A function is a ticketed activity within an event, separate from the event’s sessions. Common examples include an awards dinner, golf outing, reception, or guided tour. You create the function, add its schedule and description, and price it with one or more function fees. Registrants buy function tickets as part of their event registration.
Use a function when you need an overall ticket limit and, if needed, a waitlist for people who want a spot if one opens. If you only need to limit how many of an item one registrant can buy, and you do not need an overall capacity, an add-on product on a registration package may be simpler.
Prerequisites
You need access to the Events Console for the event. At least one active function type must exist before you save a function, because every function needs a type.
Where to Find It
Open the event, then select Functions in the event’s side menu. The Functions Overview shows the number of functions in the event, the total number of function tickets sold, and a search panel. Use the search panel to find a function by name, type, date range, or identifier. Add-on products are configured separately from the event’s setup menu, not from Functions; see Registration Packages and Add-On Products.
If Functions does not appear in the event’s menu, functions are not turned on for this event. You can still open the overview from a direct link, but the menu will not show it.
- Create a Function opens a blank function form.
- Select a function name in the search results to open its record page. From there, use Edit Function, or open the Function Options menu and choose Delete this Function.
The Settings
A function’s identifier always starts with the event’s identifier. You cannot move a function to another event by editing it, and you cannot change the identifier after you save the function.
Basic Information and Schedule
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display Order: | Any number | Empty | Sets this function’s order among other functions scheduled for the same date and time; optional |
| Type: | Your Rhythm account’s active function types | Last type chosen in this browser | Required. Classifies the function; see Function Types |
| Name: | Any text | Empty | Required. Shown to staff and, unless hidden, to registrants |
| ID: | Letters, digits, underscores, hyphens | Suggested from the name, prefixed with the event’s identifier | Required. Cannot be changed after the first save |
| Start Date:, End Date: | A day of the event and a time | Empty | Shown in the event’s time zone when the event has one, or in the browser’s time zone when it does not. An end time before the start time is allowed |
| Location: | Any text | Empty | Shown on the function’s record and Portal page |
| Hide this function from the portal | On, off | Off | Keeps the function off the Portal function page and the registration form |
| Hide this function from the schedule | On, off | Off | Keeps the function off the Portal’s online schedule while tickets remain available for sale |
When you first open the form, changing Start Date: resets End Date: to one hour later. That automatic reset only happens when you change the start date in roughly the first second after the form opens. If you change the start time again later, Rhythm leaves the end time you already set. Because Rhythm accepts an end time before the start time without warning, review the end time yourself after changing the start time later in your edit.
Staff registering someone in the Console always see every function, even when the function is hidden from the Portal or the schedule.
Sessions and other schedule items have their own Display Order field, separate from a function’s display order. The number places an item among others scheduled for the same date and time, both on the Portal schedule and in the list registrants choose from during registration.
Warning
A function with a start date and end date that span more than one day can show only its first date on the function record, the Portal schedule, and during registration. If a multi-day function’s dates look wrong in any of these places, check the function’s Start Date and End Date before assuming the schedule item was entered incorrectly.
Tip
Rhythm does not stop a registrant from buying tickets to two functions scheduled at the same time. If some functions are meant to be concurrent alternatives, such as two tour options in the same time slot, add help text to the registration form. Tell registrants the functions overlap and that they should choose only one.
Purchase Restrictions and Capacity
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Are there any purchase restrictions? | None, a limit for all registrants, or a limit by registration package | None | Limits how many tickets for this function one registrant can buy. The limit applies per function fee, so a limit of one with two fees still lets a registrant buy one ticket for each fee |
| Maximum # of Purchases: | A number | 1 | Shown only when the limit applies to all registrants |
| Package limits table | A number per package | Empty, with no maximum | Shown only when the limit is set by package; available only when the event has registration packages |
| Capacity Tracking & Waitlist Management (switch) | On, off | Off | Turns on an overall capacity for the function |
| Capacity: | A number, 0 or more | Empty | Required while capacity is on. When ticket sales reach this number, the function is marked sold out |
| Enable waitlist? | On, off | Off | Offers a waitlist after the function sells out |
| Waitlist Process: | Your Rhythm account’s active waitlist processes | Empty | Required when the waitlist is on; controls how offers are made |
Turning capacity off does not clear a function that is already marked sold out. That flag changes again only after a ticket’s status changes or you save the function with a capacity set. If a function still shows as sold out after a cancellation should have opened a place, open the function and save it again, even without changes, to refresh the flag.
Capacity and waitlist rules do not apply to sessions or to tickets that a registration package includes for free with the package. Because of this, an included ticket is still added to a registrant’s order even when the function itself is full. If you use capacity or a waitlist to control attendance at a function, plan separately for packages that include a free ticket to that function, since those tickets bypass the limit.
Capacity applies to the function as a whole, so you cannot give one fee type within a function its own separate capacity. Purchase restrictions work in the other direction: they limit how many tickets one registrant can buy for a single function. There is no setting to stop a registrant from buying tickets to more than one ticketed function scheduled for the same time, and no setting to limit a function fee to one purchase per person across a registration with guests. Rhythm also does not check function schedule conflicts the way it checks session conflicts during registration, so a registrant can end up with tickets to overlapping functions.
Meal Options and Registration Questions
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable Meal Options (switch) | On, off | Off | Offers a list of meal choices per ticket. At least one option is required while this is on |
| Meal option Name:, Description: | Any text | Empty | Defines each option ticket holders can choose |
| Enable Registration Questions (switch) | On, off | Off | Asks ticket holders questions when they buy a ticket, using custom fields your Rhythm account has defined for function tickets |
| Request meal preferences during registration? | On, off | Unchecked | Shown only when meal options are on; must be checked for meal choices to appear on the registration form |
| Question Field:, Field Label, This field should be required | Per question row | Empty | Defines each question a ticket holder answers |
Adding meal options alone does not change the registration form. Meal options appear for registrants only when you also turn on registration questions and check Request meal preferences during registration? If you add meal options without doing this, the form shows a red banner to warn you. Renaming a meal option after tickets have already selected it changes the option’s stored identifier, so those tickets no longer show a meal. The meal-preference question Rhythm builds for the registration form includes a Rhythm-generated ticket reference in its label alongside your meal option text, and there is no setting to remove that reference from the label.
Function registration questions come from custom fields your Rhythm account has defined for function tickets in Master Event Setup. Create the ticket custom field there first; if no function-ticket custom fields exist yet, the field picker on this screen has nothing to offer. After you add a field in Master Event Setup, you can select it here.
You can also use a function’s registration questions to record a choice for a ticket that a registration package includes at no cost. For example, you can ask which entrée a registrant wants for an included lunch, so they still receive one included ticket and can provide their preference.
Warning
Required questions are enforced only on the Portal registration form. A ticket added directly in the Console, or through an order, can be saved without an answer to a question you marked required.
Warning
Registration questions are tied to the function itself, not to an individual function fee, so you cannot show a question only when a registrant selects a specific fee. Conditional visibility rules on an event registration form have the same limit in reverse: they only evaluate fields and components on the form itself. They cannot use a function’s deeper settings, such as a Function Fee or the number of function tickets selected, as a condition. A condition such as “Function is not blank” is not a reliable substitute and can fail to limit visibility as expected. If you need form fields to appear based on whether someone is attending a particular function, use a registration question or a custom field, such as one asking whether the registrant will attend that function, and base the conditional visibility on the answer instead.
If registrants see a validation error at checkout that traces back to a function’s meal or registration questions, older function ticket fields on those questions may be the cause. To resolve this, create new Function Ticket Fields in Master Event Setup, add them to the function’s registration questions in place of the old fields, and remove the old fields.
Tip
Function ticket quantity is not currently available as a merge field for event registration confirmation emails, so a confirmation email cannot show how many tickets of a function someone purchased.
Tip
If a follow-up question should appear only because of the function or fee a registrant chose, build it as a registration question instead of trying to control its visibility from the function’s own form data. Registration questions are the supported way to ask something conditionally tied to a function choice.
If you use a registration question instead of an actual function to capture something like an included lunch choice, Rhythm does not check that answer for scheduling conflicts the way it checks an actual function or session selection. For example, asking “chicken or beef?” as plain text does not create a real function selection. Use a real function when you need Rhythm to catch a scheduling conflict automatically.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A function ticket purchase and a session registration are separate records. Do not expect a function ticket to appear in the same reporting fields or query output as a session place, even for the same registrant and event.
- A function’s fees set the price, not this form. See Function Fees to price the tickets you have made available.
- After a function type is used, deactivating that type stops new functions from choosing it but does not affect existing functions that already use it. See Function Types.
- Functions on Your Account's Website explains whether a function appears on your Rhythm account’s public website and what visitors see on the function’s page.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Changes to the name, schedule, location, or description take effect immediately, and you can change them back at any time.
- Turning on capacity for a function that already has tickets does not compare today’s ticket count with the new capacity until you save the function again or a ticket’s status changes. Until then, the sold-out flag can briefly disagree with the actual count.
- You cannot delete a function while any active or cancelled ticket, or any waitlist entry, still names it. Deleting a function with no such references also deletes its fees, so you do not need to delete each fee first.
- If you want to stop offering a function without removing its history, hide it from the portal, hide it from the schedule, or both, instead of deleting it. That keeps existing tickets and records intact while taking the function out of view.
Permissions
You need access to the event in the Events Console to create, edit, or delete its functions.
Validation and Errors
- You cannot save a function without a name, a type, and a valid identifier.
- You cannot save after turning on meal options unless you add at least one option. You also cannot save after turning on the waitlist unless you choose a waitlist process.
- Deleting a function fails when a ticket or waitlist entry still names it. If you truly want the function gone, remove or cancel every ticket first. Cancelled tickets still count, so a fully cancelled function still cannot be deleted while its cancelled tickets exist.