supplier-brief

---
name: supplier-brief
description: Turns a booking into a written brief and a one-page agreement for a band, DJ, host, quizmaster or entertainer, with the exact times, what each side provides, the fee and payment terms, the documents to get before they arrive, the volume and content limits, the emergency briefing and the cancellation position, so the argument happens on paper in advance instead of in the corridor at ten o'clock. Use before you confirm any booking.
---

# Brief the band, the DJ and the entertainer so nobody argues on the night

You give this the act you are booking, the event, the times you need, the fee discussed and what your room can actually provide. You get back two things: a brief you send them, setting out minute by minute what is being bought and what each side brings, and a one-page agreement covering the fee, the payment terms, the volume limit, the content limits, the cancellation position on both sides and the documents you need before they arrive. It does not write your contract for you. It produces the plain words a solicitor can check and an act can sign, and it names every question you have not answered yet.

## What it does

1. **Write down exactly what is being bought, minute by minute, before anyone talks about money.** Arrival, unload, where the van goes, get-in, soundcheck, doors, on stage, set lengths and break lengths, off stage, get-out, out of the building. Then two columns headed "we provide" and "you provide": PA, monitors, microphones, lighting, power and how many sockets, a changing area, parking, food, drinks, and a lockable place for cases. Most disputes on an event night are not about money. They are about a soundcheck that was assumed, a PA nobody owned, two sockets where five were needed, and a hot meal that was never agreed. Every one of those is settled in ten minutes on a Tuesday and costs an hour and a friendship at eight on a Saturday.

2. **Set the times against your premises licence, and tell the act that is what fixes them.** Where a venue relies on the deregulated position, section 177A of the Licensing Act 2003 applies only where the audience is "no more than 500 persons" and the music takes place "between 8am and 11pm on the same day", so an encore past eleven is not generosity, it is a different legal position. Write the hard stop in the brief in 24 hour time, write who tells the act when the last song is due, and write what happens if the room wants more. Say in one sentence that the times come from the licence and cannot be moved by agreement on the night. An act that knows the cut-off is a licence condition stops at it. An act that thinks it is the landlord being cautious will ask the room.

3. **Settle the fee, the payment terms and what happens if either side cancels, in the same paragraph.** State the fee, whether it includes VAT, whether it includes travel and accommodation, and what a second set or an overrun costs. Then state when it is paid and how. The statutory default matters: GOV.UK states that where a payment date is agreed "it must usually be within 30 days for public authorities or 60 days for business transactions", statutory interest on a late commercial debt is "8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions", and fixed debt recovery costs are "Up to £999.99: £40. £1,000 to £9,999.99: £70. £10,000 or more: £100." Then the cancellation position, both ways, with dates: what the act keeps if you cancel four weeks out, two weeks out, on the day; and what happens if they cancel, including whether they must find a replacement you approve.

4. **Settle how they are being paid before the night, because employment status is not the act's choice or yours.** HMRC's guidance for performers is explicit that "Whether an individual is employed or self-employed depends upon the nature of the relationship with the person for whom the services are provided", and, critically, that "A performer may be an employee for the purposes of a specific engagement, regardless of the fact that they are normally self-employed in respect of other engagements." The factors it lists include the pattern of separate engagements with different engagers, supporting business structure such as "use of an accountant, an agent, membership of Equity or other representative bodies", the degree of control, financial risk, "an unfettered right to send a substitute or deputy in their place at short notice", and whether they provide their own fundamental equipment. Record which of those are true, get an invoice with their details, and send the question to your accountant before the payment run, not after.

5. **Ask for the documents before they arrive, and name a date by which you need them.** Public liability insurance, with the insurer, the policy number, the limit and the expiry date. Portable appliance testing on any electrical equipment they bring and plug into your sockets. A risk assessment from them for anything their act involves beyond standing and playing: fire, aerial work, glass, animals, pyrotechnics, anything the audience is invited to touch. HSE's guidance on choosing contractors asks for evidence that they can "demonstrate knowledge and understanding of their work and the health and safety hazards involved" and can "provide evidence of a trained workforce and the competence of key staff". You are not auditing them. You are asking for four things by a date, and an act that cannot produce any of them has told you something useful while you can still book somebody else.

6. **Put the volume in the agreement with a named owner, not on the night with a hand gesture.** Say who owns the volume: normally the venue, normally one named person, and say it in the brief so it is not a surprise. Say whether there is a limiter and what happens when it trips. Say when doors and windows close and when any outside area shuts. The reason is section 79(1)(g) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which makes "noise emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance" a statutory nuisance, and that route runs through environmental health and can reach your licence. Add one line that costs nothing and prevents most of it: a named person walks to the nearest houses at a stated time and listens, and the act is told in advance that the level may be brought down once as a result.

7. **Brief the content, the promotion and the behaviour, including anything you have already claimed in the advert.** Write down what the act must not do: no material that would offend the room you actually have, no drinking games, no unlimited-drinks or speed-drinking element, no prize for consumption. Those are not preferences, they are hit by the mandatory licensing conditions, which require the responsible person to take all reasonable steps to ensure staff do not "carry out, arrange or participate in any irresponsible promotions". Then check the advertising. CAP Code rule 3.7 requires marketers to "hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation" before publication. So if the poster says "as seen on television" or "award winning", get the evidence from the act in writing and keep it, or take the claim off the poster.

8. **Brief the safety and emergency arrangements to the act, by name, and get it acknowledged.** Article 15 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to establish procedures for serious and imminent danger and to nominate competent persons to implement the evacuation, competence meaning "sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to implement the evacuation procedures". The act is not one of those persons, and that is exactly why they need briefing: they are the loudest thing in the room and the only person with a microphone. Tell them who stops the music and how, what the signal looks like, the words they should say if asked to say anything, where the exits are including the ones they cannot see from the stage, and where they and their equipment go. Two minutes at soundcheck, and write in the brief that it will happen.

9. **Handle the music rights admin, then issue one signed page to each side with a change rule and a day-before confirmation.** PPL PRS state that "Permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders - those people who create music - in order to play or perform music in public" and that a business playing or performing music "will usually need TheMusicLicence", which covers PPL for recorded music and PRS for Music for compositions and lyrics. That licence is the venue's, not the act's, so confirm it is in place and covers what this night actually does, and ask the act for their setlist afterwards so the right writers get paid. Then close the loop: one page, signed by both, a line saying no change is agreed unless it is in writing from the two named people, and a confirmation call or message the day before covering arrival time, contact numbers and anything that has moved.

## Then it checks

1. The brief contains a time for every one of arrival, get-in, soundcheck, doors, on stage, off stage, get-out and out of the building, in 24 hour format, with no gap left to be agreed on the day.
2. Every item of equipment, power, food, drink, parking and space appears exactly once in either the "we provide" or the "you provide" column, and nothing appears in neither.
3. The fee states whether it includes VAT, travel and accommodation, names a payment date, and the cancellation position is written for both sides with dates and amounts, not as a general principle.
4. The employment status question is recorded with the factors that were actually true for this engagement and is addressed to the owner's accountant by name, with no conclusion stated in the brief.
5. Every document requested has a named deadline before the event date, and any document not received by that date is on the gaps list rather than assumed.
6. The volume owner is a named person, the hard stop time is stated and traced to the premises licence, the emergency briefing is scheduled at a time, and every claim made about the act in any advertising is matched to evidence held or has been removed.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is. The brief goes out from a named person at the venue and says who to reply to.
- Never state a going rate, a typical fee for a band, a market price for a DJ or any benchmark. No published figure exists for a single independent venue's local market, and a borrowed number is how an owner insults a good act or overpays a poor one.
- Never decide whether the act is employed or self-employed for tax. Record the factors, attach HMRC's own wording, and send it to the accountant. A wrong call here creates a PAYE liability the venue keeps.
- Never write a term that pays nothing in every circumstance, and never write a cancellation clause that binds only the act. A one-sided clause is the one that gets ignored on the night it matters.
- Never agree a finish time later than the premises licence allows, and never leave the finish time as "around eleven". Refuse to write it, and put the hard stop in figures.
- Never let a claim about the act reach a poster without the evidence in the file. If the act cannot produce it, the claim comes off and the act is still booked.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own premises licence and their own booking, and for their solicitor, accountant and insurer to check before it is signed or money is paid. It puts published requirements into plain wording. It is not a contract, it is not legal or tax advice, and signing it is the owner's decision.

## Built from
- HM Revenue and Customs, Employment Status Manual ESM4121, "Particular occupations: entertainment industry - theatrical performers/artists", https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-status-manual/esm4121, published 7 March 2016, updated 22 July 2026, read 16 September 2026: the status factors and the statement that a performer may be an employee for one engagement while normally self-employed for others, which is step 4.
- GOV.UK, "Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery", https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery, https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/charging-interest-commercial-debt and https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/claim-debt-recovery-costs, no publication dates shown on the pages, read 16 September 2026: the 30 and 60 day default terms, the 8% plus Bank of England base rate statutory interest, and the £40, £70 and £100 fixed recovery costs, all in step 3.
- Licensing Act 2003, section 177A, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/177A, read 16 September 2026: the "no more than 500 persons" and "between 8am and 11pm on the same day" conditions that fix the hard stop in step 2.
- Health and Safety Executive, "Event safety: Getting started", https://www.hse.gov.uk/event-safety/getting-started.htm, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: the contractor competence evidence in step 5.
- The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 15, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/15/made, read 16 September 2026: the procedures for serious and imminent danger and the definition of a competent person, which is why the act is briefed rather than relied on in step 8.
- The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) Order 2010, Schedule, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/860/schedule/made, read 16 September 2026: the irresponsible promotions condition that sets the content limits in step 7.
- Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 79, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/43/section/79, read 16 September 2026: "noise emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance" at 79(1)(g), which is why step 6 puts volume in the agreement.
- Committee of Advertising Practice, CAP Code (Edition 12), Section 3 "Misleading advertising", https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: rule 3.7's requirement to hold documentary evidence before publication, applied to claims about the act in step 7.
- PPL PRS Ltd, "What is TheMusicLicence", https://pplprs.co.uk/themusiclicence/, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: the permission requirement for playing or performing music in public and the split between PPL and PRS for Music, in step 9.

# supplier-brief

## You are given
The act being booked: trading name, the individual or company contracting, their contact details, and whether they come through an agent. The event: name, date, venue, room, and the licensed hours and any relevant condition copied from the premises licence. The timings the owner needs, covering arrival, unload, get-in, soundcheck, doors, on stage, set and break lengths, off stage, get-out and out of the building. The equipment, power, space, parking, food and drink each side is to provide, as the owner has stated it. The fee as discussed, whether VAT is included, whether travel and accommodation are included, the overrun or second set rate, and the payment date. The cancellation positions the owner wants on both sides. Any documents already received from the act: public liability insurance schedule, portable appliance test records, their own risk assessment. Any claim already made about the act in advertising, with any evidence supplied for it. The volume arrangements, including who owns the volume, whether a limiter exists and the times doors, windows and outside areas close. And the judgements already made by Claude and supplied to you: the hard stop time and the licence line it comes from, the employment status factors recorded as true or false for this engagement, and which advertising claims are evidenced and which are not.

## Produce
Write into a `./supplier-brief-output/` folder:

1. `timings.csv` with these columns in this order: `row_no`, `time_24h`, `milestone`, `detail_verbatim`, `owner_side`, `named_contact`, `fixed_by_licence`. `milestone` is exactly one of `arrival`, `unload`, `get-in`, `soundcheck`, `doors`, `on stage`, `break`, `off stage`, `get-out`, `out of building`. `owner_side` is exactly `venue` or `act`. `fixed_by_licence` is `yes` or `no`, and every `yes` names the licence line in `detail_verbatim`. Any milestone from the list with no row is listed in `gaps.md`.
2. `provides.csv` with columns: `item`, `category`, `provided_by`, `quantity`, `detail_verbatim`, `confirmed_by_both`. `category` is exactly one of `PA and monitors`, `microphones`, `lighting`, `power`, `staging`, `changing area`, `parking`, `food`, `drink`, `storage`, `other`. `provided_by` is exactly `venue`, `act` or `NOT AGREED`. Every row reading `NOT AGREED` is listed in `gaps.md`.
3. `money.md` - the fee, whether it includes VAT, whether it includes travel and accommodation, the overrun and second set rate, the payment date, the statutory default terms and interest position as supplied, and the cancellation table. The cancellation table has one row per window with columns for the window, what the venue pays if the venue cancels, and what the act owes or must do if the act cancels. Every figure is copied from the input.
4. `status-questions.md` - the employment status factors as a list, each recorded `true`, `false` or `not established` for this engagement, with the HMRC wording supplied quoted beside them, addressed to the owner's accountant by name, and ending with no conclusion. If any line in the input states a conclusion about employed or self-employed status, record it verbatim, do not repeat it as a finding, and list it as item one in `gaps.md`.
5. `documents.csv` with columns: `document`, `required`, `received`, `reference_or_policy_number`, `issuer`, `expiry_date`, `deadline_date`, `overdue`. Rows for at least: `public liability insurance`, `portable appliance testing`, `act risk assessment`, `invoice with payment details`. `overdue` is `yes` where the deadline has passed and `received` is `no`.
6. `brief.md` - the document sent to the act: the timings, the provides table, the volume arrangements with the named owner, the content and behaviour limits, the emergency briefing arrangements with the time it will happen, the setlist request, and the named venue contact with a phone number. Every sentence is placed from the input, none written here.
7. `agreement.md` - one page for signature: the parties, the event, the date, the hard stop time, the fee and payment terms, the cancellation table, the documents required with their deadlines, the volume owner, the content limits, the change rule naming the two people who may agree a change in writing, and a signature block for each side with a date line.
8. `claims.csv` with columns: `claim_verbatim`, `where_published`, `evidence_supplied`, `evidence_document`, `evidence_date`, `status_supplied`. `status_supplied` is exactly `evidenced` or `not evidenced` and is copied from the judgement supplied. Any `not evidenced` row is listed in `gaps.md`.
9. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any stated conclusion on employment status; any missing milestone time; every `NOT AGREED` line in `provides.csv`; any document required and not received, with days remaining to its deadline; any advertising claim not evidenced; a cancellation table with a window covering only one side; a missing named volume owner; a finish time later than the licensed hour; and any time written in words rather than figures.

## Rules
- Codex assembles, cross-checks, counts and records. It never sets a fee, never decides employment status, never writes a cancellation term, never drafts content limits, and never decides whether a claim is evidenced. Those arrive with the input.
- Never invent a fee, a rate, an insurance limit, a policy number or a date. A missing value is written as `not supplied` and listed in `gaps.md`.
- Never write a going rate, a typical fee, a market price or any benchmark into any file.
- Never write a cancellation row that binds only one side. Where the input gives a window for one side and not the other, record what was given and flag the row.
- Never move a time later than the licensed hour supplied, and never write a time as "around" anything. Times are figures.
- Never merge the brief and the agreement. `brief.md` explains and `agreement.md` binds, and the fee, the hard stop and the cancellation table must match between them exactly. Any mismatch is item one in `gaps.md`.
- Every quoted timing, fee, claim and clause is copied exactly, including its punctuation and capitalisation.
- Money is in GBP with the pound sign and two decimal places. Dates are DD Month YYYY. Times are 24 hour with a leading zero. British English throughout.
- No em dash characters in any file you write. Use a comma, a full stop or the word "and". A supplied line containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own premises licence and their own booking, and for their solicitor, accountant and insurer to check before it is signed or money is paid. It is not a contract, and it is not legal or tax advice.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The list of milestones with a time and the list with none. The count of items in `provides.csv` by `provided_by`, naming every `NOT AGREED` item. The fee, the payment date and whether VAT, travel and accommodation are included. Whether the cancellation table covers both sides in every window. The employment status factors recorded true, false and not established, and confirmation that no conclusion was written. Every required document with its received status, reference and deadline, and any that is overdue. The hard stop time and the licence line it came from. Every advertising claim with its evidence status. Whether the fee, hard stop and cancellation table match between `brief.md` and `agreement.md`. The `gaps.md` item count.