Elevated Event vs. Performance

Hi Andrew,

We had this exact issue/question when we started our annual gala last year.  We decided that the ticket price needed to be included in the total table purchase or it would appear very strange and confusing for reporting to the board and the gala committee (as well as leadership staff).  However, we too wanted to be able to see what the ticket revenue portion of the Gala purchase was separate from everything else.

What we decided to do was create 2 FMV types that get recorded on our custom tab.  This way we could break out the FMV portion that was for ticket and the FMV portion that was for the dinner and any other tangible benefits separately. We also have those FMV types set-up to different account codes so it can be pulled in various financial reports (not sure if those are custom or standard).

When it came to recording/allocating tickets, we had the box office “sell” comp tickets for each table host and then we asked the table hosts to record who at their table got what tickets at the same time as they were sending in their guest names with table seating.  We record which guest gets what ticket in the elevated event and in the “performance Seat” field in the “Guest” section.

We have had a few people who purchased tickets to the performance and then decided they wanted to attend the gala so we just charged them the gala price minus the tickets they had already purchased and then adjusted the ticket FMV type amount as needed.

It has worked out really nicely for us – everyone seems to be able to ultimately get the data they need and work it into reports and budget projections.

Laurel

Cal Performances

From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Moreau
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2017 11:53 AM
To: lskehen@calperformances.org
Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Elevated Event vs. Performance

Hello,

I am looking for insight on how other organizations use Tessitura to manage fundraising events coinciding with a seated performance.  Here at BLO, we will have a special performance of an opera coinciding with our Annual Gala.  So, patrons arrive and see the performance, and immediately attend the fundraising event after.  I am most interested in learning how you record performance ticket revenue and event revenue.

We ultimately need to be able to use a performance seating map in a ticketing order to seat patrons in the performance.  I am wondering if we should record the entire gala revenue in the elevated event, noting appropriate tax deductibility for performance tickets, and use comps to arrange seating in the performance level.  At the end, doing a one-time GL transfer in our accounting system.  The downfall of this would be none of the ticketing revenue shows up in the suite of Tess ticketing reports.  The upside is that the transactions would be cleaner.

We could also split up a transaction, so we could pay for an elevated event and place the performance ticket value on account, then follow up with using the on account funds to purchase a ticket in a ticket order.  My concern with this, although the funds would be accurately recorded in the ticketing reports and ticket history, is the headache we would create for finance seeing many transactions go back and forth between the contributions screen and ticketing.

In addition to this, there will be ticket buyers who have performance tickets that ultimately wish to be exchanged into the Gala performance, and to pay the difference for the gala ticket.  If we go the route of putting the revenue entirely on the elevated event, we would of course need to put the ticket value on account and use that to help pay for the gala ticket in the contribution screen.

Any tips, insight, or best practices you could offer would be helpful as we navigate through the best way to set this up.

Thanks so much!

Andrew

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Hi Andrew,

We had this exact issue/question when we started our annual gala last year.  We decided that the ticket price needed to be included in the total table purchase or it would appear very strange and confusing for reporting to the board and the gala committee (as well as leadership staff).  However, we too wanted to be able to see what the ticket revenue portion of the Gala purchase was separate from everything else.

What we decided to do was create 2 FMV types that get recorded on our custom tab.  This way we could break out the FMV portion that was for ticket and the FMV portion that was for the dinner and any other tangible benefits separately. We also have those FMV types set-up to different account codes so it can be pulled in various financial reports (not sure if those are custom or standard).

When it came to recording/allocating tickets, we had the box office “sell” comp tickets for each table host and then we asked the table hosts to record who at their table got what tickets at the same time as they were sending in their guest names with table seating.  We record which guest gets what ticket in the elevated event and in the “performance Seat” field in the “Guest” section.

We have had a few people who purchased tickets to the performance and then decided they wanted to attend the gala so we just charged them the gala price minus the tickets they had already purchased and then adjusted the ticket FMV type amount as needed.

It has worked out really nicely for us – everyone seems to be able to ultimately get the data they need and work it into reports and budget projections.

Laurel

Cal Performances

From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Moreau
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2017 11:53 AM
To: lskehen@calperformances.org
Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Elevated Event vs. Performance

Hello,

I am looking for insight on how other organizations use Tessitura to manage fundraising events coinciding with a seated performance.  Here at BLO, we will have a special performance of an opera coinciding with our Annual Gala.  So, patrons arrive and see the performance, and immediately attend the fundraising event after.  I am most interested in learning how you record performance ticket revenue and event revenue.

We ultimately need to be able to use a performance seating map in a ticketing order to seat patrons in the performance.  I am wondering if we should record the entire gala revenue in the elevated event, noting appropriate tax deductibility for performance tickets, and use comps to arrange seating in the performance level.  At the end, doing a one-time GL transfer in our accounting system.  The downfall of this would be none of the ticketing revenue shows up in the suite of Tess ticketing reports.  The upside is that the transactions would be cleaner.

We could also split up a transaction, so we could pay for an elevated event and place the performance ticket value on account, then follow up with using the on account funds to purchase a ticket in a ticket order.  My concern with this, although the funds would be accurately recorded in the ticketing reports and ticket history, is the headache we would create for finance seeing many transactions go back and forth between the contributions screen and ticketing.

In addition to this, there will be ticket buyers who have performance tickets that ultimately wish to be exchanged into the Gala performance, and to pay the difference for the gala ticket.  If we go the route of putting the revenue entirely on the elevated event, we would of course need to put the ticket value on account and use that to help pay for the gala ticket in the contribution screen.

Any tips, insight, or best practices you could offer would be helpful as we navigate through the best way to set this up.

Thanks so much!

Andrew

This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!