Secondary Ticket Outlet Voucher Redemption

The Secondary Ticket Reseller market place is an interesting one to say the least. This is where there are one or more ticket reseller companies in town acting as brokers for tickets for a number of venues.

Unlike conventional sales, the ticket buyer is not the actual patron. The patron is the Secondary Ticket Reseller and this is the person/company that we record the ticket sales against in order to manage receivables. The ticket buyer is a customer of the Secondary Ticket Reseller and we record that information, if it can be obtained, in Theatre Manager's ticket comment.

Typically, the sales and redemption process follows the picture and general steps below:

• The Secondary Ticket Reseller advertises themselves as a place where you can get tickets to all the major attractions in an area
• The ticket buyer comes to town for a visit and may stop at any one of the Secondary Ticket Resellers where they receive advice on the best 'hot shows' in town.
• When the ticket buyer selects some events, (1) the Secondary Ticket Reseller will call the venue direct (or may have a customer sections of seats set aside for them) and book some specific tickets. At this time, the Secondary Ticket Reseller may provide only an internal voucher number for the venue's reference to act as a booking number.
• At time of sale, the venue would
  • Provide Theatre Manager's (2) Order Number as a reference back to the Secondary Ticket Reseller to provide to the ticket buyer for confirmation at pickup time.
  • Enter any voucher number that the secondary reseller gives to the box office into the PO Field as a reference. (It may not be provided, depending on the reseller).
  • Enter the ticket buyer's name into the ticket comments in Theatre Manager as a cross reference - and so that the patron could be found at will call prior to the show. Note, some venues like to stick the patron name after the PO number and keep all data in one field - placing in ticket comments allows for printing of the real patron's name on the ticket.
  • It may also be advisable to adjust the ticket face so that the ticket comment prints on the ticket face if this has not already been done
• (3) The Secondary Ticket Reseller will give the ticket buyer a Promissory Note/Voucher number as proof of the financial transaction.
• The ticket buyer would then arrive at the venue prior to show time to get their tickets. At this time, they will need to (4) provide the actual promissory note/voucher from the Secondary Ticket Reseller to the venue
• At time of ticket redemption, the venue needs to:
  • Enter the voucher number for tracking and future receivables purposes. Note that the ticket buyer is not actually paying for the tickets, the Secondary Ticket Reseller will do that later.
  • (5) Print the tickets for the ticket buyer
  • (6) Reconcile the vouchers received in the till prior to end of day to ensure money can be collected
• At time of billing the reseller, the venue will need to:
  • (7) Print an invoice to the Secondary Ticket Reseller that shows the voucher numbers on it
  • Use the Theatre Manager invoice/email feature to sent it to the Secondary Ticket Reseller
  • Collect the money actually owed for the tickets and enter it as the true payment method to complete the A/R process

In Theatre Manager, the 'Promissory Note/Voucher' payment method can assist tracking these non-cash payments without affecting the receivables balances and provide a perfect audit trail.