Course Management

Version 8 of Theatre Manager includes a module specifically for setting up, selling, assigning report cards for, and managing courses or classes that your organization may offer. The following pages include details about setting up Theatre Manager to best handle courses, how to set up the courses themselves, and then how to edit, sell, track course attendance and assign report cards for the courses.

Course Management Items In System Setup

Before using the Courses module, it is recommended that an organization first set up a few items in System Setup. The Performance Field #1 is a Company Preference that will affect Theatre Manager company or outlet-wide, so it should be discussed with other users/departments before changing or implementing. There are also Report Card Templates in System Tables that must be set before report cards can be created and assigned to a course. A few different items related to Courses appear in Code Tables. Instructions for setting up these features follow on the next few pages.

Performance Field #1

Prefromance Field #1 is a customizable drop-down field used to describe a performance.

For example, you could call it Performance Type and populate it with genre descriptions like Comedy, Drama, or Musical.

Using this field in the Course module, is a way of classifying Course Types.

In the example images, Performance Field #1 has been called Course Type, and has been populated with Acting, Movement, Musical Theatre and Voice as groupings for classes.

To change the name of the Field, go to Setup >> Company (or Outlet) Preferences <> Appearance Tab and scroll down to Performance Field #1 in the list on the left.
Select the name on the right from Performance Field #1.
It may be the same, or it may have been previously changed for your organization.
Change the name on the right to what is appropriate for your organization.

The change you make is Company (or Outlet) wide. Ensure, if the field has been used in the past, it is not currently in use or can it be altered to be more inclusive.

To populate the options available in Performance Field #1, please follow the instructions under Course Settings in Code Tables found here.

Course Settings In Code Tables

There are five code tables found in Setup >> System Tables >> Code Tables that need to be addressed when using the Courses Module. For more information, see:

Report Card Templates

Before Report Cards can be assigned or used in the Courses module, you need to set up the Report Card Templates in Setup >> System Tables >> Report Card Templates. Please click here for instructions on setting up a template to use with Report Cards.

Setting up a Course

Courses are set up in Theatre Manager just like any other event - in the Plays Window.

Your version may have been changed from the default "Plays" to "Events" or another similar title.

Access the Plays window by selecting Setup > Plays:
or by clicking the Plays button in the Theatre Manager toolbar.
The Play List Window opens.
Click the New button in the Play List toolbar to create a new record.
The Plays and Dates Window will open.

Entering the Course Title Information

Entering course title information is done in the plays window.

To enter course title information, you perform the following steps:

Enter a Play Code for the Course.
In this the example - 10ED1
Enter a code that is easy to remember and follows the naming conventions you may already have set at your venue for Play Codes. Play Codes must be unique and cannot be used again for future plays or courses.
Enter a Play Title that corresponds to the title of the Course.
Enter the season information that corresponds to the timing of the Course.
Enter a Venue Map.
If you have not set up a Venue specifically for Courses, you may want to do so. It can be a Festival Seating (or General Admission) map, but one needs to be entered here. Click here for information about setting up a new Venue Map.
Ticket information does not have to be entered if no tickets will be printed for the course.
If this is the case, choose "Mark tickets as printed (but don't print)" under Ticket Printing Information.
Ensure the Active Status box is checked.
This way, the course will show in the Plays List for purchase.
Enter any Web Sales Controls desired on the top right.
For example:

If Advance sales shut off at a certain time before the start of the class or

If a patron is limited to the number of admissions they may purchase for this specific course (otherwise the program default limit on ticket purchases will apply).
Make appropriate Ticket Printing selections.

You must enter Accounting information in the Accounting tab before you can Save the record.

Accounting information is discussed on the next page.

Course Accounting Information

The Accounting Tab information is the same as for any other Play or Event.

For more information about the Accounting Tab, click here.

You may want to set up specific liability and income accounts in your Chart of Accounts to correlate to course revenues. To read about adding accounts to your Chart, click here.

Adding Course Performances (Classes)

To add Performances (or Classes) to your Course, select the Performance Tab of the Plays and Dates Window.

Click the Add button in the bottom left corner of the screen.
The Performance Wizard opens, beginning with Step One (details begin on the next page).

Adding A Class - Step One

To add a class, you perform the following steps:

Enter the number of Classes that will fall under this Course.
In this example - 10.

Select "Course" as the Sales Method.

When "Course" has been selected, you will be given an option to either:

The difference is:

Each course is created as a separate performance

Create ONE course as series of classes

You can have multiple performances in your Course for patrons to choose from.

They can attend one session (or performance) and not the others.

This is useful if you are going to have one single class offered at several different times (just like any other event with multiple performances).

The individual classes can be sold separately

You are creating one Course that is a series of Classes

Patrons sign up to attend the whole series (this is the case in the example photos).

They purchase the entire series at once rather than separately.

Performance field #1 is customizable. It is used for descriptions of a performance.

For example: You could use this field to group courses (or performances) by type--acting, voice, movement, etc (or drama, comedy, musical, etc).

You can change the name of this field by following the instructions found here.
You can populate options in this field by going to Setup >> System Tables >> Code Tables.
Locating the name of the field (which is whatever you have changed it to in Company Preferences) and following the instructions found here.

The quantity to sell will initially be based on the venue assigned to the Course.

If you think the Course might oversell the size of the venue or if there is the possibility of adding more chairs to a venue, you can increase the quantity now.

you cannot increase the quantity to sell once the Course has been created. Changing the venue will not increase the quantity to sell.

The only way to increase the quantity is to create another event with a larger venue and move all the students out of this one and into the new one.

If there is a possibility of a higher quantity to sell, increase that value now.

Check the boxes next to the sales outlets for the course (the box office, the internet, etc).

You cannot set a performance for sale Via the Internet until after pricing and promotions are set. You can check the box for Via the Internet at this step, but you will have to go back and edit the performance after setting Prices and Promotions and click Via the Internet under the Performance Tab of the Plays & Dates Window for the Course. For more information about this tab, click here.

Set any appropriate Security controls for your venue.
When you have everything set correctly, click the Step 2 button at the bottom right of the window.

Adding A Class - Step Two

In Step Two, yous set the date of the first session of the Course.
You can use the calendar lookup to the right of the data field to help choose the correct date.
Use the sliders to select the number of Daily Performances for the classes in the course.
Make sure they correspond to the date you selected as a start date (for example, if you select Feb 1 and Feb 1 is a Monday, then you can't set Monday to zero performances).
Set the performance time for the start of each class in the course.
Click the Step 3 button in the bottom right of the window.

Adding A Class - Step Three

In Step Three, you are presented with a Calendar View of the Classes in the Course.

If one or more of the classes starts at a different time than the Performance Time set in Step Two, you can drag that instance of the class on the Calendar to the appropriate start time for that class. You can also move classes to another day if necessary.
When the Calendar looks the way you want, click the Build button in the bottom right corner.
This builds these classes into your database. The following dialog opens.
Click Build to continue adding the classes, or Cancel to go back to the Steps.
When you have completed building your classes, you will be returned to the Performance Tab of the Plays and Dates Window and your Course will now be populated in the window.

Setting Course Pricing

You set course pricing the same way Price Codes are set for any other Play or Event.

In the Pricing Tab, On the left, highlight the Course.
This enables the Price Codes on the right for editing.
Double click on each Price Code in turn to name the Price Code and/or set the price.

For more information about Price Codes, click here.

Enabling Course Promotions

Promotions, like Price Codes, are set in Courses the same way they are set for Plays or Events.

On the left side, highlight the Course to populate the promotions for that Course in the list on the right.
Highlight promotions you do not want to use for that Course and click the Disable button to turn those promotions "off".
Promotions are set to "Enabled" by default.

If you change your mind or later decide to allow a promotion for use in the Course, you may have to change the drop-down in the bottom right corner to show All promotions (it may be set to only display enabled promotions)
Highlight the one or ones you'd like to enable and click the Allow Use button to turn those promotions back "on".
For more information about Promotions, please click here.

Once you have completed the entire process from entering the course title, accounting information, performances, prices and promotions, you are ready to start selling Courses.

If you want to make further adjustments to the Course, click here for information about accessing the Performance Detail tabs.

Editing an Existing Course

You may want to edit a Course or the classes within a Course.

Most of the information you will want to access can be found under the Performance Tab for the Course in the Plays and Dates (or Events) Window.

To start, go to Setup > Plays or click the Plays button in the Theatre Manager toolbar.
In the Plays List, look up your Course and select it from the list.
For information about how to use the Plays List lookup, click here.
Select the Performance Tab of your Course Window.
Here, you can set the Sales Outlets for the Course by highlighting it in the list and checking the appropriate boxes at the top of the window.

After setting Price Codes and Promotions, you cancheck the Via the Internet button to sell the course online.

If necessary, you can also change Security Settings.
Select the Course from the Performance list and click the Edit button to open the Performance Detail Window.

Course Detail Window - Performance Tab

As indicated in the image, many fields in the Performance Tab are not accessible once the Course has been created and built. For instance, the Quantity to Sell field cannot be changed.

The fields available for editing are:

Performance Code	Defaults to Course for Course events
Default Price Code	You can change from the highest price default setting
Ticket Tax Code	where applicable
Check Box	for including the performance in annual patron statistics
Held Seat Count	For holding seats (useful if you have overestimated the quantity to sell and have not yet reached full capacity). For example, if the venue usually holds 24 people but you could add 6 more chairs, you may have set the Quantity to Sell at 30 and you can hold 6 of those seats here for release once the 24 seats sell.

Sales Management Tab

In the Sales Management Tab, you can set future onsale dates and times for sales outlets.

Though not necessarily valid for Courses, you can set a Performance as a Season Control Performance here.

The field for setting a Course or Performance as a Pay What You Can performance in Before Event Sales is found here. Courses can be sold in this way if you choose. For more information about Pay What You Can, click here.

Web Settings Tab

The Web Settings tab allows you to define a number of parameters for how the course is handled in Web Sales.

The Web Settings Tab allows you to set:

Performance Flags	These are most often used for Web Sales plug-ins
time limit to stop advance sales	For example, You can shut down sales an hour before the class starts to "cap" it./td>
specify a limit of tickets	Limit the number of seats a patron can purchase (defult is 10)
Notifications	You can assign notifcations from the drop-down
Performance Notes	Anything entered here will be visible to ticket purchasers online

Holds Tab

Returning tickets to "hold" only applies to Reserved Seating venues.

If your course is in a General Admission venue, this tab appears as in the image above, with the selection grayed out.

To set a number of holds in a GA venue, use the Holds area on the Performance Tab.

Security Tab

If your organization has Security Settings to determine which employees can sell which events, those can be defined here by checking the appropriate boxes.

Course Tab

On the left side of the Courses Tab, Report Cards issued for a Course are displayed. For more information about Report Cards, click here.

On the right side of the Courses Tab, Class Dates and information are displayed.

If a Course has been set up, but does not have any transactions associated, you can alter settings in the Course Tab to remove sessions of the course using the Remove button.
Sessions of a Course can be set as active or not active via the checkbox next to their entry on the Courses Tab.
Course dates and times can be changed in the appropriate fields in this tab before any sales are made.
If your organization wants to alter the value of Performance Field #1 for a class within a Course, you can make that change here.
If one or more sessions of a Course will take place in an Alternate Venue, you can also define it here.

Using an alternate venue will not affect the quantity of seats available for sale.

Selling a Course

Selling a Course to a patron, is the same as selling a ticket. For Courses created as a series of classes, buying the Course gives the patron a seat in each of the classes.

Courses created as individual events must be bought separately, just like any other event.

Quick Reference information on Buying a Ticket

Quick Reference Guide

Cheatsheet

Screenast

Creating redirect links on your main website specifically for Courses

Redirecting patrons to a specific list of Events or Performances can be especially helpful for organizations who offer Courses via the internet. In addition to the usual Buy Tickets link on the main website, a link can be created specifically for Courses. This will take patrons directly to a list of those Events setup as Courses in the Theatre Manager database. This way, your organization can encourage patrons interested in Courses to buy via the Course link rather than the main Events or Performances link.

For example:

A company has three Courses that are one-time events or workshops. Patrons can pick and choose or select all three if they'd like.

In our example, the company wants a link redirecting patrons to the list of Events/Courses (we'll discuss a need for a list of Performances/Classes further down).

In the Event List in Theatre Manager, the Courses look like this:

The Event # column is the one at the far left.

Those unique Event #'s - 86, 87, and 88 in the example - will belong to only the corresponding Event in the database and no others.

"x, y and z" are representative of those unique Event #'s in the search string in the link discussed above for creating a link to a list of Events.

A link to these Courses will look like:

https://tickets.myserver.com/TheatreManager/1/login&event=0&search=P_SEQ IN(86,87,88)

Similarly, you can create a link to a list of specific Performances for sale. This can be useful if your organization offers a Course made up of a series of Classes which can be purchased separately.

In this case, the Performance # works as the unique identifier for each Class in the Course.

Under the Course (Event) Setup, in the Performance Tab, the Perf # column is on the far left of the list of performances:

In the example image, the Perf #'s are 373, 374 and 375. A link to a list of those Classes would look like:

https://tickets.myserver.com/TheatreManager/1/login&event=0&search=PB_SEQ IN(373,374,375)

Care should be taken when creating Courses and Classes that you change the Sales Method to "Course" in the Performance Setup stage of the Course Setup.

Online patrons can purchase a Course and then assign another patron as the attendee for the Course (helpful in cases where the parent buys a class for a child who will be attending). For this option to be available, Courses must be setup as Sales Method - Course. For more information about Courses in Theatre Manager, click here.

Gifting Tickets and Courses

You can "gift" tickets to other household patrons or to unrelated patrons in Theatre Manager. This is especially useful for courses where parents frequently purchase classes for their child or children to attend.

Financial data remains attached to the purchaser's record, while the ticket is transferred to the receiver's account. The receiver is listed as the attendee to the event.

For more information about gifting tickets, click here.

Searching By Performance Field #1

One of the benefits of using Performance Field #1 in conjunction with Courses is that you can search by that field in the Performance Selection screen while purchasing a Course.

Change the drop-down lookup menu at the top left to whatever you have named Performance Field #1 to search just for events or courses that fit one of its descriptors.

For example, in the above image, Course Type is the name for Performance Field #1, and Acting is being selected as the descriptor as defined in the Code Tables for Course Type.

For more information about Performance Field #1 and Courses, click here.

To see instructions for adding values to the associated Code Table, click here.

Tracking Course Attendance

As patrons purchase tickets for Courses, they are automatically added to the Attendance Tab for that Course. Before the date of the first Course (or class), the attendance list can be viewed and printed. Once the first date arrives, the ability to set Attendance Reason is enabled via the Attendance Tab.

The image below shows the Attendance Tab for a Course which is set for a future date.

Setting Attendance Reason

The image above shows a Course Attendance Tab for a Course which has already occurred but for which the Attendance Reasons have not been set. The "Reason" column is blank for all attendees.

To set Attendance Reasons:

Highlight the Course in the left column to populate the Attendance list on the right.
Highlight the first attendee in the list.
Click the Set Attendance button on the bottom of the window.
Choose the Attendance Reason from the menu that appears:
A warning message will pop up asking if you want to set All attendees to the same reason at once, or if you'd like to Scan each one individually. Choose accordingly.
The attendee(s) will be marked with the Reason chosen.
If you need to clear the Reason for one or more attendees, highlight the first one in question and click the Clear Attendance button. The same menu will appear and you can either select a new reason or choose No Reason Given to clear the Reason column entirely for the selected attendee. You will also see the same warning asking if you want to Clear All or Scan each.

The image below shows the Attendance Tab with attendees' attendance reasons marked:

Report Cards

The ability to create, assign, and print report cards is part of the Courses module. Before report cards can be used, report card templates must be set up in Setup > System Tables > Report Card Templates. It is also necessary to set up in Code Tables course levels to assign different levels or grades of classes, report card categories for different areas in which to assess students, and report card ratings to describe your system of assessment. The next few pages will describe how to create and assign report cards for a course based on the template(s) created in System Tables, and how to complete the report cards for each student.

Assigning Report Cards

To assign a report card to a Course:

Open Plays from Setup or use the Plays button in the Theater Manager toolbar
Search for the Course in question in the Plays List and select it to open up the Plays and Dates Window.
Select the Performance Tab.
Select (double-click) the Course from the performance list to open the Performance Detail Window.
Select the Course Tab in the Detail Window.

Under the Report Cards to Issue column on the left, click the New button to insert a new report card. This opens the Report Card Detail Window.

Assign a name for the report card (could be the name of the course, for example)
Using the lookup button, choose a Template from the list of report card templates.
Enter a due date for the report card.
Under the Notes tab, Internal Notes are notes that will only appear within Theatre Manager. External Notes will print on every report card.
Click Save to populate the Report Cards tab with the name of each student in the Course and enable the report card to be completed.

Completing Report Cards

Once you have clicked Save on the Report Card Insert Window, you can click the Report Cards button to populate the list of students to whom report cards should be issued. This list comes directly from the Attendance tab for the Course. You will notice an area just above the Notes and Report Cards buttons that has a spot for Completed and Remaining...these are completed report cards and report cards remaining to be filled out.

Double-click on a student's name to open up that student's report card record.

The Report Card Information is already populated.

Under Status & Future Recommendation, there is a checkbox to mark that Report Card completed, and there are two drop-down menus.
Overall Rating is for the student's final grade or overall rating for the Course. This drop-down is populated from the Course Report Card Ratings from Code Tables.

Next Level will print on the report card as Next Recommended Course and is populated from the Course Level, also from Code Tables.
The Internal and External Notes fields work in the individual report cards much like the same fields work in the Report Card Template. Internal Notes will only appear inside Theatre Manager, and External Notes will print on the student's report card. The notes in *this* window will only apply to the selected student.
Click the Evaluation tab to move on to assessing the student based on the Categories and individual items in the report card.

Highlight a Category on the left to enable the items for each category as set up in the Report Card Template.
Assign a Rating for each item under each Category. The comments beside each item will print on the report card in line with that item.
Click the Save button and close that report card to move on to the next student in the Report Cards list.

Printing Report Cards

Report Cards can be printed either from each individual student's report card record using the Print

button in the report card window, or from within Reports accessed via the Theatre Manager toolbar.

To print from Reports, click the Reports button.
Select Course Reports > Course Report Card.

Set Criteria to Course Report Card #>is one of > select the Report Card you'd like to print.

Click Done to print the report cards.