The ticketing system
A ticketing system is the single place where a sale, a payment, a ticket and a door check all refer to the same list of places.
A ticketing system is the software that holds everything around selling entry: what is on offer, how many places remain, who bought what, what they paid, and whether they have been through the entrance. A ticket sales system differs from a webshop in that it must count places and must be able to say no.
The four parts
Any ticketing platform, however simple, does four things. It publishes what is on sale. It takes the money. It issues a ticket. It checks that ticket at the door. Systems differ mainly in how much they help with the fourth, which is the part organisers think about last.
Ticketing for clubs and small venues usually breaks on the fourth part rather than the first. Selling is easy; knowing at half past seven whether the person in front of you has already been in is not.
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
A spreadsheet works up to the point where two people need it open at once, or where the door needs to know what the website sold ten minutes ago. Ticketing for associations often runs on a shared sheet for years and then fails on a single busy night.
The other limit is money. Once you are taking payments, you need a record that ties each payment to a place and survives a refund. A ticketing system for small events earns its keep at exactly that point.
How Passavo puts it together
Sales, payments, tickets and door checks live in one system. Online and counter sales draw from the same time slots, and every scan at the entrance lands in the same overview as the sale, so there is no export and re-import step between the parts.
The free plan is a genuinely free ticketing system up to a ceiling of paid tickets per event, with unlimited free registrations on top. Above that you unlock the event or move to a flat amount per month, and you still pay nothing per ticket.
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Common questions
Do we need one if we run two events a year?
For two quiet evenings a shared list may be enough. The moment you sell in more than one place at once, or take money in advance, a single count starts to pay for itself.
Can more than one person work in it?
Yes. You can give each volunteer only the rights they need, so somebody scanning at the entrance never sees your takings or your buyers' contact details.