Deckbooks is closing down, what do I do now?

It’s sad to see a management company offering software to the music and entertainment industry closedown. With the cost of living crisis hitting a lot of us, people simply aren’t booking entertainment for their events anymore and the 'DIY' approach is becoming a default. We also can’t forget to mention the cost of supporting a software has skyrocketed in the past few years after the pandemic and energy costs.

While some might assume this situation benefits Band Pencil, I hold a different perspective. Competition closing down may seem like a short-term victory for other vendors, but in the long run, it stifles innovation, limits consumer choice, and weakens the overall health of the market, ultimately proving detrimental to business growth and sustainability.

I’m a Deckbooks customer – what do I do now?

Your options are to:

1. Migrate to a new software (more on this later).
2. Stay with Deckbooks until they close fully.
3. Adopt a do-it-yourself management.

Deciding this first will help you plan your migration. If you want to utilize a software to help you manage your events, you’ll need to start looking for a new provider. If you’re done with using a cloud based management software, find the free tools, like Google Calendar and start doing it alone. I don't recommend you just wait until Deckbooks fully closes, act now to avoid any stress later!

Export your data

However, most importantly, and do this before they close on the 9th October 2024 is to export all your data.

How do I pick a new software?

Picking a new software can be really daunting. We’ve written an article to help you decide on your next software which you can read here. Our top tips are to compare prices - pick providers that are in your price range. Check they have all the features you want and read the reviews.

If you're wanting to switch to Band Pencil, sign up today for a 14-day free trial!

What is Band Pencil?

Band Pencil is the all-in-one management solution built for people working in the music and entertainment industry to help organise every aspect of your event. Established in 2019, we aim to provide a modern, secure, and user-friendly gig management solution for the music and entertainment industry.

Plus, just like Deckbooks, we’re a UK based company!

Does Band Pencil have the features Deckbooks has?

We do, and more! The core Deckbooks features are: Manage gigs online, iPad Compatible, Client Login Area, Performer Login Area, Income & Expenses, Daily Data Backup and SSL Security, iCalendar Updates, Free Software Updates and Google Maps Integration. All these features are supported on Band Pencil.

We’ve got a nice chart on our Deckbooks Alternative page which I recommend you take a look at.

How do I migrate to Band Pencil

The best approach to migrating to a new software is to do it how big companies do it. Let me stress, you don’t need all your bookings in one software. There’s just no point spending the time importing all your events for very little gain – even big corporations don’t migrate all their data when they swap supplies!

Instead, keep your old bookings safe in a CSV file and reference it as and when you need it. It will save you so much time doing it this way.

Step 1: Get your account setup

We offer a 14-day free trial. You don't need a credit-card to sign up and you can cancel your subscription at any time. Once spend a hour or two adding your services, email templates, performers and locations, but just the ones you frequently perform at.

Setup your lead capture form and add that to your website and make sure your settings are correct.

Step 2: Add your performers

Add your performers you frequently work with – you can always add them as you receive new bookings, so don’t worry about adding everyone you’ve ever worked with!

Step 3: Import upcoming events

Pick a date you want to migrate and add the events that are upcoming from that date – you can import them by adding them one by one, or using our import tool. If you need help with this reach out to support. We can only help import basic information such as the event name, location, date, times, cost and notes. We can’t import performers or clients to those events, unfortunately you’ll need to do that manually.

We know this is a bit annoying, but a lot of event management softwares out there don’t event offer an import function!

Step 4: Go for it

That’s it, now when you need to make changes to event or add a new booking, do it in Band Pencil.

Band Pencil Support

Band Pencil is designed to be as user friendly and 'self-service' as possible, so most of our customers happily use Band Pencil without ever having to communicate with us. If you do, you can just email us. We also have demo videos and a really useful knowledge base with loads of useful help articles and how to guides.

Best of luck swapping from Deckbooks and let us know if we can help at all!