Ticketing and pricing

Platforms, fees, tiers, early-bird, comps, and the math that makes a ticketed event break even.

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Ticketing and pricing.

Platforms, fees, tiers, early-bird, comps, and the math that makes a ticketed event break even.

Choosing a ticketing platform.

Platforms differ in four things that matter: fees (a percentage plus a per-ticket amount, sometimes passed to the buyer), payout timing (some hold funds until after the event), check-in tools (QR scanning on a phone), and data export.

For a charity, also ask about tax receipts; the fair-market-value portion of a gala ticket (the dinner) is not receiptable, and your platform or your bookkeeper must split it.

The break-even.

Ticket pricing starts from costs, not from what feels right.

Fixed costs (venue, AV, entertainment, print, insurance, planner) do not change with attendance; variable costs (catering, bar, gifts) do.

Tiers, early-bird and comps.

Tiers: a general ticket, a premium ticket with something real (reserved seating, a reception with the speaker), and a table of ten at a modest discount. Three tiers is enough; six is confusing.

Early-bird: 15 to 20 percent off for the first four to six weeks drives the first wave, which drives the second. Announce the end date and keep it.

The sales curve.

Most events sell a third at launch, very little in the middle, and a third in the last two weeks.

Plan the promotion calendar around the dip: a speaker announcement, a sponsor announcement and the early-bird deadline each produce a bump.

Refunds and transfers.

Write the policy before you sell: refunds to a date, transfers to another person allowed any time, and what happens if the event is postponed.

Post it on the ticket page.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Choose a ticketing platform
• Price tiers and early-bird
• Model break-even

Choosing a ticketing platform

Platforms differ in four things that matter: fees (a percentage plus a per-ticket amount, sometimes passed to the buyer), payout timing (some hold funds until after the event), check-in tools (QR scanning on a phone), and data export. For a charity, also ask about tax receipts; the fair-market-value portion of a gala ticket (the dinner) is not receiptable, and your platform or your bookkeeper must split it.

The break-even

Ticket pricing starts from costs, not from what feels right. Fixed costs (venue, AV, entertainment, print, insurance, planner) do not change with attendance; variable costs (catering, bar, gifts) do. Break-even attendance = fixed costs ÷ (ticket price − variable cost per person). Run it in the ROI calculator.

Tiers, early-bird and comps

• Tiers: a general ticket, a premium ticket with something real (reserved seating, a reception with the speaker), and a table of ten at a modest discount. Three tiers is enough; six is confusing.
• Early-bird: 15–20 percent off for the first four to six weeks drives the first wave, which drives the second. Announce the end date and keep it.
• Comps: sponsors, speakers, media and the board each expect seats. List them in the budget as a cost, because the plate is still paid for; cap comps at about 10 percent of capacity.
• Fees: decide whether the buyer or the organizer pays the platform fee and say so on the page.

The sales curve

Most events sell a third at launch, very little in the middle, and a third in the last two weeks. Plan the promotion calendar around the dip: a speaker announcement, a sponsor announcement and the early-bird deadline each produce a bump. If sales are behind at the halfway mark, the fix is a reason to buy now, not a discount.

Refunds and transfers

Write the policy before you sell: refunds to a date, transfers to another person allowed any time, and what happens if the event is postponed. Post it on the ticket page.

Worked example

The Harbour Gala sold 11 tables to sponsors at $4,000 (one seat tier, ten seats, logo on the table and program), 70 individual tickets at $350, and comped 20 seats (speakers, board, media). The platform fee was passed to buyers; the foundation issued receipts for the portion above the $144 fair-market value, as advised by its bookkeeper.

Common mistakes

• Pricing from last year without recalculating the variable cost after the hotel’s service charge and HST.
• Six ticket tiers.
• An early-bird deadline that quietly extends.
• Comps nobody counted in the catering guarantee.
• No refund policy until someone asks for a refund.

Ontario rules that apply

HST in Ontario is 13 percent, and it changes ticket maths more than most planners expect. Decide early whether your price includes HST or has it added, and price from the net figure. A $350 ticket that includes HST yields roughly $310 before tax; the same ticket with HST added costs the buyer about $396. Your break-even calculation should use the net amount, not the headline.

Whether HST applies at all depends on who is selling. A business charges HST on tickets once it is registered, and registration becomes mandatory once taxable sales pass the small supplier threshold of $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Many supplies by registered charities are exempt, but there are exceptions, so a charity should confirm its own position with its accountant before the ticket page goes live. The CRA also sets the rules for donation receipts: only the amount above the fair-market value of what the guest receives can be receipted, which is why the gala dinner is deducted.

Show the real price. The federal Competition Act treats drip pricing, advertising a price that cannot actually be paid because mandatory fees are added later, as deceptive marketing. Taxes may be added, but a compulsory service or platform fee should be included in the price you advertise. If you pass the platform fee to the buyer, make sure the price displayed from the start includes it.

Two other licences sit beside ticketing and are often forgotten. A raffle, a 50/50 draw or a similar lottery needs its own licence, issued by the AGCO or by the municipality depending on the type and size, and the ticket for the event does not cover it. And if the ticket includes alcohol at a venue without its own liquor licence, the event needs a Special Occasion Permit from the AGCO, with Smart Serve trained servers.

Numbers to know

Work these out before you open sales, and keep them on one page beside the budget.

• Net ticket price: the price after HST (if included) and after any platform fee the organizer absorbs. This is the number that goes into break-even.
• Platform fees: typically a percentage plus a fixed amount per ticket, plus card processing. On a low-priced ticket the fixed part matters most; on an expensive ticket the percentage does.
• Payout timing: if the platform holds funds until after the event, your vendor deposits come from somewhere else. Map deposit due dates against expected payouts.
• Comp count: every complimentary seat still costs a plate, a bar share and HST on both.
• No-show rate: free events lose far more registrants than paid ones, so a free event can safely release more registrations than it has seats, and a paid event should not.
• Capacity: the ticket cap is the lower of the room’s licensed capacity and the venue’s comfortable layout, never the number you hope to sell.

GTA practice notes

Downtown Toronto venues often carry high food and beverage minimums, and hotel quotes add a service charge and then HST on top of the service charge. When you calculate the variable cost per person, start from the all-in figure the venue will invoice, not the menu price. The ROI calculator will do the rest once the inputs are honest.

Plan for door sales even if you hope not to have any. A card reader on a phone, a clear walk-up price, and a staff member who knows the refund policy will deal with the guest who forgot to buy. For community events in the suburbs, a meaningful share of buyers arrives on the day, and the weather decides how many.

Group sales work well in the GTA’s corporate market. Many companies buy a table for staff or clients, and the person buying often needs an invoice with HST shown separately and a purchase order number. Offer an invoiced table option alongside the online checkout.

Questions to ask a ticketing platform

Ask how fees are calculated and displayed to the buyer, whether the displayed price can include all mandatory fees, when funds are paid out and whether any are held as a reserve, how refunds and transfers are processed and who pays the fee on a refund, whether the platform can issue or split charitable receipts, how attendee data is stored and exported, and whether the check-in tool works offline if the venue’s signal is poor. Ask, too, whether buyers are automatically added to the platform’s own marketing list, because your guests’ consent under CASL is to you, not to the platform.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet, complete it for your own event (or the running gala example), and keep it in your course binder. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)