ticket-pricing

---
name: ticket-pricing
description: Turns the real cost of putting an event on into a ticket price that covers it, written the way the law now requires it to be shown, with the total price including every unavoidable fee, the VAT position stated, the refund and transfer terms drafted in plain words, and the break-even and sell-out figures on one page. Use before you open ticket sales, change a price, or add a booking fee.
---

# Price a ticket so the night pays for itself before anyone walks in

You give this every cost the event will incur, the capacity of the room, what you take from an average head on food and drink, and how you intend to sell the tickets. You get back a costed price: the floor below which the night loses money, the headline price written as a total price with unavoidable fees inside it, the VAT treatment stated, the refund, transfer and cancellation terms drafted in plain words, and the number of tickets that has to sell before the night breaks even. It will not predict how many you will sell, and it will not tell you what the market will bear.

## What it does

1. **Build the cost floor from real invoices and real rates before anybody says a number out loud.** Two columns. Fixed costs that happen whether four people come or the room is full: the performer or host fee, the sound and lighting hire, the print, the extra door and bar hours at the rates actually paid including employer costs, the music licence, the room's own lost covers if you are closing part of the venue. Variable costs that scale per head: the food, the welcome drink, the glassware breakage you always get. Every line carries the document it came from and its date. A cost with no source is not a cost, it is a hope, and it belongs in the gaps list. This step is the whole skill. Everything after it is arithmetic and wording.

2. **Work out what a head is worth to you on the night, from your own tills, and not from anything else.** Take the gross margin per head from your own trading figures for a comparable session, not the revenue, and not a figure from a trade article. If the ticket includes food, deduct the food cost from the ticket, not from the margin, or you will count it twice. Where the event is free entry with spend behind it, this is the only number that matters and the ticket price is zero by definition. Where the ticket is the product, write down both: what the ticket brings and what the average attendee spends beyond it. The second number is what makes a low ticket price rational, and it is also what makes it dangerous, because it is the number owners are most confident about and least able to evidence.

3. **Decide what you are actually selling, because the consumer law consequences differ.** Entry only, entry with food included, a deposit taken against a bill, a table booking with a minimum spend, and a gift voucher are five different things. A deposit against a bill is not a ticket and the money remains the customer's until it is applied. A minimum spend is a contract term and has to be capable of surviving a fairness test. A voucher has its own expiry and refund questions. Write one sentence saying which of the five this is. Owners routinely describe a deposit as a ticket in the terms and as a deposit in the email, and that inconsistency is where a chargeback argument starts.

4. **Set the headline price as the total price, with every unavoidable charge already inside it.** Section 230 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 requires the total price to be given in an invitation to purchase, and defines it as including "any fees, taxes, charges or other payments that the consumer will necessarily incur if the consumer purchases the product". The CMA's price transparency guidance puts it as "Any unavoidable or 'mandatory' charges", and its worked example is a theatre ticket showing a mandatory £2 per-transaction charge inside the headline price. So a £20 ticket with a compulsory £2 booking fee is a £22 ticket, advertised as £22, everywhere it is advertised. Adding the fee at the checkout screen is drip pricing and is prohibited.

5. **Separate the genuinely optional extras and show them separately, because they are allowed to be outside the headline.** The same CMA guidance says optional charges "must also be included in the invitation to purchase, but they do not have to be part of the total cost". A seat upgrade, a pre-show drink, a programme, a late checkout: genuinely optional, so they sit under the price, priced, not hidden. The test is not what you call it. The test is whether the customer can buy the thing without paying it. If every ticket carries it, it is not optional however the sales page describes it, and it goes in the headline. Write the list of extras with a yes or no in an "avoidable" column and let that column decide, because a fee nobody can avoid is where the enforcement cases start.

6. **State the VAT position on the ticket price, in writing, once.** If the business is VAT registered, the price shown to a consumer includes VAT and the working papers should show the VAT-exclusive figure so the margin is real. CAP Code rule 3.18 permits VAT-exclusive prices only where they are clearly addressed to buyers who can recover VAT, with the VAT position prominently stated, which is not the case for a public ticket sale. If the business is not registered, check the threshold rather than assuming: GOV.UK sets registration at the point "your total taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000", or where turnover is expected to exceed it in the next 30 days. A run of ticketed events is exactly how a small venue crosses that line without noticing, and the answer belongs to the accountant, not to this document.

7. **Put the music licence in the cost stack, because it is charged on what you take.** PPL PRS state that "If you play or perform music in your business or organisation in the UK, you will usually need TheMusicLicence", that the cost "depends on a number of factors, such as the size of the business or organisation and the ways that it uses music", and that they need details of "any live performances of music". Their published example for a one-off live performance in a pub or bar for up to 100 people is £14.64, which they express as "14p per person". Ticketed popular music concerts are licensed under a separate concerts tariff calculated on takings. Get the actual quote for your event before you set the price rather than after, and put the figure in the fixed column with the quote reference and its date.

8. **Draft the refund, transfer and cancellation terms in plain words, and know that the usual online cancellation right does not apply.** Regulation 28(1)(h) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 excludes from the cancellation rights "the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance". So a dated event does not carry the 14 day right, which means your own policy is the only policy, and it has to be fair and it has to be legible. Section 62 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 makes an unfair term "not binding on the consumer", unfair meaning a term that "contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract to the detriment of the consumer". Section 68 requires a written term to be "transparent", that is, "plain and intelligible" and "legible". Write what happens if the customer cannot come, what happens if you cancel, whether the ticket can be passed to a friend, and by when.

9. **Publish the price sheet with the significant conditions attached, and keep a dated copy.** CAP Code rule 8.17 requires marketing to state significant conditions where omitting them is likely to mislead, including a "prominent closing date, if applicable", and rule 8.22 says promoters "must not claim that consumers must respond by a specified date or within a specified time if they need not". So an early bird price needs a real end date that really ends. Produce one page: the total price, what is included, the optional extras priced separately, the VAT line, the refund and transfer terms, the date sales open and close, and the capacity. Under it, for the owner only: the cost floor, the break-even ticket count, the sell-out contribution, and the price below which the event should not run at all. Date the sheet and keep it, because when somebody asks in March what the December ticket included, the sheet is the answer.

## Then it checks

1. Every cost line names the invoice, quote or rate it came from and its date, and the file contains no cost, margin or per-head figure that was not supplied by the owner from their own records.
2. The headline price equals the total the customer must pay, with every unavoidable fee, booking charge and compulsory service charge inside it, and no charge appears later in the buying process that was not in the headline.
3. Every charge shown outside the headline has a yes in the avoidable column, meaning the customer can buy a ticket without paying it, and any charge that every ticket carries has been moved into the headline.
4. The VAT position is stated once, explicitly, and the working papers show the VAT-exclusive figure where the business is registered, or record that registration status was confirmed with the owner where it is not.
5. The refund, transfer and cancellation terms are written in full sentences a customer can read, state what happens when the venue cancels as well as when the customer cannot come, and nowhere claim or imply a statutory 14 day cancellation right that does not apply to a dated event.
6. The break-even ticket count, the capacity and the walk-away price are all on the sheet, the break-even count is not greater than the capacity, and every deadline printed on the sheet is a real date that is actually enforced.

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.
- Never state an expected conversion rate, a typical sell-through, an average ticket price for the sector or a benchmark of any kind. No such figure exists for a single independent venue, and a price set against a borrowed number is a guess wearing a suit.
- Never put a compulsory charge outside the headline price, and never describe a charge as optional because the sales page calls it optional. The test is whether a customer can complete the purchase without paying it.
- Never write a term that takes the customer's money and gives nothing back in every circumstance, including where the venue cancels. Refuse to draft it, say why, and leave the clause blank for the owner's solicitor.
- Never advise on whether the business should register for VAT, whether a supply is exempt, or how to treat a deposit for VAT. Record the question, name the figure read from GOV.UK and the date it was read, and send it to the accountant.
- Never set the price. It produces the floor, the break-even count and the legal shape of the number. What to charge above the floor is the owner's commercial decision and it is signed off by them.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own invoices, accounts and till figures, and for their accountant and solicitor to check before tickets go on sale. It applies published consumer and advertising rules to draft pricing and terms. It is not legal or tax advice and it is not confirmation that the pricing or the terms comply.

## Built from
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, section 230, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13/section/230, read 16 September 2026: the definition of an invitation to purchase and the total price as including "any fees, taxes, charges or other payments that the consumer will necessarily incur", which is step 4.
- Competition and Markets Authority, "Providing clear and accurate information about prices: summary" (part of Price transparency, CMA209), https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/price-transparency-cma209/providing-clear-and-accurate-information-about-prices-summary, page showing 7 January 2026, read 16 September 2026: the mandatory versus optional charge distinction in steps 4 and 5, the theatre ticket worked example with the £2 mandatory charge, and the prohibition on drip pricing.
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 62, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/62, and section 68, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/68, read 16 September 2026: the fairness test and the transparency requirement that shape the terms drafted in step 8.
- The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulation 28, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/28/made, read 16 September 2026: the exclusion at 28(1)(h) for "services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance", which is why step 8 says the venue's own policy is the only policy.
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 90, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/90, read 16 September 2026: the information that must be given on a ticket resale, read for the transfer policy in step 8.
- GOV.UK, "VAT registration: thresholds", https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/thresholds, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: the £90,000 taxable turnover threshold and the 30 day forward test in step 6.
- 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: rules 3.17 and 3.18 on quoted prices including non-optional taxes and charges, and the narrow circumstances in which a VAT-exclusive price is permitted, in steps 4 and 6.
- Committee of Advertising Practice, CAP Code (Edition 12), Section 8 "Promotional marketing", https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/08.html, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: rule 8.17 on significant conditions and the prominent closing date, and rule 8.22 on false deadlines, both in step 9.
- PPL PRS Ltd, "What is TheMusicLicence", https://pplprs.co.uk/themusiclicence/, and "Music Licence Cost", https://pplprs.co.uk/themusiclicence/music-licence-cost/, no publication dates shown on the pages, read 16 September 2026: the requirement to hold a licence to play or perform music in a business, the factors that set the cost, and the published one-off live performance example of £14.64 for up to 100 people, in step 7.

# ticket-pricing

## You are given
Every cost the event will incur, as supplied documents or typed lines: performer and host fees with their quotes, sound and lighting hire, print, extra staff hours with the hourly rates actually paid and the employer cost uplift, food and drink costs at the venue's own prices, the music licence quote with its reference and date, and anything hired or bought in. The capacity of the room and any reduced capacity for this layout. The venue's own gross margin per head for a comparable session, taken from its own tills. Whether the business is VAT registered, and its VAT rate for admission if supplied. What is being sold, as one of entry only, entry with food, deposit against a bill, table booking with minimum spend, or gift voucher. The intended headline price, every fee and charge the customer would meet, and for each charge whether a ticket can be bought without paying it. How the tickets will be sold and by whom. The refund, transfer and cancellation wording the owner wants. The sale open and close dates and any early bird end date. And the judgements already made by Claude and supplied to you: which charges are unavoidable, which of the five things is being sold, and the walk-away price.

## Produce
Write into a `./ticket-pricing-output/` folder:

1. `costs.csv` with these columns in this order: `cost_ref`, `description_verbatim`, `cost_type`, `amount_gbp`, `vat_treatment`, `per_head_or_fixed`, `source_document`, `source_date`, `confirmed`. `cost_ref` is K001 upward. `cost_type` is exactly one of `performer or host fee`, `hire`, `extra staff hours`, `food`, `drink`, `print and decoration`, `music licence`, `card or platform fee`, `lost covers`, `other`. `per_head_or_fixed` is exactly `fixed` or `per head`. `confirmed` is `yes` where a document and date are named and `no` otherwise.
2. `cost-floor.csv` with columns: `line`, `amount_gbp`. Rows, in this order: `total fixed cost`, `variable cost per head`, `gross margin per head from own tills`, `contribution per ticket at the intended price`, `break_even_tickets`, `capacity`, `break_even_exceeds_capacity`, `contribution at full capacity`, `walk_away_price_supplied`. `break_even_tickets` is the total fixed cost divided by the contribution per ticket, rounded up to a whole ticket.
3. `charges.csv` with columns: `charge_ref`, `charge_name_verbatim`, `amount_gbp`, `charged_per`, `can_ticket_be_bought_without_it`, `classification_supplied`, `shown_in_headline`, `where_first_displayed`. `charged_per` is exactly one of `per ticket`, `per transaction`, `per person`, `per booking`. `classification_supplied` is exactly `unavoidable` or `optional` and is copied from the judgement supplied, never decided here. Any row where `can_ticket_be_bought_without_it` is `no` and `shown_in_headline` is `no` is listed in `gaps.md`.
4. `price-sheet.md` - the customer-facing page: the total price in figures, what the price includes as a list, each optional extra with its own price, the VAT line as supplied, the refund, transfer and cancellation terms verbatim as supplied, the sale open and close dates, any early bird end date, and the capacity. Nothing on this page is written by Codex; every line is placed from the input.
5. `owner-sheet.md` - the same event for the owner only: total fixed cost, variable cost per head, contribution per ticket, break-even ticket count, contribution at full capacity, the walk-away price as supplied, and the VAT-exclusive figure for each price where the business is VAT registered.
6. `terms-check.csv` with columns: `term_ref`, `term_text_verbatim`, `covers_customer_cannot_attend`, `covers_venue_cancels`, `covers_transfer_to_another_person`, `states_a_deadline`, `deadline_date`, `sentence_count`, `longest_sentence_words`, `contains_statutory_14_day_claim`. Any `yes` in the last column is listed in `gaps.md` as the first item.
7. `price-sheet-log.csv` with columns: `date`, `event_name`, `headline_total_price_gbp`, `included_items`, `optional_extras`, `refund_policy_summary`, `sale_opens`, `sale_closes`. Appended to any existing log, never overwritten.
8. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any claim to a statutory 14 day cancellation right on a dated event; any unavoidable charge shown outside the headline price; any cost line with no source document or date; any charge with no classification supplied; a missing gross margin per head; a break-even ticket count greater than the capacity; a missing VAT registration status; a refund clause that does not say what happens when the venue cancels; and any deadline on the price sheet with no date.

## Rules
- Codex measures, calculates, records and checks. It never sets a price, never classifies a charge as avoidable or unavoidable, never rewords the owner's terms, and never writes a refund clause. Those arrive with the input.
- Never invent a cost, a margin, a capacity or a VAT rate. A missing figure is written as `not supplied` and listed in `gaps.md`, and any calculation depending on it is left blank rather than estimated.
- Never write a conversion rate, a sell-through percentage, a typical ticket price for the sector, or any benchmark. No such figure exists for a single independent venue and none is to appear in any file.
- Never produce a `price-sheet.md` in which the headline figure differs from the sum the customer must pay. If the supplied headline and the supplied unavoidable charges do not agree, write the page with the figure as supplied, leave the discrepancy in place, and make it item one in `gaps.md`.
- Never move a charge between the headline and the extras on your own judgement. Record what was supplied and flag the contradiction.
- All arithmetic is shown: every derived figure in `cost-floor.csv` names the rows it was calculated from.
- Money is in GBP with the pound sign and two decimal places, and every price is stated as the amount the customer pays. Dates are DD Month YYYY. 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 invoices, accounts and till figures, and for their accountant and solicitor to check before tickets go on sale. It is not legal or tax advice and it does not confirm that the pricing or the terms comply.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The total fixed cost, the variable cost per head, the contribution per ticket, the break-even ticket count and the capacity. Whether the break-even count exceeds the capacity. Every charge classified as unavoidable and whether each one appears inside the headline price, named individually. The headline total price as written on `price-sheet.md` and the sum of the price plus every unavoidable charge, so the two can be compared at a glance. The VAT registration status recorded and the VAT-exclusive figure where one was calculated. Whether the terms cover a venue cancellation, a customer who cannot attend and a transfer, each as a yes or no. Every cost line with no source document. The `gaps.md` item count.