Issue crew, artist and press passes your door team scans

Start from the people you have already confirmed

Your crew list, volunteer rota, act advances, approved traders and approved press already tell you who is working your event. Ask Fai to bring them in. She adds your crew and the volunteers with a confirmed shift. She adds each act's travel party and guest list, approved traders' staff and approved press. You never type a name twice, and nobody gets a pass until you issue it.

For anyone outside those lists, such as a visiting director or a council officer, you add their name, email, role, organisation and pass type. Leave out the email and the pass comes to you to hand on. If an act corrects a name on their advance, a pass you have not issued yet updates to the new name. An issued pass offers you the new name, so you can send a fresh pass in one step.

Fai brings people in while you get on with other jobs, and if you ask her again later she never adds anyone twice. On a large festival, a week of copying names between spreadsheets becomes a list you check and issue.

• Bring in people: crew, volunteers, acts, traders and press from your own lists
• Add someone: anyone else, with their role and organisation
• You decide when: nobody gets a pass until you issue it

• Issue accreditation passes for your event

Keep guest lists and departments to the agreed size

Put passes into groups by department, act, trader or team. Give each group its number of passes, a time when names close and one pass type for everyone in it. A headliner's guest list stays at the number in the deal, and the bar crew stays at the number you budgeted. A name added after the cut-off is marked as late and waits for your decision.

When you issue, passes over a group's allowance are held back, and the dialog tells you why. A long guest list never slips through. Raise the allowance, or issue anyway when you agree to it. Guest list places on an act's advance belong to the same pass group. The tour manager on their advance link and you in Accreditation see the same number.

• Pass groups: crew, an act and their guests, a trader's staff or the press
• Passes allowed: the number of passes each group can fill
• Names close: late names wait for your decision

• Advance your acts without chasing email threads

Give each pass exactly the access it needs

Add your zones, such as Backstage, Production, Artist village or Press pit. Give each one a colour that prints as a band on the badge. Then give each wristband or badge its zones, the days and hours it works, its meals per day and whether it includes parking. Your meal desk team sees those meals, and each scan at your staff gates checks the zones, days and hours.

Pass types come from the wristbands and badges on your event's Credentials page. A crew wristband, an all-areas laminate and a guest list band each get their own access. Leave every day unticked for a pass that works on all days of the event. Does a stage manager also work the build day? Change the zones or days on that one pass. Your door team sees the change on the next scan.

• Zones: each with its own colour band on the badge
• Days and hours: when each pass type gets people in
• Meals and parking: meals per day and a parking space on the pass

• Feed your crew on time and bill suppliers for meals

Send passes your door team scans like tickets

When you issue the passes, each person gets theirs by email as a free guest ticket of their pass type. Your door team scans it in the check-in app they already use. Each scan shows the zones, days, hours, meals and parking on the pass. Your team has no second system to learn and no separate list at the gate.

Issue all the ready passes together, or tick a few and issue only those. Change a pass's group, role, zones, days or parking after you issue it, and your door team sees it on the next scan. Cancel a pass and the door refuses its ticket, then issue it again when the person rejoins the team. Each pass keeps its history, so you can see who issued, changed or cancelled it, and when.

• Passes by email: each one a named guest ticket of its pass type
• One scanning app: your door team scans passes and tickets the same way
• Cancel and issue again: the door refuses a cancelled pass

• Hand out passes fast and guard each backstage zone

Print photo badges your stewards recognise at a glance

Upload a photo on the pass, or send the pass holder a photo link. They open it on their phone and add their own photo without making an account. Tick the passes and print A6 lanyard badges or CR80 cards. Each badge shows the name, photo, zones, days, meals and entry code, with the zone colours across the top. A steward can see from across a corridor where the wearer can go.

You can print badges before you issue the passes, for packs you hand out on build day. They print without an entry code until you issue the pass. Outside teams add their own people's badge photos on their page. Your desk team can take a missing photo with a phone camera while the person waits.

• Photo links: pass holders add their own photo with no sign-in
• A6 or CR80: lanyard badges or cards from the same list
• Zone colours: the band on each badge shows where the wearer can go

Let outside teams name their own people on time

Security firms, caterers, suppliers, sponsors and newspapers often send their names late, each in a different spreadsheet. Give each organisation a number of passes, a pass type and a date when names close. Its contact gets an email with a page of their own, with no sign-in. They add people one by one, paste a list or upload a CSV or Excel file with no template. They add badge photos and see each pass go from waiting to sent.

The contact opens the page on any phone or computer in their own language. The people they brought to your brand's last event come back as a one-tap suggestion. Each row in Outside teams shows how many passes have names, what is still needed and whether the page link works. You see at once who still owes you names. The people a team names wait in Accreditation like any other pass. When you send their passes, the contact gets one email listing everyone.

On the same page, the team sends you the insurance and certificates you ask for. They also book delivery times at your gates and order kit from your kit list. Put an outside team on a shift with its cost per hour, and their approved hours go into your budget. Your meal desk counts the meals they eat, so you can charge the team for them.

• Outside teams: press, contractors, suppliers, sponsors or your own kind
• Add a list: pasted rows or a CSV or Excel file, with no template
• Still needed: the names and badge photos each team owes you
• In their own language: the contact picks the language of their page

• Let outside teams name their own people for event passes
• Hire only what you need and see who has what

Get press and all-areas passes approved by the right people

Press passes need the press office, an all-areas badge needs security, and nobody wants to chase either by email. Set each rule once and read it back as a sentence: "when passes from press organisations come in, ask the press office, then security". The passes a rule covers wait for each step in turn, and all other passes go ahead as before.

A rule can cover a kind of organisation, the organisations you pick, some pass groups or some pass types. Rules apply from the top of the list, so you put a narrow rule for one contractor above a broad rule for all suppliers. A rule you switch off keeps its steps for next season. The same rules can also ask named people to approve outside teams' kit orders and delivery bookings. They can do the same for an act's request for more than its allowance.

Approvers who do not run the event get one email listing what waits for them. Its button opens a page with only their requests, and they need no sign-in. Each request shows the facts that help them decide. They see how many passes the outlet has left and whether the person had a pass at your last event. Requests whose names close soon are marked urgent. When an approver declines, they enter a reason, and the person who asked gets it. When your press officer is on leave, an owner or admin decides for them. Their own name and reason stay with the decision.

• Rules as sentences: read back in plain words before you save
• Steps in order: the press office first, then security
• Decision links: approvers decide from their email, with no sign-in
• Decide for them: an owner or admin steps in with a reason

• Choose who approves accreditation requests for your event
• Approve or decline accreditation requests for your event

Give your regular crew one pass for the whole season

For the crew who work all your shows, create a multi-entry pass on your brand. It works at each event the brand runs. Set how many times it can be used at each event. Add people one by one or from a CSV file, and email each pass. Your door team scans it in the same app as tickets. Each scan records when it was used and who scanned it.

Event passes suit the people you accredit for one show, with zones, meals and approvals. A season pass suits the house crew, the in-house security team and the promoter's regular staff. Otherwise they would need a new pass each week. Use both together. The season pass gets your regulars through the door, and event passes cover the guests, contractors and press who change each show.

• All your brand's events: one pass for the people who work them all
• Uses per event: entries counted at each event
• From a CSV file: a whole crew list in one upload

• Issue reusable event passes to crew and artists