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How (and Why!) to Manually Fulfill a Subscription: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1369539
Most of the time you'll fulfill subscriptions "in-band", seating the patron in the Event Instance and Allocation that the subscription package officially contains. In other words, if you sold a "First Fridays - Balcony" subscription package containing Macbeth on Friday June 1, you'd fulfill the subscription with a seat in the balcony for that particular show. If the patron calls the box office later to say that they need to attend on Saturday instead, you'd process an exchange.
But what if the balcony is sold out for the performance on Friday June 1? You can't fulfill a subscription into seats that are already sold, and you can't exchange a ticket if the ticket itself doesn't exist yet. This is where manual fulfillment comes in.
In this article, we'll cover:
- When to use manual fulfillment
- When you should process an exchange instead
- How to manually fulfill part of a subscription package
Ready? Let's dive in!
Manual fulfillment or exchange: how to choose
Manual fulfillment is an available option anytime a line item within a subscription package isn't yet completely fulfilled. So does that mean you should use it often? Probably not! In many cases, exchanging tickets is both easier and preferable for the sake of clarity and reporting.
Manually fulfill a subscription package component when...
- The Event Instance or Allocation in question is sold out, so you're unable to fulfill the performance normally
- The patron needs to sit in a different Allocation for that particular performance (e.g. they need a wheelchair seat for just that one show), and you know this up front when you're fulfilling the subscription
Process an exchange when...
- You've already fulfilled the subscription and need to move the patron to a different Allocation or performance
- Especially if you've already printed or emailed their tickets!
- You're moving the patron into a different seat or performance and you need to charge (or refund) them for the price difference
- The patron is moving to a different seating Allocation or weekday for all (or even most) of the subscription shows
- Consider exchanging the whole subscription package into a different package that better suits the patron's preferred seats or dates, and fulfilling the new package normally -- especially if they plan to keep these preferences in future seasons
Benefits of processing an exchange
Exchanging tickets instead of manually fulfilling is often preferable. Here's why:
Exchanging tickets makes it easier to see what happened, when, and why
This is especially important if the subscriber already had their original tickets and might accidentally show up on the original date or try to sit in their original seats.
You can exchange tickets for multiple performances at the same time
Manual fulfillment is limited to one subscription performance at a time. If a patron needs to adjust seating or dates for multiple shows at once, it will be faster and easier to process an exchange.
If you find yourself adjusting lots of things within a subscription package, though, consider exchanging the entire package instead:
Exchanging a subscription package is better for renewals (and easier to fulfill)
If you use the Subscription Renewal Tool, you'll be mapping this season's packages to next season. Even if you don't use that tool, you'll probably pull reports to use for subscription renewal mailings or email campaigns.
If Lucy purchases a Friday Subscription but later decides to switch to Saturdays, you could manually fulfill (or exchange) all the Friday performances for Saturday performances within the existing "First Fridays" package. It would be better, though, to exchange the "First Fridays" subscription package for a "First Saturdays" subscription package. You can quickly fulfill all the performances at the same time with the regular fulfillment process, and when you process renewals next year you'll be sure to offer Lucy a Saturday subscription renewal.
How to manually fulfill a performance in a subscription
You've read through the scenarios above and decided that manual fulfillment, rather than an exchange, is just the thing you need for your situation. How do you do it? Let's go through the steps.
1. Click "Fulfill" from the Order Info tab
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the unfulfilled performance, then click "Manually fulfill"
3. Select an Event and Event Instance
You'll see the originally-planned Event and Instance at the top left. You can choose the same performance, or a completely different one.
In this example we'll choose the same date.
4. Select a seat OR select a general admission ticket
This step varies depending on whether the performance you've selected is reserved seating or general admission -- choose the option that applies to you:
Select a seat (or seats) to fill a card
Depending on your venue configuration, you may need to choose a section to get to the seat map as shown below.
The card header will display the Allocation and Price Level originally included in the subscription package. You can choose any Allocation and Price Level you want, though.
Select the exact number of seats indicated on the active card, in this example, one:
Select the Price Level if applicable, then click "Confirm"
- The Price Level defaults to the first available subscription price level; if multiple are available, choose from the drop-down list.
- Note: This choice will impact your reporting, but will not prompt you to charge or refund the patron for any price difference; if you need to do that, process an exchange instead.
- All done? Click Confirm.
If you want to select a non-subscription Price Level, click the button at the top of the left column to "Show all active price levels." This is useful if you're fulfilling with a performance that's not normally sold as part of a subscription.
If there are no subscription price levels for the seat you try to select, you'll see a message asking if you want to select a non-subscription price. If you choose that option, you'll need to click the seat again.
Repeat as needed to fill as many cards as you'd like
You can complete as few or as many cards this way as you want, then click "Next".
Need to fulfill some cards into a different performance? No problem, click the "Select New Event" button on the bottom left after filling the first card(s).
Note that each card must be either empty or completely fulfilled -- in other words, if a card prompts you to "Select 2 seats" you must either select (and confirm) both seats, or leave the card empty.
All done!
You'll land back on the Subscription Fulfillment page, with the new tickets added. The header for that subscription component will tell you what was originally included in the package, and the line items underneath indicate the specific tickets that are filling that spot.
Select an Event and Event Instance
Select an Allocation to view available Price Levels
Click "Add" next to the Price Level you want
This choice will impact your reporting, but will not prompt you to charge or refund the patron for any price difference (if you need to do that, process an exchange instead).
Clicking "Add" will fill the active card with the appropriate number of seats (in this example, one).
If there are no subscription Price Levels in the Allocation (e.g. if this is a performance that's not normally part of a subscription), you can click the button at the top of the left column to "Show all active price levels".
Repeat as needed to fill as many cards as you'd like
You can complete as few or as many cards this way as you want, then click "Next".
Need to fulfill some cards into a different performance? No problem, click the "Select New Event" button on the bottom left after filling the first card(s).
All done!
You'll land back on the Subscription Fulfillment page, with the new tickets added. The header for that subscription component will tell you what was originally included in the package, and the line items underneath indicate the tickets that are filling that spot.
