The problems with old timed entry ticket systems like Eventbrite, TicketSpice, FareHarbor, Acme Ticketing, and ShowClix make ticketing difficult for timed entry events, admissions, and bookings. These vendors’ approaches have fundamental database design limitations that restrict true calendar functionality. By putting time slots and dates on top of their generic ticket databases, they create inefficiencies that limit displaying data across a calendar. There are also foundational limitations when it comes to editing and managing dates and time slots, pricing, caps, and attendees.
TicketSignup has a new, patent-pending approach to the fundamental database architecture for Timed Entry Ticketing, from the database architecture to calendar interfaces that is based on true calendar technology. This opens up a world of possibilities to bring a new generation solution to events and venues that have recurring events. Let’s look at how this makes a big difference.
Calendar Based Setup and Time Slot, Pricing, and Caps Management
Legacy products like Eventbrite and TicketSpice offer a front-end calendar for ticket purchases but lack calendars for event setup and management. Their databases can’t handle the complexity of timed entry events. For example, Eventbrite’s “new” timed entry system creates separate events for each time slot, which results in many highly inefficient database calls to take any action. Additionally, these platforms lock in pricing and ticket caps across all dates, making it cumbersome (or not possible) to adjust pricing or capacity—like charging more for Fridays or making quick changes.
TicketSignup’s patent-pending MTE Timed Entry uses an efficient database and calendar based management for all the key manage aspects of multi-date events, bookings, and admission.
Event Setup
TicketSignup’s MTE Timed Entry Wizard makes it easy to set up dates, time slots, ticket types, pricing, and caps. Select the dates the event will be open.
Next, set up time slots for each ticket type and day of the week. Quick copy options streamline setup across ticket types and days. Adjust pricing (e.g., charge more for Fridays and Saturdays) and set optional caps easily. Behind the scenes, TicketSignup’s MTE database is creating rules per ticket type and day of the week.
After completing the Wizard, it’s easy to edit, add, and delete time slots, pricing, and caps.
Manage Dates and Time Slots
It’s easy to add, edit, and delete dates and time slots after completing the wizard. For example, some events may have irregular patterns to time slot that they can easily setup. Others may want to add or cancel dates. When adding, editing, and deleting time slots, there is an option to just edit the day you are on or copy to all other time slots on the same day of week. Click through months and dates to view your times – no waiting for time slots to load.
Manage Pricing
In the Wizard, events set default prices and a sales open date for each ticket type with the option to override per day of week. The Dashboard gives you even more pricing options with easy calendar management to update pricing for a date, time slot, and/or all days of the week. Set automated price increases with sales windows, and use dates or relative time (i.e. 15 minutes before time slot begins) to customize pricing. As shown in the example below, the General ticket is $25, then increases to $30 on 9/2/2025. Ticket sales close 15 minutes after the time slot begins.
Manage Caps
Managing caps is easy and intuitive with calendars. The month view shows the number of tickets sold versus the number available.
Click into a day to manage caps. In addition to editing a specific time slot, it’s easy to do updates for an entire day or all days of the week.
Calendar Based Attendee Management
In legacy timed entry ticket products, it is cumbersome and slow to manage attendees. Furthermore, management options are limited. For example, it takes a very long time on Eventbrite to transfer someone’s ticket from one date to another. This is due to the inefficient database design.
TicketSignup’s MTE timed entry ticketing solves attendee management in three differentiated and key ways.
- Extensive self-serve ticket management options, including ticket transfers, adding items, and transferring some (or all) tickets to a friend).
- Director management options to manage a purchase and/or tickets from the dashboard, including issuing refunds, transferring tickets, and editing information.
- MTE Timed Entry Attendee Management. As TicketSignup brings MTE out of beta, we are implementing a new, calendar-based way to manage attendees. Select some or all time slots and/or ticket types to take an action. For example, cancel all time slots for a date because of rain. Then send an email and text to all ticket purchasers with the option for them to transfer their tickets to a different date that works for them.
Calendar Based Reporting
One of the biggest complaints from Fare Harbor, TicketSpice, Eventbrite, and Acme Ticketing customers is the lack of reporting. These legacy platforms make it hard to view summary data because their database structures are too inefficient to display it. Furthermore, it’s hard to even export data in a useable format.
TicketSignup makes it easy to track ticket sales, check-ins, and more with calendar-based reporting. The Ticket Sales by Date Summary shows overall revenue with shading to easily see which dates have the most sales.
In addition to the interval CheckIn report and overall CheckIn Stats, the CheckIns by Date report shows the total checkins versus total tickets sold per date. There is a day view drill-down coming soon, to view check-ins per day by ticket type and time slot.
Tickets Sold adds calendar functionality to TicketInsights for a quick overview of tickets sold, and a daily breakdown by ticket type and time slot.
The Date of Ticket Purchase report offers a calendar view of when ticket purchases happen. Track ticket sales throughout your entire sales window.
Calendar Based Website and Purchase Path
One of the challenges with legacy timed entry platforms is that events and organizations need to maintain separate websites. Eventbrite, FareHarbor, and TicketSpice only give you a single registration page that features the ticketing company’s branding. That means events and organizations incur the cost to create and maintain separate websites. Furthermore, when an update gets made to ticket purchases, that change is not reflected on the separate website. For example, sold out dates or cancelled dates due to weather emergencies.
With TicketSignup, every event gets a fully customizable website that is FREE and data-driven – no coding required. For MTE timed entry events, calendars enhance the website with flexible display options. There are both small and large calendars. The large calendar dynamically displays pricing, time ranges, and custom content/messaging per date. Changes that you make to ticket sales automatically update all of TicketSignup’s data-driven website calendars.
Old timed entry products have locked in purchase path experiences with none or limited customization available. Due to the old database architecture of these legacy products, it is very slow to load available dates, times, and tickets for attendees to buy tickets.
TicketSignup’s purchase path is quick and responsive. Furthermore, flexible display options for the purchase path are available. Choose how dates, time slots, and tickets display. Display dynamic pricing and tickets remaining data based on settings you choose. Reflect sold out dates and time slots clearly to make the attendee purchase experience as seamless as possible.
Summary
TicketSignup’s new patent-pending invention of bringing an integrated calendar database and user experience brings a next-generation of timed entry ticketing system capabilities to event directors with recurring and timed entry events, and solves the problems with old timed entry ticket systems. Allison and Benny (one of the patent creators who studied calendaring systems for about a month before starting to create this new architecture) do a demo and discussion of the early Beta version below. The early Beta is going well with over 10,000 tickets sold from several beta customers. We expect a full production release in Q4 of 2024 and continuous improvement as we get customer feedback.