January 21, 1993
 
Program notes, vague instructions, and a short sales pitch:
 
Box office accounting and ticket selling is a specialized branch of the
accounting field.  Most of the software that will do it has been priced
in the $30,000 to $100,000 range.  There is really no reason for these
high prices other than that there is a market that will support those
prices.  The smaller theatres have simply been out of luck, or at the
mercy of big computerized operations.
 
Center Stage Software was started with the idea that there were more
theatres that could afford inexpensive software than could afford expensive
software.  Or, to put it another way, "God loves the poor people.  That's
why he made so many of them."  Our program is only $1,000 and has been
doing quite well - much to the alarm of the bigger companies.
 
Still, there are some performing arts organizations that cannot afford that
amount.  They may have a computer, but they are unable to get it to do very
much for them.  What they need is some free software.
 
We also have some competition in our price range.  We look at them and are
surprised to find they are charging the same price as we are for a
program that has the same functionality of our demonstration disk.
 
So in the interests of benefitting performing arts organizations and in
promoting competition, we have released this program.  Use it, make copies,
and pass it along to your friends.
 
This program will:
        sell tickets
        print tickets
        do accounting:
                by Show
                by Performance
                by Day
                by Customer
        collect names and addresses for mailing lists
        print mailing labels
        create text files to send to a word processor
        remove duplicate names
        print a zip code report
 
System Requirements:
   XT, 286, 386, 486 computer with about 5 MB free space on the hard disk
   a printer
   a human who likes computers
 
A few vague instructions (which no one reads anyway)
 
The way the system works is to record each transaction along with the
appropriate information as a sale in the Mainsale file.  The Mainsale
becomes a list of entries - similar to a shoebox filled with notecards.
 
When you get reports, or print mailing labels, the computer goes through
each sale or record, check to see if it should include it, and then prints
the information.  That's all it does.
 
Information (like the title of the show, prices, whether to print tickets)
comes from other files when you enter the show information.
 
Try it.  If you are lost, make a guess.  If in doubt, press Esc.
The "Done and Save" key is F10.  To select a light bar item, use
your arrow keys and press enter, or just press the number.
You really can't do any harm.
 
If you need ticket stock, give us a call.  We sell it for $20.00 per
thousand plus tax and shipping.
 
 
And finally:
 
Are we worried that people will use this program and never buy anything
from us?  Not really.  Once people actually start using their computers,
they will discover how useful a computer can be.  Any one of the many
functions of our regular programs will justify the cost of it.
 
 
                        Center Stage Software
                        209 John Street
                        Monterey, CA  93940
                        voice  408-649-5561
                        fax    408-649-0868
 
 
 
Since you are still reading, here is a small sales pitch:
 
The real programs (both the $1,000 and $5,000 versions) are sophisticated,
multi-user packages.  They contain many more parts.  These include:
 
Seating charts are integrated with the rest of the program.  You get a chart
on the screen.  You can move a cursor to any seat and see who is sitting there.
Or, you can also click a mouse on a seat.
 
You have the ability to create up to 1,000 different seating arrangements.
 
Getting a list of say, your present season ticket holders is easy.  But how
would you like a list of the season ticket holders who did not renew?  Or,
how would you like a list of everyone who is not a season ticket holder?
 
Let's say you have a really popular show.  How would you like to have a list
of the people who are newcomers and have never been in your place?  How would
you like it in a way you can send it to your word processor and do a mail
merge with a letter asking them to become season ticket holders?
 
Do you advertise?  What's it worth to you to have a list of the advertising
that is working and how people heard about your events?
 
Not only can you print tickets as you sell them, you can print all the tickets
for your house ahead of time, or print just the unsold tickets (for sale at
the door).
 
There is a calendar section for putting out publicity - with four different
kinds of calendars - all of which can be put in a text file to be sent to
a desktop publishing program (or a Macintosh).
 
Password protection to keep un-knowledgeable people out of sensitive parts of
the program.
 
There are 17 different kinds of reports to go along with the audit trail.
You will have no trouble keeping track of the customers, their history,
mailing lists, seats, and the money in your cash drawer.
 
You can print bar codes on your mailing labels.  This alone can save you up to
1.7 cents a piece at the post office.
 
The real program is also multi-user.  You can connect two or more computers
together on a network.  Tixsales has been used and works very well on:
    Invisible Net       Lantastic
    MainLan             Novell Netware
    Novell Lite         VM/386
 
Two computers can sell from the same seating chart for the same performance at
the same time.  If they try to sell the same seat, the first computer gets it
and the second gets an error message.  More commonly, one person can get
reports or mailing labels while everyone else continues selling tickets.
 
You can run the program over phone lines for remote outlets
 
You can have up to 10,000 different shows and performances
(if you really have that much disk space)
 
AND, we have excellent references.