We are excited to announce that The Events Calendar and Event Tickets got upgrades today! We’re here to give you the details.
Onboarding Wizard is a streamlined setup tool that helps new users get started quickly with The Events Calendar. Enjoy a guided walkthrough of how to set up your first event.
Booking fees for Event Tickets is aimed at helping event organizers cover general administration costs. Booking fees enable you to charge an additional fee on top of the ticket price. This is a common practice for event organizers, as booking fees help offset a variety of operational expenses.
Let’s get into these updates!
An Overview of the Onboarding Wizard for The Events Calendar
Let’s start by exploring the Onboarding Wizard. With this guided process, new users can get up and running quickly with The Events Calendar. It provides the tools and information you need to set up your first event.
With the Onboarding Wizard, new users can enjoy:
- Reduced setup time from hours to minutes: Save time by this streamlined setup approach.No more searching through multiple tabs—everything you need is right in the WordPress dashboard.
- Guidance through the essential first steps: Provides clarity on how to publish an event and on what information is necessary. It also helps you determine if you need the free version of Event Tickets and walks you through setup.
- Flexibility in the setup experience: Experience a flexible process with the option to skip steps, save your progress, and resume later.
Onboarding Wizard supports new users in their setup process, saving valuable time.
Utilizing the Onboarding Wizard for The Events Calendar
To access the Onboarding Wizard, navigate to the admin dashboard and select Events → First Time Setup.
The Onboarding Wizard page will appear. You have the option to either set up my calendar or skip guided setup. For this runthrough, we are going to set up the calendar. At the bottom of the page, click the checkbox to share basic information and have access to the chatbot.
There are five steps after you start the setup process: display, settings, organizer, venue, and tickets. On the Display page, choose how you want to display your calendar.
Next, on the Settings page, select the currency, time zone, date format, and the day your week starts on.
On the Organizer page, enter the organizer’s name. You also have the option to add a phone number, website, and email address.
The Venue page lists the venue name, address, city, state, zip code, and country. Optionally, you can add a phone number and a website.
Lastly, on the Tickets page, you have the option to install Event Tickets for free, which will be helpful if you are selling tickets or collecting RSVPs.
As you can see, our new Onboarding Wizard guides you through the entire process of creating an event, helping you learn the right steps. This feature is designed to help new users quickly become familiar with The Events Calendar.
An Overview of Booking Fees for Event Tickets
With this Event Tickets update, you can now add booking fees to your ticket sales, offsetting your general administrative costs. All booking fees can be displayed separately or included in the total price. Additionally, all fees can be customized per event.
Here’s how booking fees can enhance your event planning experience:
- Helps separate operational costs from the ticket price, ensuring transparency in cost distribution.
- Provides flexibility in revenue collection, accommodating different venue costs. Since each venue has unique overhead expenses, booking fees allow you to cover those fluctuating costs while keeping ticket prices consistent.
- Maintains a competitive base ticket price while still covering essential expenses.
- Streamlines accounting by distinguishing additional service costs.
- Enables revenue sharing with partners and vendors.
As you can see, booking fees provide many benefits. Ready to set up your booking fees? Let’s walk through the process together.
Setting up booking fees with Event Tickets
To access booking fees, navigate to the admin dashboard and select Tickets → Booking Fees.
Select Add New on the top left of the screen. From there, you can add the fee name and set the amount.
You have flexibility while adding a fee:
- Fee types: percent or flat. A percent will take a percentage of the cost of the ticket while the flat fee will charge the same dollar amount no matter the cost of the ticket. This provides flexibility for different business models.
- Status: Active, inactive, or draft. You have flexibility in deciding the status of the booking fee, easily switching it from active to inactive, or to a draft if you aren’t finished yet.
- Apply Fee to: Set per ticket or all tickets. You can specify whether the booking fee should be added when a ticket is created, or if it should apply universally to all tickets. This setting provides flexibility based on the types of events you organize.
Hit save when you make your selections. Note that you can make as many booking fees as needed, giving you the freedom to cater a booking fee to specific events or venues.
Using the booking fee for a specific event and ticket
When adding tickets to an event, you’ll see the “Ticket Fees” section at the bottom of the ticket settings. From there, select which fee you’d like to apply to the corresponding ticket. Hit “Save Ticket” to update your ticket.
On the front end, the booking fee will show up at the checkout page. Please note that the name of the booking fee will also be displayed (in this case, the name was “event fee” with a 5% charge.)
With every update, we take our products to the next level
The Onboarding Wizard gives new users a guided tutorial, making it easy to begin using The Events Calendar.
Booking fees are a key part of our ongoing efforts to make Event Tickets the best ticketing plugin available. We’re excited that this update offers more ticketing flexibility for our customers and further strengthens the competitiveness of our product. Whether you’re looking to cover the cost of insurance, material preparation, licensing, venue, or marketing costs, booking fees offer the perfect solution. Keep ticket costs competitive while covering the general administrative costs for your event.
We’re always evolving our products to help you, our customers, which is why we’re passionate about giving you consistent updates that enhance your experience. Here’s to even more enhancements ahead!
The post We’ve Upgraded The Events Calendar and Event Tickets with Onboarding Wizard and Booking Fees appeared first on The Events Calendar.