Flightcase vs LASSO for live event and AV production teams

Why I built Flightcase

I did not set out to build software. I set out to stop fighting it.

I was running production work on LASSO, and getting a quote out felt slow and belaboured. There was process sitting between me and the two things that actually mattered: getting the quote to the client, and getting the deposit in the bank so I could start building the show.

That frustration is why the quote builder, the client approval link, and the deposit invoice sit at the centre of Flightcase rather than off to one side.

This comparison is written from that experience, so read it as a point of view rather than a neutral scorecard. LASSO is a capable platform and there are teams it suits better than Flightcase. Where that is true, this post says so.

Andrew Giugno, Founder, Flightcase

Two tools that start from different ends of the job

Both Flightcase and LASSO are built for live event and AV companies, so they overlap. The useful question is not which one covers more boxes. It is which end of the job each one starts from.

LASSO is publicly positioned around the crew: rostering, communication with freelancers through a mobile app, onboarding paperwork, time tracking, payroll export, and travel. Its public materials also cover AV rental management alongside that.

Flightcase starts from the commercial document and the warehouse floor. A quote built from your own catalog becomes the job, the gear gets picked and scanned out, the crew gets called, and the invoice gets paid.

Where your pain sits usually decides which of those starting points fits.

Flightcase vs LASSO at a glance

Category	Flightcase	LASSO
Starting point	The quote and the warehouse.	The crew and the schedule.
Client quoting	Quote builder over your gear and labor catalog, with sections, discounts, and control over how much pricing the client sees.	Positioned around event and rental workflows.
Client approval	Share links tied to a specific revision, with e-signature. A client who approved version three keeps seeing version three.	Not the emphasis of its public positioning.
Serialized gear	Serialized units, asset tags, cases, and inventory history.	Rental management is covered in its public materials.
Scanning	Phone camera and Zebra handheld, with scan audit logging.	Not the emphasis of its public positioning.
Warehouse floor	Pull sheets, checkouts, returns, repairs, and task queues.	Not the emphasis of its public positioning.
Crew scheduling	Roster with roles and rates, booking by role with coverage matching, call sheets, and a crew portal.	A core strength, with rostering and freelancer communication through a mobile app.
Workforce depth	Roles, rates, and confirmations. No timekeeping to payroll, travel booking, or onboarding document automation.	Time tracking, payroll export, travel, and onboarding documentation are part of its public offering.
Subrentals	Subrental requests and vendor documents when a job outgrows your stock.	Not the emphasis of its public positioning.
Getting paid	Invoices, deposits, and card payment through Stripe, with invoiced, outstanding, and collected tracked.	Billing is referenced in its public positioning.
Best for	Companies that own gear, quote project work, and want one system from quote to payment.	Companies whose hardest problem is staffing and paying a large freelance crew.

The core difference is depth, not coverage

It would be easy to say that one tool does crew and the other does gear. That is not accurate, and it would not help you choose.

Both cover both. The difference is where each one goes deep.

LASSO goes deep on workforce. If you are moving a large bench of freelancers through onboarding paperwork, tracking hours against a job, exporting to payroll, and booking travel, that is real depth Flightcase does not have today.

Flightcase goes deep on the commercial and warehouse side. Version-locked client approvals, serialized units with asset tags, QR scanning on the floor, subrental paperwork, and Stripe payment are the areas it has built out furthest.

When Flightcase makes more sense

Flightcase is likely the better fit if the questions that dominate your week sound like this:

Which version of that quote did the client actually approve?
Is this gear already committed to another show that week?
What is short, and who do we subrent it from?
Did that case come back, and in what condition?
What is outstanding, and who has not paid?
Why is the warehouse working from a different list than the office?

When LASSO may make more sense

LASSO may be the better fit if your hardest problem is people rather than paperwork or gear.

That is often the case for staffing-heavy operations: a large freelance bench, crew travelling between markets, onboarding compliance to keep on top of, hours that need to reach payroll accurately, and a mobile app that casual crew will actually open.

If you are staffing at that scale, a dedicated workforce platform is doing work a production system does not replace.

The two-system question

Plenty of companies end up running both a workforce tool and a rental system, and that can be the right answer at scale.

It has a cost, though. The show exists in two places. Gear is committed in one system while crew is booked in another, and the two only agree because somebody keeps them in step by hand. When a date moves, it moves twice.

For a small or mid-size team, that reconciliation is usually the hidden tax. One system that covers quoting, gear, crew, and payment well enough often beats two systems that each cover their half perfectly.

That is the trade Flightcase is built around.

Choose Flightcase if

You own gear and need to know where it is and what it is committed to.
Quoting, client approval, and getting paid are core to your week.
You want the warehouse and the office working from one list.
Your crew scheduling needs are roles, rates, call times, and confirmations.
You are replacing spreadsheets and group chats rather than an enterprise stack.

Choose LASSO if

Staffing a large freelance bench is your hardest recurring problem.
You need time tracking that feeds payroll.
Crew travel and onboarding compliance are significant overhead.
A crew-facing mobile app is central to how your team works.

Final take

This is a question about which half of the job hurts more.

If the answer is staffing and paying people at scale, a dedicated workforce platform earns its place.

If the answer is quoting work, tracking gear, and getting paid without the warehouse and the office drifting apart, Flightcase is built for that.

Flightcase is in open beta, and the Free plan needs no credit card, so the cheapest way to answer the question is to quote one real job in it.

FAQ

What is the main difference between Flightcase and LASSO?

Where each goes deep. LASSO is publicly positioned around crew: rostering, freelancer communication, onboarding documentation, time tracking, payroll export, and travel. Flightcase goes deepest on quoting with version-locked client approvals, serialized gear with scanning, warehouse workflow, subrentals, and payment.

Is Flightcase a LASSO alternative?

It can be, depending on what you need. If you use LASSO mainly to schedule crew and would rather have crew, gear, quoting, and invoicing in one system, Flightcase covers that ground. If you rely on time tracking to payroll, travel booking, or onboarding compliance, Flightcase does not replace those today.

Does Flightcase handle crew scheduling?

Yes. Flightcase keeps a crew roster with roles and rates, books crew by role with filled versus needed counts and coverage matching for open slots, publishes call sheets, and gives crew a portal to confirm calls without back-office access.

Does Flightcase track equipment as well as crew?

Yes. Inventory supports serialized units, asset tags, and case groupings, with QR scanning from a phone camera or a Zebra handheld, plus pull sheets, checkouts, returns, and repairs. Subrental requests and vendor documents cover jobs that outgrow your own stock.

How much does Flightcase cost?

There is a Free plan for solo operators that needs no credit card, Team at 39 dollars per month, and Pro at 99 dollars per month, with extra seats at 5 dollars per seat per month. Larger operations are sized through support. Flightcase is in open beta with no waitlist or invite code.