Software for event planners: corporate and social events

Corporate and social events pay differently. A company offsite comes with a procurement contact, a purchase order and net-30 terms; a 50th birthday gala comes with a family that wants to see every invoice. Both need vendor contracts lined up in the right order, and both blame the planner when a vendor shows up at the wrong door.

A corporate offsite, step by step

1. The client fills out your RFP form: dates, headcount, city, budget range and whether they need a PO number on the invoice. Pick "Social event" and the form asks about the guest of honor instead.
2. Book the site visit or the kickoff call from your Scheduling page, with a 60-minute buffer for travel.
3. Send a proposal with your planning fee, on-site management days and, if you charge one, a management fee on vendor costs as its own line, with a deposit (for example 50%) and an expiration date.
4. Many companies send their own contract or master services agreement. Upload their PDF to E-Signatures and add their signer and yours, in order.
5. Share the launch concept through Document Tracking with an NDA the viewer accepts, an email gate and a watermark, so it doesn't leak before the announcement.
6. Badges, signage and the stage render go to the client's portal for approval as PNG, JPG or PDF up to 25 MB; the approved version stays locked with the approver's name.
7. Invoice the deposit from the proposal and the balance after the event with net-30 terms and the PO number in the notes. Reminders go out before and after the due date.

A typical week

• Monday: an RFP from a software company for a 120-person offsite in March. You book the kickoff call for Wednesday.
• Tuesday: the gala family approves the third version of the invitation in their portal.
• Wednesday: kickoff call, then the proposal from your offsite template, with three on-site days.
• Thursday: the client's legal team sends their MSA. You upload it for signature, their signer first.
• Friday: the RSVP form for the gala passes 140 responses; dietary counts go to the caterer.

All 13 tools, one by one

How an independent event planner uses each tool, for corporate and social clients alike.

• Link in Bio: the link on your LinkedIn and Instagram with the RFP form, past events and a call booking for planners who want a quick quote.
• Short Links: a QR code on event signage that opens the agenda or the feedback form, so you can change the destination the morning of without reprinting.
• Forms: the RFP form, an RSVP form with meal choice and dietary needs as counts, and the post-event survey. Responses export for the caterer and venue.
• Scheduling: site visits, kickoff calls and the final walkthrough as meeting types, with up to 240 minutes of buffer when the venue is across town.
• Proposals: your planning fee, on-site days and the management fee as line items, with a deposit percentage and an expiration date.
• E-Signatures: your client contract, the client's own MSA uploaded as a PDF, and vendor agreements you sign as the planner, each with signing order and a certificate.
• Document Tracking: event concepts under an NDA with a watermark, and the run of show shared with each vendor so you can see who read it.
• Screen Recording: a 5-minute walkthrough of the floor plan or the registration flow for a client who can't join the call (15 minutes on Team).
• Notes & Boards: a board per event with tasks, owners and due dates, and pages with the vendor list, load-in times and contacts.
• Time Tracking: hours on hourly consulting or on scope changes, so the extra work on the balance invoice comes with a record.
• Invoicing: deposit and balance invoices with net-30 terms and the PO number, sent to the client's accounts payable email with a pay link.
• Expenses: site visit travel, samples and deposits you front for a client, with receipts, so you can bill them back and see each event's margin.
• Automations: when an RFP comes in, the client gets your scheduling link; when the contract is signed, the event's task board gets its first task.

Paying contractors and sales tax

• If you hire freelance event staff, a stage manager or a designer who isn't your employee, the IRS requires a Form 1099-NEC for each person you pay $2,000 or more for services in 2026. Through 2025 the threshold was $600. Collect a W-9 before the event.
• Whether your fee is subject to sales tax depends on the state and on whether you also sell goods, food or rentals. California's CDTFA has a tax guide for event planners; check your own state's revenue department before you bill.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS, Eventbrite or Dubsado: which fits

Eventbrite sells tickets to the public. Dubsado runs client workflows for service businesses. SoloWOS handles the client side of a planned event: proposal, contract, approvals and invoices. Many planners use a ticketing tool for public events and something like SoloWOS for the client.

Choose Eventbrite or Dubsado if:

• You sell tickets to the public, need check-in at the door, or want attendees to pay as they register (Eventbrite).
• You run long, branching client workflows and want payment plans on one invoice (Dubsado).

Choose SoloWOS if:

• Your client is the company or family paying for the event, not the attendees.
• You need NDAs on concepts, approvals on signage and tracked vendor timelines in the same account as your invoices.

See Dubsado vs SoloWOS for the full comparison.

Prices and features checked between October 17 and 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

Proposals with one template for corporate and one for social events, E-Signatures for contracts (including the ones clients send you), and Invoicing with net-30 terms. Document Tracking comes next, when you send your first concept under NDA.

Free tools that help

• Profit margin calculator to check an event after vendor costs and your hours.
• Meeting cost calculator to show a corporate client what a two-day offsite costs in salaries.
• DSO calculator to see how long your net-30 clients really take to pay.
• QR code generator for agendas and signage.

What SoloWOS won't do for an event planner

• No ticketing, attendee payments or check-in.
• No vendor payments or budget tracking against an event budget.
• No floor-plan or seating tools.
• No payment plans: deposit and balance are separate invoices.
• RSVP forms can't take payments or file uploads.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.