Archtics ticket plan processing

Overview

Archtics allows ticket sellers to create and sell plans, such as full season tickets. When a buyer purchases one of these plans, it is initially represented in Archtics as a single ticket. When KORE receives ticket data through the Ticketmaster API, we may receive either the plan ticket or a ticket for each event within the plan. This can cause confusion when comparing Archtics' records to KORE's records. This page describes the logic that determines what ticket records KORE receives and how updates to an Archtics plan affect the data in KORE Ticketing.

Plans in Archtics

A plan in Archtics consists of two parts:

• a single ticket representing the plan, and
• a Plan Hierarchy containing details for each event included in the plan.

When you sell a ticket plan, Archtics stores this as a single ticket with the "plan" flag turned on. We'll call this an "Archtics Plan Ticket".

Because the Archtics Plan Ticket is separate from the Plan Hierarchy, it is possible to sell an Archtics Plan Ticket prior to creating the Plan Hierarchy. For example, many teams begin selling season tickets before that season's schedule is created. When your organization creates the Plan Hierarchy later, the previously sold Archtics Plan Tickets will become connected to it.

KORE receives new ticket records

The data KORE receives via the Ticketmaster API is different, depending on whether or not the plan is connected to a Plan Hierarchy at the time.

If there is not a Plan Hierarchy yet, KORE receives a single record whose event name matches the plan name. We'll call this a "KORE Plan Ticket".

If there is a Plan Hierarchy, though, the Ticketmaster API performs "Virtual Expansion". This means that the API sends KORE a separate record for each event in the plan instead of a single ticket representing the plan, even though the records are not stored that way within the Archtics database. We'll call these "KORE Event Tickets".

If you sell an Archtics Plan Ticket prior to creating a Plan Hierarchy, the Ticketmaster API will not automatically resend the ticket to KORE (using Virtual Expansion) when you create the Plan Hierarchy later. This is because the Archtics Plan Ticket itself doesn't change. As a result, it is common to see both KORE Plan Tickets and KORE Event Tickets for the same plan within the KORE Ticketing module.

KORE receives updated ticket records

When an Archtics Plan Ticket is edited or changed, the Ticketmaster API resends it to KORE. For example, you might assign a different Sales Rep to the buyer or adjust the plan's price code. KORE will update the associated KORE Plan or Event ticket(s).

However, if an Archtics Plan Ticket was previously sent to KORE prior to creating the Plan Hierarchy and the Plan Hierarchy has been created since then, Ticketmaster's Virtual Expansion will cause a set of KORE Event Tickets to be created. KORE automatically checks for this condition—if we receive KORE Event Tickets, then the corresponding KORE Plan Ticket will be marked as 'KORE_DEACTIVATED' if it exists. (To prevent data integrity problems, we do not delete the record of the KORE Plan Ticket.)

Thus, if a KORE Plan Ticket's status is not 'KORE_DEACTIVATED', you can infer that KORE does not yet have individual KORE Event Tickets for that specific Archtics Plan Ticket sale.

In the vast majority of cases, each KORE Plan Ticket will be replaced with KORE Event Tickets at some point (but not immediately). This happens when either:

• you change the Archtics Plan Ticket, or
• your organization expands (non-virtually) Archtics Plan Tickets into Archtics Event Tickets.

Ticket Expansion is a best practice in Archtics but isn't mandatory. We strongly recommend performing Ticket Expansion when your organization is confident that the Plan Hierarchy is final. After doing so, the Ticketmaster API will send the new Archtics Event Tickets to KORE, which we process in the same way as virtually expanded tickets.

If you need to replace KORE Plan Tickets with KORE Event Tickets without taking one of those two steps, open a support ticket and request that we manually re-pull the data.

Effects of plan pricing in Archtics

During Virtual Expansion, Archtics assigns a price for each resulting KORE Event Ticket. Ensure that plan pricing is configured for all price codes associated with the Plan Hierarchy. Otherwise, Ticketmaster will apply the full price of the Archtics Plan Ticket to every KORE Event Ticket and your reports will significantly over-report these figures. If this happens, correct the pricing data in Archtics and then open a KORE support ticket to request a full refresh.

Currently, paid and owed amounts are evenly distributed across all KORE Event Tickets due to API responses received.  

Effects of a Plan Hierarchy update

Creating or editing a Plan Hierarchy doesn't alter the existing Archtics Plan Tickets. Thus, the Ticketmaster API won't immediately resend those records to KORE. To prevent data integrity problems, KORE does not attempt to mimic Ticketmaster's Virtual Expansion. Therefore, the KORE Event Tickets will not automatically be updated.

If an Archtics Plan Ticket is later updated, Ticketmaster sends the updated Virtual Expansion results to KORE. Assuming KORE Event Tickets already existed:

• If you added new event(s) to the Plan Hierarchy, new KORE Event Ticket(s) are added.
• If an event in the Plan Hierarchy was edited (such as the event date or start time), KORE will update the corresponding KORE Event Ticket.

If your organization performs Ticket Expansion and must change the Plan Hierarchy afterward, Archtics will add or change the Archtics Event Tickets as necessary and those records will be sent to KORE.

Example walkthrough

The following diagram illustrates how a plan might be processed in KORE Ticketing over time: