Online Event Registration Overview

Overview

The Online Event Registration module allows schools to set up their own online registration forms for any event at their school. Through the event registration record, schools have extensive configuration and customization options to ensure each form is designed exactly the way schools would like. School community members can then access these forms through a posted URL to register for events online.

Form Components

Online event registration forms consist of several components that define the user’s registration experience and breaks down forms into configurable parts. Although each component has its own distinct function, they should not be thought of as separate parts, but parts that make up one final whole: the published version of the online registration form. For example, how events are displayed on the form has an impact on form design; how users sign up for events is determined by what kind of event the form is for, and so on.

Events

Each online registration form is associated with at least one event and can contain multiple events depending on school preferences. Associating an event with a form determines the first layer of event registration: what event is this registration for and how is that registration captured? All events associated with an online registration form come from group events in Veracross. The group event must exist in the system before the form can be published. Examples of event registrations might be field trips, ticket purchasing for a school play, school tours, etc.

Learn more about form event association.

If this registration should offer the user a chance to make a donation, donations are configured per event, like a ticket type. The “Rate” for donations determines what suggested donation amounts the user can select (leave the donation Rate as zero if the users should be able to choose their own amount). If your school uses the Veracross Development module, you can also set the Default Campaign / Default Fund on the “Donations” tab for the form event.

Form Workflow & Design

A form’s initial workflow is defined by the “Registration Type.” Selecting a registration type determines the second layer of event registration: who is the registrant? Each registration type has a predesigned registrant information section based on the type selected. The registrant will complete the information in this step to indicate who they are. Forms can be designed for public, Veracross users, Veracross parent/student, alumni, or a combination of public and Veracross users. Additional steps to the registration experience can be added as needed, such as a question sections or payment window.

Form design encompasses the actual text, images, and other display settings that make each form unique. Schools can set the banner color, assign a banner image or header image, and configure a number of text settings such as instructions and button text so each form reflects the school’s purpose and captures exactly the information they need from their registrants. The banner image should ideally be around 1600×500 pixels and no larger than 200kb.

Learn more about form workflow & design.

Action Types

For each event associated with a form, an action type must be assigned. The action type determines how a registrant will sign up for the event (i.e. the actual selection process on the form for event registration). For each event schools can choose between the following actions to include as event sign up: checkbox, quantity, multi-ticket, and multi-date (consolidated events only). Depending on the action type selected, additional configuration is available such as ticket price, dropdown selections, and more.

Extra Questions

Schools may opt to ask additional questions as part of the event sign up process. Extra questions examples include capturing information about student allergies, lunch preferences, HPU form updates, etc. Each question receives a question scope to determine who/what the question applies to and includes school defined answers which the registrant will select to complete this step of registration.

Learn more about extra questions configuration.

Purchase/Payment

Some event sign ups may require payment to finalize the registration. The most common example of this is ticket purchasing. Each form can be configured to accept certain payment types. Choosing a payment type adds a final step to the registration process: pay now.

Ticket rates are configured from the Registration Form Event record. Schools can enter normal tickets, discount code tickets, and the option to make a donation. If the user knows the discount code, they can enter it during registration to sign up for the ticket at a reduced rate.

Note: in order to configure payment with the Online Event Registration module, the school must be set up with Veracross Checkout. Contact your Account Manager if you are interested in enabling Veracross Checkout at your school.

Registrant Sign Up Process

Each registration form is organized around a series of steps. Once a registrant completes all steps, they are considered registered for the event. There are three kinds of registrants that may sign up for school events: guests (i.e. public community members), parents/students, and alumni. Each group of registrants will follow slightly different steps during the registration process.

Guest

Guest or public registrants will complete some combination of the seven steps below:

Note: it is possible to configure events allowing sign up for both guests and Veracross users. In place of the register step, Veracross Users will login using the login credentials instead.

1. Select Events (ticket rates + quantity, select from dropdown, etc.)
2. Register (who are you?)
3. Complete Extra Questions (if applicable)
4. Make a Donation (optional)
5. View Summary of Registration and Total Purchase
6. Pay Now
7. Success!

Parent/Student Sign Up

Parent/student sign up allows parents to sign up for events on behalf of their children. Parent/student registrants will complete some combination of the six steps below.

1. Log In
2. Select Events and Children
3. Complete Extra Questions (if applicable)
4. View Summary of Registration and Total Purchase
5. Pay Now
6. Success!

Alumni

Alumni registrations are similar to public community registrations, but the second step — identifying themselves — is considerably condensed. Alumni enter their name, email address, postal code, and graduation year. The system then tries to match the alumni with an existing alumni record in the system.

Submission Processing

All registrations made from an online event registration form results in a registrant specific registration form submission record which are tracked on the Submissions tab of each registration form record. This tab contains information about the submission status, payment status, payment amounts made, and donations made (if applicable).

For Veracross user event registration (i.e., requiring a sign in), all potential attendees, in most cases students, who may attend the event are added using the Groups tab on the group event record. All members of that group receive attendance records which are tracked on the Attendance tab. As parents complete registration for each of their children, the student’s status on the Attendance tab will updated automatically to “Complete,” indicating that the parent has finished registration for their student and the student will be attending the event.

Creating Person Records for Guest Registrants

A person record is created in the database for a non-Veracross user who registers as a guest for an event. Prior to the creation of these new person records, it will attempt to first match the Last Name and Email_1 to an existing user, first. After this, the system will attempt to match the Last Name with the Phone Number. Should neither of these checks return a match, then a new record is created.

• Role: The person is initially created with the role “NO ROLES SPECIFIED,” updated to “None” in the overnight script.
• First name, last name, and home phone are entered on the person record as specified from the registration form.
• An address, if entered, is entered as the “Individual Address,” accessible on the “Addresses” tab of the detail screen. By default, the “Send Mail To” is set to “Individual Address.”
• Household: A household is not created automatically. See next section for further information.

Households

Households are not automatically created for persons who register as guests via event registration. Schools may want households for reporting, development, or other purposes. The person can be added to an existing household by entering it on the Household field, or a new household can be created. There are two approaches to adding a new household:

1. Manually create the household and associate the person with it. Create a new household from the “Add” menu on the Main homepage or create it directly from the Household field on the person record by clicking the Search icon and then adding it from the Search window.
2. Use the “Create New Household for Person” Action menu item on the person’s detail screen. Note that the Action menu item does not pull the individual address (if present) into the new household’s address. The address must be manually entered on the household record.

Assuming the household should contain the address of record, update the “Send Mail To” field on the Household tab of the person record to “Household Address” and — optionally — remove the “Individual Address” if no longer needed.