General FAQs
LASSO is a live event management software. With the Crew Management platform, all of your crewing and communication functions for live events are centralized in one place. Instead of spreadsheets, whiteboards, and phone calls, you can create an event roster and extend an opportunity to your AV crew with just a few clicks. Beyond scheduling your live event staff, you can use LASSO to communicate with your team, automate their onboarding documentation, track their time on and off the clock, export their time to payroll, book travel, and even supplement your bench with additional crew.
When you’re building your roster for an event in LASSO, you may realize you are short-staff for a particular event. Perhaps you’re producing an event in a market where you don’t have many freelancers. Perhaps your go-to freelancers are not available. Whatever the reason, right within the LASSO tool, you can use the Crew Marketplace to submit your labor request and find the supplemental talent you need to make your event a success. All of our Crew Marketplace freelancers are AV and other live event professionals are fully compliant, carefully curated and available at a cost-effective rate.
Onboarding
Our fully digital onboarding process, also called LASSO Signature, makes it easy to bring new people onboard and get all of their paperwork sorted well before you see them on a job site. You’ll customize the documents and fields you want new hires to fill out, they’ll receive email notification to read and sign everything electronically, and LASSO will automatically store and save all the paperwork you need in that crew member’s LASSO profile so you know exactly where to find it if and when you need it.
- Updated policy doc you need your crew to sign? No problem. Send out company policies, event/venue-specific policies, and new hire paperwork individually or en masse to your AV freelancers. Then, they can use electronic signature (we call our product LASSO Signature) to read through and sign the documents, and that completed paperwork is automatically stored in their Crew Profile. This way you can keep all of that compliance paperwork, certifications and more in one easily referenced place.
- Make strategic use of LASSO’s tags to remember who’s best at a certain skill set, who is willing to travel, or whatever other relevant information you need.
- Read other’s and write your own crew ratings to keep track of folks you like to work with.
- See a crew member’s job history at a glance to provide continuity for your clients year over year – or avoid job placements that didn’t work out the last time.
If your labor coordinator moves on and you have a new person in the role, all of that historical information is available for them to access and start using right away.
When filling out your event roster, LASSO will automatically notify you if any of the staff to whom you would like to extend an offer have not yet been properly onboarded. (If someone you’d like to work with is missing important information, you can also use LASSO’s communication features to remind them to do so!) Storing certifications like COI (certification of insurance) on Crew Profiles with the relevant expiration date is also an important feature to make sure all your bases are covered.
Scheduling
Yes, our crew scheduling allows you to see everyone in one place. See if crew is already booked, on PTO, or are unavailable due to working another event.
Yes. Our event schedule will list all of your events, their markets, the venues, and if any action is required on them.
When you select a crew member to add to your event roster, you’ll automatically be notified if that person is already scheduled on an event for you, and even tells you what the conflict is.
You can also see their availability, and if you request to book them back-to-back, an estimate on overtime (OT) costs.
You can automate crewing as much or as little as your business would like. By inserting your own personal touches, you can let your staff know there are real people on the other end of this tool who are committed to their care.
Communication
Send texts, push notifications or emails to your entire team with one click – or schedule these communications for a future date and time. Request read receipts to see who opens your messages. Group messages by event to keep your crew (and you) organized and in the know.
Yes. You absolutely should be mindful of your crew’s attention span when using the LASSO tool. Crew member users have the ability to turn off app notifications, for example, so they won’t receive messages they’ve opted out of. You should use the communication scheduling feature strategically. We wouldn’t recommendon’t sending several messages in a row in the hours leading up to the event. Send the important info in advance, space out your reminders using the scheduling feature, and save the last-minute communications for emergencies.
With LASSO, you can send all communications via text, email, or the mobile app. Afterwards, the crew can customize how they want things delivered.
Yes, absolutely. You can create a document library to pull from or just attach something as you send it.
Time Tracking
Not only does LASSO’s time-tracking functionality make it easy to follow complex pay rules around overtime, midnight to 8am shifts, position minimums, 7th day, short turnaround, and any other laws that may vary by market, but you can also use LASSO in whatever way your staff needs to clock in and out. Your trusted crew might clock themselves in and out using the LASSO app. Your freelancers may be punched in and out by a supervisor using their LASSO app. Your project managers may prefer to key in hours on the timesheet within the LASSO platform. And your warehouse crew may need a physical clock to punch in and out.
Travel
When you book travel through the LASSO platform, you can see your costs, save unused tickets, access 24/7 concierge service for your travelers, and take advantage of agency-negotiated corporate rates on flights and hotels. LASSO Travel also automatically shares travel itineraries with your crew and empowers you to arrange expenses like per dimes quickly and easily.
LASSO partners with AmTrav to provide a superior user experience for booking travel for your crew. Our partnership also allows you to secure better rates with airlines and hotels.
We have partnered with premier corporate travel agency Amtrav to provide professional-level support and corporate-negotiated prices to your team. As an agency, Amtrav is able to negotiate better rates with airline, hotel, and rental car vendors due to the volumes they serve. Your travelers can contact support at any point in their journey. Project managers can track important details like itineraries, unused tickets for canceled flights, per diems and other travel logistics.
Event companies use LASSO to make sure their crew is taken care of at every step of their journey. Crew Profiles include a number of fields such as frequent flyer numbers, home airport, and allergies.
Payroll
The most ideal way to pay your event crew and AV freelancers is to be able to directly import time tracked down to the minute that also incorporates important pay rules such as overtime or double time, midnight to 8am shifts, position minimums, 7th day, short turnaround, and any other laws that may vary by market. With the LASSO platform, you can automate all of these considerations so that post-event it is a simple matter of exporting your event data to your payroll provider of choice or using LASSO’s preferred payroll provider, Insperity.
LASSO’s time clock system will have on site hours coded by job auto-calculated with any rules specific to your company or market. LASSO has over 400 different payroll exports to provide information in the format you need it, no matter what payroll provider you use, and also has an exclusive partnership with Insperity and special rates if you’re looking for a new payroll partner, too.
LASSO has partnered with Insperity to provide our users with easy, self-serve payroll solutions. Your staff gets the support they need to follow laws pertaining to compliance. Using this software, you can quickly translate the time tracking data you collected during your event into paychecks for your staff. Insperity is also ideal for your crew and freelancers because their easy-to-use interface on desktop or their mobile app allows your staff to sign in, view their pay stubs, and find out what jobs they’ve already been paid for – saving you time on answering admin questions.
Just like our platform, we charge a per person working per month fee. We do not charge if they are not actively working and receiving a paycheck. Our pricing also includes all state tax filings.
Yes! Included in our payroll module is HR Support. Whether you have compliance questions, need job descriptions, or just need some helpful calculators, our payroll solution is built with the event industry in mind.
AV Freelancer Talent
All of LASSO’s Crew Marketplace AV freelancers are W2 employees of LASSO fully covered by workers comp. They are paid weekly, per our internal guidelines and according to market regulations. Crew Marketplace AV freelancers use LASSO’s time tracking system, so event production companies pay for actual time worked down to the minute. You’ll have full transparency to see actual hours crew worked on your invoice.
Pricing
Our pricing is designed to fit your revenue model. We understand your business is seasonable and we reflect that with our flexible pricing structure. Schedule a call with our sales team to assess your business needs and determine the best modules for your company.
One of the best things about LASSO is that you can create the solution that works best for you – whatever that may look like. To understand more about which features might be best for you, see the “What We Do” tab on our website. Contact our sales team today to craft the solution that works best for you.
LASSO integrates with other software providers for the event industry, including IntelliEvent and Flex Rental Solutions. But our platform is an end-to-end solution for the industry, consolidating all of your software into a single place. This allows your team to have unprecedented insight and transparency across departments and teams.
For Crew
Users can choose their preferred option. We understand not everyone wants to download an app, so crew can either download the app, use the mobile-responsive web version of LASSO, or you can just text or email them communications from our system. If you want your crew to clock in, they can do it through the app, or you can have your on-site supervisors clock in their crew on their behalf.
Of course! We encourage you to take as many jobs as you want to fit into your schedule. If you already gig with a company that uses the LASSO platform to schedule their crew, you will just need to register separately for the Crew Marketplace.
LASSO’s customers range from small-to-mid-to-large sized event companies all over the United States that produce or manage live events and experiences. Our customers do corporate events, concerts/touring, festivals, broadcasting, and more.
W2 employment means that once you’ve worked enough hours, you’re also eligible for benefits like a 401k retirement plan and health insurance. Becoming part of our community also allows you to tap into additional training opportunities in your area. From day one, all Crew Marketplace members have access to our payroll provider, Insperity, where you can view your paystubs (and see what event gigs you’re being paid for), take advantage of corporate discounts on your phone bill, and access thousands of training videos.
Not necessarily. You may have used the LASSO app in a previous gig. Event companies that use LASSO may use the app to send you job opportunities, site maps, last-minute communications, time tracking, among other things. However, that does not necessarily mean you’re a part of the Crew Marketplace. Crew Marketplace is different and allows you to extend your freelance visibility. When you apply, you will be put into a vetting process. After that, you will fill out your onboarding paperwork, making you a W2 employee of LASSO. At this point, we’ll reach out with job opportunities that are a good mutual fit for both you and the event company. If you join Crew Marketplace, you will be able to access a broader range of opportunities, as companies using Crew Marketplace need talent from all over the country. Simply put, as a Crew Marketplace member, you’ll have access to more gigs. And as a W2 employee of LASSO, you don’t have to worry about chasing down payment – now, get paid weekly.
Miscellaneous
No. We don’t charge for SMS messaging. It’s included in platform pricing for US customers. Crew members receiving text messages incur their normal carrier fees, but they have the option to opt out of text messages if they would like to avoid those charges.
LASSO provides an electronic signature and document processing tool to make sure that your crew’s paperwork is always up-to-date. LASSO also has customizable fields so you can track when certifications expire, etc. If you need to supplement your bench of talented crew in a given city, you can tap into LASSO’s Crew Marketplace, a compliant and professional pool of top live event talent.
Inventory Management
LASSO’s Inventory Management bundle encompasses all the necessary tools for seamless asset management. It includes Gear Ordering, Asset Management, Warehouse Operations, Logistics, Quotes and Invoices, and Project Management functionalities.
LASSO provides a variety of pricing plans and packages tailored to your specific requirements. In addition to the Inventory Management bundle’s offerings, you can also add LASSO’s Crew Management, consolidating all your live event needs into one comprehensive solution.
Production Companies
LASSO was created when the founder of an experiential event production company, realized it was becoming impossible to scale and take on more clients while they were bogged down by all the manual tasks of crewing and workforce management. He set out to solve it for the industry, with the industry. He and his team spent a year speaking to his fellow industry professionals before hiring a team of developers to create the LASSO platform. The result is a product tailored to every need an event production company could possibly encounter in the course of managing their workforce – and we keep listening to your feedback to improve the platform further.
Absolutely! LASSO makes life easier for many industries similar to AV event production. Staffing & security companies and universities love LASSO for crewing massive workforces with just a few clicks. Broadcast & media, TV & film, creative & experiential companies all use LASSO to manage their talent. Venues, rentals, and installation companies also find that LASSO helps them optimize their workflow. Destination management and model/brand ambassador companies find that LASSO gives them the tools they need to staff efficiently and manage their talent effectively.
Staff & Security
We are a great fit for anyone managing the logistics of a large event workforce. That includes everyone from boutique production companies to security companies who need to staff a university venue for football season. With LASSO, you’re able to hire, communicate, clock in, and pay out en masse, leaving you time to focus on what really matters: making sure your people are set up for success.
The biggest difference is we were made specifically for the event industry. That means you can schedule around an event with a mobile temporary workforce. Let’s face it: Scheduling the same people to work in the same location, doing the same job, week after week, isn’t as fun as solving for all of the nuances within the event industry. This frees you up to focus on the real work.
Crew Resources
W2 employment means that once you’ve worked enough hours, you’re also eligible for benefits like a 401k retirement plan and health insurance. Becoming part of our community also allows you to tap into additional training opportunities in your area. From day one, all Crew Marketplace members have access to our payroll provider, Insperity, where you can view your paystubs (and see what event gigs you’re being paid for), take advantage of corporate discounts on your phone bill, and access thousands of training videos.
LASSO’s customers range from small-to-mid-to-large sized event companies all over the United States that produce or manage live events and experiences. Our customers do corporate events, concerts/touring, festivals, broadcasting, and more.
Of course! We encourage you to take as many jobs as you want to fit into your schedule. If you already gig with a company that uses the LASSO platform to schedule their crew, you will just need to register separately for the Crew Marketplace.
No, it is free for crew to join and participate in the Crew Marketplace. While there are marketplaces out there that charge the crew to be a member of them, we are not one of them.
There is a lot of pent up demand in the upcoming months, and we need you to help the industry meet this demand. Companies using LASSO’s platform to manage their workflow will then be able to connect with the industry’s top talent (that’s you!). In preparation for the needs of our customers and hires they need to make, it is important we start the registration and application process now. We already have positions our customers need to fill so please be sure to submit your registration!
Talent
LASSO’s team is comprised of former labor coordinators and top talent recruiters from well respected production companies who thoroughly vet every crew, check references, help them prepare their LASSO profile, and finalize their onboarding process. We look for both aptitude and attitude. Because we are hiring these great people as our W2 employee, we thoroughly assess their abilities to be a good team player and make our clients’ shows a success.
Crew Marketplace members are W2 employees of LASSO, so you can be sure you’re fully compliant with labor regulations. This also means that there are no additional steps in order to complete your post-event process.
You may be pleasantly surprised by your invoice with Crew Marketplace. We keep your costs low while also making sure our Crew Marketplace members are paid competitively. Your invoice will include all fees associated with scheduling our people for your show. We put our people first. How do we accomplish that? We bill to the minute. We don’t round up, and there are no half day or day rates that drive costs up. We also don’t charge daily overtime (with the exception of those states that require doing so by law). Hours worked are fully transparent within the LASSO app, and any post-event reconciliation is fully automated so you never have to worry about chasing outstanding bills. The result is high quality staff satisfied with competitive bill rates, overall lower bills invoiced to you, and an easier, smoother process for everyone on both sides.
Our network of talent is built on a framework of referrals from known and trusted crew and crewers. Every crew member who applies is vetted by our staff of veteran labor coordinators. Once vetted and onboarded, each Crew Marketplace member is given a profile. You can read a member’s profile to see their bio, skill sets, background and ratings from past employers. You can also leave your own once a Crew Marketplace member has worked a gig for you.
Yes. All Crew Marketplace techs are W2 employees and covered by worker’s comp through LASSO to protect everyone involved. LASSO is set up in all 50 states to cover all of our Crew Marketplace Members.
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