Your guide to lighter admin.

Start here

Getting started

Open Settings first and add the details you want Performers Assistant to reuse. You can return and change them at any time.

Capture once

Manage enquiries

Create an enquiry manually, paste the original message from your clipboard, or import it from a connected website form. Performers Assistant extracts useful details for you to review without overwriting the original source message.

• Track new, replied and quoted enquiries in the active view.
• Keep private enquiry notes separate from customer-facing booking notes.
• Decline or archive work without deleting its history, then reopen it if circumstances change.
• When a customer accepts, convert the same enquiry into a booking so its identity and history stay together.

Try a sample enquiry

Copy all of the fictional enquiry below. In Performers Assistant, open New enquiry and select Import Enquiry From Clipboard. The import creates a draft, so check every field before saving it.

Name: Alex Morgan
Email address: alex.morgan@example.com
Phone: 07700 900123
Occasion: Wedding reception
Venue / event location: Willow Barn, York
Postcode: YO1 7DT
Event date: 2027-06-19
Start time: 7:30pm
Guest count: 120 guests
Performance duration: 60 mins

Message:
We would like close-up magic during the drinks reception. Please let us know
whether you are available and what you need from the venue.

Performers Assistant should find the customer name, email address, UK mobile number, occasion, venue, postcode, date, start time, guest count, duration and fee. The original text remains attached to the enquiry for comparison.

Format notifications from your own form

If the fields in your own form use the same names and formats as the sample enquiry above, you can copy and paste a completed form response into Performers Assistant and those details will be imported for you to review.

Where your form lets you customise its response or notification, use labels such as Name, Email address, Phone, Occasion, Venue / event location, Postcode, Event date and Start time, matching the sample. Keep words such as guests and mins, and the pound sign for a fee, as shown.

Copy the completed response, choose Import Enquiry From Clipboard, then check the imported draft before saving it.

Keep work organised

Manage bookings

A booking holds the customer, performance, venue, fee, travel and practical requirements you need for the job. Edit the record as plans develop and use the filtered booking list to find upcoming work.

• Create a booking directly or convert an accepted enquiry.
• Record the date, time, duration, venue, customer and audience details.
• Save room setup, sound, lighting, show and dress-code requirements.
• Use your configured rates to prepare a fee estimate; you remain in control of the final fee.
• Move a confirmed booking back to the quoted enquiry stage without losing its history.

Reuse reviewed details

Documents and email

Once a booking is saved, prepare a branded booking confirmation or invoice from the details you have already checked. Your chosen logo, business details, payment information and terms are reused from Settings.

You can also prepare an email from your saved template and booking details. Performers Assistant opens the message for review rather than sending it silently, so you stay in control of customer communication.

Protect your dates

Calendar and availability

Check a proposed date against saved bookings and Apple Calendar before confirming it. macOS will ask for Calendar permission the first time it is needed.

For confirmed work, create a portable calendar event containing the booking date, time, duration, venue and notes. Review the event in your calendar before relying on it.

Optional online setup

Venue search and travel

Venue suggestions and driving routes use OpenRouteService. Its location search and routing are based on map data from OpenStreetMap contributors. You need an internet connection and your own OpenRouteService API key; you do not need a separate OpenStreetMap key.

1. Create a free OpenRouteService account through its developer sign-up page.
2. Open the OpenRouteService dashboard and create or copy an API key.
3. In Performers Assistant, open Settings → Travel.
4. Add your normal starting postcode under Home postcode, paste the API key, then save Settings.
5. In an enquiry or booking, type at least three characters of a UK venue or address and select a suggestion. Once home and venue postcodes are present, calculate the driving route.

The calculated one-way distance and journey time are saved with the booking and can feed into your fee estimate. Search results and routes depend on third-party data, so confirm important journey details before quoting or travelling.

Travel service: © openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT. Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Optional online setup

Import enquiries from a website form

Performers Assistant can copy submissions from a connected website form into its local enquiry list. Your form provider keeps receiving the form, and the app reads submissions using your credentials. It does not upload local edits or booking records back to the provider.

Before you connect

• Your website must have a working form supported by Performers Assistant.
• Supported providers are Google Forms, Jotform, Netlify Forms, Tally and Fillout. Tally and Fillout forms can be linked from or embedded in an existing website, including sites built with WordPress or Squarespace.
• Where your form provider allows it, rename the form fields to clear, recognisable references such as name, email, event-date and message. Do this before mapping because changing a field reference later may require you to map it again.
• Submit at least one representative test enquiry, completing every field you want to import. The app can then discover the actual field references used by your form.
• Find the form ID and prepare the connection method required by your form provider.

Tally and Fillout

For Tally, create an API key in your Tally account settings. For Fillout, create an API key under Settings → Developer. Treat either key as a password. Copy the public form ID from the form's dashboard or URL, then enter the key and form ID in Performers Assistant. The app reads form information and completed submissions; it does not change or delete provider data.

Connect the form

1. In Performers Assistant, open Settings → Forms and choose your website provider.
2. Enter the form ID, then connect your account or save the credential requested for that provider.
3. Once the completed test submission has reached your provider, select Refresh fields. This reads its field references and example values without importing an enquiry or advancing the import position.
4. Match each useful form field to its Performers Assistant destination, such as customer name, email, phone, occasion, venue, postcode, date, time, duration, show, guests and enquiry notes. Leave destinations blank when your form does not collect that information.
5. Optionally enable Check for new enquiries after the app starts, then save Settings.
6. Open Enquiries and select Check for enquiries. Review every imported record before replying or converting it to a booking.

On its first check, the connection looks back over the most recent 24 hours. Later checks request only newer submissions, and provider submission IDs prevent the same enquiry being imported twice.

Move existing work

CSV import and export

Use CSV to bring historical bookings from Numbers or another spreadsheet into the app. The preview identifies accepted rows, warnings and possible duplicates before anything is written. Confirming an import creates a safety backup and imports accepted rows together.

Required fields

• Customer name
• Date and time
• Occasion

Optional fields

• Venue and Postcode
• Fee, Duration in minutes and Guests
• Email and Phone
• Show and Dress code
• Distance in one-way miles, Travel duration in one-way minutes, Route origin postcode and Route calculated at
• Notes and Raw enquiry
• Room setup, Sound requirements, Lighting requirements and Requirements snapshotted

Formatting the template

Column headings must match the names above exactly. Enter Date and time as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM using the 24-hour clock—for example, 2027-03-06 19:30. You can also enter a date alone as YYYY-MM-DD. A date without a time is imported at 12:00 midday and flagged for review, making it easy to add the final time later.

Duration, Guests and Travel duration must be whole numbers; duration values are measured in minutes. Currency can include a pound sign and thousands separators. Put guest ranges or other qualifications in Notes.

The Bookings screen exports the current filtered list using these same headings and formats, so an exported file can be imported again without reformatting.

Keep a second copy

Backup and restore

Choose a backup folder in Settings—ideally somewhere included in your normal backup routine. Performers Assistant can create manual backups and coalesces routine changes into automatic backups after editing settles.

Before an import, restore or other destructive database operation, the app creates a safety backup. Restoring replaces the active local database only after the chosen backup has been checked, and the current state is safeguarded first.

Local first

Your data and privacy

Bookings, enquiries, customer details, settings and documents remain in the application database and folders on your computer. Your online account is used for purchase and protected Mac and Windows downloads—not for signing in to the app or storing your performer business records.

Optional services receive only what their feature needs: your chosen form provider already holds submissions sent to your form, while OpenRouteService receives location queries needed for venue suggestions and routes. Signing out or temporarily losing internet access does not delete your local work.