Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for event management companies.
A checklist built from how event management companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Event costing sheet
- Vendor bookings and advances
- Quotation versions for client changes
- Run of show on every phone
- Staff and crew deployment
- Post-event settlement
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For the enquiry and sales desk
- For event coordinators
- For on-ground supervisors
- For accounts
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Events by date, with what is still tentative
- Quotations sent, revised, won and lost, by enquiry source
- Advances paid to each vendor and how much is still to be adjusted
- Client payments received against each event, and the balance due
- Staff deployed per event, by day and by slot, with what they are owed
- What each event billed against what it cost
- Equipment issued to an event and what came back damaged or short
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- WhatsApp click-to-chat
- Google Calendar for event dates
- Wallet and bank transfer records
- Excel imports of vendor and rate lists
- Accounting software, through an export agreed at set-up
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can a quotation be revised when the head count changes?
- Does it hold the guest list, RSVPs and a seating chart?
- How are vendor advances tracked?
- Can the supervisor see the day schedule on a phone?
- Can the client see the quotation and the payment position?
- Does it work with our accounting software?
- Can we see what an event actually made?
- Who owns our client and vendor data?
- What does it cost?
- We manage on Excel and WhatsApp. Why change?
- How soon before the next live weekend runs on it?
- What papers should the event company hand over?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Margin is known late
- Vendor advances do not reconcile
- Client changes are not signed off
- The run sheet sits on one phone
Prefer to talk it through? See the event management companies page.