GigPlanner

Guides

How to run your DJ business on Gig Planner

Everything the platform does, explained step by step — from your first enquiry to a signed, paid, fully-planned event.

Getting started

Set your business up so everything else works smoothly.

  1. Open Settings and add your business name, contact email and branding — these appear on quotes, contracts, the client portal and every email Gig Planner sends for you.
  2. Add your Packages (your standard DJ offerings) and your Services (photo booth, light-up letters, dancefloors and anything else you sell).
  3. If you're moving from another system, use Import to bring your past events, clients and venues across from a CSV in one go.
  4. Invite your team under Team (Multi-Op and Agency plans) so you can assign them to events.

Leads & AI enquiry handling

Turn enquiries into bookings without lifting a finger.

  1. Enquiries from your website form arrive automatically in Leads. You can also add one manually with 'New lead'.
  2. Each enquiry is scored by AI (0–100) and checked against your diary for clashes, so you instantly know how hot it is and whether you're free.
  3. The AI drafts a reply in your voice with a quote — including an itemised quote if the enquiry mentions extras like a photo booth. Review it, tweak if needed, and send.
  4. You get an email the moment an enquiry lands, and the client gets an automatic acknowledgement so they know you've received it.
  5. When you're ready, convert a lead into an Event.

Events

The hub for every booking.

  1. Create an event from a lead or with 'New event'. Set the date, venue, client and price.
  2. Add Services & line items — pick from your catalogue or add a one-off — to build up exactly what's booked. The subtotal updates as you go.
  3. Allocate staff to the event, and to individual services where needed (e.g. your booth attendant on the photo booth).
  4. Track the status from Enquiry → Pencilled → Confirmed → Completed.
  5. Use the Notes & client comms log to keep a timestamped record of every conversation.

Services & itemised quotes

Sell more than DJ sets and quote it all clearly.

  1. Build your catalogue under Services — each with a name and default price, and a 'needs staff' flag where relevant.
  2. On any event, add multiple services as line items, each with its own price and quantity.
  3. The itemised breakdown shows on the client portal and in the contract, so clients see exactly what they're paying for.
  4. When an enquiry mentions extras, the AI automatically itemises them in its drafted quote.

Team & staffing

Run a roster, not a spreadsheet (Multi-Op & Agency).

  1. Add team members under Team, each with their skills, rate and calendar colour.
  2. Assign people to events — Gig Planner blocks same-day double-bookings automatically.
  3. Staff get their own portal to see their gigs, confirm or decline, read venue notes and the running order, and tick off tasks.
  4. Assigned staff receive an automatic briefing email the day before each gig.
  5. On Agency, use AI staffing suggestions to rank your roster for any gig and assign the best fit in one click.

Client portal & planning

One link where your clients do everything.

  1. Each event has a secure client portal link — copy it from the event page and send it to your client.
  2. Clients sign the contract, pay deposits and balances, and plan their event through a guided conversation (no forms).
  3. They see the itemised breakdown of what they've booked, and can build their music wishlist.
  4. Share the guest request link so guests can request songs directly — with song search and your do-not-play list respected.

Contracts & payments

Get signed and get paid, automatically.

  1. Generate a contract from the event — it includes the itemised services, total, deposit and balance.
  2. The client e-signs through their portal.
  3. Take card payments for deposits and balances; Gig Planner tracks what's paid and what's outstanding.
  4. Automatic balance reminders go out before the event so you're not chasing money.

Music & set briefs

Walk into every gig knowing the room.

  1. Clients and their guests add song requests through the portal and guest links.
  2. Mark must-plays and do-not-plays.
  3. Before each event, the AI generates a set brief from the requests and event details so you're prepared.

Dashboard, Board, Tasks & Calendar

Stay on top of everything at a glance.

  1. The Dashboard's Ops radar shows events in the next 48 hours, anything unstaffed, and overdue tasks.
  2. The Board is a kanban view of your pipeline from enquiry to completed.
  3. Tasks is your command centre — overdue, due soon and later — across all events.
  4. Calendar gives you the month at a glance.
  5. Each morning you get a digest email summarising the day ahead.

Ask AI & automations

Your business answers its own questions.

  1. Open Ask AI and ask questions in plain English — 'how much did I take last month?', 'which venues book me most?'.
  2. Automations run quietly in the background: balance reminders, set briefs, review requests and staff briefings all send themselves.

Install / download the app on your phone & turn on notifications

Add Gig Planner to your home screen and get a push the moment a new enquiry lands.

  1. On your iPhone, open gigplanner.co.uk in Safari and sign in.
  2. Tap the Share button (the square with an upward arrow), then choose 'Add to Home Screen' and tap Add. A Gig Planner icon now sits on your home screen and opens full-screen like a normal app.
  3. Open Gig Planner from that new icon (this step matters on iPhone — notifications only work when it's launched from the home-screen icon, not a Safari tab).
  4. Go to the Dashboard and tap 'Enable notifications' on the Push notifications card, then allow notifications when your phone asks.
  5. That's it — you'll now get a push the instant a new enquiry arrives, even when the app is closed. Tapping it takes you straight to the lead.
  6. On Android, open the site in Chrome, choose 'Install app' or 'Add to Home screen' from the menu, then enable notifications the same way — it also works directly in the browser without installing.
  7. To turn notifications off later, use your phone's notification settings for Gig Planner, or your browser's site settings.

Add the booking assistant to your own website

Put an AI chat + enquiry form on your site so visitors become leads automatically.

  1. Open the Website widget page from the sidebar.
  2. Copy your embed code — a single <script> line with your business already built in.
  3. In your website builder (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Showit, etc.), paste it just before the closing </body> tag, or into a 'custom code / footer' area. Adding it to the site footer usually makes it appear on every page.
  4. Save and publish your website.
  5. A chat button appears bottom-right. Visitors can chat with your AI booking assistant or leave their details — and every enquiry lands in your Leads, scored and ready, with an email and push notification to you.
  6. Use the live preview on the Website widget page to see exactly what your visitors will see.
  7. Teach it about your business so it gives genuinely useful answers. In the 'Areas you cover' box, list your regions and rough radius (e.g. 'Bolton, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire — within ~50 miles') so it can answer 'do you cover this venue?' properly.
  8. Add anything else it should know in the knowledge box — packages, travel fees, music styles, deposit terms, common questions. Your business name, areas covered, starting price and active services are already shared automatically.
  9. Upload documents to its knowledge base — your price list, brochure or FAQ as a PDF, Word (.docx), or text file. Gig Planner reads the text and the assistant uses it when answering. Customers never see the files. Remove a document any time to take it back out of the assistant's knowledge.
  10. Optional: tick 'Let the assistant look things up online' so it can find where an unfamiliar venue is and check it against your covered areas — handy for questions like 'do you cover Colshaw Hall?'. It's slightly slower and adds a small cost per lookup, so it's off by default.
  11. Tip: the more you tell it, the better it replies. If answers feel vague, add the missing detail to the knowledge box or upload a document that covers it.

Sync your gigs to Google or Apple Calendar

Subscribe to your Gig Planner diary from your phone or computer calendar.

  1. Open the Calendar page and expand 'Sync to Google / Apple Calendar'.
  2. Tap 'Create my calendar link' and copy the URL.
  3. In Google Calendar: Other calendars → From URL → paste → Add calendar.
  4. In Apple Calendar (Mac): File → New Calendar Subscription → paste the URL.
  5. Your confirmed and pencilled gigs now appear in your calendar and refresh automatically.
  6. Keep the link private — anyone with it can see your event times. You can reset it any time to revoke the old one.

Add a contact form to your website

Capture enquiries from your own site — embedded, custom-styled, or via the API.

  1. Open the Contact form page from the sidebar. Everything you need to integrate is there, with copy buttons.
  2. Design it first: pick the page and panel background colours, choose a text style, and edit the questions — rename them, reorder, mark as required, switch off ones you don't need, or add your own (including dropdowns). Text colours adjust automatically so the form always has strong, accessible contrast on your colours.
  3. Easiest: copy the embed code (Option 1) and paste it into your website wherever you want the form — works on Wix, Squarespace, WordPress and more. The form uses your brand colour, logo and contact details automatically.
  4. Prefer your own design? Use the custom form code (Option 2) as a starting point and style it to match your site — submissions still land straight in your pipeline. Keep the hidden 'company_website' field; it quietly filters out spam bots.
  5. You can also share the hosted form link directly — in your Instagram bio, email signature, or anywhere else.
  6. Every submission is AI-scored, appears in your Leads pipeline, and pings you by email and push — and the enquirer gets a branded acknowledgement.

Give your team their own logins

Invite team members to their own portal to see their gigs and briefs.

  1. Add the team member on the Team page with their email address.
  2. Click 'Send login invite' next to their name — they'll get an email with a link to set their own password.
  3. Once set, they log in at the normal login page with their email and password, and land in their own portal (their assigned events, schedule and briefs).
  4. Prefer to set it yourself? Use 'Enable login' to set a password directly, then share it with them. Team logins need a Multi-Op or Agency plan.

Team availability & schedules

Team members block days off; you see everyone's dates in one place.

  1. Once a team member logs in, their portal shows an availability calendar. They tap any day to mark themselves unavailable, and their booked gigs show in gold automatically.
  2. On the Team page, click a member's name to open their profile. There you can edit all their details, see every date they're assigned to, and see the days they've blocked as unavailable.
  3. Use the blocked days when deciding who to assign — a member won't expect to be booked on a day they've marked off.
  4. Need to remove someone? Their profile has a delete option (or use Deactivate to hide them from assignment without deleting their history).

Set a default event checklist

Create a checklist that's added to every event automatically.

  1. Open Settings → Event checklist and list the tasks you do for every event — confirm guest numbers, send the timeline, pack spare cables, and so on.
  2. Every new event you create (manually, from a won enquiry, or imported) starts with this checklist already filled in.
  3. On an individual event, tick items off as you go, rename them, delete ones that don't apply, or add extra items just for that event.
  4. Updated your default list? Existing events keep their own checklist, but you can pull in the new default items from any event with one tap.

Customise your client emails

Make every email your clients receive look and sound like your brand.

  1. Open Settings → Client emails. Layout options apply to every client email: choose a font, toggle your logo at the top, and write your email signature (it's added under a divider at the bottom).
  2. Emails automatically use your brand colour as the accent and your logo from Settings — no extra setup.
  3. Each email type — enquiry acknowledgement, deposit/balance request, balance reminder, review request — has its own editor. Rewrite the subject and message however you like.
  4. Use the placeholders shown above each editor (like {{name}} and {{amount}}) and they're filled in automatically for every client.
  5. Changed your mind? 'Reset to default' restores our wording for that email any time.

Take deposits & payments from clients

Connect Stripe so clients can pay deposits and balances online, straight into your account.

  1. Open Settings → Payments and tap 'Connect Stripe'. You'll be taken to Stripe to connect an existing account or create one in a few minutes.
  2. Once Stripe shows you're connected, you're ready — payouts go to your own bank account, and the card details are handled securely by Stripe (we never see them).
  3. On any event, tap 'Request deposit' or 'Request balance'. Your client sees a secure 'Pay securely' button in their portal.
  4. When they pay, the event automatically updates to show the deposit or balance as paid, and the money lands in your Stripe account.
  5. You can view your payouts any time from Settings → Payments → 'View payouts on Stripe'.

Collect and show client reviews

Gather reviews after events and publish the best ones on your own page.

  1. After an event, open it and tap 'Request a review' — your client gets an email with a star-rating link. This also happens automatically a few days after each event.
  2. When reviews come in, open the Reviews page from the sidebar.
  3. Tap 'Publish' on the reviews you want shown publicly (nothing appears until you approve it).
  4. Share your public reviews page (the link is on the Reviews page) or add it to your website — it includes star ratings and review schema markup that search engines love.

Your subscription & billing

Manage your own Gig Planner plan.

  1. Your 30-day free trial unlocks every feature. A card is saved at signup but you're not charged until the trial ends — cancel any time before then and you won't pay.
  2. See your plan, status and renewal date on the Billing page.
  3. Use 'Manage billing' to update your card, change plan or cancel — it opens a secure Stripe portal.

Ready to try it?

Start a 30-day free trial and set your business up in an afternoon.

Start free trialSee pricing