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Author Topic: ticket stubs Ramin Hashemi Expert Film Handler Posts: 129 From: Houston TX Registered: Sep 2004 posted 11-12-2004 08:11 PM                     How many of you keep the ticket stubs and bag them at the end of the night? What is the purpose of this exercise? I have been doing it for "audit"purposes, but there is so many ways around it.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 11-12-2004 09:32 PM                        Ramin, This is dictated by individual corporate policy or theatre level management. True, there are ways around it, but if every member of the staff is doing his/her job properly, each ticket would be accounted for in the given daily bag, EVERY DAY. Your auditor simply pulls back your daily report(s) for said day, pulls the bag, and counts stubs. If they are really anal, they can compare sold categories to the actual ticket prices. This would take some time, of course, but in the event that someone is expected of 'relieving the company of funds' this proves to be a somewhat effective method of verifying a problem. There are, however, more effective and efficient methods of catching a thief....  |  IP: Logged Chris Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Fairport, NY, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-13-2004 01:15 AM                        We didnt used to do this until about a year ago...but we really got reamed by an auditor and so after that we got much more strict about it. We usually try and have the ushers rubber-band the tickets they take throughout the night, so that at the end, it is just a matter of counting groups of 100. Much easier that way.  |  IP: Logged Chase Hanson Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-13-2004 02:09 AM                     we've done this for as long as I have worked at my theater, im pretty sure that its company policy. We usually keep a Quarters worth of ticket stubs on hand. As a note, I dont really understand why they hard count every bag. I think it would be easier and more cost effective to weigh bags of stubs and have a cheat sheet in 100 stub incrament. If the numbers arent even close than you hard count...if its within a nominal margin than you call it even.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-13-2004 01:08 PM                        It's also in film company contracts that you have to keep the stubs.  |  IP: Logged Mike Spaeth Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1129 From: Marietta, GA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-13-2004 01:11 PM                        Century keeps no ticket stubs. They print a hard ticket that the tear to "mark" it and return it to you  |  IP: Logged Brad Allen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 688 From: Evansville, IN, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 11-14-2004 12:27 PM                     Yep, it's required by the film co's contract. And your supposed to keep them I believe for 2 yrs. It's for the film co's auditors, not the theatres owners.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-14-2004 12:46 PM                     For years the canada customs and revinue agency (the fed tax man) required ticket stubs for an audit the register tape wasn't accepatble so they had to be kept for 7 years Many theatres used to thread them on a string by date  |  IP: Logged David Yauch Expert Film Handler Posts: 206 From: Mesa, AZ, USA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-15-2004 01:26 AM                     We keep ours around in giant envelopes until the audit fairies come and wisk them away in the night...  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 11-15-2004 09:59 AM                        "Paper Trails" are important for checking the integrity of both theatre personnel and voting machines.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-15-2004 10:24 AM                        For years before the computerized ticketing system, keeping the ticket stubs presented way for the distribs to get a fairly secure way of checking the veracity of the theatre's box office report. You had to give the opening ticket number and the closing ticket number on a roll. Rolls were consecutively numbered, usually 10,000 tickets per roll, with at least 5 or 10 different colors. Naturally there are ways around this, but it would take collusion on the part of a number of employees. The consecutively numbered ticket rolls and colors that provided the security factor. If a distrib wanted to check a theatre, they would send in a checker or "clicker" as we called them. He buys a ticket and then goes into the theatre and counts the heads. He then asks for the ticket stubs. If things are on the up-and-up, the only ticket numbers in that bad will be between the starting number on the report and the number on his ticket; anything else is suspect. Unless the theatre had unlimited number of rolls at various pricing and various colors where an employee could doctor the numbers, pulling tickets out of other rolls, it was a pretty foolproof system. We still fill out box office reports that call for a starting and ending number, but of course there are no preprinted ticket rolls anymore; the computer just spits out the ticket with all the information on it. The computer tells me the number of tickets sold and I use 00001 as the starting number. I never could understand how computer generated ticket sales can offer any easy verification for the distrib. I can make the computer say anything I want. For verification, the checker would have to come in and confiscate the computer hard-drive. I wonder what everyone did with all those neat ticket roll machines.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 11-15-2004 10:51 AM                        Auto-Maticket or something to that effect. Fastest machines in the world. I never had one go down, never had to adjust the cutting blades. You simply loaded your ticket stacks (I guess they would have taken rolls also), hit the appropriate number of for the tickets desired and voila... I miss them... they are nostaligic to say the least...  |  IP: Logged Dave Williams Wet nipple scene Posts: 1836 From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 11-15-2004 12:38 PM                        There is a new way around stubs. It is upc encoding and verification. Tickets are printed and each one has its own identifier code. Only the ones that have been sold are valid by the reader. you must have your ticket for entry or reentry. the usher carries a reader that is connected to the network system via wireless. It reads the ticket and instantly verifies the validity of it. No valid ticket, no entry. PERIOD. Cost... not that much really. Plus you can get by the ticket stub requirements that most theaters have to live up to. The record of the read tickets and the record of the printed tickets is all you need. That with a head count is all the verification in the world anyone would ever need. Ciao baby dave  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-15-2004 06:18 PM                        quote: Frank Angel For verification, the checker would have to come in and confiscate the computer hard-drive. If you will look at your current contracts, you'll find that they have the right to do just that.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-15-2004 08:57 PM                        "For verification, the checker would have to come in and confiscate the computer hard-drive." quote: Mike Blakesley If you will look at your current contracts, you'll find that they have the right to do just that. Nazi bastards  |  IP: Logged

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