Implementing Invoicing Workflow for BAFTA Events
Implementing Invoicing Workflow for BAFTA Events
BAFTA Events was launched in early 2020, just before the onset of COVID-19. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns quickly reshaped the initial product vision for the Events system. Traditionally, BAFTA hosts over 500 live events annually, and the restrictions on public gatherings presented a unique set of challenges. In response, the LIT team acted swiftly to organise online events, ensuring continuity. Simultaneously, BMT supported this transition by updating workflows within the BAFTA Events system, allowing it to accommodate virtual events seamlessly.
The BAFTA Awards themselves were not spared from the pandemic’s impact. To adapt, the team moved the British Academy Games Awards to an online format in 2020—a strategy that was later adopted for other awards throughout 2020 and 2021. Luckily, the Film Awards in February 2020 took place just before the lockdowns, securing vital revenue. However, as restrictions persisted into 2021, the need to evaluate whether in-person ceremonies could be held became critical. Working closely with stakeholders, we identified the following key requirements to facilitate live events safely:
– Secure digital ticket distribution
– Scanning mechanisms for validating tickets
– A process for attendees to verify a negative COVID-19 test result
– An interface for ticket bookers to submit guest information
– A workflow for admin approval of bookings prior to payment
Given the wide-ranging scope and urgency, a staged delivery approach was determined to be the most effective way to meet these requirements. The priority for 2021 was facilitating a live Television Awards event with a limited number of guests. Key deliverables for this included secure digital tickets, a check-in app for personal devices, and a streamlined delivery mechanism for tickets.
This strategy meant that development was focused first on features needed at the end of the event management process. Although BAFTA has been processing ticket sales and payments online via Nucleus since 2014, this established process guided the decision-making in prioritising new development areas and workflows.
This article focuses on the development work undertaken throughout 2023 and 2024, which was aimed at integrating the full ticketing workflow, including invoicing and payment processes, directly into BAFTA Events. This creates a comprehensive end-to-end ticket booking and event management system. The enhancements covered in this post include:
– A workflow for admin approval of bookings
– Issuance of VAT invoices and receipts
– Implementing a process for credit notes and refunds
– Collecting and managing detailed guest attendance data
These developments represent the evolution of BAFTA Events into a fully integrated, user-focused platform designed to meet the evolving needs of both administrators and event attendees.
The BAFTA Awards, prestigious industry-only events, give attendance priority to nominees and professionals associated with nominated films, television programmes, and games. Consequently, administrators are tasked with reviewing and approving bookings to ensure an appropriate balance of attendees.
The existing ticket booking workflow within BAFTA Events is primarily self-service, catering predominantly to BAFTA members who receive complimentary tickets. Users can select tickets on the platform, add them to their basket, and pay online using Stripe, without administrator intervention. This process is complicated by a feature that allows the addition of tickets for multiple events into a single basket, followed by a collective checkout. Each selected ticket is reserved within the user’s basket, preventing duplication by other users. A countdown timer ensures that if a purchase is not completed in time, the tickets are released back into the system for resale.
The challenge was to maintain the existing self-service workflow while introducing a complementary workflow that allows administrators to approve bookings before generating invoices and processing payments. Retrofitting new workflows into the established system without rewriting the underlying code—which would have far-reaching implications—required a creative solution. During a scoping call, the Chief Technology Officer proposed the concept of ‘long-lived baskets,’ which could hold pending bookings until administrative approval was granted. Given that ticket sales open a maximum of three months before an award date, these long-lived baskets ensure that administrators can approve bookings at any point up to the event. After the event, expired pending bookings become invisible to users.
This solution paved the way for additional functionalities. A new ‘pending bookings’ setting was introduced, altering the user interface for bookers. With BAFTA Events’ capability for fully customisable text on a per-branch basis, the “Book” button was modified to “Request,” clearly indicating the new process to users. To simplify administrative approval, tickets for other events cannot be added to a basket that contains a pending booking. This restriction, already in place for events managed by different BAFTA branches, was necessary to manage payments across different currencies and Stripe accounts without complicating the process.
For the booker, the workflow remains unchanged until the basket confirmation page. Instead of proceeding to payment or booking confirmation, a pending status message is displayed. This pending booking is visible within the user’s account, where it can only be cancelled—not modified. If users need to adjust their ticket numbers, they must either make a new booking or contact an administrator for changes. The administrative interface was enhanced to allow full management of pending bookings, giving administrators visibility into who has requested tickets and the ability to approve these requests.
Introducing invoices and receipts constituted the most intricate aspect of the system overhaul. Extensive preliminary discussions with the Finance team addressed various requirements, not only concerning the invoicing itself but also regarding payout reports and the reconciliation of invoices paid via bank transfer.
We delineated two primary payment workflows:
Cash Basis: This existing method for event ticket payments required all transactions to be settled before completing the booking. No invoices were issued under this system; however, VAT receipts were provided for all payments.
Invoice Basis: Designed for high-value tickets, this new workflow allows the issuance of an invoice prior to payment, which could be settled via bank transfer or online. Certain bookers may receive credit terms, but the majority must complete payment to access their tickets.
The integration of these workflows into the system presented significant challenges. The cash basis workflow was straightforward, involving no issuance of invoices and displaying receipts only for completed transactions. We implemented a toggle at the branch level to switch between cash and invoice bases, with hard-coded rules governing the display to bookers. For administrators, all invoices and receipts across bookings remained visible to ensure comprehensive tracking of all invoice numbers.
Conversely, the invoice basis workflow introduced more complex issues, particularly regarding the timing of invoice issuance. The Finance team insisted that once issued, an invoice could not be altered; any modifications needed to be reflected through subsequent invoices or credit notes. Extensive efforts to map out flow diagrams for post-approval booking adjustments revealed the process’s complexity. It became evident that attempting to modify this workflow within the existing system’s capabilities was unfeasible. Instead, we decided that changes requiring additional tickets would necessitate a new booking, and reductions could be handled through cancellations and refunds at the administrator’s discretion.
This approach led to linking invoice creation directly with booking approval. Additional functionalities were developed to accommodate the provision of Purchase Order numbers, facilitate online invoice payments without requiring login, and manage the issuance of credit notes and payment tracking.
A fundamental requirement of the updated BAFTA Events system was the ability to collect detailed attendance data for each guest, including dietary and access requirements, allergies, addresses, and more. Previously, in the Nucleus system where tickets were sold, it was challenging to collate and visualise this data on a per-ticket basis due to limitations in the database structure and data segmentation in reports. This issue had been unresolved since the launch of Nucleus in 2014. Transitioning the booking process to BAFTA Events provided the perfect opportunity to address and fully resolve this longstanding challenge.
Administrators can now specify, for each event, the types of information that bookers must provide per ticket. Once a booking is approved, bookers are required to log into the platform and enter the necessary details for each ticket. They must assign a guest name to each ticket and confirm completion of all required information, which removes the ‘incomplete’ flag from their ticket list. This feature allows bookers managing multiple tickets to easily track their progress.
As bookers update each field, administrators gain immediate visibility of this data through the guest list table, providing a comprehensive overview of the information supplied. This data is exportable, enabling the events team to ensure appropriate provisions are made—for example, ordering the correct number of vegetarian meals or making special arrangements for guests with allergies.
An enhanced email tool triggers notifications to bookers who have yet to provide essential details, such as a guest’s address. This system replaces the previous method, where such information was sent to the events team via email and manually entered into a spreadsheet. Not only does this new process eliminate manual data entry, but it also significantly reduces the likelihood of errors and confusion from frequent email exchanges, particularly when changes occur. Admins receive alerts directly within the platform whenever a guest’s details are updated, ensuring data accuracy and streamlining the review process.
The functionality to issue refunds was first introduced in BAFTA Events in 2020 as a response to the cancellation of many events due to COVID-19. This process enabled administrators to cancel tickets and issue immediate refunds via Stripe, which worked well for cash-based events. However, as invoicing was introduced, there was a need to adapt the crediting process to better suit the requirements of the finance team, allowing for manual approval of refunds. This led to the development of features to streamline the workflow, such as eliminating the manual document submission process for the awards team and enabling the automatic generation of credit notes within the system.
After launching the MVP for the Games and Craft Awards in 2023, user feedback highlighted an area for enhancement: the crediting process. While parts of the workflow allowed for ticket cancellations, they left some users with unpaid invoices still visible in their accounts, causing confusion as they continued to receive reminders to pay. Identifying this gap, I immediately set about improving the process to deliver a comprehensive credit note workflow for both invoice and cash-based systems.
Drawing upon the crediting functionality of Nucleus, another product I manage, I adapted a proven workflow to meet the specific needs of BAFTA Events. This involved a full review with the Awards team to identify the areas that needed refining, followed by discussions with the finance team to ensure all their requirements were addressed, including legal and financial responsibilities.
These enhancements were broken down into three key areas:
Presenting Credit Notes to Users – During the development of the invoicing system, the bookers’ access to credit notes was not fully considered. I assessed where in the existing design credit notes could be effectively hosted, ensuring they were easy to access and download once generated. Alongside this, email templates were updated to include credit note PDFs as attachments, addressing the various types of credit scenarios—whether tickets were cancelled without a refund, credited without cancellation, or both cancelled and credited. Ensuring the right documents were sent within the correct workflow for bookers and administrators required careful planning.
Updating the Basket UI – Two primary scenarios needed to be addressed: refunding after a payment and reducing the total before payment. For credits applied before payment, it was important to ensure that the basket page clearly displayed the adjusted amounts, reflecting the correct balance due. The original design didn’t fully account for this, so I worked closely with the finance team to identify how best to represent credited tickets, their reasons, and the outstanding amount while maintaining the existing page structure. Balancing clarity and functionality without overhauling the design was a key focus throughout this stage.
Refining the Administration Interface – The final part of the process was refining the admin UI. Some messaging was not accurate and could mislead administrators—for example, in the cash-based workflow, a credited invoice would be automatically refunded via Stripe and marked as paid, whereas for the invoice-based workflow, the finance team needed to manually process refunds. Therefore, clear differentiation was added between “credited” and “paid” statuses, ensuring accuracy in the system’s messaging. Additional features allowed finance users to specify a reason for the credit, surfacing this information in relevant parts of the UI to improve transparency and streamline communication.
Throughout the development of the BAFTA Events platform, we have implemented numerous sophisticated features that enhance its functionality and user experience. These include automated Stripe reconciliation reports, pay-out summaries, and real-time notifications to the finance team when a credit note is issued. In addition, we developed custom templates for invoices, receipts, and credit notes, and introduced custom codes for finance reports and an automated system for generating invoice numbers. The administrative functionality has also been significantly enhanced, providing comprehensive control over processes and automated communications to bookers.
This post primarily focused on the extensive retrofitting of workflows within the BAFTA Events platform, particularly the challenges encountered and the tailored solutions that have enabled a more robust and efficient online ticketing and payment system. A key part of this journey was creating a transparent and seamless credit note and refund process, reflecting the evolving needs of both administrators and bookers. As a result, the system is moving steadily towards a fully integrated end-to-end online ticket sales platform. The next major phase of development will involve empowering administrators to seat attendees in an online auditorium, a feature planned for completion in the third or fourth quarter of 2024.
Feedback from administrative users has been, and will continue to be, instrumental throughout the platform’s development. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach has allowed us to launch functional features quickly while recognising that user needs often become clearer through real-world interaction with the system, particularly within complex and evolving workflows. Early and continued engagement with stakeholders has been crucial, allowing us to incorporate feedback promptly and refine the platform iteratively to address emerging needs and more sophisticated issues post-launch.
I am immensely proud of the progress made throughout this multi-stage project. The enhancements to credit note functionality, full VAT invoicing, and additional features have positioned the BAFTA Events product for ongoing improvements and refinement. Paired with the platform’s newly revamped design, we are well-equipped to extend our platform’s capabilities as we prepare for the exciting opportunity to offer BAFTA Events as a white-labelled solution to external clients.
This ongoing development, combined with proactive stakeholder engagement and continuous integration of user feedback, ensures that BAFTA Events not only meets current demands but also anticipates and adapts to future requirements, reinforcing its position at the forefront of event management technology.
