Setting up a fundraising dinner: sittings, menus and portions
A club dinner, spaghetti night or mussel evening isn't sold as "tickets" but as sittings, menus and portions. ClearTix uses its ordinary building blocks for that; this is how your words translate:
| Your word | In ClearTix |
|---|---|
| Sitting (17:00, 19:30) | A timeslot, with capacity in tickets |
| Menu or dish | A ticket type |
| Number of portions | That ticket type's capacity |
| Steak for adults and children together | A capacity pool |
| Adult / child / member | Separate ticket types; member price behind an access code |
| Dietary needs | A field in the attendee form |
| Drink tokens, dessert | Add-ons |
| Kitchen list | The Counts page |
This guide sets up a typical association dinner in ClearTix:
- Saturday, two sittings: 17:00 and 19:30, 250 seats each
- Menus: steak (€25), chicken (€22), vegetarian (€22), kids' menu (€12)
- Member price €3 cheaper
- Drink tokens and dessert sold in advance
- Door sales for anyone who didn't register online
1. One timeslot per sitting
Create the event and open Date & time. Tick Timeslot booking and add one
timeslot per sitting: 17:00–19:00 and 19:30–21:30. Give each slot a clear
label ("Sitting 17:00"): that label is what your guests, your scanner and your
attendee list see.
Set Capacity per timeslot counts to Tickets (one per person) and give each slot the number of chairs in your hall, say 250. Every person in an order then takes one seat, and a full sitting drops out of sale. See Selling timeslots for the details.
Alternative: if you want a strict number of people per sitting and a separate sales overview, create one event per sitting from a single template. Guests then pick the sitting on your organisation page instead of in the checkout.
2. One ticket type per dish, with the number of portions
Open Ticket types and create one type per dish (and per age group). The ticket type's capacity is the number of portions the kitchen can serve:
| Ticket type | Price | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Adult — steak | €25 | 300 |
| Adult — chicken | €22 | 120 |
| Adult — vegetarian | €22 | 60 |
| Kids' menu — chicken | €12 | 80 |
When the steak sells out it drops out of sale automatically, at the point of sale too. Set Max. per order to 10, say, so a family or group of friends can book in one go. See Ticket types.
One stock for adults and children? Under Capacity create a capacity pool "Steak" of 400 and tick "Adult — steak" and "Child — steak". No need to split the portions up front.
Prefer one ticket type per person? Create "Adult" and "Child" and ask the menu choice as a choice question in the form (step 4). Each option can carry a surcharge or discount, e.g. steak +€3. You do lose the separate stock per dish, though.
3. Member price with an access code
Create an extra ticket type "Member — steak" at €22 for your members, tick Hidden and attach an access code that you only share in your members' newsletter. Whoever enters the code sees the member prices next to the regular ones.
4. Dietary needs via the attendee form
Attach a form to each ticket type with collection per ticket and a field "Allergies or dietary needs" (text, optional). The kitchen then knows per guest whether to cook gluten-free or nut-free.
5. Drink tokens and dessert as add-ons
Open Add-ons and create "Drink tokens (card of 10)" and "Dessert" with a price and a stock. Guests add them during the order and receive a single QR voucher for all their extras, which your volunteers tick off at the bar or dessert stand with the scanner. Add-ons are available from the Studio plan. See Add-ons and extras.
6. The kitchen: portions per dish
On the event page open Counts: one printable overview with, per sitting, the number per dish (ticket type), the dietary needs from the form and the drink tokens and desserts sold and handed out. See Counts per timeslot. For names, use the attendee list filtered by ticket type.
7. At the door
On the night, open POS on the event. Pick the sitting and the menus, take cash or use your own card terminal and mark the order as paid. Portions come off the same stock as online sales. See Point of sale.
For check-in your volunteers use the scanner in the browser. Pick the active timeslot: a ticket for the 19:30 sitting is refused at 17:00.
Tables and sponsors
If a company wants to sponsor a table of ten, let them order as a group booking with an invoice. Assigning a table number is done outside ClearTix today, for example in the exported attendee list.
Last updated: September 10, 2026