Eventsforce refers to an abandoned registration as someone who starts the registration process for an event but does not complete. Eventsforce uses the browser’s cookies to determine if the same person is trying to resume an abandoned registration.
An abandoned registration will be considered “in-progress” for 2 hours, which reserves a space in your event, allowing them time to complete registration. In-progress registrations may prevent new registrations from starting if you’re near capacity.
For example, if you have 3 spaces left in your event, and 3 people start a registration, a 4th person will not be able to begin registration. The system allows the first 3 people time to complete. If they do not complete, the in-progress registration is cleared after 2 hours, at which point a new person can start a registration.
Note: Eventsforce provides a system report called ‘Abandoned Registrations’ in order for event managers to view abandoned registrations. To access the report, go to Reports > Reports and search for ‘Abandoned Registrations’.
When is an abandoned registration created?
An abandoned registration is created as soon as one of the following takes place:
the person clicks "Register" from the website or invitation
the person visit the "direct URL to registration"
the person starts registration in one browser, but returns to complete in another which can result in a completed registration AND an abandoned registration (more info in “When is a record NOT removed from the report?”)
Note: The above happens regardless of event capacity or remaining spaces. If an event is at full capacity and attendees are only shown the message saying registration is full, an abandoned registration is still created.
When does a record disappear from the report?
The abandoned registration will be removed from the report if one of the following happens:
the person completes their registration from the same browser and has not cleared their cookies (abandoned registration removed immediately)
depending on report filter, abandoned registrations may no longer appear in report after 90 days
When is a record NOT removed from the report?
There are a few situations in which an abandoned registration may not be removed from the report even after completing registration. This will occur when one of the following is true:
the person is using an incognito/private browser (since cookies are not saved, any abandoned registrations in a private/incognito browser cannot be resumed and will remain on the report)
if the person uses different browsers (an abandoned registration can be created for each unique browser)
if the person uses a different IP address (i.e. home computer vs work computer)
Note: All of the above could be reasons why the same person appears multiple times in an abandoned registrations report, or why someone has a completed registration and an abandoned registration. It can be difficult to determine exactly what happened without understanding the specific steps taken by the attendee.
When does an abandoned registration stop being "in-progress"?
An abandoned registration stops being "in-progress" once one of the following happens:
the 2 hour time out has occurred
the person has completed their registration (must be from the same browser and has not cleared cookies)
if the person uses another browser to register or a different IP address, their original abandoned registration will remain and will be in progress until the 2 hour time out has occurred
If testing your event using an incognito/private browser and abandoning the registration, there is no way to resume that registration so it will always be abandoned. This is because the cookies are not saved. Be cautious when near maximum capacity as these abandoned registrations will remain “in-progress” for 2 hours.
Tip: A potential workaround if you’ve accidentally booked your last places with “in-progress” test registrations is to increase your capacity as needed, then decrease once real registrations have filled those spaces.