Advance Every Act Without Chasing Email Threads

See Which Acts Need You Today

Every act on the line-up has an advance, with how many sections are confirmed, what is still needed and how many days are left before the show. Filter to the acts that need attention, the ones waiting on their own team or the ones ready to sign off, and work down the list that matters right now. At a conference the same list advances your speakers, and at a film festival your filmmakers.

An act needs attention when a section was sent back for changes, a due date has passed, or the show is close with sections still open. The first time anyone opens an advance, Fai fills in the empty answers she finds in the booking, travel, hotel, schedule and documents, marks each one as filled by her with where it came from, and never replaces an answer a person gave. Accept a whole section of her answers at once, or change any of them before you save.

• Filters: needs attention, waiting on their team, ready to sign off and signed off
• Progress on every row: sections confirmed, what is still needed and days to go
• Filled by Fai: answers from the booking, each showing where it came from

• Advance your performers before the show

Ask Each Act Only for What They Need

A local support DJ does not need the same advance as a touring headliner. Choose the sections each act needs, from arrival and departure, accommodation and technical to guest list, merch and content and marketing, and give each one its own due date. Add a section of your own, such as Wi-Fi or security, wherever your event needs one.

Save the sections for an act as a set, one for headliners and another for local acts, and describe the acts it suits. Fai then matches new acts to the right set, with its allowances, so a fifty-act bill is advanced on the terms you use every year. A section you leave out keeps its answers, drops out of their team's link and Fai's chasing, and comes back whenever you add it again.

• Sections for this act: untick what the act does not need, and add it back at any time
• Due date for each section: the date you need each part by
• Saved sets: one set for headliners, another for local acts, matched by Fai

Let the Tour Manager Fill In Their Part

Choose a contact from the act's team, pick the sections they can see and fill in, and send the link by email or copy it. The tour manager opens it on any phone or computer with no account, sees what is still needed at the top, and saves answers and files such as stage plots, input lists and riders as they go. Each section they save shows as received on your advance.

The tour manager can invite a teammate, such as their production manager, with a link of their own for only the parts they choose. Payment and settlement stays private unless you add it. Start the act's team from the agents, tour managers and engineers Fai found in the booking paperwork, and stop a link at any time without losing what they already filled in.

• Ask their team: a link to only the sections you choose, by email or copied
• Their team: agents, tour managers and engineers, started from people Fai found
• Invite a teammate: their own link for the parts the tour manager chooses

Turn Tour Books, Riders and Replies Into Answers

Add a tour book or rider, or let the tour manager send theirs from the advance link, and Fai reads it along with the act's replies to your emails and what they had at your last event. Each answer she finds waits under Answers to check, beside the words she found it in. Accept the new answers together, replace an existing one only when you choose, and reject anything that is wrong.

Accepted technical and hospitality answers also update your hire and shopping lists, so the backline order and the dressing room shop follow the advance. As the show gets closer, Fai drafts an email to the act's main contact that lists exactly the sections still open, with a fresh link to fill them in. You read it and approve it before it goes, and payment and settlement is never part of a chase.

• Answers to check: each answer with the words Fai found it in
• Use what they had last time: answers from the act's advance at your earlier event
• Replies read for you: emails from the act's contacts in your connected mailbox
• Chase drafts: the missing sections listed, sent only when you approve

• Fill in each performer's advance for your event from tour books, riders and emails

Give Every Act What You Agreed, Straight From the Offer

The deal already says what the act gets. Use the numbers from the accepted offer and the guest list places, hotel rooms, nights, meals and drinks fill in by themselves, each marked as coming from the offer. Change any number, or leave one empty for no limit, and see what is used and what is left beside each.

The tour manager sees the same allowances on their advance link, with what is left of each and a way to ask for more beside it. They cannot add more guest list names or a bigger party than the rooms allow, so the limits hold without anyone policing them. Each ask shows what they want and why: approve it and the allowance rises by exactly that, or say no with a reason they read on their link. When an approval rule covers these asks, the ask goes to the person it names. Your own team can always go over an allowance, and it then shows as over.

Guest list places are the act's guest list pass group in Accreditation, so changing the number on the advance changes it there too. On the day, when your meal desk scans a pass from the act's travel party, the card shows their drinks for today and your team gives each one against the allowance.

• Use these numbers: every allowance taken from the accepted offer
• Used and left: what the act has taken against what they are allowed
• Asks for more: approved, or declined with a reason the act reads

• Set each performer's guest list, hotel and meal allowances for your event
• Give Everyone Who Works Your Event the Right Pass, Approved and Ready Before the Gates Open

Keep One Travel Party List Every Team Works From

Add each person travelling with the act with their role, contact details, dietary needs, room and arrival and departure times, or paste the list straight from the tour manager's email and check who it found before anyone is added. The passes, the hotel's rooming list, pickups and the kitchen's dietary count all take their names from this one list.

The list counts the people, those staying and the rooms they need, and warns you when it needs more rooms than the act is allowed. The tour manager can fill it in themselves on their advance link. Take someone off and they leave the travel party, the rooming list and pickups together, so the driver is never waiting for a drummer who stayed home.

• Travel party: people, rooms shared and dietary needs for each act
• Paste a list: names from an email, checked before anyone is added
• Room warning: a clear line when the list needs more rooms than allowed

• Get Every Act Housed, Picked Up and On Stage on Time

Turn Every Rider Into a Checklist the Whole Team Can Follow

A rider is dozens of lines, from backline to towels to the car from the airport. Keep each act's hospitality rider, technical requirements and catering as lines with how many are needed and any alternative the act accepts, such as or two vegetarian. Each line starts as to do and is struck through when it is done, so whoever is on shift sees what is still open without calling the booker.

Add notes to the act for anything the team must know, such as where the band wants to eat or which dressing room is theirs; every note shows who added it and when, and your teammates see it straight away. Upload the rider and Fai picks out what it asks for, then adds the items you name to the list. She also files a document under the right act and part of the booking, and reads a contract or invoice for the fee, deposit and payment dates.

• Rider items: quantity, item and the alternative the act accepts
• To do and done: finished lines struck through, open lines easy to spot
• Team notes: who added each note and when
• Rider and contract reading: Fai picks out rider items and the fee, deposit and dates

• Keep rider lists and notes for your event's artists
• Give Every Act a Room and Everything Their Rider Asks For

Confirm Each Part and Sign Every Act Off

Every act on the bill is a card on Artists, with a badge for finance, technical, hospitality, catering and travel and accommodation that turns complete only when someone on your team marks it. Two weeks out, you can see exactly which acts to chase. On the advance, mark each section confirmed or send it back for changes, and sign the advance off when every section is confirmed.

Keep notes for your team that the act never sees. Signing off shows the act's page read only until you reopen it, and you can print a day sheet for the act from the advance. Add each day of the event with its opening and closing times, and every set, soundcheck and rider task is planned against the right day, in the event's own time zone, so a touring act and your production office read the same clock. Drop contracts and riders onto Artists and Fai sorts the files by act, so the paperwork you already have starts each record. Switch to the table view to work down a long bill.

• Booking badges: finance, technical, hospitality, catering, travel and accommodation
• Section status: received, needs changes and confirmed
• Sign off and reopen: a read-only page for their team once it is done

• Track every artist booking for your event