Halting and Resuming Auto-Contracting

Overview #

Sometimes you need to stop auto-contracting mid-process. Maybe you found a musician through another channel, or circumstances changed. BookLive lets you halt auto-contracting at any time and optionally cancel pending proposals, then resume later if needed.

When to Halt Auto-Contracting #

You might want to halt auto-contracting when:

• A musician contacts you directly about the gig
• You need to change the performance details
• You want to manually review and select musicians
• The performance is being postponed or cancelled
• You realize the wrong personnel list was used

How to Halt Auto-Contracting #

1. Open the performance detail page
2. Look for the Halt Auto-Contract button
3. Click the button to open the halt dialog
4. Choose whether to cancel pending proposals:
   • Halt Only: Stops the process but keeps pending proposals active
   • Halt and Cancel: Stops the process AND cancels unanswered proposals
5. Confirm your choice

Understanding the Two Halt Options #

Halt Only (Keep Pending Proposals) #

Choose this when:

• You want to wait for responses to existing proposals
• You just want to pause before sending more requests
• You want to review responses before continuing

What happens:

• Auto-contracting stops
• Already-sent proposals remain active
• Musicians can still accept or decline
• No new proposals are sent

Halt and Cancel Pending Proposals #

Choose this when:

• You no longer want any of the pending requests
• The performance is being cancelled or significantly changed
• You want to start fresh with different musicians

What happens:

• Auto-contracting stops
• All pending (unanswered) proposals are cancelled
• Affected musicians receive notification emails
• Already-accepted proposals are NOT cancelled
• The seat becomes empty again for re-assignment

What Happens to Already-Accepted Proposals #

Important: Halting with cancellation does NOT affect proposals that have already been accepted.

• Musicians who accepted remain assigned to their seats
• Their commitments are preserved
• Only pending (awaiting response) proposals are cancelled

Resuming Auto-Contracting #

If you halted and want to continue:

1. Open the performance detail page
2. Click the Resume Auto-Contract button
3. Auto-contracting picks up where it left off
4. Empty seats will be processed in order
5. The system continues checking for conflicts as normal

Activity Logging #

All halt and resume actions are logged:

• “Auto-contracting halted” with timestamp
• “Cancelled X pending proposals” if cancellation was chosen
• “Auto-contracting resumed” when continuing

This provides a complete audit trail of the contracting process.

Notifications to Musicians #

When you halt with cancellation:

• Each affected musician receives an email notification
• The email explains their pending request was cancelled
• It is a professional way to inform them of the change

Best Practices #

• Halt without cancelling first – Give musicians time to respond if possible
• Use cancellation sparingly – Frequent cancellations can frustrate musicians
• Communicate changes – If cancelling, consider a personal message explaining why
• Resume promptly – Do not leave performances partially contracted for too long

Troubleshooting #

The Halt button is not available #

• Auto-contracting may not have been initiated yet
• It may have already completed (all seats filled)
• It may already be halted (look for Resume button instead)

I halted but a proposal was still sent #

• A proposal may have been queued before you halted
• This can happen with near-simultaneous actions
• The halt prevents future proposals from being sent

Related Articles #

• Understanding Auto-Contract Conflict Detection
• Assigning Primary Musicians and Substitutes
• Managing Musician Seat Assignments