Guide

Getting started

From a new account to a published, sellable event. Plan on one sitting for a venue with a chart you already have on paper.

Before you begin

• A sign‑in at the management portal (manage.ticketdemo.xyz): email and password, or Google or Apple.
• Your venue's address and a plan of the room: sections, rows, seat counts, any tables or standing areas.
• Access to the organization's bank details for Stripe's onboarding, before your first online sale. Comps issued at the counter don't need it.

The setup, in order

1. Create your venue. Name and address; place the pin on the map. The first venue you create also creates your organization and makes you its owner. The venue's time zone is worked out from its location, so on‑sale times display correctly for fans everywhere.
2. Draw the seating chart. Open the chart designer from the venue. Add sections with rows and seats, tables with seats around them, general‑admission areas with a capacity (and an accessible capacity), stages and labels. Mark individual seats accessible, companion or obstructed. Charts are versioned and auto‑saved; undo is there if you need it. One chart serves every event in that room.
3. Define price tiers on the chart. Tiers are named and coloured on the chart (“Orchestra”, “Balcony”, “Lawn”) and painted onto seats and GA areas. No prices yet: those are per event.
4. Create the event. Name, description, start (and optionally end and doors) time, and artwork. Set the focal point on the image so every crop across the site keeps the right part in frame. The event starts as a draft; drafts are invisible to fans.
5. Assign the chart. This copies the room into the event as live inventory and clones the tiers. Now set a price on each tier. Every tier needs a price above zero before the event can publish. If you need a one‑off layout for this event, customize the chart: the copy is yours to edit without touching the venue template.
6. Holds and kills (optional). Create hold groups for seats you're keeping back (artist, press, sponsors) and kill groups for seats you can't sell. GA areas can be held by quantity. Held seats show as unavailable online and can be released any time.
7. Sale phases. Add a General sale phase with a start time; every event needs one. Add Presales with an access code (at least 8 characters) and their own windows. Each phase can be limited to a seat pool, a GA allocation and a set of tiers, with optional price overrides. Phases can include all inventory if you'd rather keep it simple.
8. Waiting room (recommended for big on‑sales). Turn it on for the event and set the lobby window. Fans who arrive early are shuffled fairly at the on‑sale moment; a controller manages how fast the line drains. Small events can leave it off.
9. Payouts. On the organization's Team page, an owner connects a Stripe account. Stripe's hosted onboarding collects the details; the status panel shows when charges and payouts are active. Do this before your first paid on‑sale.
10. Publish. Change the event's status to Published. The system checks that a chart is assigned, a general phase exists, every tier has a price, and the inventory matches the chart, and tells you exactly what's missing if it refuses.
11. Invite your team. From the Team page, send invitations by email with a role. See Team & roles.

Checking your work

• Open the storefront and find the event. A published event with a future general phase shows its on‑sale time and a Remind me button.
• Open the box‑office app and pick the event. You can sell a comp to yourself to see the whole flow, then void it (managers only).
• From the management portal's inventory view, confirm seat counts and the accessible pool.