CRM for Event Planners: Book Clients and Sell Tickets

It is Sunday night. Megan has just sent the same message to four planners: “Do you have June 13 open? About 120 guests.” In fact, the first planner who replies with a clear next step usually gets the call. The others get silence. A CRM for event planners exists for that moment. It answers in seconds and books the discovery call, even while you are running someone else’s wedding.

After the call, the work gets heavier. You send a proposal, then a contract, then a retainer invoice, then payment reminders spaced around the event date. Meanwhile, vendors, timelines and guest counts keep changing. Most planners juggle all of this across email, a spreadsheet, a calendar app and three group chats, so something slips.

This guide shows how to run the whole flow in HighLevel (GoHighLevel). Then you will see the pipeline, three automations, the official snapshot, an 8-step setup, real costs and honest limits. It also covers the second job many planners have, which is selling tickets or RSVPs for their own events. For other businesses, see the industries hub.

Leer en español: Software para eventos · Ler em português: Sistema para eventos · Part of GoHighLevel by industry

An event business sells dates, not products. After all, each inquiry is tied to one day, one venue and one budget. So the system has to capture those details at the first touch and reuse them after. Here is what a CRM for event planners should handle, and where HighLevel covers it.

A CRM for event planners should solve these problems first, because each one costs you bookings.

A pipeline turns your process into columns you can see. Each card is one event, while its value is the contract total. So the board also shows booked revenue by stage. Keep it to seven stages, because more stages mean more cards nobody moves.

Most moves happen on their own. For example, a booked call moves the card to Discovery call, and a paid retainer moves it to Booked. You still drag cards by hand when a client says yes on the phone, and that is fine.

Leads that never reply go to Lost with a reason, such as “no reply”, “budget” or “date taken”. After a season, those reasons tell you whether to change your prices, your response time or your marketing.

Many planners also host their own events: a bridal open house, a styled-shoot workshop or a corporate networking night. This is where HighLevel goes beyond a typical CRM for event planners. Instead of sending guests to a separate ticketing site, you can build the event inside HighLevel under Memberships › Events. When you create it, you choose ticketed or RSVP, and in person or online.

Ticketed events can mix free and paid tiers, each with its own price, quantity and sale period. You also set a total capacity and a registration deadline, and you can add percentage coupons. Also, the public page shows the schedule, speakers, location and FAQ. Guests get confirmation and reminder emails, while you get registration alerts and a daily summary. At the door, staff scan each guest’s QR code from a phone in the Check-in tab.

Ticket payments run through your connected processor, such as Stripe. According to the HighLevel help article on Events, HighLevel adds no platform fee on top of standard card processing. Still, the feature has limits worth knowing before you launch:

• You can’t switch an event between Ticketed and RSVP after creating it.
• Refunds are manual. The organizer issues them from the Registrations tab, and canceling an event doesn’t refund anyone automatically.
• Attendees can’t transfer tickets themselves, so you edit or re-add them.
• Coupons are percentage-only, and the help article doesn’t mention waitlists.
• There is no marketplace, so buyers find your event only through your site, ads, list and social posts.

Every CRM for event planners should run these three workflows. That is because they cover the moments where planners lose the most money: the first reply, the deposit and the review. Build them in Automation › Workflows, then test each one with your own phone number.

Inquiry → discovery call within the hour

The trigger is the inquiry form being submitted, or a DM you tag “inquiry”. The workflow creates an opportunity in Inquiry with the event date, guest count and budget. Then it texts the lead a link to book a 20-minute discovery call. After two hours it checks for a booking. If there is none, it creates a call task so a person follows up the same day.

If the lead stays quiet, the workflow sends a portfolio email the next day. Three days later, a short text asks whether the date is still open. After that, the card moves to Lost with the reason “no reply”. Speed matters here because couples and companies often ask several planners at once.

Proposal accepted → contract → retainer

When you move a card to Proposal accepted, the second workflow sends the contract from Documents & Contracts for e-signature. Then it texts a payment link for the retainer. A small separate workflow on the Payment received trigger adds a “retainer paid” tag. Meanwhile, the main workflow waits three days. If the tag is still missing, it alerts you before you hold the date any longer.

Later, a date-based workflow reads the event-date field. It reminds the client about the balance, for example 60 and 14 days before the event. That way nobody has to remember which couple owes what in which month.

New to contract templates? This short HighLevel video shows that you can send legally binding e-signatures directly from the platform.

Event delivered → review, referral and rebook

The day after the event, move the card to Event delivered, or let a date trigger do it. Then the third workflow sends a thank-you text with the gallery link. Two days later it sends a review request with your Google link. After that, a referral email reaches friends who are planning something. Finally, it waits eleven months and sends an anniversary note or a “planning next year’s gala?” message.

This is where many planners leave money on the table. Happy clients rarely write a review unless someone asks at the right moment, and corporate events often repeat every year.

Inquiries arrive everywhere: Instagram DMs from a Reel, Facebook messages, website chat, texts and, for international or Latino clients, WhatsApp. So a CRM for event planners that ignores DMs misses a lot of them. HighLevel’s Conversations puts them in one inbox, and each thread sits on the client record. So you see the proposal status and the event date while you reply.

In the US, connect a local number with texting and calls. Then register A2P 10DLC and turn on missed call text back. On busy weekends, Conversation AI can answer common questions and offer the booking link. In addition, Voice AI can pick up calls. However, keep the handoff clear: prices and date holds should come from you.

On site, the mobile app lets you reply between toasts. You can also send a payment link without opening a laptop.

HighLevel publishes an official Event Planner playbook for its “Event Planner Snapshot”. It is a useful start, although it follows the same generic template HighLevel uses for many local businesses. Out of the box you get:

• A website called “Event Planner” with a Home page (services and FAQ sections) and a Link in Bio page.
• An “Event Planner Offer” funnel: an opt-in step, then an appointment booking page.
• The “Marketing Form – Claim Offer” form and a “Marketing Pipeline”.
• Two named workflows, “New Lead Nurture (Fast 5) – Claim Offer” and “Long Term Nurture”, with email, SMS and a voicemail drop.
• Consultation and service calendars, custom values, a chat widget, snippets and a Voice AI prompt for calls and booking.
• Missed call text back as a quick win.

What it lacks is the part that makes an event business different. For example, there is no inquiry form with event date or guest count. There are also no stages for retainers, no contract workflows and no event-date reminders. So treat it as the marketing shell of your CRM for event planners. Then build the client pipeline and the three automations yourself, or import an agency snapshot that has them.

These eight steps turn an empty account into a working CRM for event planners.

1. Create the sub-account. Load the Event Planner snapshot or start blank. Then complete Settings › Business Profile and add your team under My Staff.
2. Add event custom fields. Event date, event type, venue, guest count, budget and package, so forms, cards and workflows share the same data.
3. Import past clients. Upload a CSV with tags by event type (wedding, corporate, social) and a past-client tag for later campaigns.
4. Build the pipeline. Seven stages from Inquiry to Review & referral. Add a second pipeline for corporate events if that sales cycle differs.
5. Create calendars. Discovery call with buffers, venue walkthrough and planning meetings, each with SMS and email reminders.
6. Connect your channels. Phone number with A2P 10DLC, missed call text back, Instagram, Facebook, Google Business Profile and WhatsApp.
7. Set up payments and documents. Connect Stripe, create retainer and balance products, then build proposal and contract templates.
8. Publish workflows and events. Turn on the three automations, review requests and a reporting dashboard. Then create ticketed or RSVP events if you host them.

HighLevel charges a flat subscription rather than a per-user or per-contact fee. A solo planner or small team usually starts on Starter at $97 a month. Also, it includes unlimited contacts, unlimited users and every core feature. Agencies that build systems for many planners look at Unlimited ($297) or Agency Pro ($497). Annual billing costs $970, $2,970 or $4,970.

On top of the plan, you pay for usage. For example, one local number, a few hundred texts and some email might add $15 to $40 a month. WhatsApp adds $10 plus Meta’s message fees. An AI plan costs $50 or $97 per month, or you can pay per use. Meanwhile, ticket sales only carry your processor’s card fees.

In short, a small planning business typically lands around $110 to $200 a month. These are illustrative ranges, so check the full pricing guide and the AI Employee pricing before you budget.

GoHighLevel plans compared

Usage costs on top of the plan

No CRM for event planners does everything. HighLevel is a sales, marketing and payments platform. It is not a full event-production tool, so know what it leaves out.

• No floor plans, seating charts or banquet event orders (BEOs). As a result, venues often keep a tool like Planning Pod or Tripleseat for that.
• No vendor marketplace or vendor portal. Instead, you coordinate vendors with tasks, notes and messages.
• No ready-made client portal for timelines. You can share documents, but a planning portal takes custom work.
• No ticketing marketplace that brings you new buyers, unlike Eventbrite.

In return, you get marketing that planner-focused tools don’t list: funnels, SMS and WhatsApp, a social planner, the ad manager, reviews and ticketed events in the same account. The table below uses each vendor’s own site in October 2026 (HoneyBook, Planning Pod, Eventbrite), so confirm details on a demo.

Most CRMs are built around a close date: once the deal is won, the sales work is over. In events, the opposite is true. The signature starts months of planning, payments and messages that all hang on one day. So the most useful field in your account is the event date, and almost every automation should key off it.

For example, a date-based workflow can send the balance reminder 60 days out. It can send the guest-count form 21 days out and a vendor task 7 days out. Then it sends the thank-you the day after and the anniversary message 11 months later. Also, a smart list filtered by event date shows whether a Saturday is already taken. As a result, your CRM for event planners stops being a lead list and becomes your production calendar.

See all industries →

Sources: HighLevel Event Planner playbook · HighLevel Help: How to create and manage Events · HighLevel changelog: Proposals & Estimates · HighLevel Help: Text-to-Pay · HighLevel Help: Missed Call Text Back · HighLevel Help: WhatsApp pricing and billing · FCC: Telemarketing and robocalls (TCPA) · FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide · HoneyBook: software for event planners · Eventbrite: organizer overview