Introducing: a Simpler Way to Gather Crew Info & Agree on Fees

In this post, we announce a new feature that merges crew forms and financial agreements, streamlining tour management, simplifying crew onboarding, and saving precious time. Read on for more!

If you prefer to see this feature in action on a video, click here.

3️⃣ There are 3 facts we know to be true.

Tour managers need a ton of information from their crew members.
Crew & tour managers need a simple record of fees and other financial agreements.
We have the best customers.

📑 Forms: There's no escaping them.

Tour managers need a lot of info from crew members they work with; from simple things like phone numbers to more complicated things like work permits and visa information, copies of passports, or frequent flyer numbers.

The list is long, and every tour manager or company has their own way of collecting it. In 99% of cases, it takes the shape of a form.

Hat Tip to Jim DeBarker for posting this on the UK Touring Crew Facebook Group.

Although not fun for those who have to fill em out, forms are versatile, easily integrated with whichever process you have decided on, and easy to standardize.

So there really is no escaping them.

💰 Financial Agreements made Easy

Late February of 2024, we launched a way to share and accept agreements. We wrote:

Communication and clarity are key in any relationship.
That's why we introduced the ability to create and share agreements between tour organizers and crew / suppliers some time ago.

In an update that’s long been coming, you can now accept (or decline / request changes to) agreements directly through our platform.

The financial part of these agreements look like this:

How the financial part of an agreement looks to a crew member.

As you can see, it's a clear overview of the rates, the number of days (or other units), and the totals.

And as we wrote before, a crew member has the ability to accept or decline, resulting in a timestamp - so you're always on the same page regarding what was agreed.

2 simple buttons to accept or decline an agreement.

🤝 Bringing together Forms and Finances

So you're already sending out the financial agreements, but still need to send out a form to request information, and maybe T&C's or an NDA, through a separate email.

That seems like one step too many.

That's why today we're introducing the ability to link the forms you already use to collect crew information directly to the agreement you're sending out to crew.

The new form field on the bottom when creating an agreement. All fields are optional.

When crew members click the email notifying them that they have been invited to a tour, they will see this part on top of the page:

The new feedback section, allowing crew to ask changes, give feedback, accept or decline. Accepting is greyed out until the from is opened.

Crew members are required to check the box next to "fill in this agreement" before they can click the accept button.

If someone is trying to be cheeky and accept the financial terms before even opening the form, we will kindly remind them that opening the form is required to accept an agreement.

Error message in case the form was not opened before checking the box.

This way, we effectively bring together the 2 processes you're already using: informing crew of what they'll get paid, and requesting information and acceptance of T&C's.

👀 Clear Statuses for Follow-Up

Obviously we want you to always be in control, and understand how far your crew members have gotten.

That is why you'll see an overview of the current status agreement directly in your expense overview:

And if you click into the expense details, you'll see the date and timestamp of the previous actions:

Date and timestamps of what happened on an agreement.

And if you've added a form and/or T&C's to your agreement, you know for sure that an accepted agreement means the crew member has seen your form.

😍 Conclusion & Customer Shout-Out

In conclusion, this new feature aims to simplify tour management by seamlessly combining crew forms and financial agreements. Less work onboarding, everyone's on the same page, and lots of valuable time saved.

We wanted to explicitly thank the kind people at Black Hawk Touring (check em out here). This particular feature request was made by the head of accounting and operations ahead of their most recent tour, and we're happy to be able to help!

We're excited to see how this update improves your workflow as well.
Give it a try and let us know what you think!
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Your feedback helps us continue building the best platform to manage tour finances since sliced bread - as the saying goes. So don't hesitate!

This post is a product update.
If you want to check out previous product updates, find them all here.
Or if you have a specific product-related question, check out the FAQ.