Frequently Asked Questions

ABVENTS is a web platform for organising events in Tanzania. In one place you can collect michango and pledges, send invitation cards by SMS or WhatsApp, coordinate your committees, keep your budget, check guests in at the gate and find service providers. It works in the browser on any phone or computer, with no app to install.

Click "Sign up", choose whether you are organising an event or offering a service, then enter your name, email, phone number and a password of at least 8 characters. Registration is free. Before you book a vendor you will be asked to verify your email or phone.

Planning is free: events, guest lists, RSVP pages, michango campaigns, committees, budgets and vendor search. You pay tokens once for each card you issue: 40 per invitation card (invitation, one reminder, RSVP confirmation and gate check-in included) and 16 per contribution card (card message, one reminder and the first thank-you included). Extra messages cost 2 tokens per SMS part, or 1 for WhatsApp. Service providers pay 10% on bookings made through ABVENTS.

Any event with guests or contributors: weddings, send-offs, kitchen parties, graduations, birthdays, conferences, religious ceremonies, funerals and community gatherings.

Yes. The site opens in Swahili, and you can switch to English with the SW/EN button. The SMS your guests and contributors receive are written in Swahili.

Create a campaign with a target and add the accounts you want to be paid into (M-Pesa, Airtel Money, bank and so on). Share the link or send it by SMS. Contributors pay you directly, then enter their name and transaction reference on the page. You confirm each payment and the totals update.

No. Michango go straight to the accounts you set, and ABVENTS never holds them. That is also why you confirm each payment yourself against your own statement.

Yes. Each contributor has a personal link where they can record a pledge. You see every person's pledge, what they have paid and the balance, and you can send reminders to the people who have not contributed yet.

Record it yourself as cash, bank, mobile money or cheque. It counts as confirmed straight away and is added to that contributor's record, so your totals stay correct.

Yes. Create groups such as family, friends or colleagues. Contributors pick their group and you see the totals for each group.

When you confirm a contribution, ABVENTS sends the contributor a thank-you SMS. The first thank-you to someone you sent a contribution card is included in that card; every later one, and any to someone who never received a card, costs 2 tokens per SMS part. If your balance is too low, the payment is still confirmed and the thank-you goes by email only.

Add your guests, design your card, then send to everyone or only to those not yet invited, by SMS or WhatsApp. You can follow the progress while it sends. Messages that fail are listed for you, and their tokens are refunded.

Each guest's card shows how many people it admits: Single (1), Double (2) or Group (3 or more). At the gate, staff see that number on the screen when they scan it.

Every guest gets a personal link to say whether they will attend. You see who is coming, who has declined and who has not replied yet, and you can send reminders.

Share the scan link and its password with your gate staff. They scan the QR code with the phone camera or type the card number. A card works only once: if it is used again, the scanner shows who already entered and when.

The scanner keeps a copy of the guest list on the phone. Scanning continues offline and syncs when the connection returns, and check-ins from other gates appear once the phone is back online.

No. Check-in is included in every invitation card you issued. A guest whose card was never issued costs 1 token, but guests are never turned away because of your balance. Check-in keeps working and you can top up afterwards.

Go to "Find Vendors" and filter by category, location and price, or search by name. Profiles show services and packages with prices, photos, reviews and booked dates. We are still growing our list of vendors, so you can also add vendors you already know to your Event Hub and track them there.

On the vendor's profile, choose a service, enter your event date and send a booking request. Choose ABVENTS escrow or pay the vendor directly. The vendor confirms or declines from their dashboard.

Your workspace for one event: budget and expenses, vendors (from ABVENTS or your own), tasks grouped by committee, the programme for the day, seating, and your linked invitations and michango, with an overview of progress.

Yes. Turn on the committee portal and share the event link and password. Members ask to join, you approve them and choose what each one can see. They can view and update their committee's tasks, and see the budget, guests or michango if you allow it.

Yes, from the bookings list in your dashboard. If you paid through escrow and the balance is being held, open a dispute instead, so our team can review it with you and the vendor.

Sign up and choose "Vendor". Add your business name, category, location and description, your services or packages with prices, and photos of your work. Your profile can then appear in search.

Our team reviews vendor profiles and marks the ones we have checked as Verified. There is no charge for it. Verified vendors get a higher trust score and rank higher in search.

10% of the booking value, only on bookings made through ABVENTS. There is no monthly fee and no listing fee. With escrow, ABVENTS keeps it from the client's 30% deposit and pays you the rest. With direct payment, it is due as soon as you confirm the booking: you pay it and upload the receipt, and you can't confirm your next booking until it is cleared. A fee still unpaid 7 days after the event hides your profile until it is paid.

Requests appear in your Vendor Dashboard under Bookings. You see the client's event details, chat with them and confirm or decline. Dates you confirm show as booked on your profile, so clients can see when you are free.

There are two ways. With ABVENTS escrow, you pay a 30% deposit and later the balance through ClickPesa checkout, by mobile money or card. With direct payment, you pay the vendor by M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Mixx by Yas (Tigo Pesa) or bank and enter the transaction reference; our team checks it before the booking shows as paid.

The 30% deposit goes to the vendor to secure your date. The rest is held by ABVENTS until you confirm the service was delivered. If you don't respond within the confirmation window after the vendor marks it delivered, the balance is released automatically, so raise any problem before then. A deposit already paid to the vendor cannot be reversed through ABVENTS.

Tokens are prepaid credit for invitation cards (40 tokens per guest), contribution cards (16 per contributor) and extra messages. Buy a pack from your dashboard, from Starter (120 tokens, TZS 3,000) to Harusi (15,000 tokens, TZS 300,000), with M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Mixx by Yas, HaloPesa or card through ClickPesa. Bigger packs cost less per token. Tokens don't expire and are shared across all your events. See Pricing for the full list.

Tokens for messages that were not delivered come back to your balance automatically. For bookings, refunds depend on your agreement with the vendor. If escrow is holding your balance, open a dispute and our team will review the case.

Vendors marked Verified have been reviewed by our team. Reviews can only be left by clients who completed a booking with that vendor. Open disputes lower a vendor's trust score, and we can remove vendors who don't deliver.

Look for the Verified badge, read reviews from completed bookings and look at their photos. For extra protection, pay through ABVENTS escrow: the balance stays with us until you confirm delivery.

Open a dispute on the booking from your dashboard and explain what happened. Our team reviews the booking and the evidence, then decides whether held funds go to the vendor or back to you.

Keeping the conversation on ABVENTS gives both sides a record if something goes wrong. Phone numbers, emails, links and social handles are hidden automatically until a booking is confirmed (for escrow, until the deposit is paid); after that, both sides see each other's contact details.

Passwords are stored encrypted (hashed), the site runs over a secure HTTPS connection, and gate and committee access use separate passwords that you control. We don't sell your data. Read our Privacy Policy for details.