The problem
Show tickets sold on paper slips with cash in envelopes mean counting money, chasing parents, settling who asked for which performance and handling refunds by hand. A school selling 540 tickets across 3 performances can easily spend 40 hours of the owner's and volunteers' time on it each show season.
What the AI does
Ticket Tailor is an online ticketing system with no monthly fee. Its UK pricing page lists pay as you go at $0.80£0.60€0.71A$1.15C$1.13 per paid ticket plus VAT, card processing through your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account (Stripe UK is 1.5% + 20p per transaction), a free check-in app for scanning tickets at the door, and the option to add a booking fee so buyers cover the fees. Set up each performance as an event with its capacity and price, send the link to parents, and they choose a performance and pay. You see sales by performance as they come in, and volunteers scan tickets at the door.
A worked example
A dance school in Cardiff puts on one summer show a year: 3 performances in a 180-seat theater, tickets $19£14€17A$27C$26 about 220 orders. The owner moves ticket sales from paper slips and cash to Ticket Tailor, with unreserved seating.
Before
About 40 hours of owner and volunteer time each show season on slips, cash and seat lists
After
Online sales and a door-scanning app; about 8 hours on tickets, 32 hours saved a year
What it's worth
About $89£67€80A$129C$126 a month, averaged over the year: 32 hours saved each show season at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour is $1,064£800€952A$1,536C$1,504 a year. Fees for 540 tickets come to about $726£546€650A$1,048C$1,026 a year, about $61£46€55A$88C$86 a month ($517£389€463A$747C$731 to Ticket Tailor at 60p plus VAT per ticket, and $209£157€187A$301C$295 to Stripe at 1.5% of $10,055£7,560€8,996A$14,515C$14,213 plus 20p on 220 orders), or nothing to the school if buyers pay a booking fee.
How to set it up
- Sign up for Ticket Tailor and connect your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account for card payments.
- Create an event for each performance with the venue's capacity, ticket prices and any child or concession rates.
- Decide whether to add a booking fee so buyers cover the fees, and show it clearly before checkout.
- Send the link to parents by email and post it on your social pages, with the date sales open.
- Install the free check-in app on volunteers' phones and test scanning before the first performance.
What goes wrong
- Reserved seating costs an extra credit per seat; Ticket Tailor's FAQ says paid seated tickets use 2 credits, which doubles the per-ticket fee.
- Ticket Tailor doesn't process payments itself, so card fees come from Stripe, PayPal or Square on top of its own fee.
- Check your venue's license and capacity before setting numbers, including seats kept for staff, chaperones and wheelchair users.
- Write your refund policy on the event page before sales open; illness on show day is a common reason to ask.