We now support "Buy one, get one free" discount codes. And actually, they're even more flexible than that -- it's really a "buy X, get Y free" discount, since you can also set them up in other ways like "buy two get one free," "buy three get two free," and so on.

On the discount codes tab, you'll have the option to choose "Buy X, Get Y Free" as the Discount Type, and then set the "paid item count" (x!)" and the "free item count" (y!).

Here’s what it looks like:

The least expensive ticket is always one that becomes the free ticket. These codes work for online sales and back office too. (We've updated the User Guide lesson about creating discount codes, so you can click here to learn more details about how the new codes work.)

You'll notice that we've redesigned a few pages of the Quick Order Form in order to accommodate this new discount code type:

Instead of setting price levels on the same page as seat selection, you'll click "next" and use this screen to make all your pricing and discounting decisions. We realize that this change might take a little bit of time to get used to, but it should make it easier to deal with price levels and discount codes overall.

This was another frequent request regarding discount codes: the ability to limit the number of discounted tickets a patron could purchase in one transaction. You'll find a new field on the discount code setup page that will allow you to set this limit.

You can now display customizable text on the shopping cart page to prompt your patrons to buy something else, based on an item they've already added to their cart.  Some examples might be:

"Since you're buying a ticket to Romeo & Juliet, did you know that for only $45, you can get a ticket to next month's production of Hamlet, too? Click here!"

"Because you're buying a ticket to the Pops concert across town, you might want to buy a parking pass, too. Click here!"

To implement this, find the new field on the Event Instance called "Custom Cart Text," which allows you to use custom text and HTML to display a message to your buyers when that Instance is added to their cart.

In the past, the best way to access the "buy tickets" links to specific events in order to post on your website was to go to the online ticket site and navigate to them. Now you can find those links within PatronManager. Just look in the event inventory tab for direct links to events or event instances:

This will be particularly helpful if you need to publish links to events that are private, or that haven't gone on sale yet!

(Tip: It's always a good idea to link directly to a particular event or performance when applicable, rather than linking to the main "All Events" page of your ticketing site! The fewer clicks your patrons need in order to buy tickets, the better.)

We've always let you add a line of text to prompt patrons to make a donation as part of their ticket purchase; now, if you want, you can suggest a specific dollar amount for that donation.

It can either be a fixed amount, or a calculated percentage of the order subtotal (rounding up to the nearest multiple of $5).

To enable this feature, go to the PatronTicket Settings tab and use the "Suggested Donation Amount" and "Suggested Donation Type" fields.

Here's what it'll look like to your patrons:

We've reorganized the ticket order confirmation page to give you more control over the information that displays, and to provide a clearer and more streamlined design.

Many of you have asked for the ability to reallocate seats to multiple event instances at the same time, so it's faster and easier to manage your venue maps. Now, all you need to do is select the instances you'd like to change from the ticketable event page, and click the "Reallocate Seats" button. Just make sure all of the instances you choose are in the same venue! Here's what it looks like:

(What you can't do yet is create brand-new allocations on the fly during this process -- but we're going to build that feature too. For now, if you need to reallocate into an allocation that doesn't exist yet, you'll need to create the new allocation in each instance first, then come back and follow the steps above.)

We now allow you to group your Sales Summary Reports by a secondary filter, which means you're able to see more of the data you want in that Report. For example, you can group by User first, and then by Payment Method so you can see how many checks were handled by each box office rep during a specific time period.

Now you can add a personal touch to your PatronMail campaigns by including the recipient's first and/or last name in the greeting!

By adding a simple variable to the text of your campaign, you'll be able to address patrons by name, and also to set default text that will appear if you don't actually have a first name stored on the Contact record.

Just add the following:

##patron_first_name%[default]## or ##patron_last_name%[default]##

...and replace the "[default]" string (including the brackets) with "Friend" or "Patron" or whatever other form of address you'd prefer.

(Click here for full detailed instructions about using this feature, including some important considerations you'll want to think about.)

(And yes, in the future we'll give you the ability to use other merge fields beyond first and last name! This is just the first step, with more to come.)

Pinterest! Tumblr! Instagram! Vimeo! (Myspace?)

We've added a ton of new options of services to link to in the "connect with us" section of your PatronMail campaigns.

Set them up in the "Edit Account Information" section inside PatronMail, and then you'll be able to select which ones to display on each e-mail you send.

(In case you work in development and scrolled straight past the box office stuff to this section, we wanted to make sure you saw this one.)

We've always let you add a line of text to prompt patrons to make a donation as part of their ticket purchase; now, if you want, you can suggest a specific dollar amount for that donation.

It can either be a fixed amount, or a calculated percentage of the order subtotal (rounding up to the nearest multiple of $5).

To enable this feature, go to the PatronTicket Settings tab and use the "Suggested Donation Amount" and "Suggested Donation Type" fields.

Here's what it'll look like to your patrons:

In the last major release, we created a Major Donor badge.

Now we have added a few more colorful, eye-catching badges that you can display on the Contact and/or Account records to easily identify your key patrons.

Mark your Board Members and Subscribers:

...as well as your VIPs:

The badges will display based on criteria specific to your organization, so contact us and we can set it up for you.

We've added a few fields to the Contact record that save you from clicking back up to the Account to see the Last Donation Date, Lifetime Donation Amount and total Amount Donated This Fiscal Year -- these are formula fields so they update automatically as the values change on the Account:

Adding these fields to the Contact also makes it easier to run certain reports.

If you're looking for an easy way to add a personal touch to your interactions with patrons, why not remember their birthdays? We've added new fields, reports, and the option for a new workflow to help you keep better track of your patrons' birthdays, so if you've been collecting that data you can now use it in a bunch of new ways.

In addition to the Birthdate and Age fields which already exist, we now have a formula field called Next Birthday:

We've built this field into a simple new report called Birthday This Week, which can easily be modified to add additional fields or a look at a different time frame:

Like all reports, you can have this report sent to your inbox on a regular schedule and also create a campaign (e-mail or otherwise) with it.

The Next Birthday field can also be used to set up automatic birthday alert task e-mails that you can configure to be sent to the appropriate staff member at your organization:

For step-by-step instructions on how to do that, click here.

Finally, you can also send customized, *automatic* birthday e-mails to your patrons. There's a free app in the salesforce.com AppExchange called Birthday eMailer that can automate this for you:

You can read more about this app here.

For organizations who have a major gifts campaign, it's important to track your prospects throughout cultivation process. We're adding a *lot* of new fields to help you manage your donor relationships -- here's an overview. (Some of these fields are in your account already, but others are custom on-demand features that you should ask us for if you want them.)

We've added commonly used Stages to the Major Gift Donation record type that represent the Major Gift lifecycle, from initial engagement through gift receipt:

We've also added three new customizable drop-down fields so that you can more easily categorize and identify your donor prospects:

These fields come with a set of values, but if you would like a different scale for any or all of them, let us know and we can modify them for you (or show you how to do that yourself).

Another new field, Donor Status, is a formula field that displays pre-set text depending on your organization's specific criteria. It simplifies a lot of other pieces of data into a single field, which will tell you at a glance who your New Donors, Current Donors, and Non-Donors are. Donated Last Year but not This Year, and  Donated Some Year but not This Year can also be calculated:

If you want this field, let us know and we'll custom-configure it for you based on other donation summary fields that already exist, as well as your own date parameters.

The Lifetime Donation Level formula field puts your donors into tiers based on their Lifetime Donation History. The tiers will be configured to your specifications:

The Last Donation Amount roll-up field displays the dollar amount of a patron's last donation on the Account record. This is a great field to use in solicitation letters:

Over the next few months we'll be rolling out brand new donation forms. As a result of this process, all of your PatronManager web forms will be brought under one, single domain (https://*YOUR ORG*.secure.force.com/).

The new forms will be able to match the look and feel of your website, ticketing site, and signup form much more closely than the old ones could, and it will be easier for you to manage the forms yourself without always having to contact us! (The tighter integration of the new forms will have other benefits in the future too.)

This feature will be rolled out over an extended period as our client services department will need to migrate the forms for you. There's nothing you need to do yet, just watch for an e-mail from us soon, with links to your new forms to post on your website.

We’re changing the way credit cards are processed in PatronManager.

What's Changing:

Until now, PatronManager has been acting as a “merchant” and processing your credit card charges via PayPal’s Website Payments Pro service. We have now become a “Payment Service Provider,” and to do so we have chosen to partner with Litle & Co., a Boston-based company that is a leader in transaction processing and merchant services, to serve as our processing gateway.

What This Means to You:

This will be invisible to your patrons who are buying a ticket or making a donation -- these changes are all behind the scenes -- but it represents a different relationship between us and the major credit card companies. It also gives us the ability to offer new product features in the future -- such as the ability to charge recurring payments, and to process credit card refunds beyond the current 60-day limit, for example.

What to Expect:

Nothing has changed yet! We'll be transitioning all our clients during the next six months, and you'll know when it's your turn because you'll be hearing from us by e-mail with some forms you'll need to fill out to make this happen. For now, we just want to let you know that this will be happening soon.

We're looking for a couple of organizations to work with us to make this feature as good as can be.

Having multiple phone numbers for a significant number of your patrons can slow you down and lead to confusion about which number to call. This feature creates a new field to automatically let you know which is the preferred phone number, so there's no uncertainity.

If you would like to try this out, please contact customer service to participate in the pilot test of this feature.

When you write in to client services to report a bug or issue, we often reply letting you know it's been passed on to the product development team to be resolved. We mean it! Here's a quick rundown of some of the issues we've dealt with this time around:

• fixed an issue where patrons were being charged multiple times for exchange fee payments
• fixed an issue where incorrect amounts would display on Exchange Payment Transactions
• made sure that Patron Technology fees are never charged on tickets that are 100% discounted  
• improved "Amount Donated in Last X Days" process so if there's no change, the Account's "Last Modified Date" isn't updated
• made sure users can't accidentally remove venue reference from an existing event (whoops!)
• prevented internal box office users from being able to sell "Not for Sale" seats in certain venues
• corrected Public Ticketing site behavior so that discount codes can't be applied to the incorrect price levels
• fixed a problem with the Batch Printing tab caused by Salesforce's Spring '13 release

That's all for this release, folks! Congratulations on reading the whole thing -- as a reward, go watch Michelle's current favorite YouTube video.