What do the ticket data coding fields mean?
Learn what each field in the ticket data coding file means and which fit best with your data.
🔶Contextual Data
The contextual data populates the first columns of the file. Here you will find the values taken directly from your CRM. These values will not change when you apply new coded values.
The ticket coding file represents groups of transactions. Each row is a group, where the transactions all share the same values.
⭐Use these values to guide your decision-making when data coding.
In this section you will find:
| Discount Name | This field represents the type of the ticket purchased by the customer, and may be called Price Type, Ticket Type or Discount Name depending on your ticketing system. |
| Package Name | The name of the package to which the ticket belongs. |
| Package Type | The type of the package to which the ticket belongs. |
| Mode of Sale | Mode of sale describes the sales activity that occurred in a transaction. For example Exchanges, Subscriptions or Group Sales are common. Sometimes there appears to be some overlap with Sales Channel, which describes over what channel the sale was made, like Web Site, Ticket Office, etc. We advise using Mode of Sale to describe the sales activity, rather than the channel. Only for Spektrix, this field is used for Offer Name instead. |
| Location Name | The name of the venue in which the performance took place. |
| Season Name | The name of the season. Where available, this field will be populated from your ticketing system. |
| Season Type | Describes the specific type of season. A field that groups seasons into common season types, such as the Ballet Season, or Summer, Fall, Winter seasons. |
| Ticket Status | The status of the ticket. Common values include "Paid", "Reserved", "Returned". |
| Sales Channel Name | The name of the sales channel through which the ticket was sold. |
| Discount Category | General classification of type of ticket purchased. Example values include "Standard", "Discount", "Subscription" and "Complimentary". |
| Discount Group | General classification of type of ticket purchased, typically at a higher level than Discount Name. |
| Tickets | The total number of tickets sold with this combination of contextual data |
| Revenue | The total revenue for this combination of contextual data |
🔶Changeable Data
The Changeable Data contains both current and updatable coding cells, and populates the final columns of the file. The 'Current Value' columns contain the current coding values - these may have been populated automatically by the system, taken directly from you data or created manually by a user.
🔹Transaction Type
This field captures the transaction type. Transaction types are the broadest category assigned to a ticket.The field is enumerated and permits these values:
| Transaction Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Subscription | The purchase of a package of tickets for multiple performances, where the customer retains the same seat for each performance. |
| Single Ticket | The purchase of a ticket for an individual performance. |
| Flex/CYO | Flexible or Choose-Your-Own ticket options that allow customization and choice in selecting specific performances within a season or package. Customers often have the flexibility to choose different seats for each performance if desired. |
🔹Package Name
This field is for the Package Name and can be populated via a drop down field containing the values assigned in your Package Data Coding.
🔹Ticket Price Type
The Ticket Price Type field is used to broadly categorize the price type of the transactions and accepts the following values:
| Transaction Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Full Price | The purchase of a ticket at the regular or standard price without any discounts or promotions applied. |
| Discounted | The purchase of a ticket at a reduced price due to a discount or promotional offer. |
| Comp | A complimentary ticket provided at no cost to the recipient. |
Examples and edge cases:
All the evidence points to comp but the transaction group has revenue
It is not uncommon for transaction groups to have some revenue attached, even when the price type description or price type category indicates that the intention was for the price type to be used for comps. In this case, it is generally recommended to set Ticket Price Type to Complimentary to align with the intention.
A ticket is free but some other purchase is required
An example of this case would be "Buy Nine Tickets, Get One Free". While the free ticket was issued without direct cost to the recipient, it could be considered Discounted instead of Complimentary because some purchase activity was required.
Subscription tickets are priced lower than single tickets
When considering whether to assign Discounted, remember that we are looking for tickets sold at a discount relative to the base price for that transaction type. For example, a single ticket to an event may cost $45 and a subscription ticket may cost $40.
Standard subscription tickets are NOT Discounted even though they cost less than single tickets, because the two transaction types should be considered separately.
However, there may also be Subscription tickets that cost $30 - these would be considered Discounted because they are at a lower price than the base price for subscriptions.
🔹Is Group
This field is used to flag transactions that relate to Group activity and accepts TRUE/FALSE.
What makes a group
The number of tickets required to be considered a group is not strictly defined and you should base this on what your organization considers to be a group.
The value Group in the price type category, price type group or mode of sale are all good indicators, but as always be aware of Groupon which can be picked up accidentally when searching for "group".
🔹Is Add On
The field is used to identify Add-on transactions. It accepts TRUE/FALSE values.
Typically, a subscription package offers tickets for a set series of performances or shows within a season. However, there may be instances where subscribers have the option to purchase extra tickets for specific performances that are not included in their original subscription.
These additional tickets are typically offered at a discounted rate or with priority access to ensure that subscribers have the opportunity to secure seats for popular or highly anticipated performances that may not be part of their standard subscription.
Addon tickets must be Single Tickets
By definition, add-on tickets are Single Tickets. They are additional to a subscription, but are always single tickets and are not part of the original subscription. There is nothing in the Data Coding tool to prevent you from creating records which have the Transaction Type Subscription or Flex/CYO AND the Is Add On field set to TRUE.
It is best practice to filter Is Add On to TRUE and ensure all corresponding transaction groups have Transaction Type set to Single Ticket as the final step before submitting the file for processing.
🔹Is Donated
This field records whether the tickets have been donated back to the venue. It accepts TRUE/FALSE values.
This is a special type of return, presently only recorded by Tessitura, to track returns where the patron returns the ticket intends for the organization to re-sell their ticket and treat the proceeds of the secondary sale as a donation to the organization.
If you use Tessitura, this type of transaction can be identified by filtering the Ticket Status column for the value Return In Benevolent Mode.
🔹Is Exchanged
This field is used to flag exchanged tickets. Accepted values are TRUE/FALSE.
Exchanged tickets have been previously purchased for a specific performance but later exchanged for a different performance, most often within the same production or event, but sometimes for a different event entirely.
Exchanged tickets are most common within a subscription package, but depending on the organizations policies can also be for single tickets as well.
Sometimes an exchange fee may be payable.
The value Exchange or some abbreviation therefore in the Mode of Sale, price type description, price type category and price type group fields are good indicators of exchanged tickets.
Partial support in ticketing systems
Recoding of exchanges is not supported by all ticketing systems, so it is not always possible to flag exchanges.
🔹Third Party Discount
This field is used to flag tickets which were distributed by third party discounters/distribution partners. It is a TRUE/FALSE field.
Third party discounters or "distribution partners" are services which help organizations distribute their tickets to a larger audience. Often, these services will be customer facing, like GroupOn, TodayTix, GoldStar, etc.
This field will automatically populate based on a keyword model which identifies the most common naming conventions for many of the more common distribution partners, so you should need only confirm that the values are correct.