The answers people ask us for most, in the order an event actually happens. Every answer has its own link, so you can send somebody straight to it.
Sign in, then choose New event. You need a name, a date and a start time; everything else can wait.
A new event begins as a draft. Guests and invitations can be prepared while it is a draft — activate it when you are ready to check people in, because the gate only admits guests to an active event.
No. Keep one event and add a sitting for each occasion — the send-off, the ceremony, the reception — under Settings, Schedule.
Seats are counted per sitting, so a family allowed four seats gets four at the reception even if they used all four earlier in the day. A sitting that ends before it starts is treated as running past midnight, which is how a reception ending at 01:00 is entered.
Yes. On the guest list choose Import CSV and drop your file in. You will see how many rows are valid, how many have problems and how many look like duplicates before anything is saved.
Download the template if you are unsure of the columns. Nothing is imported until you confirm, and if the file would take you past your plan's seats the whole import is refused rather than half-loaded.
Seats are people. A single invitation admits one, a couple two, and a family admits however many you set.
Everything counts in seats: what the gate admits, what your reports show, and what your plan allows. A family invitation for five is five seats, not one guest.
Open Invitations, tick the guests you want and choose Generate. Each one is an image carrying that guest's name, what the invitation admits, and a code only they have.
They are generated in batches of 25. You can cancel part way through and keep whatever has already been made.
Two ways. WhatsApp opens your own WhatsApp with the message and the guest's number already filled in, and you press send — so it arrives from a number your guests recognise. That is one guest at a time, because WhatsApp does not allow bulk sending.
Or use Text the link, which sends the invitation link by SMS from Waalikwa. That reaches guests who do not use WhatsApp and needs nothing from you per guest. Text everyone sends to all of them at once, after showing you how many and asking you to confirm.
Find them in the generated list — you can search by name or by code — and the button will read Send again.
Sending again to one guest does not message anybody else. If you use Text everyone, guests who have already been sent their link are skipped unless you tick the box to include them.
A link. Opening it shows their invitation with their name on it, the date, the venue, and buttons to accept or decline.
They do not need an account, a password, or an app. The page is in Kiswahili by default and can be switched to English.
Open RSVP. The three cards at the top — attending, declined, still waiting — are filters; tap one to see just those guests.
You can search by name, phone or invitation code, which is the quickest way to find one person in a long list.
Yes. Find them under RSVP and choose Record response. You confirm before it is saved, because the guest is told about it.
When you record that someone is attending, they receive a confirmation SMS with the event details. Recording a decline sends nothing.
In the event's Settings, assign them as gate staff. They sign in and see only the gate for the events they are assigned to — not your guest list, not your michango, not your other events.
Invite them from Settings if they do not have an account yet. They set their own password from the link they receive.
Point the camera at the QR code on the invitation, or search the guest by name, phone or code if their phone is flat or the code will not scan.
You then say how many seats are entering and confirm. Confirming matters: seats cannot be handed back at the gate, so the screen shows what is about to be used and what will be left.
Admit the number who are actually there. The rest of their seats stay available, and when the others arrive you look the same guest up and admit the remainder.
This is why the gate counts seats rather than scans. Nobody is admitted twice: a code scanned a second time shows what has already been used rather than letting more people through.
The gate needs a connection to record an admission, because the seat count has to be right across every device working the door at once.
If the venue is known to be difficult, the practical answer is a phone on mobile data at the gate rather than the venue's wifi.
Open Contributions and add the committee — chairperson, secretary, treasurer and members. A committee is optional; an event can run without one.
Inviting a member sends both an email and an SMS with a link to create their own login. A treasurer sees the ledger for that event and nothing else.
Add a contributor first, then record what they pledged. Payments are recorded against that pledge, and several payments can go against one pledge because paying in instalments is normal.
What is still owed is never typed in — it is always the pledge less what has been paid, so the two cannot drift apart.
They can be, and when they are, Waalikwa links them rather than storing the person twice. A relative who contributes but will not attend is recorded as a contributor only, so they do not take a seat or get an invitation.
Where a contributor is also a guest, opening that guest shows their invitation, their response, what they pledged and paid, and when they arrived.
Void the record and give a reason. Records are never quietly edited, because the point of the ledger is that a committee can account for every shilling afterwards.
The voided entry stays visible with its reason, and stops counting towards the totals.
Reports shows how many seats were expected against how many arrived, when people arrived through the evening, and the busiest moment.
The thank-you list is everyone who actually walked through the gate, with the seats they brought — not everybody who said yes. It downloads as a CSV.
Yes, once the day is done. Everything stays in your workspace — guest list, michango, attendance record — and nothing is deleted.
It also frees the event slot on your plan, so a completed event stops counting against how many you may run at once.
Seven days from when you create your workspace, with nothing limited during that time.
After that your plan's allowances apply. If you need longer to decide, message us and we will extend it.
An amber notice appears before you get there, at about four fifths of the way, naming what is running out.
At the limit you cannot put another event live, add more guests to a live one, or add team members — but nothing already in your workspace is affected. Everything you have entered stays, and everything already working keeps working.
Drafts are never limited. You can always prepare another event, however full your plan is.
No. Prepare as many as you like, as far ahead as you like — a whole season of client events if that is how you work.
A place is taken only when an event goes live, which is also when it is paid for and when its invitation links start working. Finishing an event frees its place and its seats again straight away.
Once per event, when it goes live, by the seats on its guest list at that moment. Adding a guest afterwards does not recount the event.
This is the figure that decides how much work a subscription holds, rather than the number of events — which is why it is on the pricing page rather than buried. Texting guests is what the plan actually costs us.
If you pass it, extra guests are the same price per guest your plan already charges. It is not a penalty rate and it is not a forced upgrade.
Up to three times per invitation. A phone that was off on Monday is worth another try; a fourth message is not going to change anybody's mind.
Sharing from your own WhatsApp is unlimited and does not count, because it costs nothing to send.
You do not have to move up a whole plan for a small overage. Message us and we can add extra seats to your existing plan.
Seats are counted across your live events. Completing a finished event releases its seats.
By arrangement with us. There is no online checkout yet, so message us on WhatsApp or by email and we will set it up.
Being unpaid does not switch your workspace off by itself.
Still stuck?
Message us and say what you were trying to do. We answer in English or Kiswahili.
