PatronManager Help

All About Group Sales

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All About Group Sales: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1623759

Do you have community groups or school field trips visit you often that you'd like to process in PatronManager? Often, for group sales like these, you'll have a single point of contact for a group purchasing many tickets at once. You may also find that you need to modify the contents of a group's ticket order even after the first payment or deposit has come in.

When you have these types of groups coming in, how do you track their payments, keep the Ticket Order open for changes, and remind them about outstanding balances?

PatronManager's solution: Group Sales.

In this article, we'll go over:

  1. What Group Sales are
  2. Why Group Sales work the way they do
  3. How to get started with Group Sales

Finally, we have some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

What are Group Sales?

Group Sales are a way that you can process ticket sales for larger groups in PatronManager, with the flexibility to take multiple payments while keeping the Ticket Order open for editing.

Group Sales in PatronManager work by harnessing the power of both Ticket Orders and Opportunities, or Donations.

With a Ticket Order, tickets for seats or admission are held for the group, helping you to manage your inventory. Then, with a Group Sale Opportunity, or Donation, record, you can track incoming Group Sale Payments and invoice the group's leader. Once the Group Sale is fully paid and set, you'll be able to complete both the Opportunity and Ticket Order, keeping everything recorded in your system.

For a full walk-through on how to process a Group Sale, check out our article here.

Why do Group Sales work like this?

Group Sales need to use both a Ticket Order and an Opportunity, or Donation, because of the flexible nature of group visits.

Ticket Orders become locked for editing once a payment is processed, preventing you from adding or removing seats. For this reason, it's not possible to just use a Ticket Order to track a Group Sale and its payments.

To provide that flexibility, the Group Sale Opportunity record houses individual Group Sale Payment records, allowing you to process payments for the Group Sale in installments without locking down the Ticket Order.

How do I get started with Group Sales?

First, read through our article on how to process Group Sales, to get a full overview of the process, here.

Once you've read through the article, make sure that Group Sales is set up in your account by navigating to a Contact record and making sure you have the "New Group Sale" action listed.

The New Group Sale action

Once you've confirmed that you have the New Group Sale action on your Contacts, you're good to get started!

Wait! I don't have the New Group Sale action!

Not to worry! Submit a case in the Client Community and our Client Support team will get Group Sales all set up for you.

During set up, we'll get the appropriate fields and Record Types set up in your account so that you can take advantage of this feature. This process normally takes 2-3 business days.

Please note that you must be fully switched over to Lightning for our team to set up the Group Sales system.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can patrons purchase Group Sales online?

Because Group Sales involve both a Ticket Order and an Opportunity, and normally don't require a full payment immediately, it's not currently possible for patrons to purchase Group Sales online.

That being said, you can have patrons request a Group Sale online via a form on your website, which can provide you with the details you need to create the Ticket Order and Opportunity for the group.

Additionally, once you've created the Group Sale, you can have patrons pay for Group Sales online by using a Donation Form.

If you'd like the ability for patrons to process Group Sales online, upvote this Product Idea!

Can I report on Group Sales?

Absolutely! There are some built-in Group Sales reports in your account, and a few that may need some customization for you to use.

Additionally, because Group Sales are built as Opportunities, or Donations, you can also run reports on Group Sales by filtering by Donation Record Type.

What if a group needs to cancel?

It's sad, but sometimes a group just isn't able to make it. When that happens, you can refund the Group Sale.

Can I see a demo on Group Sales?

Sure thing! We go through the process of a Group Sale in this webinar (along with some tips and tricks!).

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