Event Classes

by Wade Girard

March 29, 2021

Event classes are required if you want to have registrations and voting. The reason is that they are all toed together. A registration for an event needs to be within a specific class. That is how registrations are grouped together and the registration number is keyed off of the class number.

Voting is also by class because participants vote for their favorite registration within a class.

Event classes are managed in the event details view. In the left you can click on “Classes” to jump to the class list.

To add a new class click on the “Add class” button.

The fields for the event class are

Id – the numeric id for the class (used for registration numbering)
Section – [optional] you can use this if you setup classes to be in physical sections (or areas) at your event (eg. Show field A).
Description – A description for the class

To edit an event class click on the row (not the checkbox in the left column) to open the row in the class dialog.

Numbering

Class numbering is really important because each registration will need to be placed in a class, and the registration number is generated by selecting the next available number in the class.

For example, if you set the class id to 100, the registrations will be numbered 101, 102, 103… So for the next class you will want to use an ID that is high enough that you won’t have overlapping ID’s If you expect that you will not have more than 100 in a class, we recommend you use 100, for your first class, 200 for your second class, 300 for your third, and so on. In this scenario, If you have classes that can have more than 100 you would want to find a way to split the class up so that you will not have more than 100 in a class.

Class numbering is critical to a successful event.

Setting up an Event

by Wade Girard

March 29, 2021

Setting up an event in Middletwin is easy. It all starts in the Events app. In order for an administrator login to have access to the Events app they need to have the “Event Manager” permission enabled on their login. See the Account Logins knowledge base document for details on setting up logins.

In the Events app you will see 3 tabs. One for shows, one for venues, and one for activities. In order to setup a show you will need at least one venue. A venue is synonymous with the physical location you intend to hold your event at. A venue could be a restaurant, a meeting room at a hotel, a local park or fairground, etc…

Create a Venue

Click on the Venues tab to display your list of venues.

Note that the list of venues just displays the venue name. To add a new venue, click on the “Add venue” button above the table and on the right.

Just enter a name for the venue. Note that this is all you need for the venue, you do not need to do any more setup if you do not intend to setup and sell spaces at the venue through the member portal. Enter in a descriptive name and click the “Save” button. The new venue will appear in the venue list.

To setup a venue click on the venue row (not the checkbox in the left column). This will open up the venue details view

In the venue details view you can edit the venue name, and setup spaces for the venue in the venue map. The purpose of setting up spaces in the venue is to manage and or sell spaces at your event. You can think of these as vendor spaces. If you do not plan to manage spaces at your event, you can skip this.

Follow the instructions on this page for adding spaces to the map. Note that when you setup spaces you will need to specify a row, number, and cost for the space, as well as its availability.

If you configure the event to allow vendors, there will be a vendor registration option on the member portal that vendors can use to register for the event. Part of that registration process will be the display of this map with all un-reserved spaced displayed as available. When the vendor select a space it will display the spaces cost (multiple spaces will be added together) and the vendor will be able to purchase the space(s), which will mark them as unavailable to other vendors.

Create an event

Click on the “Events” tab to display your list of events.

To create a new Event click on the “Add event” button above the able on the right side.

Specify a name, the venue, and if you are creating an event that has a similar setup to previous events, and you want to save time by not having to re-create all the event settings that will be mostly the same to the previous event (like an annual event), choose the event you want to copy here. This is a big time saver feature. Click the “Save” button when you are done.

This will add your new event to the events table.

Click on the row of an event (not the checkbox in the left hand column) to edit an events details.

From here you can setup all the event attributes. On the left most column are the settings for the events

Name – Displayed in the portal
Begin Date – Actual event start date
End Date – Actual event end date
Venue – Where the event is held
Schedule (aka description) shows up in the member portal as the description of the event for registrations and tickets

In the middle pane are the setting for

Media – upload an image that represents your event, like a flyer
Classes – the classes you will have at your event
Tickets – tickets that you can sell to your event
Results – if your event uses classes, you can have voting and the voting results will be displayed here

The rightmost pane has the configuration settings for setting up online registration (aka pre-registration) and vendor registration. Vendor registration allows vendors to purchase venue spaces.

See the individual knowledge base documents for specifics on setting up event features and how to manage them for your event.

Event Tickets

by Wade Girard

March 29, 2021

When you create an event in Middletwin you have the ability to sell tickets to the event. You can easily set up the tickets, your members can purchase the tickets, and the tickets will have a QR code (2 dimensional bar code) that you can scan with any network connected mobile phone to redeem at your event.

To get started, login with Event Management permissions and go to the Events app.

Locate the event you want to create tickets for and click on the row for the event (not the checkbox in the leftmost column) to open the event details.

Click on “Tickets” on the left side to jump to the tickets section of the event details.

This is where you will manage the tickets for your event. To get started click on the “Add ticket” button.

Provide a meaningful description for the ticket, like “General Admission”, “One day pass”, “Weekend Pass”, etc… Specify the dates for when the tickets can be purchased (start and end dates), the quantity you want to make available, and the price you want to charge for the ticket. You can make as many tickets for an event as you like.

When finished click save.

To edit a ticket after you have created you can click on the row for the ticket.

Members will see the ticket for the event in the store of the member portal. When they purchase the ticket they will receive an email with a link to the ticket. When they open the ticket in a web browser they will see the following:

You can use an iPhone or Android type phones camera or QR Code reader app to scan the bar code. Doing so will cause the ticket to be “redeemed”. If you scan the code again it will indicate that the ticket code has already been redeemed. This prevents someone from trying to make copies of a ticket and use them for your event.

Managing Registrations

by Wade Girard

March 26, 2021

Depending on how you mange your event, registrations can come from multiple sources. The most popular are directly from a sale on the member portal, and from the US mail with a mailed in registration form and a check.

You will likely have one if not more people who will help with managing your event registrations, depending on how many registrations you need to manage. Each person will need to have an administrative portal login with the “Registration Manager” permission enabled on their login to allow them to manage registrations.

After they have logged in they need to go to the registrations application. Note that if they only have the “Registration Manager” permission this will be the only application they have access too.

The application will load with a list of all your groups events. Select the event that you want to manage the registrations for by clicking on the event row and not the check box in the let hand column of the row.

This will display the registration list view for the event.

At the top of this table is the number of registrations that are currently in the system for the event.

The table is paginated and displays 25 registrations at a time. Use the pagination controls at the bottom of the table to page through the registrations.

You can search for Registrations by typing in search criteria in the search field and typing the enter key to perform the search. You can search on any of the following criteria:

First name
Last name
Email
Registration number (fka car number)
Event class

You can use the ‘X’ button to the right of the search field to clear the search and re-fetch all the registrations.

You can sort the list of registrations by using the “Sort by” selector next to the search. You can sort by:

Registration Number
First name
Last name

Editing a registration

To edit a registration click on the row for the registration. This will reveal the registration details pane on the right.

Top portion of registration details pane

You can edit and change any information on the registration from here and click the “Save” button below the registration details to save the registration changes.

Creating a registration

To create a registration click on the “Create” button above the table of registrations on the right side. This will open a blank registration details pane that you can fill out.

It is common that someone who is registering for an event has registered for one of your past events. In order to save time you can search through previous event registrations by clicking on the spyglass (search) icon next to to the “First name” label.

In the search field you can enter a first name, last name, or car number and the system will search for registrations that match (current and past events). at least 3 characters are required. Click the “Lookup” button when you believe you have entered enough information.

After entering in ‘williams’ and clicking the Lookup button

Here is an example of searching for ‘williams’. Results with a pencil icon are current event registrations and if you select this row the registration form will be filled in with this registration details and when you click save you will be changing the registration. If you select the row without the pencil icon the form will be filled with most of the details from the registration but when you click save you will be reading a new registration.

Click the “Save” button below the registration details to save the registration.

Registration Numbers

Registration numbers need to be unique. As a convenience to you the system will automatically assign the next available registration number to a registration based on the selected event class. For example, when creating a registration, if you select an event class that is numbered 300, and there are already 3 registrants in that class (301, 302, 303) the system will automatically assign 304 to this new registration. You do not need to provide the registration number 304 when creating it.

If you want to assign your own registration number you can by selecting the “Manually Assign Car Number” checkbox and filling in a number. Note that this is not recommended, and the registration number needs to be in the same group as the class number. Clicking save will cause the registration number to change and any votes for that registration will also change to the new number.

Event Class

The event class for the registration tells the system what group the registration should go in and is used for detailing the registration number. If a registration needs to be moved to another event class, which happens frequently, you can easily make this change by just editing the registration and changing the event class and clicking “Save”. This will cause the system to assign a new registration number to the registration by selecting the next available registration number in that event class (see above) and any votes for the registration will also be moved to the new registration number.

Processed

The processed checkbox is just a way for you to flag if you have processed a registration. You can use this if it benefits you and your workflow.

Registration Card

This will open a template that you can use to print a registration card for the registration. These can be used as a dash card at a car show, a placard on a table, etc… You just need to provide the blank. We have some downloadable templates that you can use to get started.

The Table

by Wade Girard

March 23, 2021

One thing you will immediately notice when using Middletwin to manage your group is that we use the same table throughout our product to manage your groups resources.

Why have a knowledge base document focused solely on our table? The reason is that when you become familiar with the table, managing everything that uses the table will become second nature.

The very top row of the table is referred to as the action row. That is because these are the actions that you can perform on, or with, the table data. Not all actions are available on all tables. From left to right the actions are

Search (always type enter to start search)
Clear search (re-fetches data)
Filter by – filter the data in the table
Sort by – sort the data in the table
Import – import a csv of data
ID Cards – format the data for printing member ID Cards
Mailing labels – format the data for mailing labels
Roster – format the data for a roster printout
Chasing Arrows – reload data
Gear – Hide/show columns
Export – export viewable table data as a csv
Create – create a new item

Additionally, if the first column of the table has a checkbox, checking the checkbox may cause a couple of additional actions to appear that will only apply to the rows with the boxes checked. They are

Trash can icon – remove the selected item
Copy icon – create a copy of the selected item

To hide and show columns, click on the gear icon, this will open a dialog that lists all the columns that the data has. Use the checkboxes to hide/show the table data. Note that data that is hidden will not appear in CSV exports.

Lastly, tables that contain data that can be paginated will have a pagination control at the bottom of them. The 2 forms of the pagination control are paged by count

Pagination

And paged by time

Pagination

The table will use what the pagination control that is appropriate for the data in the table.

Managing Products

by Wade Girard

March 23, 2021

Products are used to define the product that you want to sell in your store. Products contain media and inventories to manage the products physical inventory.

To get started go to the store app and click on the Products tab if its not already selected.

To create a new product click on the “Create” button above the table on the right side.

Begin by defining the product name, SKU, and UPC. SKU and UPC are optional and are only for your tracking. Click the “Save” button when done.

After you click save the new product will appear in the products table. Click on the row to view the product details.

In the product details you will start out on the left panel by setting the products description and category. Note that you can edit the name, SKU, and UPC if you need to.

On the right side the view will initially show the media setup for the product. You can provide as many PNG images as you want for the product, note that images should be no larger than 400×400. When you are done click on the “Inventory” tab at the top.

In the inventory table you can can see the name, quantity, and price. Click on the “Create” button to add a new inventory. Click on the row of an existing inventory to edit it.

Specify a label for the inventory. It is recommended you keep this short. The specify how many of the item you have to prevent the system from selling more than you have in your inventory. Specify the price, shipping, and any discount you want to apply to the inventory item. Click “Ok” when done.

To remove an inventory select the checkbox in the row of the inventory you want to remove and click the garbage can icon that appears above the table.

Promotions

You can optionally specify a promotional code for a product. This code it tied to the product and not a specific inventory of the product. To create this click on the Promotions tab.

To get started click on the “Create” button above the table on the right.

In the promotion dialog setup the promotion details. The code is what the customer will need to enter at checkout, discount amount is how much will be taken off the total price, and required spending amount is how much they must spend to get the discount. Set a start and end date and click “Ok” when done.

Now it’s up to you to promote the promotion code.

Managing Categories

by Wade Girard

March 23, 2021

Before you can create products to sell in your store you need to setup categories. Categories are just labels for the types of products you sell, like Apparel, Jackets, Hats, Accessories, etc…

To get started, go to the store app and click on the Categories tab.

To create a new category click on the “Create” button above the table and on the right, this will open the new category dialog.

Enter the desired label for the category and click “Save” when done. Repeat this for each category that you have.

Selling Merchandise

by Wade Girard

March 23, 2021

You can sell group merchandise through the member portal by setting up categories and items in the store app of the administrator app. Note that only admins with “Store Manager” permission can access and manage the store management app.

In general you want to configure categories for the types of items that you will sell in your store, like Apparel, Jacket, Hat, Accessory, etc. After you have created appropriate categories you will add listings for the various products you have.

For each product you will be able to provide image of the product, specify the name and description, category, and even a UPC and SKU if you use them. When the basic product is defined then you need to setup inventory. The inventory is what the store will use to show the items in the member portal for members to buy. When members purchase items the inventory is automatically reduced to reflect the purchase. It is up to you to ensure that the inventory matches what you actually have for inventory.

You can also specify a promotion code for your products. The code it tied to the product and is part of the product setup.

See the individual knowledge base documents on setting up categories and products for more details.

Payments from product sales will be collected by Middletwin and paid out to your group. You will want to setup your payout preferences. Also, each charge incurs a 3.46% processing fee, you will need to setup if you want to pass this on to the customer or absorb this cost.

The last bit of configuration is to setup an email address that is notified of each purchase. This is setup by the account administrator in the account settings.

Signing Up

by Wade Girard

March 22, 2021

If you want to use Middletwin for your group you can sign up for an account easily by using our “Sign Up” wizard. To start out just go to our public web site (www.middletwin.com) and click on the “Sign In” button in the upper right hand corner OR you can navigate to the app login by going to https://app.middletwin.com/.

To get started, click on the “Sign Up” link that is to the right of “Don’t have an account?”.

The first thing the wizard will ask is if you have a group code. If you are creating an account that is going to be under the umbrella of a larger group, like a subchapter of a group, then this is where you would enter in the main groups group code. If you don’t have this situation you can just click the “Continue” button.

The next screen will ask you to enter in your groups geographic information. This is used by us to contact you. Note that we don’t share or sell any of our customers data, ever. Click “Continue” when you have completed this information.

Next you will need to provide the main email address for this account. This email address must be a valid working email address that you have access to and that is not being used as a login for any other accounts. Enter in your email address and click the “Verify Email Address” button. The system will send an email to the email address you provided with a code that you will need to enter on the next screen.

Do not close the window because there is no way to get back to this screen without redoing the previous steps and sending another verification email.

Check your email for the verification email and when you receive it get the code from it and enter it into the “Verification Code” input. Click “Continue” when finished. Note that you can use the “Change Email Address” or “Resend Code” links to perform their respective functions.

Create a password for your account login. Note that when the account is create one administrator login for the account will be created that uses the email address from the previous step and this password. This login will have the correct permissions to create additional logins for the account.

Enter in a phone number to a mobile phone that can receive sms text messages. When finished click the “Send Code” button to have a verification code sent to this phone number.

Check your phone for a sms message with a code, enter it into the input and click “Continue” to proceed. Note that you can use the “Change Phone Number” and “Resend Code” to perform their respective functions.

Lastly you need to accept our terms of use in order to have an account on our system, click the “Accept Terms of Use and Create Account” button after you have read our terms of use and agree to them. If you do not agree to them then close the browser and skip this step.

When the account is created it will be placed into a “Review” state and not be accessible until we have reviewed and approved the account. You will receive an email when the account is ready for you to begin using.

If for some reason we want to talk to you before approving the account we will reach out to you.

Managing your subscription

by Wade Girard

March 22, 2021

You can view your account subscription in the “Administration” Page.

From here you can see when your subscription renews, and what the amount is that you will be charged for your subscription. If you feel that any of this is incorrect, please contact support@middletewin.com and let them know.

You can setup your payment method for your subscription in the finance page

Click create to add a new payment method. Click on the Invoices tab to view invoices that have been generated for your account, and the Payment history tab will display your payment history to Middletwin.

If you have questions or want to cancel your subscription, contact our support team at support@middletwin.com. Note that we do not offer refunds on accounts that are cancelled prior to the end of a subscription period.