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House Counts

Role: House Managers, Box Office Staff, Administrators

House counts provide real-time tracking of seat inventory for every performance. They are the primary tool for understanding how many seats are sold, held, and available.

Navigation: Admin > House Management > Dashboard

What House Counts Track

A house count record exists for each performance and tracks the following metrics:

Metric Description
Total Seats The full capacity of the venue for this production (from seat map or manual capacity setting)
Sold Number of tickets on paid orders (Processed, Fulfilled, or Unclaimed status)
Held Number of tickets on Hold orders (reserved but not yet paid)
Remaining Seats still available for sale (Total Seats minus Sold minus Held)
Percentage Booked The proportion of capacity that is sold or held, shown as a percentage

Tip

The "Remaining" count is the number you should reference when a patron asks if tickets are available. It accounts for both paid orders and held reservations.

How House Counts Are Calculated

House counts are automatically recalculated by a background job (CalculateHouseCountsJob) that runs every 5 minutes. The calculation process:

  1. Queries all ticket orders for the performance.
  2. Counts tickets by order status (sold vs. held).
  3. Subtracts sold and held from total capacity to determine remaining.
  4. Updates the HouseCount record with the new values.

Capacity Source

The total seats value comes from the production's capacity setting:

Production Type Capacity Source
Reserved seating (with seat map) Automatically uses the count of seats in the assigned seat map
General admission (no seat map) Uses the manually configured capacity value on the production

Warning

If house counts appear incorrect, the most common cause is a recently changed seat map or capacity setting. The house count will update within 5 minutes when the next calculation job runs. For immediate recalculation, an administrator can trigger it manually.

Dashboard View

The House Management dashboard displays house counts for upcoming performances in a summary table:

Column Description
Performance Production name and performance date/time
Sold Number of paid tickets
Held Number of held tickets
Remaining Available seats
% Booked Percentage of capacity sold or held

Performances are listed in chronological order, with today's performances at the top.

Per-Performance Breakdown

Clicking on a specific performance in the dashboard opens a detailed view showing:

  • Ticket class breakdown: How many tickets are sold in each price tier (e.g., Regular, Student, Senior).
  • Order status breakdown: Counts by order state (Hold, Processed, Fulfilled, Unclaimed).
  • Seat assignment status (for reserved seating): Which specific seats are occupied, held, or available.

Understanding the Numbers

Scenario Sold Held Remaining Interpretation
Early sales 12 3 85 Low demand so far; plenty of availability
Strong advance 78 8 14 Approaching capacity; consider limiting holds
Sold out 95 5 0 No seats available; held orders occupy remaining capacity
Oversold warning 102 0 -2 More tickets sold than capacity; investigate immediately

Warning

A negative remaining count indicates an oversell situation. This can happen if capacity was reduced after tickets were sold (e.g., a seat map was modified). Contact an administrator to resolve the discrepancy.

Snapshots and History

House count snapshots are saved periodically, creating a historical record of how inventory changed over time. This data is used for:

  • Rate of sale analysis: Understanding how quickly tickets are selling.
  • Reporting: Comparing advance sales across performances or productions.
  • Troubleshooting: Investigating discrepancies by reviewing how counts changed.

Automatic Updates and Refresh

Component Update Frequency
HouseCount records Every 5 minutes (CalculateHouseCountsJob)
HUD display files Every 10 minutes (ExportHouseCountsJob)
Dashboard view Refreshed on page load

Tip

If you need the absolute latest count during a fast-selling performance, refresh the House Management dashboard page. The displayed data reflects the most recent calculation job run.