When an event has to be canceled, clarity and timing matter. This is often a sensitive moment, both for you and for your fans.

Shotgun is designed to help you handle cancellations cleanly by immediately stopping ticket activity, securing funds, and giving you full control over communication and refunds.

Below is the recommended flow to cancel an event on Shotgun, step by step.

In this article

• Step 1: Cancel your event
• Step 2: Communicate with your ticketholders
• Step 3: Process refunds

Step 1: Cancel your event

From your event on the Smartboard, click the cogwheel icon > Cancel event > Cancel this event.

Canceling an event immediately triggers several actions:

• Ticket sales, transfers, resales, and waiting lists stop automatically
• The automatic closing payout is paused, keeping funds available for refunds

• The event and its tickets are marked as Canceled in the Shotgun app

  

• The event is hidden from the app and web feed. If someone accesses the event page via its direct URL, the cancellation status is clearly displayed.

⚠️  Canceling the event on Shotgun does not automatically notify participants or refund tickets. These steps are manual and explained below.

Step 2: Communicate with your ticketholders

Once the event is canceled, clear and timely communication is essential. This avoids confusion, reduces support requests, and sets expectations before refunds are processed.

⚠️ Always communicate before issuing refunds. Once tickets are refunded, attendees are no longer considered ticketholders. This means you won’t be able to contact them via Practical email.

Use Shotgun’s Practical email to contact all ticketholders at once.

1. From your event, go to Promote > Campaigns
2. Click Send email and choose Practical email
3. Write your message using the built-in editor
4. Click Send

👉 For more details, see Send a practical email to your event attendees

To maximize your reach, don’t forget to share the news on your usual communication channels, such as social media, your website, and more.

Step 3: Process refunds

Option 1: Refund all ticketholders at once

Tickets are not refunded automatically when an event is canceled. Refunds must be processed manually.

1. Go to Event > Orders
2. Check the box at the top to select all orders
3. Click Refund all tickets

You can fine-tune how refunds are processed:

• Refund 100% or only part of the ticket price by setting a refund percentage
• Choose whether to include Shotgun fees in the refund

💡 Not enough funds to refund fees? You can add balance manually before processing refunds 👉 Add funds to your Shotgun account

Option 2: Ticket reuse & on-request refund

Instead of refunding everyone automatically, you may want to give ticketholders a choice: reuse their ticket for a future event or request a refund. This approach works well if the event is postponed or replaced.

Collect ticketholders feedback

1. Create a simple form (Google Form, Typeform) to collect :
   • First & Last name
   • Email address
   • Scan code

💡 The scan code is the code located below the ticket’s QR code. You can find it in the app or directly in the PDF ticket sent by email.

2. Share the form with your audience:

• Via Practical email
• On your social media channels

💡 Clearly communicate a response deadline to avoid late or incomplete requests.

If ticketholders request a refund 

When some participants choose a refund, you can process only those specific orders.

1. Click on your Event > Orders > Actions > Select with a list
2. Copy and paste the scan codes to refund
3. Click Refund

Only the selected orders will be refunded. All other tickets remain untouched.

If ticketholders want to reuse their ticket for a future event

If participants prefer to attend a future event instead of getting a refund, you can issue replacement tickets manually.

Step 1: Create free offline tickets on the new event

1. Click Add ticket

2. Select Offline ticket

3. Add your ticket details

4. Click Save

Step 2: Send tickets to selected participants

1. From the ticket list, click Send tickets

2. Choose Add recipients > Import from CSV

3. Upload a file containing: First name, Last name, Email address

4. Click Send invitations

The selected contacts will receive an email invitation with their new ticket.

💡 This approach lets you manage refunds and ticket reuse cleanly and separately, while keeping full control over who receives what.