Box office ticketing software

How to set up a Box Office for less than $200

2010-12-13T03:32:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, it's possible to set up a sophisticated box office and online ticket sales system complete with ticket printer, bar-code scanner and swipe card reader for less than $US200. Here's how.

Ticket Printer
Whilst specialist thermal ticket printers from companies such as Boca Systems or Practical Automation are great for high volume ticket outlets, for small venues, the cost of these printers may be hard to justify.

But with the HandyTix ticketing system at least, you can print thermal tickets just like these more expensive printers with just a low cost Dymo 450 label printing machine (which in the USA can typically be purchased for less than $US 100). Not only are these printers exceptionally affordable, but they measure just 11.4" x 5.5" x 8.4" and weigh only 6lbs. Although Dymo don't produce venue ticket blanks, you can order ticket blanks from suppliers such as LabelValue.com who can custom print ticket stock for you with color logos, graphics and any standard text as required. Alternatively at a pinch, you might like to consider using Dymo's 30856 Non-Adhesive Name Badges as ticket blanks - these measure 2-7/16" x 4 3/16" with 250 pcs. per roll.

Hand held barcode scanners
If you want to scan bar coded tickets at the door of your venue, you can pick up hand held barcode scanners from around $US50 from eBay or other outlets. These scanners are easy to configure and simply plug-in to the USB port of your computer.

Swipe card reader
With the HandyTix ticketing system, a credit card reader eliminates the need to type in the credit card number, card expiry date and card holder name when selling tickets through a box office. And a MagTek Mini USB Stripe Reader Card Scanner, which plugs into the USB port of your computer, can typically be purchased for less than $US60.

Then you just need to sign up with HandyTix for your ticketing software and you'll be on you way - a fully operational box office an online ticketing system for around $200 only.

Ticket Printing

2010-05-05T04:54:00.001-07:00

One concern that small organisations may have with box office ticketing software is how to print tickets. The most ideal way is to use a specialised thermal ticket printer such as those manufactured by Boca Systems, but these printers tend to be relatively expensive and may be outside the budget of organisations who only sell a few thousand tickets per year or less.

Fortunately, many ticketing software systems will allow you to print tickets with a standard laser or inkjet printer. In this case the tickets are normally printed on pre-perforated paper with four or five tickets per page, so you simply tear off the tickets after they have been printed and mail them out. It's not quite as convenient as a thermal printer which prints one ticket at a time since the system may print one page for each customer irrespective of whether they ordered one or more tickets. But you can always reverse the paper and put the unused section back to through your printer to save wasting paper.

Box Office Ticketing for Small Organizations

2010-04-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

In recent years, box office ticketing software has evolved dramatically, making it possible for even the smallest community-based or non-profit organisations to consider an online ticketing system to help sell tickets to their events. And with many companies such as HandyTix charging only a nominal per ticket fee based on the value of all tickets sold through their system, it means there are no major upfront costs or other particular impediments for small organisations. Basically to start selling tickets online, an organisation now only needs to have its own website, a method of receiving payments into their account, and a means of printing tickets. Everything else is handled by the ticketing software.

And box office ticketing software these days can be very sophisticated, using interactive seating charts which allow a customer to choose the exact seats they want from an online seating map. Some software can even show the view from a particular seat. And of course you will normally have the ability to set up any number of events, any number of programs and any number of performances. And a better quality software and will allow anyone in any location to sell tickets providing they have access to an Internet connection - which can be a great boon for organisations mainly relying on volunteers.

So basically, there is very little reason these days for an organisation to be still using the pen and paper method to record ticket sales, or even using the services of a major ticketing service organisation which tend to have somewhat higher charges.