Event Planner Briefs and Client Approvals in BotMarketing

A client asks for a photo backdrop, sends a reference and says, “Love it.” The decorator starts buying materials, while the client assumes the addition fits the original price. By the time the misunderstanding surfaces, there is little room to change the plan.

Connect the event brief, budget revision, client approval and supplier task before work starts. This article provides a short brief, a change log and a supplier handoff template, followed by the specific BotMarketing actions that support the client conversation.

Qualify the event before promising the date

A service catalogue gives clients a starting point, but “event planning” might mean sourcing two suppliers or managing the entire preparation and event day. Establish the scope before quoting or accepting responsibility. Use these seven prompts:

1. Purpose and outcome: occasion, audience, format and what the client wants the event to achieve.
2. Date and venue: date or range, venue status, guest arrival and finish, access for setup and collection. State the local time zone.
3. Attendance: expected guest count and relevant access or service requirements. Initial qualification usually needs counts and general requirements rather than every guest’s personal details.
4. Your scope: what you will arrange, what the client has already booked and what is excluded.
5. Money: currency, overall limit, planner fee, supplier costs, delivery, applicable taxes or service charges and contingency. Identify estimates and confirmed quotations separately.
6. Approval authority: the named person who can approve scope and spending, decision deadlines and their authorised substitute.
7. Next action: missing information, who will supply it and when you will respond with a proposal.

An enquiry acknowledgement does not reserve the venue or suppliers. Check availability, access restrictions and quotation validity, then communicate your agreement, payment and confirmation process. Keep the planner’s fee distinct from the overall event budget: your service order may cover only your own work.

NC State’s event planning guidance connects a brief for approval with assigned responsibilities and a budget owner. Its campus rules and planning intervals apply to that institution; adapt the underlying process to your own event.

Record scope changes against a budget version

A colleague may suggest a new activity without having authority to approve the bill. Name the client’s budget approver and keep a decision log alongside the itemised budget. Each request needs a scope change, cost impact, response deadline and approval record.

Consider an illustrative event budget of $6000, including the planner’s fee and agreed supplier costs. Version 1 covers entrance and table decor. Adding one specified photo backdrop costs $600, including setup, delivery and applicable charges; all other costs remain unchanged. These are example assumptions, not market prices, a currency conversion or a client case.

The last two entries describe the same revision at different stages. “Proposed” and “approved” are labels in your decision log, not BotMarketing order statuses. If a supplier quotation has expired, recheck cost and availability before accepting the client’s answer.

ASU’s event budget guide includes additional charges and approval by the person responsible for the budget. Use that principle; its procurement thresholds and signatory rules are specific to the university.

Ask the client to approve a defined revision

A useful message names the event, change, total and response deadline. Example for proposed v2:

For the event on 19 October, brief and budget version 2 retain the entrance and table decor and add one backdrop to the attached specification. The addition is $600; the overall event budget becomes $6600. Please reply by 7 October, 12:00 venue local time: “I approve version 2, its specified scope and the $6600 budget.” If you want a different option, we will price it first. We will confirm delivery of the addition after the decorator accepts the revised task.

Record who replied and when, and retain the approved document. Complete any separate change-signing procedure required by your agreement. A reaction to a reference image or payment against the earlier scope should not silently authorise an extra purchase.

Give each supplier a task from the approved version

Client approval authorises the proposed change, but the decorator still needs to confirm delivery. Send the relevant specification and request acknowledgement. The supplier usually needs their own task and agreed price, rather than the client’s complete budget or guest contact list.

Decorator handoff template

Project: event on 19 October; task based on approved v2. Venue: [address and room]. Setup access: 13:00, installation ready: 16:30, coordinator inspection: 16:45, guest arrival: 17:00. All times are venue local time. Collection: [agreed window].

Deliverable: entrance and table decor from v1 plus one backdrop specified in v2 [link to dimensions, materials and position]. Agree lighting connections with the venue. Your agreed price, delivery arrangements and payment responsibility are stated separately.

Contact: [coordinator and work number], responsible for acceptance on site. Confirm by [date and time] that scope, access and completion time are feasible. Report a conflict before buying materials; route new client requests through the planner for approval.

Update the master plan after the supplier replies. A later venue access time may affect setup, checks and other suppliers. Review those dependencies yourself and issue the current running order to the people who need it.

For menu quantities and service windows, use the separate catering enquiry workflow. For a wedding stylist’s ready time and travel coordination, see the wedding-morning planning example.

Use BotMarketing to connect the brief, order and decision

BotMarketing gives clients a route to your offers and helps staff handle the related conversation. Set up the following workflow for your planning service:

1. Publish clearly scoped services. Add genuine offers such as a planning consultation or a defined event coordination package. State inclusions, exclusions and the price for that offer. Check access to the required features under your current plan. Service cards offer “Order”; the basket is for goods, and product stock does not represent venue or supplier availability on an event date.
2. Collect the initial brief through support. Share your bot link and ask the client to use support or /support. Send the seven prompts above. Staff open the incoming conversation in Support requests and ask for missing details. This is a conversation, rather than an automatically generated custom event form.
3. Link an agreed service to an order. After qualifying the project, invite the client to order the appropriate service through the bot or Mini App. Staff open the new order in Orders and accept it into work: New → Processing. Its price comes from the service card; check it against the agreed scope. Maintain the supplier budget in your working document, and distinguish it from an order that covers only your coordination fee. Accepting the order does not reserve the venue or vendors.
4. Keep the change request with that order. The client adds a short comment, for example “Please add a backdrop to v1.” Staff receive a notification and open the order card. Review the impact, then add an internal note with the project reference, current approved revision, proposed revision and outstanding decision. Internal notes are for staff; send the actual proposal to the client separately.
5. Send the proposal and record the answer. Staff use the order card’s client messaging action to send the approval request above. After an explicit answer, update your budget, decision log and internal note with the approver and time; send the final revision to the client. Manually issue each supplier’s relevant task and obtain their response. BotMarketing does not turn a comment into budget approval or automatically distribute vendor instructions.
6. Test a change from both sides. Submit a test enquiry, create the relevant order, add a client change and verify that staff can see it, send a revised total and record the reply. Check that an internal note has not been mistaken for a client message, the order stays open while promised work remains, and the documents and tasks refer to the same revision. Before the event, recheck suppliers, access, schedule and contacts in your master plan.

For a long brief, share a document link with suitable access: a short order comment is not a full specification. File version control, supplier agreements, purchasing, venue confirmation and event-day command still require the planner’s work.

Close the project before proposing the next event

Check final accounts, rental returns, promised materials and unresolved client questions before completing the order. Ask for feedback about the event, then agree whether a relevant future message would be welcome.

Guests and suppliers do not become a promotional audience simply because they participated. Start a fresh brief for a returning client: the previous venue, attendance and budget may no longer fit.