The phone rings: “Do you still have room on the 2:00 tour Saturday?” The staff member opens the organization calendar in Altru, finds the tour, and sees that it exists. What they usually can’t see from that view is how many spots are left. So they put the caller on hold, open the program or event itself, or start a sale just to check the times.
That gap is common, and it’s worth knowing exactly where it comes from before you try to fix it. This guide covers what the calendar is good for, where Altru actually keeps availability, and a few ways to get remaining capacity in front of staff without the hold-music detour.
What the organization calendar is built for
The organization calendar is mainly a scheduling view. It answers “what is happening, when, and where”: events, program times, room and resource bookings. It’s great for spotting conflicts and planning staff coverage.
In our experience it does not show a running “X of Y sold” count next to each item the way a ticketing grid does. Calendar display options can vary by Altru version and by how your site is configured, though, so before you rule it out, check two things:
- Open the calendar’s display or filter settings and see whether any capacity or attendance field can be added to the item details.
- Ask Blackbaud support directly whether remaining capacity can be shown on calendar entries in your current release. That’s a five-minute ticket and saves you from building workarounds you don’t need.
Where availability actually lives in Altru
Capacity is stored on the scheduled item itself, not on the calendar. That means staff already have accurate numbers available; they’re just one or two screens away. The usual places to look:
- The event or program time record. Capacity and registrant or ticket counts are visible on the item, so this is the authoritative answer for a single time slot.
- Daily sales and advance sales. When staff choose a program and time during a sale, Altru shows the times with their availability. Many front-desk teams use this as their de facto lookup, but it ties up a sales session just to answer a question.
- Group sales. If tours and school groups book through group sales, check capacity there before promising a slot, since group reservations can hold space before they’re fully paid.
The weakness of all three is the same: one time slot at a time. They don’t give you the “glance at the whole week” view the calendar does.
Build an availability list staff can scan
The most practical fix inside Altru is a query that lists upcoming times with capacity and tickets sold side by side. Exact field names depend on whether you’re working with programs, events, or both, so build it in a test query first and compare the numbers against a few time slots you check by hand.
- Pick the right source. Use a program or event query (whichever matches how you sell the item), not a constituent query.
- Filter to the window that matters. Today through the next 14 or 30 days is usually enough. Filter out canceled or inactive times.
- Add the output fields. Name, date, start time, capacity, and the sold or registered count. If your data includes a remaining-capacity field, add it; if not, staff can read the gap between the two numbers, or you can calculate it after exporting.
- Sort by date and time. That makes it read like a calendar list.
- Share it. Save the query where front-desk and call-center staff can run it, and give it a plain name like “Availability – next 14 days.”
Remember a query is a snapshot. It’s accurate when run, not five minutes later. For high-demand slots that sell quickly, staff should still confirm on the time record before promising space.
Watch for counts that don’t match
If your query numbers disagree with what a sale shows, look at held or reserved tickets, group reservations that aren’t paid, complimentary tickets, and items that share a capacity pool. Those are the usual reasons two places in Altru appear to disagree. Decide which count your staff should trust and write it down.
Small process changes that help
- Put capacity in the calendar item name or notes for fixed-size programs. “Behind the Scenes (cap 12)” doesn’t show what’s left, but it tells staff immediately whether a slot is the kind that sells out.
- Set a sold-out habit. When a time fills, someone updates the calendar notes or an internal channel. It’s manual, but for a handful of popular programs it works.
- Keep one browser tab dedicated to availability. Whether that’s your saved query or your public ticketing page, staff answer faster when the lookup is already open.
Using your public calendar as the staff view
Some organizations stop fighting the internal view and have staff look at the same availability guests see on the website. If your public ticket calendar pulls live availability from Altru, it doubles as a quick internal reference: phone staff and visitors are looking at the same numbers. Social Good’s Calendar Builder creates embeddable timed-ticketing calendars for your website with real-time availability from Altru, which some front-desk teams keep open for exactly this reason. Altru remains where the capacity is set and the sales are recorded.
Quick answers
Can I see remaining tickets on the Altru organization calendar?
Not typically as a count on each calendar entry. Confirm with Blackbaud support for your release; otherwise use the time record, a sales screen, or an availability query.
Why does my availability query differ from the sales screen?
Usually holds, unpaid group reservations, comps, or shared capacity. Test a few slots by hand to find which one is causing the gap.
