How to Advance a Show: A Pre-Show Checklist for Artists and Managers

An advance turns a signed booking into a show that actually happens on the terms in the contract. It is a sequence of confirmations — deal terms, logistics, production, hospitality, payment, and a set of final checks — that closes down every open decision before load-in. The checklist below is timed from contract signing through post-show settlement, grouped by category, and set up so every line has one owner and something specific that has to exist before it counts as done. Copy the advance checklist CSV and start with the next confirmed date on your calendar.

Who this is for

This is for artist managers and self-managed artists working shows in clubs, small theatres, and mid-sized venues — the range where the promoter or venue production manager expects to advance with you directly rather than through a booking agency's advance desk. The same shape works at festivals and larger rooms, but at that scale the deal terms, pass lists, and settlement steps sit inside a bigger production advance run by the venue or festival production team, and you should follow theirs.

What advancing actually is

An advance is a planning conversation that runs from the day the booking is confirmed to the day of the show. The tour manager (or the manager themselves, on smaller runs) coordinates with a promoter representative or a venue production manager to agree the show's timings, gear, hospitality, security, and payment terms in writing before load-in. Documents that get exchanged typically include the technical rider, stage plot, input list, hospitality rider, pass sheet, and the settlement paperwork (Tour Manager Info).

For a mid-sized club or theatre, Tour Manager Info recommends starting about three to four weeks before the show. That is a practical working range, not a universal rule. Use four weeks as the default trigger for the production and hospitality steps below, then pull the timeline forward for international dates, complex production, festivals, or whenever the venue's own advance process requires it.

TSE Entertainment's overview covers the production, schedule, hospitality, payment, merchandise, and guest-list details commonly confirmed in an advance. The checklist below groups that work into six operating categories so every open decision between contract and settlement has a visible owner.

The six categories, and what each one is for

Each item in the checklist belongs to one of these:

1. Deal terms. Record the operational terms exactly as they appear in the signed contract or deal memo — fee, guarantee, door split, deposit, currency, merch cut, tax withholding, force majeure. If a term is unclear, escalate it rather than interpreting or renegotiating it inside the advance.
2. Logistics. Travel, accommodation, ground transport, parking, load-in door, pass list, tickets, merch table access. These are the moving parts that fail quietly and expensively.
3. Production. Technical rider, stage plot, input list, backline, run of show (load-in, soundcheck, doors, set length, load-out), sound and lighting engineer coordination.
4. Hospitality. Dressing rooms, catering, dietary needs, water, towels, any specific artist requests already agreed in the contract or rider.
5. Payment. Deposit invoicing, balance-on-the-night confirmation, currency and method, settlement sheet, post-show reconciliation, and follow-up on anything outstanding.
6. Final checks. Insurance, work permits where relevant, printed or offline copies of the deal memo, pass list, and run of show for the tour manager to carry into the venue.

The categories exist because different people usually own them. On a small operation the manager may cover all six; on a slightly larger one the tour manager owns production and final checks while the manager owns deal terms, payment, and hospitality. Writing the category next to each task makes ownership legible without a separate RACI.

The timeline

The checklist works backwards from show day in five windows: on confirmation, 4 weeks out, 2 weeks out, 1 week out, and day-of / post-show. Every line has one owner, one due date, and a definition of done.

On confirmation

The moment the contract is signed, three things need to happen: read the deal end to end and record its commercial terms; save both the promoter and the venue production manager as contacts; and put the show — with clearly marked placeholder load-in, soundcheck, and set times — on the calendar. Then send the promoter a short introduction email requesting the venue production pack. Starting here gives the team a named venue contact and makes unresolved timings visible before the production advance begins.

4 weeks out

Update and send the technical rider, input list, and stage plot; confirm what backline the venue provides versus what the band brings; book travel and accommodation if not covered; send the hospitality rider; and invoice for the deposit if it has not landed yet. Front-load the rider exchange and deposit follow-up because both depend on another party responding.

2 weeks out

Confirm the run of show times in writing: load-in, soundcheck, doors, set length, load-out. Confirm the venue's sound and lighting engineers by name, and send them the stage plot directly. Send the pass list. Confirm parking, load-in door access, and any local restrictions. Confirm the settlement path — who signs, where, and when the balance is paid. If the promoter is vague on any of these, keep pressing until you have it in writing.

1 week out

Reconfirm the run of show and hospitality. Confirm the merch table location, seller access, and cash float or POS. Confirm the ticket count and comps and share the current on-sale figure with the artist. Confirm insurance and any local permits are in place.

Day before, day of, and post-show

The day before is the tour manager's setup day: print or download two copies of the deal memo, pass list, and run of show; confirm ground travel. Day of runs to the venue's clock — load-in, soundcheck, hospitality delivered, balance confirmed before doors, settlement signed after load-out. Post-show, reconcile the settlement against the deal within 48 hours, chase anything outstanding in writing, and log what worked and what didn't against the show record so the next date in that room starts one step ahead.

Fields every line needs

Copy the CSV directly into a spreadsheet, a task tracker, or a live show record. Every line has:

• Window — on confirmation / 4 weeks out / 2 weeks out / 1 week out / day-of / post-show.
• Category — deal terms, logistics, production, hospitality, payment, or final checks.
• Item — one sentence, imperative. "Send hospitality rider," not "sort out hospitality."
• Owner — one person. If it says "the team," it will not happen.
• Approver — only where a sign-off is genuinely required (deal terms, payment). Leave blank otherwise.
• Due — an actual date or a relative anchor ("2 weeks before show").
• Status — not started / in progress / waiting / done.
• Definition of done — what piece of evidence proves it's finished. "Rider sent and confirmed received by production manager," not "riders."

The definition-of-done column distinguishes activity from a confirmed outcome. "Sent the rider" is not the same as "confirmed received"; "chased the deposit" is not the same as "deposit landed." Write the evidence that closes each item.

Where advances break down

• The advance starts too late. Two weeks out is late for a rider send; one week out is late for a run of show reconfirm. If the show is confirmed inside four weeks, compress the timeline; don't skip the categories.
• The pass list is never actually agreed. Guest list rows show up on the door, security has never seen the sheet, and the tour manager is arguing with a bouncer at load-in. Send the pass list at 2 weeks and reconfirm it at 1 week.
• The balance is confirmed after doors, not before. By the time the show ends, the promoter is running settlement math against soft-ticket numbers you never agreed to. Confirm the balance amount, currency, and payment method in writing before doors.
• Merch cut only gets raised at load-in. The contract had it; nobody logged it against the show. When the venue asks for 20% at soundcheck, there's no time to negotiate. Log the merch cut on the day the contract is signed.
• Settlement is signed and forgotten. No one reconciles the settled amount against the deal. Do the reconciliation within 48 hours while the numbers are fresh and keep a written record of any outstanding balance.

How MNGR supports this workflow, and where it stops

MNGR's shows module includes inquiry, offered, confirmed, advancing, completed, and cancelled states. Your team can move a confirmed show into advancing while this checklist is being worked, then close it as completed after settlement and follow-up are finished. The show record stores the core booking, schedule, commercial, production, travel, merchandise, promoter, and notes fields used during an advance. Contract and rider files can be uploaded against the show record. Tasks can be linked to a specific show with an assignee, due date, and status, so checklist rows can become owned work against the booking they describe. In the artist-managers workspace, shows, contacts, finance, calendar work, and tasks sit inside the same artist-management system.

MNGR does not currently ship a purpose-built stage-plot or input-list editor, an automated settlement calculator, tour-routing optimisation, ticket-count ingestion from the ticketing provider, or an integrated e-signature flow for contracts and riders. Those live in the files you upload against the show, or in the tools you already use for them. The advance is the discipline; MNGR is the record.

This checklist is an operational planning aid, not legal, tax, accounting, immigration, or insurance advice. Follow the signed contract, the venue's requirements, and qualified local advisers where those issues apply.

Sources: Tour Manager Info, "How to Properly Advance a Show or Tour"; TSE Entertainment, "Booking Entertainment Process: Advancing the Show"; Daysheets, "Tour Glossary: What is a Venue Advance?". Reviewed and current as of July 2026.

Sources

1. Tour Manager Info — How to Properly Advance a Show or Tour
2. TSE Entertainment — Booking Entertainment Process: Advancing the Show
3. Daysheets — Tour Glossary: What is a Venue Advance?