Automatic social distance holds has been a feature of Theatre Manager for quite a while - primarily for use for dinner theatres and ADA seating. You may even be using this feature on some of your maps.
	NOTE: If you have permanent house helds (eg for light board), DO NOT set social distance seats for permanent holds. Instead, set the rest of your social distance seating as if those seats never existed. If you want to make permanent holds look like they are blocked online, set the hold letter to 'q'.

In the context of social distance sales and COVID19, you can create an empty seat barrier around each seat. If you do:

• when seats are bought online and/or sold at the box office or over the phone,
• theatre manager will put a social distance ring of held seats around the seats that were sold.

 

Implementing Automatic Social Distance Sales

The following is a recommended process for doing social distance seating:

1. Select and edit a venue you want to implement social distancing for
2. Select the pricing map that you currently use and right-Click to duplicate it
3. After duplicating the pricing map:
   • edit the pricing map and:
     • Change the internal name of the map to indicate it is for social distancing. eg you might change it from

       My Main Venue to something indicator to the patrons like My Main Venue with automatic social distance

     • Alter any price codes if you want to offer fewer
   • Click on the Graphic Map tab and
     • Click on the Social button - make all the social distance seat holds as per the instructions in the link
     • Click on the Entry button - and select seats to assign a zone to (as per the instructions in the link)
   • On the description tab, a very important feature of the automatic method is to set the reporting capacity. It should be set to limit the total overall seats sold for a performance to meet governmental limits while ignore social distance holds.

     For example: this lets you set an absolute limit of 100 sold seats in a venue, regardless of how many social distance seats are required to make that happen.

4. Edit your ticket face and add the zone number to the ticket face in some prominent way
5. Find the events in the future and change the pricing map to the new one you just edited
6. Add some performance notes similar per the image below to give the patrons some assurance, or customize your ticket event list to indicate that the performance is sold with social distance in mind.

   

 

What does the Social Distance Map look like online?

There are two icons, one for each of

• sold seats (or manual holds by box office) - the person in the seat
• social distance hold seats - a 'do not use' icon representing the socially held seats which will be shown as a 'q' in the box office.

Both of these icons can be changed from the default by editing a web page.

 

Social Distancing is the conscious effort to reduce close contact between people whether at home, work or in public as an effort to slow or stop the spread of highly contagious diseases. An example is Officials recommend Social Distancing as a means to help slow or prevent the spread of COVID-19. If you are implementing Social Distancing at your venue it may mean working from home and/or creating more space between patrons during a performance.

 

	This technique can be used to reduce venue size down to government mandated levels by adding enough mandatory holds. We recommend the automated social distancing approach as it handles spacing automatically - but it may not be for every venue.
	You might start out with a pattern of seats that create distance .. and as the performance fills in, you can re-adjust the holds based on purchased seats

 

Distance between Seats

Some clients may be continuing with events and implementing Social Distancing within the Theatre. One approach to this process is holding seats within the venue to not only limit the number of patrons who can attend but also offer more space between seats for those attending. Local officials will determine the recommended distance between patrons and seats.

 

 

Distance between patrons in a performance can be created by holding seats. Depending on where you are in the process the options below outline how to create holds:

• in the setup of a map to ensure the seats are held when building future event
• in the maps tab for a performance for an event
• through the Order window for individual performances

 

Changing Maps

An organization may decide to create a Social Distancing map. This map would contain held seats to meet the regulations outlined by officials for group gatherings. Upcoming events can be altered to use this map. When capacity regulations are lifted the map can be updates once more to return to the original configuration or holds can be released within the performances themselves. The process for implementing a Social Distancing map would be:

1. duplicate the existing map
2. hold seats on the map
3. change the map on an existing event
4. update the holds for the performance to use the default holds for the new map

Some organizations may choose to move from Reserved Seating to General Admission / Festival Seating to allow patrons the option to create distance between themselves and others attending a performance. Click the Changing a Performance from Reserved to General Admission Seating link for details steps.

 

Updating Web Pages

By default Theatre Manager displays unavailable seats on the map using a Font Awesome icon that appears in the shape of a person. This icon is used for both sold and held seats. The default icon works well under traditional circumstances where we are holding seats to manage how the house fills, to block off sections or to be booked at a later date using complimentary tickets. However, when implementing social distancing the icon may create the illusion of sitting next to another person when in fact the seats will remain empty. For this reason we recommend editing the web pages and changing the icon for seats that are currently unavailable.

 

 

The web pages to edit may not currently be customized for your organization. If this is the case you'll need to download the most recent default pages and copy the pages into the WebPagesEN/tmMaps folder on your Primary Web Listener computer. Once the pages are in place you can then make changes to the content. The pages and edits are outlined below:

1. WebPagesXX/tmMaps/tmChangePerformanceMap.html
   • Change unavailable_text=&#xf007 - on Line 3
   • Change unavailable_text=&#xf007 - on Line 4
2. WebPagesXX/tmMaps/tmPickYourSeatMapDisplay.html
   • Change unavailable_text=&#xf007 - on Line 42
   • Change fa-user - on Line 56

The icon currently displayed on the page can be updated to any of the available options on the Font Awesome website. In this example the default icon is replaced with an asterisk. The values for an asterisk are &#xf069 and fa-asterisk. Once replaced, Clear Web Cache in one of two ways:

• Clear Web Cache button in System Preferences on the Director tab -or-
• go to each of the web listeners, start the Director and clear the cache on the 'status' page

 

 

 

If your organization has implemented steps for Social Distancing not listed above we would love to hear about them. Please contact the support team and let us know what you are doing to help limit risk.

 

In very simplistic terms, when you refund a ticket (or donation, pass, etc), two things happen:

• Refunding one or more tickets causes:
  • you to owe the patron something in return -and-
  • until you SELL them something, the order will have a balance owing. This shows up throughout order and patron lists in Theatre Manager in blue.
• To address the order balance payable to the patron, you need to one of the following to convert the payable owed the patron:
  • convert the order balance payable to a donation, - or -
  • convert the balance payable to a gift certificates -or-
  • give the patron money (cash or refund to credit card)

	Before you do any refunding, please make sure to set up gift certificates and donation campaigns to track refunds appropriately if you are not giving money back. Do not leave the order on account.
	You can tell how much you refunded to an event using the Transaction history by event report (see also the youtube video explanation). However, this report only tells you how much you refunded, and not what you refunded money to.
	You can refer to reports that show where money went if you've refunded tickets to passes, gift certificates and/or donations.

If you require to have more understanding to WHO OR WHAT you refunded money to, you need to be explicit in what you use to 'pay the customer back'. If you simply refund the tickets and give the patron nothing in return (i.e. you leave an order balance payable to the customer), you will have a hard time tracking what you turned the money into.

	VERY IMPORTANT: At a minimum, we suggest refunding the money to gift certificate or a donation that you give a very specific name to - which can then be tracked. The mass refund of tickets option supports return to gift certificate or donation. Do not leave the order on account.
	EQUALLY IMPORTANT: If you want to track refunds by event, make a separate donation of gift certificate for each event that you are refunding and take care to refund only tickets to the appropriate campaign or gift certificate.

By way of short example:

If you create one or both of these below, then refund tickets and buy:

• a gift certificate called COVID certificate, you can track refunds to passes by counting the passes.
• donation campaign called COVID donation campaign, you can track refunds to donations by looking at this campaign

If you refunded all tickets to donations or gift certificates, you can get an accurate sense of what you exchanged things to using a report from one of three report categories: Transaction Reports that show the sales/refunds and specifically what was done and to whom by date/time. Transactions are summarized into: the Daily Sales Summary when they are created -and- the G/L reports during end of day processing. Note:when end of day is done reports in the three categories match - until a subsequent transaction occurs. Daily Sales Summary report for ticket refunds/exchanges and also sales of passes and donations in a date range GL Summary reports for a range of dates or the end of day GL reports or exports

Any difference between ticket refunds and purchases of gift certificates/donations means that the patron received their refund by cash/card/or check.

 

Finding where your money is

How much ticket money was refunded?	If you want to simply find the total value of tickets refunded and who you refunded them to refer to the transaction history report If you want to see how much you refunded on a daily basis or by event, use Daily Sales Summary report category - selected by event. These are based on the same transactions above and if your criteria is the same, they will match. One that might particularly help is the Sales/Exchanges/Refunds report which shows sales per day (likely none), the exchanges (likely none) and the refunds, as well as the net change in sales to the event. Note: Daily sales summaries show the general activity in the system and break it down by date of transaction into categories for ticket sales (or refunds), donation sales (or refunds) and Gift Certificate sales (or refunds). It should give you a view of where the money went (except those refunds returned in cash to the customer - see last item in this table) Your end of day Journal Entries - You can look at either GL Summaries (which will show the decrease in ticket revenue for an event) or at the GL Detail (since there is a line for refunds to each event).
How much was returned to gift certificates?	On the Gift Certificate patron tab you can see an accurate list of the patrons that have been given the gift certificate for their ticket return. You can use this data to: obtain the amount refunded - since it is simply the total sales value for the certificate for every patron in the list emailing patrons - since you can use the gift certificate data file in conjunction with the gift certificate name to tell patrons that they have one and how to use it - especially if you allow the certificate to be redeemed online building mail lists -and - seeing if patrons are using their gift certificates. What about some sample reports if I don't see the information on the screen? You can have summary or detailed reports about pass/gift certificate usage - there are a number under this category if you created a new liability GL account for your COVID gift certificate, you can look at that to see how much is currently waiting to be redeemed or you can use the Journal Entry Detail by Account to see the change to the Covid account and see when things went in or out of that account
How much was returned to donations?	In the donation campaign donation tab, you can see a list of all donors whose tickets were returned for donations. You can use this data to: obtain the amount refunded to donations - since it is simply the total donation value for every patron in the list emailing patrons - since you can use the donation data file in conjunction with the campaign name to tell patrons that they have one. building mail lists -and - you can thank patrons and batch print receipts or use in thank you form letters if you wish. What about some sample reports if I don't see the information on the screen? You can have summary or detailed reports about donations - there are a number under this category. Some that might be especially interesting might be the donation audit trail reports to see when things happened and if patrons have been thanked with a receipt. if you created a new liability GL account for your COVID donation ticket return campaign, you can look at that to see how much is currently donated Journal Entry Detail by Account to see the change to that account.
How much was returned to cash or credit card?	Very simply, the difference of the Total Ticket Refunds - Total Donations to COVID campaign - Total purchases of COVID Gift Certificates = Total Refunds to Cash and Credit Card. Ultimately accounting reports in your accounting system should tell you the net difference because the data comes changes to your accounts. These can be backed up with the GL reports, the daily sales summaries and the other reports mentioned above.

	Before you do any refunding, please make sure to set up gift certificates and donation campaigns to track refunds appropriately if you are not giving money back. Do not leave the order on account.
	HOWEVER: if you did not: create a custom return Donation Campaign -or- create a custom return Gift Certificates/Pass -or- create a custom G/L account to use with the custom return campaign/pass -or- leave all your refunds on account You can Correct the Data so that you can use some of the key reports to help your analysis using one or more of the methods below.

 

I just refunded tickets and left the orders on account

If you just left your orders on account when doing tickets refunds, you will have a lot of orders or patrons that show:

• in blue on the Receivables Window -or-
• negative on the Receivables Report

If you know these to be from refunds to tickets because the age of the receivables is relatively new, on the Receivables Window you can:

• Double click on the order that is blue (showing you owe the patron money)
• If you are sure this is from a ticket return and there are no other orders with this patron's name on it, refer to refunding to an individual patron and add one of following to take up the balance:
• Gift Certificate or Pass
• Donation - if the patron indicates that is their intent
• Refund the money - if the patron indicates that is their intent.

Safest is to return the money to a gift certificate or pass, since that can be used for tickets and/or refunded to cash/card later. Passes or Gift Certificates can also be set to redeem online, so patrons can buy tickets from you once you are able to open again and use their pass without contacting you.

 

I didn't use a specific pass and I should have

If you didn't make a new gift certificate or pass to track ticket refunds for COVID, then:

• make the appropriate pass/gift certificate to suit your needs.
• find the patrons you used the incorrect or hard to track pass for:
  • Edit the pass
  • Change to your new, easier to track Pass/Gift Certificate Type (make sure its the same redemption type as the old one)

 

I didn't use a specific donation campaign and I should have

If you didn't make a new donation campaign to track ticket refunds for COVID, then:

• make the donation campaign to suit your needs.
• find the patrons you used the incorrect or hard to track campaign for:
  • Edit the donation
  • Change the campaign to your new, easier to track donation campaign.

If you are self-hosting your database, where the database serve is located in your office, we recommend using a VPN for secure access and an application such a Remote Desktop, LogMeIn, Go To My PC or TeamViewer. Applications such as these will allow you to access a computer within the office and work from that computers desktop. If you choose to implement a Terminal Server staff can work off the same machine using their own remote session.

Various ways of accessing the database remotely are outlined in Remote Access to Theatre Manager and refers to some considerations to maintain PCI compliance. Comprehensive Links are provided in the page above, as well as some key technologies below for convenience.

 

Common remote access mechanisms

While there are many vendors of remote access software, the ones that we see used most often are:

• Using a VPN and local copy of TM for full and secure network access - best used when internet connections are fast
• Using Microsoft Remote Access (RDP) and Terminal Server for full managed access to TM - best used when internet is marginal/poor or you need to control internal network access
• Using a remote access tool like TeamViewer, LogMeIn, or similar to simply access your own machine from a remote location. Best when no remote ticket printing is required.

Artsman clients currently using our Cloud Hosting service can connect to their database simply by installing Theatre Manager on their work station, selecting Cloud Hosting and entering their unique key and password. The link for installing Theatre Manager is the same as those provided in the initial email for connecting to Cloud Hosting.

The following three steps indicate how to install on your home computer:

1. Download and run the latest 64 bit version of Theatre Manager for:
   • Macintosh (for Sierra or later) or
   • Windows (64 bit V7.0 or later)
   • Note: Contact the Artsman support team if you are running Windows 7 (32 bit) on your home computer for a special installer.
2. Connect to Artsman Cloud Hosting:
   • follow the steps in the online help page
   • use your company cloud credentials -and-
   • log in using your standard Theatre Manager Employee password when you see the password screen
3. (Optional) Install any recommended Windows or OSX updates available to your home machine so that you have the latest security patches and virus software definitions. However, stay with your current version. eg:
   • if you are using High Sierra on macOS, just update to latest High Sierra patch.
   • If you are at Mojave, update to latest Mojave patch.
   • Do not update to a more recent OS version like Mojave or Catalina or Windows 7.1 to Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 at this time.
   • This helps ensure that your personal applications still work.

Throughout this period, we will ensure that your cloud services continue with same high level of service and provide support to you during our office hours while you work from home.