Box Office
The Hi.Events box office sells tickets and reserved seats at the door from a tablet, phone or laptop. Door staff open a link, sign in with a PIN and take cash, cards on a Stripe card reader, comps or payments made another way.
The box office is in early access. Email [email protected] and we'll turn it on for you.
How to Get There
- Open your event
- Click Box Office in the left sidebar (under Guest Management)
Setting Up
Every event has a box office already, marked Default. To start selling with it:
- Open the row menu and click Set PIN
- Copy the box office link and the six-digit PIN from the window that opens. The PIN isn’t shown again
- Send the link and PIN to your door staff
You can copy the link again at any time with Copy Box Office Link in the row menu.
Staff don’t need a Hi.Events account. Treat the link and PIN like a shared password, and use Reset PIN in the row menu if it gets out. Resetting it signs out everyone who’s using the box office.
More Than One Box Office
Click Create Box Office to split door sales by entrance, date or ticket type. Each box office has its own link, PIN and sales.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Shown to staff and on your reports (e.g. “Main entrance”) |
| Sell all products | Turn off to choose which tickets and products this box office can sell. Donations can’t be sold at the box office |
| Occurrence | For recurring events: fix the date, or leave empty to let staff pick one when they sign in |
| Check-in list | The list used when staff check buyers in or scan tickets |
| Allow discounts | Lets staff apply a manual discount to a sale |
| Allow price override | Lets staff change a ticket’s price for a sale |
| Collect checkout questions | Asks your checkout questions for every ticket. It slows the queue down, so leave it off for busy doors |
| Description for staff | A note shown when staff open the box office, like where the card reader is |
| Activation date / Expiration date | Opens and closes the box office automatically |
Description for staff and the dates are under Show advanced options.
Hidden tickets, promo-code-only tickets and tickets outside their sale dates can still be sold at the door. Their tiles are labelled (for example Hidden online) so staff know.
Signing In
Staff open the box office link and enter Your name and the PIN. Their name is recorded on every order they sell. If you have a card reader, they choose the reader next to them, or No reader (cash only), then click Start selling.
If you’re signed in to Hi.Events, you don’t need the PIN: click Open Box Office on the Box Office page, then Start selling as your name.
A sign-in lasts 24 hours. After that, staff are asked to sign in again.
After too many wrong PINs, sign-in is locked for a few minutes.
Selling
The Sell tab shows your tickets as tiles. Tap + to add them to the sale.
On events with a seat map, the map appears beside the tiles. Tap seats to add them, or set how many tickets you need and tap Best available. If staff pick a seat you’ve held back, they’re asked to confirm first.
In the sale panel you can:
- Add discount (percent or amount off), if discounts are allowed
- Tap a line to change its price, if price overrides are allowed
- Add buyer details: a name and an email to send the tickets to. Both are optional, so you can sell to a walk-up with no details at all
Then click Charge. The tickets, and any seats, are held for 30 minutes while staff take payment.
Taking Payment
| Tender | How it works |
|---|---|
| Cash | Type the amount handed over or tap a quick amount. Change due is shown before you click Complete sale |
| Card | Sends the total to the card reader. The buyer taps, inserts or swipes, and the sale completes on its own |
| Comp | Issues the tickets free of charge. The order total becomes zero |
| Paid elsewhere | Records a payment taken another way. Staff must enter a Reference saying where it was paid, such as “SumUp” or “Bank transfer” |
Comp only appears if discounts are allowed, and Card only once you’ve paired a card reader. For a free sale, staff just tap Complete sale.
If a card payment fails or the customer cancels on the reader, try again, choose another reader or switch to cash.
After the Sale
The Sale complete screen lets staff:
- Check in now
- Print the tickets with Tickets, on any printer the device can reach
- Email the tickets, or resend them
- Void this sale, within 30 minutes, for cash, comp and paid-elsewhere sales
Card sales can’t be voided from the box office. An organizer refunds them from Orders, like an online order. See Refunds & Cancellations.
The Orders tab lists this box office’s sales. Search by name, email or order number, and open an order to resend, print or check in. A sale that was started but never paid shows as In progress, and staff can Abandon sale to release its tickets and seats. The Scan tab checks tickets in with the camera, like the check-in app.
Recurring Events
Staff pick the date when they sign in (today’s is chosen for them), unless the box office is fixed to one. They can switch dates by tapping the date at the top of the screen between sales.
Reconciling the Night
On the Box Office page, open a box office’s row menu and click Sales summary. It shows orders, gross and refunds for any date range, broken down By payment type, By operator and By day.
Box office sales also appear under Orders with a Box office label, and you can filter by box office and by who sold them. The orders export includes the tender, the operator, the cash taken, the change given and any reference.
Needs a Connection
The box office works online only. If the connection drops, an Offline badge appears and sales can’t be completed until it’s back. There’s no receipt printer or cash drawer support.
Tips
- Set up the box office and pair your reader the day before, and run a small test sale
- Give each staff member their own name at sign-in, so the sales summary shows who took what
- Leave Collect checkout questions off at busy doors
- The box office works before an event is published, so you can run a test sale first. Test sales are real orders
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