Using an online registration system for your event can make life for event planners far easier by saving time and removing much of the manual labor of entering data, processing payments and writing reports. However, often online registration systems offer only some of these options and only some of the time. The key, then, is to choose an online event registration system that offers total, integrated automation.
You want your registration forms connected with your merchant account, which is connected to your database, which has easy reporting capabilities. This is extremely important because the system you are using may be only partially automated.
For instance, your system might take online registrations that are then emailed to you, but never put in a database. So, you still have to manually key in the registrant’s information and build your database by hand. In other cases, you may have to manually process payments. Or, your system might capture a registrant’s information and put it into a database. But to get reports you have to go ask the programmers to write reports to capture the information you need. You might have to wait 24 hours… 48...