FAQ for production teams using Flightcase

Flightcase is a production platform for rental shops, warehouse teams, crew coordinators and event operators. Quoting, inventory, projects, crew, warehouse movement and internal communication run from one record per job, so nothing is retyped between the quote, the pull sheet and the invoice.

Live production companies, AV providers, rental houses, theaters, touring teams and lean event operations that need one place to run a job from the first quote through returns and follow-up.

Five short guides cover the first afternoon in order: setting up your workspace, getting your gear in, building a quote, running the project, and checking gear out and back in. Signup is choosing a plan and verifying an email code; from there the guides walk through settings, catalog, a first quote and a first project.

Admin › Feature Updates lists each release with what changed, why, and screenshots. A notification appears in the workspace bell when a new one lands, and a weekly email covers the same ground for anyone subscribed.

The Free plan is meant for solo operators kicking the tires. You can build quotes, manage a basic catalog, send client approval links and test the core workflow before bringing in a bigger team.

Signup starts with plan selection, then an email verification code before the workspace is created. The first account is the workspace admin and can invite everyone else from Admin › Users.

Paid plans are billed monthly. Team and Pro workspaces are self-serve from Admin › Plan Billing, which shows the plan, the admin and regular seats in use, and any extra seats or add-ons. Enterprise setups stay support-managed so pricing, onboarding and seat sizing match the operation.

Yes. You can move between plans as your team grows, and switch add-ons such as delivery tracking, online payments, multiple offices or equipment kits on and off from Admin › Marketplace. If you need a larger rollout, custom seats or onboarding help, support can handle the transition with you.

Admin › Settings has one tab per area: Workspace (name, email addresses, digest schedule), Offices, Tax, Documents, Cases, Labor and Events. The Setting up your workspace guide walks through them in order.

Settings › Tax holds the default tax rate, the workspace currency, the label clients see (so VAT reads as VAT), how many days a sent quote stays valid, and the payment terms every invoice starts with. Tax rules by location can be added underneath for shops that charge differently by venue.

Yes. Settings › Documents takes a format for each, built from the year, month, a counter, the client and the event, and previews the next number as you type. The next counter can be set by hand when you are moving from another system.

Settings › Events lists the kinds of job you quote and the default load-in, doors, crew call and load-out times each one starts with. A new quote of that type inherits them, so the calendar and the crew schedule start from sensible times without anyone typing them.

Settings › Labor decides whether labor bills by the day or by the hour. The Labor Rates page holds one card per role with the rate you bill and the rate you pay, which the builder uses for labor lines and Financials uses for crew cost.

Settings › Cases assigns a colour per department (or per category). Case labels print the band, the pull sheet lists which spike tape to bring, and the public case page shows it, so a lighting case reads as lighting from across the dock. Case numbering on the same tab sets the format new cases take.

Yes. Admin › Communications sets the company label, reply-to address and footer on everything Flightcase sends for you, from crew call confirmations to quote links, with a preview of what a crew member receives.

Admin › Users lists every account with its role, financial access and last login, and shows the seats on your plan. Admins run the workspace, staff work broadly, PMs are scoped to their projects, warehouse users focus on inventory and checkout, and viewers read. Crew are managed through Crew Access rather than taking a seat.

Admin › Privacy & Data searches by email or phone across users, clients, crew, support, portal tokens, documents and SMS records, and can export or erase what it finds. The same page clears expired portal links, reset tokens and stale mobile tokens.

Quotes can be approved through the client portal, converted into invoices, and linked to project and warehouse workflow. Multiple quotes and invoices can live on the same project while the primary commercial document remains clear.

Yes. The builder groups lines into equipment, labor, logistics and custom sections, with subsections and spaces for multi-room jobs. Lines drag between sections and section titles are click-to-edit.

Yes. Pricing is per line from the catalog, and a discount can sit on a single line, across a whole section, or on the document as a percentage or a fixed amount. Tax is applied at the document level from your settings and can be overridden per document.

Yes. The Pricing panel switches the client copy between every line priced, lines without prices, or section totals only, and turns case contents and replacement values on or off for that document.

Yes. Clients open a link, read the quote in a browser and approve it with a typed name and a drawn signature against your approval terms. Sends and approvals are tied to a specific revision, so older forwarded links do not quietly change underneath a client.

Yes. Builder saves are internal drafts by default. A client link is tied to the saved revision you sent, so later internal edits do not change what the client sees until you push a new client version or send a fresh link. The Send Quote page shows which revision the client has and whether the internal draft has moved on.

Flightcase stores immutable quote revision snapshots. Internal saves create revision history for your team, but only revisions marked as client-visible, generated into a live link, or sent to the client are exposed through the portal. Approved links stay tied to the version the client approved.

Invoices save into the builder and keep revision history for the workspace. Client invoice links are share-controlled separately from editing, so teams can keep refining an invoice internally and share it only when it is ready. The invoice page tracks payments, deposits and receipts alongside the link.

The builder shows who else is editing and which section they are in, and protects against a stale save. If an older tab is about to overwrite newer work, Flightcase warns the editor and offers an intentional force-save path.

Yes. Invoices and pull sheets can show case contents when useful, and each document controls whether replacement values appear. Case item details can also be collapsed so builder rows stay readable.

Yes. Workspaces can be set to USD, EUR, GBP, CAD or AUD in Settings › Tax, and tax is labeled for the region so VAT reads as VAT where that applies. Documents record their currency when created, so historical quotes and invoices keep rendering the way they were issued. With the Multiple Offices add-on each office can carry its own currency.

Yes. Save any quote as a template from the Quotes list, then start new quotes from it on the Quote Templates page. A template copies into the new quote; editing the template later never changes quotes already made from it.

Yes. CSV Tools on the Quotes and Invoices lists take a CSV against a project and create a draft with its sections, discounts and pricing. The template for the columns is linked from the same row.

Connect Stripe under Admin › Payment Processing and invoices carry a Pay Now button for card and bank payments. The page states the fee on each method with a worked example and lets you choose whether the client or your company carries it. Cheque, wire and other manual payments are recorded on the invoice by hand.

Refund a card payment from the invoice: an admin opens the Payment History, chooses Refund card on the payment, enters the amount and why, and says whether the client still owes the money. The refund is paid from your Stripe balance. If your balance covers it, it goes to the client's card straight away. If it doesn't, the refund waits and Stripe holds that much back from your payouts until new payments cover it; you can also add money from your Stripe dashboard (Balance, Add funds) to send it sooner. An admin can withdraw a waiting refund. Flightcase records the refund on the invoice with the cause you gave: the balance reopens, or a credit note lowers what the client owes. Stripe's card processing fee is not returned on a refund; Flightcase returns its own share of the payment fee in proportion to the amount refunded. Refunds are no longer issued from the Stripe Express dashboard. For a payment recorded manually, such as a check or bank transfer, send the money back yourself, then open the invoice and choose Refund on that payment in the Payment History. Enter the amount, the date and how you sent it, and say whether the client still owes the money. If they don't, a credit note lowers what they owe and the invoice stays paid (on a deposit request, the request is lowered instead). If they do, the balance is due again. Flightcase records the refund in the payment history, the ledger and the Sales Tax report; it never sends money itself.

If the client's bank takes a payment back (a chargeback), Flightcase records it on the invoice, which owes the amount again, and notifies your admins. Flightcase takes back the transfer for that payment from your Stripe balance and debits the rest: Stripe's dispute fee, the platform fee the client got back, a handling fee (USD 2.50, CAD 3.50, GBP 2.00, EUR 2.50 or AUD 4.00, in the currency your Stripe account settles in), and Stripe's charge for the debit. You respond to the dispute with your evidence in Stripe. If it is decided for you, the invoice is paid again and Flightcase returns what it took, except the handling fee, the debit charge, and any part of the dispute fee Stripe keeps. You accept these terms when you connect Stripe; see the Terms of Service, Card payments, fees, and chargebacks.

A dry rental is gear only, so its paperwork is different: the client goes through ID upload, a certificate of insurance and a card security hold sized from the replacement values on the quote before release. The Rental Requirements page lists every dry rental with what is still missing, and the invoice shows the hold and release state above the money.

Financials shows revenue, quote pipeline, direct costs, expenses and receivables, with tabs for the ledger, statements, A/R aging, vendors and 1099s, sales tax and the QuickBooks link. Workspace users only see it when financial access is switched on for their account.

Yes. A calendar hold takes a client, a project name, an expiry and one or more possible date ranges, and shows on the production calendar beside confirmed work without pretending to be booked. A quote can be built straight from the hold with the dates carried across.

Yes. The production calendar shows every project and hold on a Gantt timeline or a month grid, filtered by status and event type, and each project has its own schedule and crew booking surfaces.

Yes. Project records hold venue info, run-of-show milestones, linked docs, crew, files and production notes so internal teams have one operational reference.

Yes. Admins already have every project, and Edit Project assigns staff, PMs, warehouse users or viewers to individual projects with project-level roles and capability checkboxes for what each may do there.

A PM is a paid workspace user designed for project-scoped work. When assigned to a project, they can be allowed to create and send docs, add expenses, manage crew, upload files and take part in project messages without getting global admin access.

Yes. Project-scoped expense entry is available from the project view so operational costs are captured where the team is already working, and they roll up into Financials.

Yes. Crew-facing flows let people see the information you choose to share, confirm calls, and stay aligned without exposing the back office. Who can sign in is managed from Admin › Crew Access.

Yes. From the crew roster or calendar, request general availability for a date range, optionally add a day or night preference and a note, then pick crew by search or role. Each person answers each requested date as available or unavailable.

Yes. The crew calendar shows every person against the projects on the calendar, marked available, unavailable or booked per day, and crew keep their own monthly availability in Crew Quarters. Requested windows appear there too so responses and general preferences stay close together.

No. General and monthly availability are planning signals, not bookings. Crew Booking on the project is where the provisional plan is built and people are confirmed, so a coordinator can tell who may be free from who is actually booked.

After a crew member is assigned to a project, the crew-facing call flow lets them confirm or say they are not available. That event response is separate from their general availability calendar.

Yes. Project Digest, from the dashboard, lists the next 7, 14 or 30 days of projects with what each one still needs, and the same digest can be emailed every Monday from Settings › Workspace.

Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) anywhere in the workspace. Search covers projects, quotes, invoices, clients, gear, cases, crew, venues, vendors and settings pages, and respects what your role can see.

The week ahead: what goes out and comes back each day, which projects are short on equipment, what is overdue back, blocked tasks, and what is out at a vendor. Each outbound row starts a scan session and each returning row starts a check-in.

Open Scan Mode, choose the project, then select Pull, Load Trucks or Check In and begin the session. Pull records gear leaving the shelf, Load Trucks records cases and loose gear on vehicles, and Check In records returns. The Checking gear out and back in guide walks through each step.

Check In counts the gear that actually went out. If ten were planned but six were checked out, the return target is six. The other four are shown as never out, rather than missing returns.

Yes. Record only the gear received, then review pending and missing lines. Gear that went out and has not returned remains outstanding. Finishing the session does not mark it returned.

Those controls belong to outbound packing and loading. Check In focuses on returning items, so it does not offer case-packing or truck selection.

Yes. Pull sheets are grouped by department with quantity, shelf location, shortage flags and per-line checkout, so the floor works through prep in the same structure the catalog uses.

Yes. Inventory supports serialized units with serial numbers, scan codes and asset tags, case groupings, and scan workflows so physical gear stays tied to the job data.

Yes. Standard case contents can appear as builder subrows, on invoices, in client-facing invoice views, and on pull sheets. You can hide case contents per document when the extra detail is not needed.

Yes. Scan Mode works with a phone camera, a USB or handheld scanner, or typed codes. Serialized units and cases carry their own QR identity, and every scan is logged against the session.

Yes. Import Inventory CSV takes cases first, then items, from a downloadable template. The preview matches departments, categories and case names against what already exists so nothing is created twice.

Reusable groups of catalog items that land on a quote as one line, priced as a kit or as a discount on the components. They are a quoting convenience and do not change which case the gear physically lives in.

Each project has its own comms with separate lanes for crew chat, internal notes, updates and file share, plus SMS and WhatsApp broadcast tools for the confirmed crew. Internal Comms is the company-wide space with channels and direct messages.

Yes. Project files and linked resources carry an audience when they are added (client, crew, both, or internal only) and that can be changed later. Crew-facing views and the mobile app only return files that have been shared with crew.

Yes. Files stay internal until an authorized user turns crew or client visibility on, and the project page shows the audience on every file so it is clear what has gone where.

Schedules, notes, updates and crew-visible files stay attached to the project instead of being resent through separate email and text threads. The team has fewer handoffs, and the person updating the project controls which information is ready to share.

Yes. Channels and direct messages update live, including thread replies and reactions, and unread counts follow you across the workspace and the mobile app.

Yes. The mobile app registers for push, and alerts carry a message preview so they are useful at a glance. In the workspace the same events land in the notification bell, where you control how long alerts stay on screen.

SMS is set up under Admin › Communications with a Twilio account, and then project comms can text the confirmed crew from a drafted message. Delivery and replies are logged against the workspace.

Yes. Internal-only notes and channels stay separate from what goes to crew or clients, and the client portal only ever shows the documents and files you have marked for the client.

Yes. Workspaces support multiple users with role-based access, so you can add admins, staff, PMs, warehouse users and viewers from Admin › Users as the operation grows.

Admins control the workspace, staff can work broadly without admin controls, PMs are project-scoped operators, warehouse users focus on warehouse workflows, and viewers get light-touch read access. Crew are managed through the roster and project-call flows rather than as workspace users by default.

Yes. Admins always have financial access. For staff and other regular roles it is a checkbox on Admin › Users, and PMs do not receive financial visibility by default.

Yes. Workspace login includes a forgot-password flow that emails a reset link, and admins can send a reset from Admin › Users without opening a support ticket.

Yes, as an optional add-on from Admin › Marketplace. When enabled, Settings › Offices holds each location with its own address and currency, a switcher appears in the top bar, and inventory, projects, calendar and documents are scoped per office. Workspaces that do not need it keep working as a single office.

Start with one real project and trace the handoffs from quote approval through project setup, crew, files, warehouse preparation, invoicing and closeout. The useful comparison is how many records need to be rebuilt or resent, not simply which product has the longest feature list.

Yes. The demo request form lets you choose quotes, crew, inventory, warehouse, projects, billing, or the complete quote-to-project workflow so the walkthrough can focus on your operation.

A practical starting set is your equipment and labor catalog, departments, common quote sections, user roles, crew roster, warehouse location, tax and currency settings, and one representative project. Most of it can be imported from a spreadsheet.

Yes. Teams can begin with quoting, inventory, crew, or a controlled group of projects, then expand once the working conventions are clear. A phased rollout is often easier to verify than a broad migration.

Implementation time depends on catalog size, data quality, workflow complexity and the number of users involved. A small team with a clean catalog can start the same day; larger operations should plan time for data review, roles, testing and team training.

Flightcase uses workspace roles, project-scoped assignments, capability controls, financial visibility settings, client links, crew-facing access and file audience controls so different users do not need the same level of access.

Flightcase includes secure sessions, CSRF protection, throttling, role-based access, audit-oriented records, a data subject lookup and erasure workflow, consent-aware public analytics, and protected file and client-sharing paths. Security requirements should still be reviewed against your organization's specific policies during evaluation.

No. Flightcase coordinates production work, crew availability and calls, project context, quotes, inventory, warehouse operations, invoices and communication. It does not claim to replace payroll, HR, Paycom, Tripleseat, or a complete venue-management system.

Use the Support page to submit a ticket, or the Help menu in the workspace top bar. Include the issue type, urgency, and enough detail for the team to reproduce the problem or understand the operational need.

Billing questions, bug reports, feature requests, account access problems, user permission questions, quote or invoice issues, mobile app problems, SMS and comms issues, and workflow questions are all good fits for the support queue.

Yes. The Support Status page lets you look up a ticket by reference and email address, then view its current status and reply history.

Normal requests are typically reviewed within one business day. Urgent operational issues should be marked urgent so the team can triage them more quickly.