Automatic renewal can be done only if you are using a “Fixed season”
package. Automatic renewal can be done by clicking on Tools | RollOver.
What it does is take one category from a show and put it in another show. The new sales are put in as unpaid.
Then, you would get a report, do a mail merge, and send the renewal
notices. At the cut off date, you get a report on unpaid reservations and
cancel the unpaid sales.
It is used for season ticket renewals. Where it is important is
performances where there is both a high rate of renewal and a lot of
seats.
Do we recommend it? Not really. The problem is not that Rollover doesn’t work. It does. The problem is that the manual system is pretty good. The automated system with Rollover adds a lot of unwanted records to your sales file. The time to straighten these out frequently wipes out any time savings.
Go ahead and try it. You can always delete the show when you are done.
Here is the traditional manual system:
- Enter your new shows, performances and prices. Get them approved by your boss.
- Announce to the world that your new season is on sale. When new sales and renewals come in, put them into 1 of 3 piles:
a) Renewing subscribers who want to keep their old seats. These can be processed right away.
b) Renewing subscribers who want different seats. These people are processed after all the subscribers who want to keep their old seats are processed.
c) New subscribers. These guys are processed last. - After all the subscribers are processed, you need to establish a cut-off date. This is the date when single ticket buyers can purchase any remaining seats. With single ticket buyers, explain that they would get better seats for less money if they were season ticket holders.
That’s it.