Plan an event: guests, replies and budget

A fundraiser, a reunion, a wedding, the club’s end-of-season dinner. The guest list is in a spreadsheet, the replies are in your inbox, and the budget is on the back of an envelope. In this recipe one database holds all three, the agent keeps it up to date as replies arrive, and the headcount and money left over are always one question away.

What you need

• XataWorks, open, with the agent answering. If it is not yet, Getting started covers the one decision to make first.
• Your guest list, as a spreadsheet or .csv file.
• For the replies and reminders: the mail account the invitations went out from, added to XataWorks.

1. Start from the Events template

Choose File ▸ New ▸ Database, pick Events, untick Include sample records, name it (for example Spring_Gala) and choose Create. It holds Events, Guests and Expenses. Each guest has an RSVP of Invited, Yes, No or Maybe and a party size. Each event adds up its headcount, what has been spent and what is left of its budget.

2. Add the event and the guests

Add an event: Spring Gala, 14 March, at the community hall, with a budget of 4,000. Then bring in the guest list I’ve attached and add everyone on it to the Spring Gala as Invited.

The agent brings the attached list in as a spreadsheet, reads it and adds each guest to the event. The first change asks. Answer Allow changes to “Spring_Gala” in this chat and the rest follows without asking.

3. Let the agent read the replies

Open Mail in the same chat (View ▸ Mail ▸ All Mail) and ask:

Read the replies to my Spring Gala invitation. Update each guest’s RSVP and party size, and list any reply you couldn’t match to a guest.

Mail asks before each step the agent takes in it, reads included. Answering Allow tools that only read on your mail covers reading for the rest of this chat.

4. Keep the money straight

Tell the agent each cost as it happens: “600 deposit for catering, paid”, “flowers, 180, not paid yet”. Then ask what you need to know:

How many are coming, counting partners? What’s left of the budget, and what haven’t we paid?

5. Chase the stragglers, then print the list

Ask the agent to draft a reminder to every guest still marked Invited. It opens a filled-in message for each, and you send them with your own Send. On the day, run the Guest list script from the Scripts menu. It opens the guest list as it prints, ready for Print… or Save as PDF….

Where this recipe stops

• You send every message. The agent drafts invitations and reminders; no agent can send mail.
• Replies are read when you ask. The database doesn’t watch your inbox by itself. Ask again as more replies come in.
• One database, many events. The template holds any number of events, each with its own guests and expenses, so next year’s gala can go in the same database.

Read more

• Databases: the templates, scripts, and printing from Preview.
• Mail: what the agent may and may not do with your mail.