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Reports turn your box office data into answers. They show how each show and performance is selling, which parts of the house and which ticket types are filling up, how audiences are booking and paying, and exactly who is coming to each performance. Use them to spot trends, compare productions and performances, plan pricing and marketing, and prepare figures for production meetings, board reports and funders.
This article covers four reports:
● E-Commerce Report: A quick snapshot of how a whole show is selling
● Time Slot Report: The same snapshot for a single performance
● Overview Report: A summary of every show and performance side by side, with capacity, holds, comps and revenue
● Orders Report: Every order line in detail, down to the individual seat
Which report should I use?
● How is this show selling overall? Use the E-Commerce Report
● How is Saturday’s matinee selling compared with Saturday evening? Use the Time Slot Report, or the Overview Report by Booking Time
● How is the whole season selling? Use the Overview Report filtered by Booking Time for the season
● How many seats are held or given away as comps? Use the Overview Report with the Held, Held Available and Comp columns
● Who is sitting where tonight, and who hasn’t arrived? Use the Orders Report
● How much did we take today, and how? Use the Orders Report filtered by Transaction Date, or the Overview Report’s payment columns
Transaction date or performance date
Most reports let you filter by two different dates. They measure different things, so the figures will not match:
● Transaction Date: When the order or refund was made, whatever performance it was for. Use this to look at sales activity over a period, for example how many tickets were sold in your on-sale week, or for daily and month-end box office figures
● Booking Time: When the performance takes place, whenever the tickets were bought. Use this to look at how a show, run or season is performing, for example how full the Christmas season is
Running a report
● Go to Reports & Insights > Reports and choose the report
● Click Filters and set the options you need
● Click Update to run the report
● Click Save Filters, where available, to keep the same filters for next time
The E-Commerce Report gives a quick snapshot of how a single show is selling across all its performances.
● Open the E-Commerce Report from Standard Reports
● Select your event, for example your spring musical
● Select the transaction date, using a preset date filter or a custom date range
● Click Update
● Click Print Report to print or save a copy
The report shows:
● Area: Each seating area, for example Stalls, Circle or Balcony, with its capacity, the ticket types sold there, for example Adult, Concession or Child, their price, the quantity sold and the total revenue for each ticket type. Use this to see which parts of the house are selling and whether your pricing is working
● Source: Tickets split between online and box office orders, so you can see how many people are booking online
● Payment Type: The payment methods used, for example card or cash
● Ticket Type: How many tickets were sold for each ticket type, so you can see which are most popular
The Time Slot Report gives the same snapshot for one performance. Use it to compare individual performances, for example whether evenings sell better than matinees, or how a relaxed or captioned performance is doing.
● Open the Time Slot Report from Standard Reports
● Search for and select the performance date and time
● Select the transaction date, using a preset date filter or a custom date range
● Click Update
● Click Print Report to print or save a copy
The report shows the Area, Source and Payment Type tables described above, for that performance only.
The Overview Report summarises sales for each show and each performance side by side, broken down by payment method. It is the best report for seeing how your whole programme is selling at a glance.
Filters:
● Transaction Date: Orders and refunds made in a date range. Use a preset, for example This Month, or a custom range
● Booking Time: Performances taking place in a date range
● Booking: Choose one or more specific shows
● Exclude Refunds: Remove all refunds from the report
When you click Update, two reports appear:
● Overview Report by Booking: A summary for each show, with all its performances added together. Use it to compare productions or see how a whole run is selling
● Overview Report by Booking Time: A summary for each individual performance, with its date and time. Use it to compare performances within a run, for example evenings against matinees or weekdays against weekends
Click Column Visibility to choose which columns appear:
● Name: The show name
● Performance Date: The date and time of the performance (Overview Report by Booking Time only)
● Quantity: The total number of tickets issued
● Held: The number of seats on hold, for example house seats, company seats or press seats
● Held Available: The number of held seats still available
● Available: The number of seats still available to sell
● Capacity: The total capacity for the show or performance
● Sold: The percentage of capacity sold
● Comp: The number of complimentary tickets issued
● Price: The total ticket value
● Inside Tax: Tax included in the ticket price
● Outside Tax: Tax added on top of the ticket price
● Reservation: The value of reservations
● Card, Cash and Other: Revenue taken by each payment method
● Card Reader: Revenue taken through a card reader at the box office
● Comp: The value of comp tickets
● Total: Total revenue
The Orders Report is the most detailed report in Backstage Manager. It shows every order line, so you can see exactly who bought what, for which performance, where they are sitting, how they paid and whether they have arrived.
Filters:
● Transaction Date: When the order was placed
● Booking Time: The date and time of the performance
● Purchaser: The customer’s name
● Contact, Contact Phone and Contact Email: The details of the contact linked to the ticket
● Status: All shows every transaction including refunds. Complete shows all transactions excluding refunds
● Package: A package or subscription, for example a season ticket
● Entrance: Which entrances or doors appear in the report
● Delivery: The delivery method, for example e-ticket, post or collect from box office
● Marketing: Customers who have opted in or out of marketing
● User: The member of staff who processed the order
● Source: All (online and box office) or box office only
● Hold: Seat holds, for example house seats, company seats or press seats
● Type: Event or product
● Residents Number: Search by resident number
Click Column Visibility to choose which columns appear. Available columns include:
● ID: The order ID
● Purchaser: The customer who placed the order
● Contact, Contact Phone, Contact Email and Contact Address: The details of the contact linked to the ticket
● Status: The order status, for example Complete or Refunded
● Payment: The payment method, for example card, cash or comp
● Transaction Date and Last Update: When the order was placed and last changed
● Item: The show or product bought
● Booking Date: The performance date and time
● Item Variant: The ticket type, for example Adult, Concession or Child
● Venue: The location or auditorium, for example the main house or the studio
● Area and Seat: The seating area, for example Stalls, Circle or Balcony, and the seat number
● Package: Any package or subscription the ticket was part of
● Entrance: The entrance or door the ticket is assigned to
● Delivery: The delivery method
● Scanned, Rejected and Time of Last Scan: Whether the ticket was scanned at the door, whether a scan was rejected, and when it was last scanned
● Inside Charge and Outside Charge: Fees or taxes included in, or added on top of, the ticket price, with their totals in Total Inside Charge and Total Outside Charge
● Quantity: The number of tickets or items
If the report has a lot of columns, scroll sideways to see them all. On a Mac, if the scroll bar doesn’t show, go to System Settings > Appearance and set Show scroll bars to Always.
Search, export and print
● Use the Search box to find a specific show, performance, order, customer or seat
● Click CSV, PDF or Excel to export the report, for example to build your own charts or add figures to a board report
● Click Print to print it
Making the Overview Report and Orders Report match
To make the two reports show the same totals, with refunds excluded from both:
● Use the same date range in both reports, for example the first to the last day of the month
● In the Overview Report, tick Exclude Refunds
● In the Orders Report, click Update with your date range, then open the last filter, which is the order filter, and set Status to Complete
● Don’t click Update again. Export the Orders Report straight to Excel or PDF
Insights you can get from these reports
● Best selling areas and prices: Use the E-Commerce Report’s Area table to see whether the Stalls sell out while the Balcony lags, and adjust pricing or marketing
● Evening versus matinee: Use the Overview Report by Booking Time or the Time Slot Report to compare performances and plan future schedules
● Season progress: Filter the Overview Report by Booking Time for the season and check Sold and Available for each show
● Audience mix: Use the Ticket Type table, or the Item Variant column in the Orders Report, to see how many Adult, Concession and Child tickets each show attracts
● Online growth: Compare the Source tables over time to see how many customers now book online
● Holds and comps: Show the Held, Held Available and Comp columns in the Overview Report to see how many seats are being held back or given away
● Attendance: Filter the Orders Report by Booking Time and show the Scanned column to see who didn’t arrive
● Front of house list: Filter the Orders Report by Booking Time for tonight’s performance, show Purchaser, Area, Seat and Entrance, then print
● Daily takings: Filter the Orders Report by Transaction Date for today and Source for box office only, show Payment, then export
Tips
● Decide first whether you need Transaction Date or Booking Time. Most confusing figures come from using the wrong one
● Save the filters you use every week so your regular reports are one click away
● Export to Excel when you want to compare shows or seasons side by side
● Use the Dashboards in Reports & Insights for trends at a glance, and these reports when you need the detail