Mandatory contributions

Hi Mark,

In v9 you can make sales notes required, so they will automatically open if you try to save an order without having looked at the sales note.  So you could create a required sales note that informs the ticket sellers of the contribution amount.  Ideally they will see the red Notes button and look at the notes early in the order, but even if they don’t they won’t be able to save the order without seeing the note about the contribution.

Kevin Sheehan

Documentation & Learning Resources Specialist

Tessitura Network

1 888 643 5778 ext 329 Office

ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com

We have mandatory contributions for subscriptions in some seats, and handle this by having local tables with the contributions. Our subscription renewal form looks at one table and, if the seats are listed, uses the contribution in calculating what is due for the subscription. We then run a procedure that lists the required contribution in order notes. Ticket office reps are trained to check the contribution chart when they sell a new subscription. All seating sections with such requirements are controlled by senior ticket office staff to try to avoid operator error.

The local table used by the renewal process contains the following fields:

print_desc [a string with all print descriptions that can be grouped together]

section_desc

row [a string with all rows that are affected for the print descriptions and package code(s) in the table row]

donation

pkg_code [a string with all package codes that are affected for the print descriptions in the table row]

facility

seats [a string with all seats that are affected for the print descriptions and package code(s) in the table row]

Although we are not live with subscriptions on the web just yet, we built a local table that lists all seats by package and perf, with the required contribution for each, and the required contribution is showing up in the cart. The local table used by the web API contains the following fields:

season_no

pkg_no

seat_no

seat_num

seat_row

zone_no

description

zmap_no

facility_no

print_desc

required_contr

We’ve used the first table for three or four seasons, and just added the second one a couple of months ago. There really only needs to be one local table, so perhaps I’ll get around to consolidating before our next renewal season.

Lucie

Hello Kind People:

Please accept this request for feedback in the area of package sales with a mandatory contribution.

We need to sell Ring Cycle tickets that will comprise a ticket price and a mandatory donation portion and we need help from the Network on how best to use Tessitura to meet our business need. 

Here's the context:

Our Ring Cycle packages will have a mandatory contribution attached to them.

We are looking to somehow ‘embed’ the mandatory contribution amount somewhere on the ticketing side of Tessitura.  We would like this to be used both by our ticket sellers, so they can get a visual cue of the amount they are to charge as a mandatory contribution, and possibly a cue for the web contribution.  (Note: We may use the web config file for this.  Again, we are asking if there is a best practice out there)

We considered using a layered price map with a ‘contribution’ category.  However, because that method does not allow us to acknowledge individual contributions, it does not seem suitable.  We understand that using a layered price map with a contribution category puts money into a G/L bucket, but that the money cannot be individually acknowledged,  and that won't work for us. 

Because of that, we are looking to put information somewhere related to tickets in Tessitura.

Now, here’s the rub:  The ring is in a future season, so we are not able to enter these contributions directly into a fund on the box office side; they all need to be designated.  The Box Office can’t do that, so this money is going on account.  Still with me here?

Some ideas we are considering are:

--(for the web portion) Using TR_SECTION  ‘Additional Text2’, which allows for additional information we do not currently pull.  If the mandatory contribution amount were entered here, it could be accessed from the data base and show up in an online sale.

--(also for the web portion) Perhaps within a price map that is editable, using the minimum amount as the holding place for the mandatory contribution amount.  Same method as above is

--For the box office sales reps:  The other is in the Facility setup, within the Zone Map where there is a short description which actually shows up on the order screen.  It is only a ‘description’ and doesn’t affect the price of the order, but might well give ticket sellers a visual cue.

If anyone has successful experience with this, please give a holler.  Likewise, if anyone has a good ‘Don’t do what we did’ warning, please let me know. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Any feedback would be appreciated.

Kindly,

Mark Sackett

Box Office Manager / Treasurer

San Francisco Opera

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Hi Kevin:
Thank you for the great tip.  We’ll certainly keep that in mind going forward.

Kindly,

Mark

Hi Mark,

In v9 you can make sales notes required, so they will automatically open if you try to save an order without having looked at the sales note.  So you could create a required sales note that informs the ticket sellers of the contribution amount.  Ideally they will see the red Notes button and look at the notes early in the order, but even if they don’t they won’t be able to save the order without seeing the note about the contribution.

Kevin Sheehan

Documentation & Learning Resources Specialist

Tessitura Network

1 888 643 5778 ext 329 Office

ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com