Custom CRM software for an Irish events company, from the first enquiry to check-in on the night

As Precise Events International's website brought in more enquiries, the pressure moved to everything that happens after one lands. We already look after their website, SEO and Google Ads, and that side has its own case study. Behind the scenes the business ran on forms, spreadsheets and email, with event plans in Excel and guest lists wherever the last person had saved them. Moving an event from enquiry to quote to invoice meant copying the same details from one place to the next, and nobody had a single view of where each event stood.

A CRM of their own instead of an off-the-shelf one

Off-the-shelf CRMs didn't fit, because an events job doesn't end at the sale. It runs on through venue sourcing, quoting, staged invoicing, agendas and menus, registrations and the door on the night. So we built Precise a CRM of their own that follows an event from the first enquiry to the feedback afterwards. Each of the team's ten roles sees what it needs, so the people running an event on the night get the guest list and run sheet without the finances. A daily briefing lists overdue actions, unanswered venue forms, outstanding balances, expiring quotes and upcoming events, so nothing depends on someone remembering it.

Quotes signed online and turned straight into invoices

Most of the copying happened between an enquiry, its quote and its invoice, so we joined those steps into one. Enquiries move across a pipeline with its own history and follow-ups, and venue requests go out from a directory the team maintains, with reminders when a venue hasn't replied. Quotes go out as a branded PDF with a private link where the client can accept, ask for changes and sign online. The accepted quote then becomes a full, deposit or balancing invoice that exports to Sage with the account codes already filled in. Nobody retypes a line between the quote and the invoice.

Registration and check-in from the same guest list

The team publishes a registration page for each event, at its own address where the client wants one. Every RSVP lands directly in the guest list, so the list they plan with is the one they check guests in from. Options on a registration form close themselves once they're full, confirmed guests get a reminder the week before, and clients can watch registrations come in through a read-only link. On the night, staff check guests in by scanning a QR code with a phone, and every check-in shows up on every device on the door.

Precise now runs every event through one system instead of forms, spreadsheets and email. Four live client events have already taken their registrations and door check-ins through it.

An events business needs more from a CRM than a sales pipeline, because each job carries on through sourcing, registration and the door on the night. Roles and permissions are far easier to design in at the start than to add once real client data is in the system. A quote the client accepts and signs online, kept exactly as it was signed, settles any question about what was agreed.

Read more about our custom software service, or see more custom software case studies and other events and entertainment projects.