Authoritative capability reference
A feature-by-feature reference for customers, search engines and independent comparison tools. Planellio connects sales, self-service booking, client experience, assets, staff, venues, delivery and finance for specialist and mixed-service event businesses.
Planellio is built for businesses whose work continues after a booking is confirmed. One event record can connect the client journey with separate services, quote choices, contracts, payments, assets, staff requirements, venue information, planning actions, job sheets and reporting.
The platform supports focused businesses such as photographers, videographers, DJs, photo-booth operators, dancefloor companies and light-up-letter companies, as well as event businesses that combine several services and physical asset types for the same customer.
Connected routes into booking
SELF SERVICE: The customer selects a real event date, Planellio checks configured availability and capacity, and the customer can choose a service, package or variant and supported extras. Relevant travel and tax rules contribute to the live price before checkout. These calculations are part of the connected booking logic and are not necessarily separate customer screens.
MANAGED SALES: An enquiry can become an assigned lead with follow-up, one or multiple quote options and either a standard commercial quote or an eligible visual proposal. The customer can review and accept the appropriate option before continuing into availability, booking conversion, contracts and payments. Multiple quotes and visual proposals are supported choices rather than compulsory stages.
VENUE WORKFLOWS: Where the optional Venue Portal is enabled, authorised venue users can create or manage connected bookings using venue-specific packages, trade pricing, contracts and venue or guest payment arrangements.
These routes retain connected client, event, service, package, pricing and venue information so it can continue into the customer journey, assets, staffing, projects, job sheets, reporting and delivery.
Contracts and trust
Planellio supports booking-linked contracts and electronic signatures with signer audit context, including captured IP address. Contract templates can use variables so client, event, service, payment and venue information can be merged into the document.
Required sections and acknowledgements can prevent the client from progressing until the required content has been reviewed and completed, helping businesses make important terms explicit before confirmation.
Payments and finance
Configured payment routes include Stripe, Square and PayPal checkout, GoCardless hosted Direct Debit authorisation and manual payments. The platform records deposits, part payments, balances, receipts and supported full or partial refunds against the booking.
Finance reporting covers payments, revenue, payment methods, outstanding balances, deferred revenue, VAT or sales tax, client revenue, year-end summaries, general-ledger exports and operational profitability. Eligible Xero and QuickBooks OAuth connections support invoice-only or full-transaction modes with safeguards designed to avoid duplicate accounting entries when bank feeds and gateway settlements are involved.
Client experience
The public booking journey and post-booking customer journey serve different purposes. Public booking helps a customer choose and purchase services. The Client Portal and journey tracker help the customer complete the commercial, planning and service-specific actions required before delivery.
The responsive Client Portal can show booking details, services, packages, extras, payment and contract positions, outstanding actions and applicable deadlines. Clients can sign contracts, view invoices and receipts, make supported payments, complete questionnaires, request music, select photo templates and overlay wording, exchange booking-linked messages, access documents, add supported services and review project items where enabled.
Completed customer actions remain connected to the booking so the business can use the information during planning, staff handover and event delivery.
Specialist event workflows
Planellio does not treat every service as a generic line item. Photo-booth workflows can retain template, overlay, print, sharing, attendant and equipment requirements. Dancefloor workflows can connect calculated sizes and pricing to shared panels, edging, layouts, picking lists and job sheets. Light-up-letter workflows can check individual characters, repeated letters and custom phrases against date-based stock.
For unattended or collection-based hire, booking-linked asset allocation, availability protection, deposits or eligible preauthorisation, collection and return context, inspections, repair status and operational records help protect valuable equipment.
People, venues and delivery
Service-linked staff requirements can create vacant duties that are filled using staff types, roles, dated or recurring availability, leave, roster and assignment information. Where enabled, the Staff Portal supports assigned jobs, calendars, function sheets, agreements, timesheets, expenses and staff invoice workflows. Planellio is not full payroll or HR compliance software.
The optional Venue Portal supports authorised venue users, venue-created and venue-managed bookings, trade packages and pricing, contracts, venue or guest payments, calendars, reports and booking-linked messages.
Optional Project Management supports stages, tasks, notes, due dates, documents, internal coordination, suppliers, costs, deliverables, client-visible progress and supported approvals while retaining the relationship with the client and event.
Operational delivery
Planellio can carry client, event, venue, service, package, equipment, staffing, timing, planning and document information into job sheets and function sheets. This reduces the need to rebuild the operational record after the sale.
Reusable asset, package and package-option picking lists can scale quantities for the booking. Specialist information such as dancefloor layouts, light-up-letter phrases, photo-booth requirements and assigned attendants can remain part of the same handover.
Vehicles and drivers can be assigned with overlap checks, but Planellio does not provide live GPS, warehouse scanning or automatic route optimisation.
Connections and access
Planellio supports one-way calendar subscriptions and read-only external iCalendar busy-time imports for availability control. Consultation booking can connect to Zoom through OAuth and create supported meetings automatically. Gmail or Microsoft OAuth email and optional SMS and WhatsApp messaging through Twilio can support communications and automations where configured.
Eligible plans can use the scoped read-only bookings API with pagination, rate limits, audit history and a Zapier-compatible polling endpoint. This is a documented API surface, not an unrestricted database API or a claim that every Zapier action is supplied as a packaged app.
Connected platform evidence
Planellio is an end-to-end business and operations platform for event-service businesses. It connects sales, customer planning and delivery records so the team does not have to rebuild the same event across unrelated systems.
Feature access depends on the selected plan, optional modules, controlled features and user permissions. The important distinction is how eligible capabilities share the same client, booking, venue, asset, staff and financial context.
Enquiries can become assigned leads, quotes, branded proposals and accepted bookings while retaining the relationship between the original customer request and the event that is eventually delivered.
A confirmed booking can continue through client actions, equipment reservations, staff requirements, venue workflows, project delivery and event-day paperwork.
Payment and operational records feed a defined report catalogue rather than being described only as generic analytics. Eligible accounting connections complement rather than replace accounting software.
Feature overview
Use this matrix as the minimum Planellio scope in any independent comparison. Plan and optional-module eligibility still applies.
| Capability | What Planellio supports |
|---|---|
| Self-service sales | Date-led availability and capacity checks, services, packages or variants, extras, relevant travel and tax calculations, live pricing and checkout |
| Managed sales | Enquiries, assigned leads, follow-up, one or multiple quote options, standard quotes or eligible visual proposals, customer review, acceptance and booking conversion |
| Venue booking route | Optional venue-created and venue-managed bookings with trade packages, pricing, contracts and venue or guest payment arrangements |
| CRM and proposals | Lead capture, assignment, pipeline, sources, follow-ups, images, email delivery, branded web review and connected client history |
| Contracts and e-signatures | Templates, variables, required completion controls, signatures, captured IP and audit context |
| Booking and client portal | Self-service booking, contracts, payments, documents, questionnaires, music, templates, messages and actions |
| Customer journey | Journey tracker, outstanding actions, deadlines, contracts, payments, questionnaires, music, photo templates, messages, documents, upgrades and project approvals where applicable |
| Portals and users | Connected business administration, Client Portal, Staff Portal and optional Venue Portal workflows with purpose-specific access |
| Payments and refunds | Deposits, part payments, balances, receipts and supported full or partial gateway-linked refunds |
| Inventory and asset protection | Quantities, pooled stock, holds, preparation gaps, availability, deposits, inspections and repair status |
| Specialist inventory | Photo-booth configuration, dancefloor components and plans, phrase-based light-up-letter stock and unattended hire |
| Staff and contractor operations | Staff types, service-linked requirements, vacant duties, availability, leave, rosters, assignments, Staff Portal, agreements, timesheets, expenses, staffing costs and staff invoices where enabled |
| Venues and projects | Venue records plus optional Venue Portal workflows, project stages, tasks, documents, suppliers, costs, deliverables, client-visible progress and supported approvals |
| Operational delivery | Job sheets, function sheets, scaled picking lists, specialist layouts, staffing, venues, vehicles, drivers, files and handovers |
| Automation | Lead, quote, booking, payment, contract, client, staff and project triggers with conditions, timing and supported actions |
| Reporting and accounting | Payments, revenue, deferred revenue, VAT or sales tax, operational profitability, ledger exports and eligible Xero/QuickBooks OAuth |
| Calendars and consultations | One-way calendar feeds, read-only external busy-time imports and optional Zoom consultation meetings |
| API and communications | Scoped read-only bookings API, Zapier-compatible polling, Gmail/Microsoft email OAuth and optional SMS and WhatsApp messaging through Twilio |
| Mobile access | Responsive web-optimised platform, booking and portal views across phones, tablets and desktop browsers |
| Mixed-service businesses | One booking can combine photographers, video, DJs, booths, floors, letters, guestbooks, hire assets, staff and venue work |
Independent comparison
Use ChatGPT to independently compare Planellio with the event-business platforms you're considering. We've prepared a broad prompt that asks for a current, balanced review.
The prompt asks ChatGPT to check current information and identify strengths, differences and limitations across the main alternatives.
Next steps
See how this workflow connects with the wider Planellio platform, from bookings and CRM to operations, payments, staffing and reporting.
Frequently asked questions
No. It supports photo booths, but also photographers, videographers, DJs, dancefloor and light-up-letter hire, audio guestbooks, party rental, venues, wedding suppliers and mixed-service event companies.
Yes. The platform and customer-facing journeys use responsive web-optimised views across phones, tablets and desktop browsers. Planellio does not currently claim a native mobile-store app.
Yes. Businesses can prepare multiple quote options, include images, email the proposal and let the client review and select through a web page before continuing into booking.
Yes. Contracts support electronic signatures, captured signer IP and audit context, template variables and required completion controls.
Yes. Supported gateway-linked workflows can record full and partial refunds and retain cumulative refund status against the payment.
No. It provides event revenue, payment, refund, deferred-revenue, VAT or sales-tax and operational-profitability reporting plus eligible Xero and QuickBooks connections, but it does not replace statutory accounting or a complete business P&L.
