---
title: "Event setup"
description: "Choose free or paid, assign a payment account, build the booking form, set the buyer language and cap how many tickets one buyer can take."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.seatlayer.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Event setup

Every hosted event has a **Setup** tab. It asks one question per screen:
**Details**, **Tickets** and **Checkout**. When those are answered, **Sell &
share** is only about where buyers book. **Done here? Go to Sell & share →** at
the bottom takes you there.

A few settings live in **Edit details** instead, the panel that holds the
event's name, date, venue and poster: the buyer language, the currency, the
ticket limits and the seat hold time. Setup links to it where needed. Admins
and designers can open **Edit details**; switching live and test, choosing
free or paid, and assigning a payment account need an admin.

## Details

**Details** states what the event is and whether it is live or a test run.

- **Event details**: name, date, venue, poster and description. Choose **Edit
  details** to change them.
- **Buyer language**: the language buyers read on the seat picker, booking
  page, confirmation email and tickets. Choose **Change language** to pick one.
  See [Buyer language](#buyer-language) below.
- **Checkout: SeatLayer**: buyers pay on the booking page and SeatLayer issues
  the tickets. **Open Checkout** goes to the Checkout screen.
- **Event mode**: **Live: takes real payments** or **Test: sandbox, nothing is
  charged**. Only an untouched event can switch, so set it before you sell
  anything. Switching clears the event's payment account, because a connection
  made for one mode is not valid in the other; assign one again afterwards.

## Tickets

**Tickets** shows what a seat costs in each category, and how tables are sold
on a chart that has them. Prices are changed in one place:
**Edit on Pricing & availability →** opens the editor, where offers and
releases also live.

## Checkout

**Checkout** has three cards, in the order the decisions depend on each other.

### How buyers pay

Choose **Pay online** or **Free**.

- **Pay online**: buyers pay by card on the booking page, and SeatLayer holds
  the seats while they do. The card shows which gateway is connected and the
  currency, for example "Stripe connected · EUR".
- **Free**: no payment step. Buyers pick their seats and confirm, and get the
  same ticket.

The choice is **Locked after the first booking.** Each confirmed ticket uses one
hosted ticket credit on both paid and free events; the card shows your balance
and a **Buy credits** link. Test events never use credits. See
[Pricing](/billing/pricing/#hosted-ticketing).

### Payment account

Shown for **Pay online** events. Each gateway that takes the event's currency
has a row. Choose **Use [gateway] for this event**, for example **Use Stripe
for this event**, and the row changes to **✓ Ready**. With no connection yet,
the row offers **Connect** for the event's mode and currency. Gateways not yet
on for your account are listed under the rows with **Request**. Connecting and
requesting are covered in [Connect payments](/sell/connect-payments/).

The assigned row also holds **After payment**, where buyers land once their
payment clears:

- **SeatLayer confirmation page**, the default.
- **Back on your page**, the website where your tickets are installed. Save
  the website first with **Save website**; until one is saved, buyers finish
  on the SeatLayer page. Only an organization admin can save a website.

### Booking form

The form buyers fill in on the way to paying. It has two parts.

**Attendee details** are asked for every ticket in a booking. Set each of
**Name for each ticket**, **Email for each ticket** and **Phone for each
ticket** to **Off**, **Optional** or **Required**. A name is printed on the
ticket and shown at the door.

**Questions** are your own. Choose **Add question**, write the **Question**, and
pick an **Answer type**: **Short text**, **Long text**, **Single choice**,
**Multiple choice**, **Yes/No**, **Number**, **Date**, **Email** or **Phone**.
Under **Who answers**, choose **Ask once per booking** or **Ask for each
ticket**. Turn on **Required** to make buyers answer it. Turn on **Hide the
answer from the buyer** for something only staff should see: buyers still
answer it, but the answer stays off their tickets, emails and ticket page.

A form can hold up to 20 questions, and a choice question up to 50 choices.
**What buyers see** previews the form as you edit. Choose **Save booking
form**; changes apply to new bookings once saved. Door staff see a ticket's
answers when they scan it.

## Buyer language

Set it in **Edit details → Buyer language**. It applies to the seat picker,
the booking page, the confirmation email and the tickets for this event.

The list offers **Auto** and eight fixed languages: English, Español, Deutsch,
Français, हिन्दी, العربية, 简体中文 and 日本語. On **Auto**, the event uses your
organization's default language when it has one. When it has none, the
option reads **Auto, visitor's browser (recommended)** and each buyer's browser
decides, across the 43 languages the seat picker and checkout ship in. The
language never converts prices; the event's currency stays the same.

## Currency

For a paid event, **Edit details → Currency** sets what buyers are charged in.
Left on the organization default, the event uses your organization's
currency. It is **Locked: this event has orders** once anyone has bought. The payment account
you assign must be connected in the same currency.

## Ticket limits

Set these in **Edit details → Booking → Ticket limits**.

| Field | Range | Left empty |
|---|---|---|
| **Max tickets per order** | 1 to 100 | 10 |
| **Max tickets per buyer** | 1 to 1,000 | 10 on a free event, no limit on a paid event |

**Max tickets per order** caps one checkout on the public booking page. A
private channel or partner link keeps its own quantity limit unless you set
this field; when you do, the lower of the two applies.

**Max tickets per buyer** counts every booking made with the same email for
this event, paid or free. A buyer over the limit is told how many more that
email can book, or that it already has the maximum.

Free events have one more guard that you cannot change: at most 60 free
tickets are confirmed per event per minute, across all buyers. Past that,
buyers see "This free event is booking very quickly right now. Please try again
in a minute." An order larger than 60 tickets still goes through in a quiet
minute.

Developers can set both limits with `PATCH /v1/events/:key`, using
`maxTicketsPerOrder` (1 to 100) and `maxTicketsPerBuyer` (1 to 1,000). Send
`null` to go back to the default. A value out of range is refused with 422
`invalid_ticket_limit` and nothing is saved.

## Seat hold duration

**Edit details → Advanced → Seat hold duration** sets how long seats stay held
while a buyer checks out: 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. Left on
**Use the widget setting, otherwise 15 minutes**, the event keeps the default.
A new value applies to new holds straight away; holds already running keep
their timer.

Source: https://docs.seatlayer.io/sell/event-setup/index.mdx