If you want to seat your guests all in one go through your guest list excel upload, Automated Seating is the option for you! (To seat guests manually instead, take a look at this this article here.)
Watch our tutorial video for a quick overview:
Find step-by-step information in the sections below.
Setting up your Excel Spreadsheet for Automated Seating
Please bear these important things in mind for Automated Seating to work:
All zkipster tables must be set up on the floor plan prior to uploading your excel (otherwise your Tabel Label and Seat Label fields will have nothing to match to). Click on this article here to learn how to set up your tables in zkipster.
Guests must be designated both a Table Label and Seat Label through your excel columns in order to be automatically seated. Guests will not be seated without one or the other.
The Seat Label must account for any additional guests. The picture example in the next section below clarifies this further.
On your excel file, you are additionally able to assign Seating Colors (and/ or different custom color field information, such as dining requirements etc., which you are then able to filter on later on at the 'Overview & Printing' stage). You can currently choose from 20 different color options. Find out more about this here.
If you are using the Invitations feature and are collecting RSVP statuses, please note that only Confirmed guests will be able to be seated.
Accounting for Additional Guests
If a Main Guest has been attributed additional guests they will be seated directly next to the Main Guest according to the seating direction stated in the table configuration.
The Seating Labels need to account for additional guests by inputting the right seat label for each Main Guest at a table.
As you can see from the example below, the Seat Labels account for additional guests by starting with:
Table 1 Seat 1 for Sarah Green who has 2 additional guests.
The next guest, Nicole Ross, has Table 1 Seat 4 to account for those 3 total guests Sarah Green is representing.
This pattern would continue for the remaining guests and tables.
The excel for Seating fields should look like the below:
Seating Colors
Before importing your list into zkipster, you can indicate the seating color you'd like to categorize your guests by. To do this, use the label Seating Color and add one of the colors below for each guest you'd like to denote a color for as shown above.
Color Options
Choose from the following color options:
Once the zkipster tables have been placed and the excel is thereafter uploaded, these guests will be automatically placed in those seats within the Seating interface.
You can view your list by seating color by customizing your desktop view. Just click the small web view icon with three gray bars, at the top of your guest list. Display the Seating Color along with any other information you'd like to see. Click the field name to sort by color.
If you click on the pencil icon beside the guest name on the left hand side you are able to edit the details of the guest, for example their seating color or the total number of +1's they are coming with.
Pro Tip: if you are using the Relationships feature, you can build your seating map taking into consideration the relationships your guests have in your event. For more information on how to use the Relationships feature when seating your guests, please click here.