrumb trail, you should not select this date in step 2 below. 

2. Use the calendar to click on the date(s) you want to clone to.

• To select or de-select dates individually, click on the date(s) in the calendar and click the date again (or click the bin icon) to remove the selected date.
• To select a date range, click on the clone start date, hold down the shift key, and click on the end clone date. All dates in between those two dates will automatically be selected.

3. All selected dates will now appear on in the column to the right of the screen. At this point, prior to confirming the clone, you can delete unwanted dates using the bin icon.

4. Click the Clone Event button when finished or Reset to start again.

Cloned event dates will be listed under the 'Previously cloned events' column in the Clone this event tab. Click on any Event date to navigate to that page. 

Master Allocations

Once your Event has been set up, the column on the left side of the page will change to Master Allocations and underneath the column header will list the Ticket Zones within the Venue you have chosen for this event.

If your Venue only has one ticket zone, only one listing will appear here but you could have multiple zones listed depending on how your venue is set up. 

Example of one ticket zone:

Example of multiple ticket zones:

The Master Allocation shows the total capacity for each ticket zones and is populated by default with the capacity created at set-up, from the Venue layout.

To navigate to the Master Allocation, click into the Ticket zone from the column on the left - e.g., in the first example above, we're clicking into 'Hyde Park'. 

If your venue is using unallocated/unreserved seating you can adjust the size of the ticket zone here. You can decrease or increase the capacity as needed.

Note: If your venue is using allocated/reserved seating do not adjust the size of the ticket zone. 

Ticket Allocations

Once the Master Allocation / Ticket Zone has been clicked into, the column on the left side of the page will change to Ticket Allocations and underneath the column header will list the Default ticket allocation for this event. This is created by the system automatically using the Pricing Scheme selected earlier and the Master Allocation / Ticket Zone size.

To edit the existing Default Ticket Allocation click on the Default Ticket Allocation in the column on the left.

In this Ticket allocation details view there are a number of sections that can be changed.

1. Name of the Ticket Allocation. 

2. Size of the Ticket Allocation. This can be lower than your Master Allocation size, but not higher. 

3. Minimum size allows you to 'ring-fence' a set number of tickets so that they can be sold through this allocation only. E.g., if you had a Comp Ticket Allocation with a size of 20, but needed to ensure that 10 tickets were held for Comps and could not be sold through any other allocation, you would set a minimum size of 10. It is not required to set a number in here. 

4. Allocation level can be set to Public, Box Office, Reserved or Agent:

• Public level allocations can be sold online and purchased by the general public, as well as sold at the Box Office. 
• Box Office level allocations can only be sold via the Ticketsolve Box Office, and cannot be purchased online. Comp tickets are usually set at Box Office level. 
• Reserved level allocations can only be sold via the Box Office, and cannot be purchased online. Reserved allocations can also only be sold by users with a minimum role of Box Office Manager. This allocation can be used to indicate a number of tickets or seats are held in reserve for the company, or a group booking, and to restrict sales of these tickets to only Box Office Managers or higher.
• Agent level allocations can only be sold via the Box Office and can be used to indicate when a number of tickets or seats have been given to a third-party to sell. Agent tickets can only be sold when the order type at Box Office is set to Agent and only by users with a minimum role of Box Office Manager.

5. Allocation colour allows you to set the colour of the allocation. On seated events, it will change the colour of the seats assigned to this allocation.

6. Pricing scheme is where you select the Pricing Scheme that holds the ticket prices you want available in this allocation. 

7. Priority can be used to determine the order in which allocations are listed online, with 99 being the highest (list first). It is not required to put a number in here. 

8. Effective from and Effective To dates can be used to set when an allocation will be available for sale at the Box Office and online. 

Important

The Effective from and Effective to date set are effective from just after midnight.

For example, if you have an Effective from date of 1 July and an Effective to date of 31 July, the Ticket Allocation will go on sale at 00:01 on 1 July and come off sale at 00:01 on 31 July. 

If you wanted the allocation to be available throughout 31 July, the Effective to date would need to be 1 August.

To create more Ticket Allocations, click on the Add New + button at the top of the page and complete the same fields as above.

Assigned & Exclusive Seating

If you are using a venue with allocated/reserved seating, there will be two extra options in the Ticket Allocation - Assigned Seats? and Exclusive?. 

Assigning seats to an allocation allows you to select specific seats to apply to a Ticket Allocation and it's Pricing Scheme, for example if you use banded pricing or want to assign specific seats as accessible seating.

An Exclusive allocation means that the seats selected in a Ticket Allocation are only available to sell from this Ticket Allocation and it's pricing scheme only; they cannot be assigned to or sold from a different allocation. You'd normally want banded pricing allocations to be both Assigned & Exclusive.

To use the Assigned and Exclusive Seating settings:

1. When you first create a new Ticket Allocation, these toggles will be available to turn on or off. If your allocation has already been created, you will not be able to change it to or from Assigned Seats and  will need to create a new Ticket Allocation. 

2. Toggle Assigned Seats? to on (blue).

3. If you also want the seats in this allocation to only be sold through this allocation, toggle Exclusive? to on as well. 

You will then see that the size and minimum size boxes become greyed out. This is because the system knows you are going to be assigning seats, so the size will be automatically populated by the number of seats you select. 

4. Complete the remaining sections for the ticket allocation and click Add Ticket Allocation. 

5. Once you have added your Assigned Ticket Allocation you will see that it saves with an ASSIGNED (and EXCLUSIVE, if selected) label on it. A new tab will appear at the top of the screen called Seat Editor. You can now use this to select the seats that should be assigned to this ticket allocation. 

6. To assign seats, click into your Ticket Allocation and then click into the Seat Editor tab. 

7. Select the seats you want to assign to the allocation. To select a block of seats at once, click on one seat and hold it down to drag the lasso tool across the seats. You can assign seats to multiple ticket allocations unless they are in an Exclusive Ticket Allocation. 

8. On the right hand side you will see a list of all your assigned ticket allocations - select the allocation you want to assign the seats to. 

9. When the seats are assigned, you will see a tick in the allocation box and the seats will change to the colour of your assigned allocation. 

10. To remove seats from an assigned allocation, select the seats again and press De-allocate seats. 

Blocking Seats

If you are using a venue with allocated / reserved seating, you can use the Seat Editor tab to block / un-block seats. 

1. Click into a Ticket Allocation (it doesn't matter which one). 

2. Go to the Seat Editor.

3. Select the seats you want to block / un-block.

4. On the right hand side you will see a button that will either say Block seats or Unblock seats - click the button. 

5. You will then see your seats update on the seating plan to their new blocked / un-blocked status. 

View Your Show Online

At any stage of the process of creating a Show, you can view what it will look like on your online listings page.

To preview your Show:

Go to Manage > Shows find the show you require. 

Click the Open Event URL button. A new tab will open in your browser taking you to your show listing on your Ticketsolve website. 

For example: 

Want to know more?

• Creating and managing Venues
• Creating and managing Pricing Schemes
• Ticketsolve Academy - All You Need to Know About Ticket Allocations
• Upcoming Event Customer Alert Emails - Pre-Event or Reminder Emails
• How to send post-event emails to customers
• Setting up booking charges and fees
• Using Event Templates to save time
• How to set up early bird offers
• How to cross-sell using Ticketsolve's Recommendations feature