Go to AdminVenues[venue]Ticket delivery and scroll to the Box office fee card. You need the Venue settings permission — the same one that edits your delivery methods.
What it is
The box office fee is your own handling charge on a sale rung up at your box office. It pays the person working the window; it is not a card-processing fee and it is not Noctern's. Noctern collects it with the charge and pays it to you on the event payout.
The fee is always added on top of the price the buyer sees — including on an all-in-priced event. On an all-in event the patron pays the advertised figure plus the fee; it is not absorbed out of the sticker price. Online sales are never charged it.
Because it is your money, it always rides as its own line — at the box office, on refunds, on the event payout and its PDF, on the event P&L, and in the QuickBooks Desktop export. It is never blended into Noctern's service fee or into the ticket price.
Settings
Charge a box office fee — off means buyers pay no fee at the window. A venue that has never configured this is off.
How the fee is calculated — pick one:
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| Flat amount per order | One Flat fee per order, $0 to $100, charged once per sale however many tickets are on it. A two-ticket sale pays it once, not twice |
| Percent of the order | A Percent of the ticket subtotal, 0 to 25%. Applies to the ticket subtotal only — never to delivery fees or donations |
Both values are kept, so switching the radio back and forth never loses a figure you typed.
Charge the box office fee on — pick one:
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| Every box-office sale | Cash and check included |
| Card sales only | The historical behaviour, and still the default |
Tax the fee — on means the fee is part of the taxable base, like the ticket itself, so the buyer also pays sales tax on it. Off leaves it untaxed, like a delivery fee.
The fee is non-refundable — on means refunding a ticket never refunds its share of the fee.
Click Save at the bottom of the card.
Where it applies — and where it doesn't
- Applies to: sales rung up at the web box office, under whichever amount rule and tender rule you chose above.
- Never applies to: online sales, donations, or a comp (a comp charges nothing at all).
- A percent fee also applies on the door POS, staff exchanges and group sales, as it always has.
- A flat fee is deliberately not charged on the door POS, on staff exchanges or on group sales — nobody wants an argument about a handling fee at the door. Set flat terms and those three paths collect nothing.
Refunds
Refunding a ticket also refunds its share of the fee, prorated evenly across the order's tickets — unless you turned on The fee is non-refundable, in which case it stays with you no matter what else on the order is refunded. The refund dialog shows the box office fee as its own checkbox, separate from the platform fee, so staff can decide about each.
The terms are snapshotted at the time of the sale. Changing the amount, the tender rule or either switch never changes the terms of a ticket that was already sold.
Reports and QuickBooks
The fee shows up as its own line on the venue payout report and its PDF, and on the event P&L, where it adds to your take-home rather than being deducted like Noctern's fees. It has its own column on the ticket ledger and, in your QuickBooks Desktop settings, its own account mapping (it defaults to your Ticket sales account if you don't set one). Keep it off your Merchant fees account — it is your revenue, not a processing fee.
Set Flat amount per order to $2.00 and Every box-office sale, then ring up a two-ticket cash sale at the box office. The order summary should show one $2.00 box office fee, not two. Open the event's payout report and confirm the same $2.00 shows as money you are owed.