Boards

Navigate to: Menu > Contacts & Relationships > Boards

Overview

Boards help you manage your relationships with the people and organisations your theatre works with, from a first conversation through to a signed agreement and beyond. Each board is made up of stages, and each relationship is a card that you move from stage to stage as it develops.

Use boards for relationships such as sponsors and funders, patrons and donors, venue hire clients, schools and group bookers, Friends renewals, visiting companies and promoters. Each card can be linked to the contact in Contacts & Relationships, so the relationship and the person’s full booking history sit together.

From Boards you can:

●      Create and manage multiple boards

●      Add stages and change stage colours

●      Add, edit and move cards

●      Link cards to contacts

●      See cards and activities on the calendar

●      Set up automations and card assignee notifications

●      Upload files and send agreements for e-signature

●      Add activities such as calls, meetings and follow ups to cards

●      Create and send invoices

Ideas for relationship boards

●      Sponsorship: Prospect, First Contact, Proposal Sent, Negotiating, Agreement Signed, Active Sponsor, Renewal Due

●      Patrons and Donors: Identified, Introduced, Cultivating, Asked, Pledged, Thanked, Lapsed

●      Venue Hire: Enquiry, Site Visit, Quote Sent, Provisional Hold, Contracting, Confirmed, Invoiced

●      Schools and Groups: Contacted, Interested, Provisional Booking, Confirmed, Resources Sent, Follow Up

●      Friends Renewals: Renewal Due, Reminder Sent, Renewed, Lapsed

●      Visiting Companies and Promoters: Relationship Owner, Show Pitched, In Discussion, Contracting, Booked, Post Show Review

Your default board

Your default board comes with the following stages, which you can rename, recolour, reorder or delete to suit the relationships you are tracking:

●      Enquiry

●      Proposal

●      Agreed

●      Contracting

●      Confirmed

●      On Sale

The number of cards in each stage is shown on the stage header.

Calendar view

Click Calendar at the top of the page to switch to the calendar view. Your cards, activities and events show on the calendar, so you can see upcoming sponsor meetings, renewal dates and hire dates in date order. See the Scheduling article under Calendar & Scheduling for more on using the calendar.

Add a stage

●      Click Add Stage

●      Name the stage, for example Proposal Sent

●      Click Add Stage to save

●      Repeat to create as many stages as you need

Change a stage colour or name

●      Click the edit icon on the stage header

●      Choose a new colour and/or enter a new name

●      Save

Using a different colour for each stage makes it easy to see at a glance where each relationship is, for example green for signed sponsors and amber for those still in negotiation.

Delete a stage

●      Click the remove icon on the top right of the stage header

●      Click Delete Stage

Important: Deleting a stage also deletes all cards in that stage. Move any cards you want to keep into another stage first.

Add a card

●      Click Add Card

●      Enter the card name, for example the sponsor’s company name, the donor’s name, the school or the hire client

●      Select the stage the card belongs to from the dropdown

●      Optional: Click Add Custom Field to add extra information (Date, Text, Number or Email), for example the renewal date, the sponsorship value or the number of pupils in a school group, then enter your data

●      Click Add Card to save

You can also add a card from Calendar & Scheduling > Scheduling > Add > Add Card.

Link a contact to a card

Linking a card to a contact keeps the relationship connected to the person’s record in Contacts & Relationships, including their bookings, tags and the campaigns they have received.

●      Click Card Templates

●      Add a field and set the Field Type to Linked Contact Field

●      When adding a card, click Add Contact

●      Search for an existing contact or add a new one

Contacts are pulled from Contacts & Relationships > Contacts.

Move a card

Click and drag a card into a different stage as the relationship develops, for example from Proposal Sent to Negotiating. If you have automations set up, the card assignee will be notified when the card moves (see Automations and notifications).

Search for a card

Use the search box above the board to find a card by name.

Edit a card

●      Click on the card you want to edit

●      Make your changes

●      Click Save

Delete a card

●      Click on the card you want to remove

●      Click Remove on the top right

Upload files to a card

●      Open the card

●      In the Files section, click Upload File

●      Select the file, for example a sponsorship proposal, a hire agreement, a gift aid declaration or a schools booking form

E-sign

You can connect your preferred e-sign provider and send agreements for signature directly from a card, for example a sponsorship agreement or a venue hire contract.

Set up your e-sign provider:

●      Go to Admin > Settings

●      Select your preferred E-Sign Provider (SignRequest, SignNow, Dropbox Sign, Autenti, BoldSign, Legalesign, Signable or DocuSign)

●      Click Save E-Sign Provider

Once saved, open any card and your selected provider will be available to send documents for signature. E-sign is also available in Acts & Performers > Files.

Add an activity to a card

Activities keep a record of every touchpoint in a relationship, so anyone on your team can pick it up.

●      Open the card

●      In the Activities section, click Add Activity

●      Enter the activity details, date and time, for example Call sponsor re renewal, Invite patron to press night or Send schools resource pack

●      Save

Activities on a card can be marked as Done, Snoozed or Tagged. Activities also show on the calendar in Calendar & Scheduling > Scheduling.

Create and send invoices

●      Open the card

●      Create a new invoice from the card, for example for a sponsorship instalment, a venue hire deposit or a school group balance

●      Enter the invoice details

●      Save the invoice, then send it to the contact

Card templates

Card templates set the fields that appear on every card in a board. You might use different templates for different kinds of relationship, for example a sponsorship template with value, term and benefits, and a venue hire template with hire date, space and deposit.

Create a card template:

●      Click Card Templates

●      Click Add Template

●      Enter the template name, for example Sponsorship

●      Add each field: enter the field name, choose the field type, and set Show On Board to On if you want it visible on the card in the board

●      Click Add Custom Field to add more fields

●      Click Create Template

Edit a card template:

●      Click Card Templates

●      Click the edit icon on the top left of the template

●      Change field types and choose which information shows on the card

●      Save

Create multiple boards

●      Click the dropdown at the top left

●      Click Add Pipeline

●      Enter the board name, for example Sponsorship 2026/27, and choose a card template

●      Click Add Pipeline

To switch between boards, click the dropdown at the top left and select the board you want.

Your main board is set in Admin > Settings. This is the board that opens by default.

Automations and notifications

You can set up automations so that card assignees are emailed whenever a card moves between stages, for example alerting your Development Manager when a sponsor reaches Agreement Signed, or your Finance team when a hire is Confirmed and ready to invoice.

Add card assignees to your template

●      Edit or create a card template and add the Card Assignee field

●      Add one or more assignees from your contacts, or create new ones

Create your email template

●      Go to Email & Promotions > Template Designs

●      Create the email assignees will receive when a card moves

●      Add the applicable merge tags for automations, for example card name and stage

Set up the automation

●      Click Manage Automation

●      Click Add Workflowte, then choose Time After Board Movement

●      Pick the board, set the notification timing, and select your email template

●      Save

Once saved, assignees will automatically receive an email every time a card moves on the selected board. See the Automation article for more.

Tips

●      Give every card an owner using the Card Assignee field, so each sponsor, donor or hire client has a named relationship manager

●      Add a follow up activity every time you move a card, so no relationship goes quiet

●      Use Date custom fields for renewal and anniversary dates so they show on the calendar

●      Tag contacts in Contacts & Relationships to match their board, for example Sponsor or Patron, so you can build audiences and send them campaigns