You’ve decided to re-open your institution with timed entry and limited capacity to avoid overcrowding...what next
Transitioning to Timed Entry
The current situation is unprecedented in our lifetimes. Policies and practices at your institution will need to change to adapt to the situation. Here at ACME, we’ve been hard at work reviewing and testing various re-opening scenarios to provide you with walkthrough guides for a smooth transition from a general admission to a timed entry configuration for your events. If your institution has decided to re-open with timed entry and limited capacity, here is what we consider to be the most efficient and streamlined process to do so.
Considerations
Before we get to the step-by-step guides, there are a few things to consider for the transition process.
What is your policy on rebooking existing future orders? (article: How to rebook and order in B2B)
If you are using ACME Access Control devices to scan in guests, what will your new policy be on rebooking guests who show up too early or too late for their selected time? (article: How to auto rebook at AC)
Will you use some sort of unique identifier internally to differentiate between tickets sold during restricted access and the original General Admission event?
Will you be updating any language or visitation rules to reflect the new limited capacities?
These questions cover options in the Event template that may change while transitioning from General Admission to Timed Entry.
A step-by-step guide to converting to Timed Entry
If you have not altered your original General Admission template to restrict sales in some way already, you need to:
Turn off the POS and Web sales channels on all schedules in your original General Admission event template. To do so follow these steps:
In Backoffice, go to Events > Templates
Click Edit on your General Admission event template
Click on the Schedules & Resourcing tab
Click Edit on the schedule
Click off the Web and Point of Sale sales channels at the bottom of the page
Click Save & Close
Repeat steps #4 - #6 for each schedule
After all of the schedules are edited, change the event template name to something to indicate it is your original General Admission template
Click Save and then Publish
Important Note: Be sure that the time zone on your local computer is the same as your venue's when publishing. Failure to do so will result in your event start times becoming offset by the time difference.
Here is a quick video on how to turn sales channels on and off:
This is the easiest way to "deactivate" your original event with minimal steps. It also allows you to easily reactivate this event template in the future.
Next,
Create a new event template using the original General Admission event template as a baseline
In Backoffice, go to Events > Templates
Click Create Template
In the new template, click start with existing template
In the pop-up window, search for and select your original General Admission event template
In the pop-up window, click choose to confirm your selection
You will now have an exact, unpublished, copy of your original General Admission event template.
Review and/or edit your new General Admission event
The values in the new template are all copied from your original General Admission template. However, as mentioned in the considerations section, there may be some values you wish to change for this new timed entry version.
Description Tab
Review/Edit the template's name in the top left side of the screen
Review/Edit the description section
Review/Edit the confirmation email language
Review/Edit the custom fields on the Details tab
Pricing Tab
Review/Edit the price list
On the General tab, Review/Edit the options that control ticket sales windows and expiration date
*If you are not using ACME Access Control the Ticket access control section can be skipped
On the Members Rules tab, Review/Edit the entitlement limits for members buying into this event. [link to article?]
On the Coupons tab, Review/Edit the available coupons for this event
Creating timed entry schedules (Article: How to set up a timed entry schedule)
Click on the Schedules & Resourcing tab
Delete the schedules copied over from the original template
Click Edit on the schedule
Click Delete in the top right corner
In the pop-up window, click Delete Schedule
Repeat for all existing schedules
Change Admission Type from General Admission to Standard
Under Published Schedules, click Add new
Enter a Schedule name
Select the repeat frequency
Select the effective date range
Enter the capacity
*This is capacity per event
Enter the duration
*This is duration per event
Enter Start times
To add additional start times, click the grey plus sign button on the right-hand side of the screen in the Start time section
Add as many additional times as needed for your new schedule
*Note the time of day defaults to AM. For any events in the afternoon double-check to make sure they are set to PM.
Optional: disable flex pay. If you do not currently use a flex pay schedule it is ok to leave this active.
Select the sales channels for this schedule
Select any exception rules this schedule will follow
Click Save & Continue
Review the price list values
Click Save & Close
Follow these steps for any many schedules as needed
Here is a quick video on timed entry Events:
Final preparation to sell into the new Timed Entry event
The template can be prepared and left in a draft mode until needed. Once the template is published it will be available for sale on any sales channels selected in the schedules. The following tasks should be completed before your re-opening but after publishing the template. These options will facilitate a smooth uninterrupted experience for your guests online and visitor services staff at the point of sale.
Updating the POS Configuration to include the new Timed Entry event
In Backoffice, go to Settings > POS Config
Click Edit on the POS Config
Click on the Tiles tab
*Note, it may be useful to take a screen shot of the current configuration for reference before moving on
Delete the existing General Admission ticket tiles
*Note, the POS Config has different rules between General Admission and Standard event scheduled templates, you cannot simply switch the template option in the existing button
Click on the button to remove
Click on Delete Tile on the right side of the screen
In the pop-up window, click Delete Tile
In the now empty spot on the configuration, click the grey plus sign box
Select Standard Events from the options on the right
Search for the new Timed Entry template
Select a ticket type from the drop down
Optional: change the values in the Title, Subtitle and select an icon
Repeat steps #4 - #9 for each ticket type being replaced
Click Save and then click Publish
No additional configuration is needed directly in the POS app. The devices assigned this POS Config will receive the updated tile configuration the next time a user logs into the software.
Updating e-commerce links
Using a new template means any direct links to the original general admission event, schedule, description page, etc, will no longer work. If you have deep linked to these pages in the past it will be important to update the links. For a seamless guest experience, replace the original event's links with the new events. Follow these steps to navigate out to the main e-commerce event list view to collect the URLs.
In Backoffice, go to Settings > Company Profile
Click the Consumer page link in the middle of the screen