Managing Event Registrations for Cancelled Events

We know that cancelling/moving an event registration isn't always the quickest workflow in MC Trade, and we're working to see if there are ways we can safely and quickly give you some tools to make that easier. In the meantime, here are some ideas and recommended best practices:

Shift Your Event Date

What to do:

If a large event that was underway is going to be moved to a new date, you can simply push the full event forward and keep all registrations/settings exactly as they are. 

1. Edit the General Settings on the event, and change the Start Date and End Date to the new date. You can always do this process again, so even if you aren't sure of the exact date, you can choose an approximation. 
2. Click to the Event Items in the settings section, and Edit each Event Item. Update the Invoice Due Date and Sales Start and End Dates as necessary. 
3. Click to the Registration Settings. If you have a Public Registration End Date enabled for the event, update that here.
4. If you use Promo Codes for the event, edit the Promo Codes to update the Start and End Dates for when those will be accepted as well. 
5. Finally, if you want to note anywhere that the event had been previously scheduled for a different date, you can do so in the Event Name or Long Description fields in Event Settings.

Potential implications:

If you have many registrations already for an event that you will be moving to a new date, this will save you the most time and effort in terms of "moving" registrations. However, there will be no indication in your event history that the profile had registered for a previous event, and then moved to a new registration. 

In addition, communication with your registrants is important here. You can use the "Email All Registrants" or "Email All Attendees" features to send a notification to your event attendees, letting them know that their registration is still secure for the event and providing instructions for contacting you if they choose to cancel their registration. 

"Cancel" and create Unapplied Payments for Future Invoices

What to do:

1. Create a new Event Item called "CANCELLED Registration" and leave the price as $0. If you still have online registration for the event, be sure you uncheck the "Public" checkbox for this item.
2. Locate the registration that you want to cancel, and click Edit.
3. On the Event Items section, set the quantity of whatever this registrant purchased to "0" and set the quantity on the new item to 1 (or however many attendees they had purchased).
4. On the Payment Info tab, choose your Invoice Modification options. If you are not going to be giving a refund or applying the funds to a future event/invoice, you can choose Do Not Modify Invoice (you can also choose this if you are going to manually edit the invoice/payments later). However, to create an Unapplied Payment on the profile of the registration that can be applied at a future date to any open invoice, select an Invoice Adjustment Type and Payment Adjustment Type. 
5. Save the registration. The registrant will be moved out of their original event item and into the Cancelled one, and an Unapplied Payment in the amount of the previous payment will be created on their profile. 

Potential implications:

The most important thing to remember here is that the CANCELLED Event Item will still count towards your overall total attendee count assuming you keep the attendees listed on the cancelled registrations. You can see the breakdown of event attendees by item on your Dashboard, so that you can keep track of how many actual attendees you still have registered if the event overall is not being cancelled. 

Additionally, remember that Unapplied Payments must be applied/adjusted directly on the profile itself and cannot be applied through the events module at this time. If you're cancelling someone from one event so that you can move them specifically to another, you'll need to apply that Unapplied Payment in their profile directly after registering them for the new event. Alternately, you could use the next workflow:

Delete and Recreate New Registrations in a New Event

What to do:

1. Locate the registration that you want to move to a new event, and note the Sign Up Date of the registration. Click the "more" menu button in the registration card, and choose Delete.
2. Check Yes to delete, then choose your Invoice Modification options. If you will be creating a new invoice on the new registration that you are going to create in step 4, you need to choose the appropriate Adjustment Type to use to adjust off this event's invoice and payment (if applicable). If you are simply going to leave the invoice as-is and not create a new one in the new event, you can choose Do Not Modify Invoice and Payment Records
3. Click Yes, Delete This Registration and All Associated Attendees.
4. Search for an open the new event to which the registration will now apply, and click New Registration.
5. Search for the profile from the original registration. Backdate the sign up date if desired, or leave as the current date to indicate the date that you are signing them up for the new event. 
6. Choose the appropriate event item for the new registration. One idea for simplifying revenue is to create a free registration item indicating that the registrant paid for the registration as part of a previous, cancelled event. Note that this does have important accounting implications and may not be the best practice for all event types/registration, especially those with differing revenue accounts and amounts.
7. If you do choose to create a new invoice/payment and adjusted off the previous invoice in step 2 above, enter the payment information as necessary. Note that this will apply the payment with the current date: if you want to backdate the payment for accounting purposes to the original payment date, you'll need to do that after saving the new registration. 
8. Save Registration. 
9. Finally, if you need to apply a payment or make any other changes to the new invoice that was created, click Edit Invoice on the Registration card. You can apply new payments or adjust dates, etc. and add notes here. Note that if you alter the revenue items or amounts of any of the invoice line items, you may be prompted to modify the registration invoice next time you edit that registration, so make changes carefully. 

Potential implications:

Overall this is the safest way to get all of the data exactly the way you want it. The only downside is the larger manual effort it requires.

Finally, you might find the following blog post helpful! Our partner event/conference management platform ePly has some great tips and tricks in their blog that apply to anyone who manages large events, regardless of which software you use to do it: https://www.eply.com/blog/the-101-checklist-to-cancelling-your-event.