Setting Up a Private Event Request Form

A private event request form is a repeating event type that customers book to request a party or group session, rather than to attend a scheduled event. Staff turn each request into a real private event at the booked time, and any payment taken on the request carries across to that private event automatically.

This suits bookings where the final details are not known when the request comes in. A customer requesting a birthday party in three weeks rarely knows the final headcount, so the form collects the slot and a deposit, and the price is settled once the numbers are confirmed.

A request form needs two event types. The repeating request form collects the request and the deposit. The private event itself is created on a separate Multi-part/One-off event type, with its own pricing matrix, and that matrix is what sets the final price. Set up both before the form goes live.

Create the request form event type

1. Go to Event Setup and create a new event type with a Schedule Type of Repeating.
2. Set Is this repeating event used as a Private Event request form? to Yes. This option appears only on repeating event types.
3. Set Maximum Number of Participants per Booking to the largest group you would take. It defaults to 6, which is too low for a party: a customer cannot submit a request for more guests than this number.
4. Set Maximum Number of Bookings per Event to the number of private events you can run in one time slot. Without it, a single slot can collect more requests than you can staff.
5. On the Schedules tab, add a schedule covering the days and times you accept private events. Set Capacity per Time Slot to the largest group multiplied by the number of bookings you allow per slot, because it counts every guest across every request in that slot.

Participant names are optional on a request form. The booking page asks for the details of any known participants and lets the customer skip the rest with Add Participant Info left unused. Missing names are filled in later, when the private event is built. This is why the request form is a better fit than an ordinary event type for inquiries.

Ask about the party once, not per guest. On the Questions tab, add anything you need from the organizer (the guest of honor's name, food allergies, a preferred theme) under Booking Customer Questions. Those are answered once per request. Questions under Participant Questions repeat for every guest, which is the wrong shape when the guest list is unknown.

Get told when a request arrives. On the Emails tab, turn on Send Booking Notification Email to Selected Staff and enter the Notification Email Addresses that should hear about new requests. Nothing else alerts staff that a request is waiting.

Attach a pricing matrix to the schedule

1. On the event type's Pricing tab, create a matrix.
2. Click Add Per-Booking Fee rather than adding a per-participant fee. Capitan recommends this on the page itself: the participant list is not known when the request is submitted, so a per-participant fee has nothing to count.
3. Open the Schedules tab, then open the schedule itself.
4. Set the Pricing Matrix field to the matrix you created, and save.

Creating a matrix does not apply it. Each schedule chooses its own matrix, and the field defaults to None. A matrix that exists on the Pricing tab but is not selected on the schedule charges nothing: the customer sees no payment step, and the request shows N/A in the participants list's Payment column.

Charge a fixed amount, then settle on the private event

Headcount is rarely confirmed at request time, so the most reliable setup charges one fixed amount on the form and settles the difference once the numbers are known.

1. On the request form's per-booking fee, leave the "Limit the number of participants which are included with this per-booking fee" setting unchecked, and set the fee to the amount you want to collect up front. The form then charges that same amount whatever headcount the customer enters.
2. When the request comes in, open the scheduled event and click Create Private Event on the request's row in the participants list. It takes the place of the check-in button on request-form events and opens a new private event with the time slot and location prefilled.
3. On the private event's Event Details tab, set Event Type to the Multi-part/One-off event type you set up for the requested private event type, choose its Pricing Matrix, and save.
4. On the Reservations tab, set Number of Participants to the confirmed headcount, pick the Booking Fee and each participant's Fee from that matrix, and save. The private event's price is the sum of those fees. To reduce it, enter a Discount Amount on the same tab.

What was already paid is credited, not lost. Saving the Reservations tab reuses the request's invoice, so the amount already collected counts against the new total and only the difference stays outstanding. Until that first save, the deposit stays on the request booking.

If the private event comes to less than the deposit, the invoice settles and the excess is refunded by hand from the private event's Payment tab. Card payments can be refunded there. Payments recorded as offline, or taken through Lightspeed or Square, cannot be refunded in Capitan.

Each request converts once. After the private event is created, the request's row shows View Private Event instead of Create Private Event. Cancelling the private event does not undo this, so a cancelled party has to be rebuilt from a new private event rather than from the original request.

The customer is not notified when the private event is created. Only the staff notification email fires. The organizer's next contact from Capitan is whatever you send them, which makes Request Payment for the balance a natural moment to confirm the details.

Example. Summit Bouldering charges a flat $150 to submit a request. A customer books a Saturday slot and pays the $150. Two weeks later they confirm 14 guests, and staff enter 14 participants at the private event's $40 per-participant Fee, then add a $40 Discount Amount for the guest of honor, for a total of $520. The invoice shows $150 paid and $370 due.

Collect the remaining balance

Three options sit on the private event's Payment tab:

• Request Payment emails the customer a link they can pay from without signing in. This is the right choice when the customer is not in front of you.
• Pay Now takes a card immediately, either a card saved to the customer's profile or a new one entered at the desk. Use this when the organizer is standing at the counter.
• Mark event as paid offline records the balance as settled without taking money through Capitan. It appears only when Allow offline payments is turned on in Organization Settings.

Offline payments stay out of your accounting. Revenue marked paid offline appears in Capitan's internal revenue reporting but is not included in accounting reports or integrations, and the payment method displays as "Offline Payment". Use it for checks and invoices settled outside Capitan, not as a shortcut for a card payment.

Only one payment request can be pending at a time. While a request is pending, all three options are disabled for that event. Cancel the pending request first if you need to charge a card instead.

One thing to check before going live

An empty pricing matrix behaves like no matrix at all. A matrix with no fees in it produces the same zero-total, N/A booking as a schedule with Pricing Matrix set to None. If you create a matrix as a placeholder, do not attach it to a schedule until it has a fee.