Different systems may use different names for the same thing. To avoid any ambiguity, we define the terms that Eventsforce uses here.

A registration is the record of one or more people registering for an Eventsforce event under a single registration reference.

Each registration has:

A registration may also be called a purchase or booking in Eventsforce - these terms are synonymous. A registration contact may register more than one attendee in a single registration (this is a “group registration”).

A registration is also created for table bookings and award entries - behind the scenes these are all treated as “registrations”.

A registration reference is a combination of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies a particular registration.

A registration contact is the person who makes a registration. They may or may not be attending the event.

An attendee is a person who is attending an event. Each registration may have one or more attendees.

A purchasable item is an item that can be purchased for a registration. A purchasable item will automatically be created for each attendee where a price is defined for registration.

Additional bookable items (ABIs), quantity bookable items (QBIs), accommodation, sessions, tables and seats are also purchasable items that can be added to the registration.

Each purchasable item will be shown as a line item on invoices and in the API.

An invoice is a snapshot of the purchasable items for a registration at the time the registration was last changed. Invoices are first created for a registration where the amount due is not zero. New invoices are created whenever the total of all purchases and discounts changes.

When a new invoice is created (because of a change to the registration), a credit note for the entire purchase amount is created to cancel out the previous invoice. This means that the sum of all invoices and credit notes will be equal to the value of the latest invoice.

Each invoice has an invoice number - this is unique across all events in an account.

A credit note is an invoice for a negative amount. Eventsforce uses credit notes to cancel out previous invoices when new invoices are created by changes to a registration, each credit note is related to exactly one invoice.

A credit note includes of all the items listed on its related invoice, but with a negative amount due for each.

Each credit note has an invoice number just like an invoice. Note that for a single transaction, credit notes may be created after invoices. This means that you may see:

Credit notes are shown in Eventsforce wherever invoices are shown.

A payment is an amount paid or refunded against a registration or purchase. Each registration may have multiple payments.

Payments can be posted against a registration automatically (for card payments), manually (using the admin portal) or by using the API. Where refunds are made, negative payments can be posted against a registration using the admin portal or the API.

The amount paid for each registration is the total of all payments made against that registration. This is shown for each registration in the admin portal.

The amount due for each registration is the total on the last invoice less the amount paid.

Note that the amount due can be negative if payments exceed the total on the last invoice.

VAT (Value Added Tax) is a tax on the purchase price of each purchasable item. In Eventsforce, different VAT percentages can be applied to different purchasable items using VAT codes.