Gone faster than the horses

Waregem Koerse falls on the Tuesday after the last Sunday of August. It has since 1847. Horses, hats, the Gaverbeek jump and tens of thousands of people spending an afternoon pretending they know about steeplechase.

In 2020 the races were called off, for the first time since the Second World War. So the 173rd edition, on Tuesday 31 August 2021, had to be right straight away: COVID-proof, and in the end with over 30,000 spectators. And with VIP sales that we got to put online.

Booking a VIP spot used to be a craft. You read the booking form, called a number or emailed your choice, and at the bottom of the site there was a fax number, just in case. It worked. The way a fax works.

We replaced all of that with one link. Behind it sits everything: an order form, online payment, an invoice and, when needed, a credit note. In one place, for the customer and for the organisers.

VIP at Waregem Koerse isn’t a ticket, it’s a place. You chose between the Hippo Loggia at the Irish bank and the Gaverbeek guest tent, right opposite the most famous jump in the country. Boxes and VIP tables, each with its own price and a limited number.

The order form shows straight away what’s left. Two boxes to go? It says so. Sold out? Then you can’t pick it, and nobody has to call you later with bad news. Companies enter their VAT number and billing details right away, so the invoice is right the first time.

Ordering and paying happen in one go, online. So no box sits “on hold” for three weeks until someone has called their accountant. Pay, and your confirmation is there right away.

Every order also gets a personal code. It’s on the confirmation, on the invoice and in the back office, so customer and organisers are always talking about the same order. Even when twelve boxes are booked in the name of one managing director.

After payment, the system creates the invoice: correct numbering, VAT, company details and the personal code. As a PDF in the customer’s inbox and in the organisers’ back office. Nobody retyping invoices from an email.

And because plans change (especially in 2021), the organisers create a credit note from the back office, neatly linked to the original invoice. A smaller table, a cancelled box: it shows up in the numbers the way it should, not on a sticky note.

The result: a quarter of a million euros in VIP tickets, sold out in less than a month. In that year’s Grand Steeple Chase of Flanders, Gino Des Dunes led from start to finish. Our VIP sales did the same, just without the fences.

Online registrations and orders for an event are something we also built for Jan De Nul’s Open Company Day and for ImmoGolf. And invoicing that takes care of itself is also behind the site of Mattias Desmet.