Event Production Timeline Template: 6 Weeks Out to Wrap
A production timeline you can copy and adapt for any event — working backward from show day, with an owner and a note on every row. The language is deliberately universal: it works whether you run AV, plan weddings, DJ, or operate booths. Everything here is free to read and use — no signup.
How to use this timeline
Every row has four parts: when it happens, what happens, who owns it, and the note that explains why. Start from your event date and work backward — the offsets below are realistic defaults, not laws. A wedding with a two-month lead uses them as written; a corporate booking confirmed ten days out compresses everything into the week-of table and skips nothing. The one non-negotiable is the Owner column: a row nobody owns is a row that does not happen. If you are a company of one, every owner is you — the column still matters, because it separates the hats you wear.
4 to 6 weeks out: lock the shape
This phase turns a conversation into a commitment. Everything else in the timeline depends on the decisions made here being written down and agreed.
| When | What | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 weeks out | Confirm the booking in writing: date, venue, start and end times, headcount | Sales | If the client has not accepted the current quote version, chase that before anything else |
| 6 weeks out | Collect the deposit | Office | An unpaid deposit this late is a real risk signal — treat it as one |
| 5 weeks out | Venue check: power, access, loading dock, floor or rigging limits, curfew | Production lead | A ten-minute call with the venue beats every assumption |
| 5 weeks out | Reserve equipment against the job and flag shortages | Ops | Anything short gets substituted, sub-rented, or designed out — now, while there are options |
| 4 weeks out | Book crew or staff and pencil call times | Ops | Confirm availability now; exact times can firm up later |
| 4 weeks out | Order sub-rentals and any long-lead items | Ops | Lead times are longest exactly when you need them shortest |
| 4 weeks out | Draft the run of show, version one | Production lead | It will change — date every version so nobody works from a stale one |
2 weeks out: confirm what you assumed
Everything decided a month ago has quietly drifted — headcounts, times, layouts. This phase exists to catch the drift while changes are still cheap.
| When | What | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 weeks out | Reconfirm headcount, times, and layout with the client | Sales | Ask directly what has changed — something always has |
| 2 weeks out | Reconfirm venue logistics: load-in window, parking, elevator, security list | Production lead | Venues change staff; the person who promised the dock may be gone |
| 2 weeks out | Final crew confirmations with call times | Ops | A confirmed person with a wrong time is still a no-show |
| 2 weeks out | Confirm sub-rental deliveries and pickups | Ops | Get the confirmation in writing, with a contact name |
| 2 weeks out | Freeze the equipment list — later changes become change orders | Production lead | A freeze date protects the client too: it is when their event stops being a moving target |
| 2 weeks out | Walk the client through the timeline: key moments, contacts, decisions still open | Sales | This call surfaces the surprises you want two weeks early |
| 10 days out | Chase the remaining balance per your payment terms | Office | Money conversations are easier before the event than after |
The week of: production mode
From here, the timeline stops being a plan and becomes a checklist. Nothing new gets decided this week if you can help it — the week of is for executing decisions already made.
| When | What | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week of | Pull and prep equipment against the frozen list | Ops | Pull against the list, not memory — see our equipment checkout checklist |
| Week of | Test everything that powers on | Ops | A thing untested is a thing assumed |
| Week of | Print or share run sheets, stage plot, and the contact sheet | Production lead | Everyone working the event gets the same version |
| Week of | Exchange day-of contacts and phone numbers with the client and venue | Sales | The show-day phone number is the single most valuable line on any sheet |
Day before
| When | What | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day before | Send the final confirmation message: arrival time, contact, any last changes | Sales | Short, warm, specific — it prevents the 7 a.m. panic call |
| Day before | Charge batteries, load media, stage the truck | Ops | Everything that can be done today is one less thing at 6 a.m. |
| Day before | Brief the crew: timeline, roles, venue quirks, weather plan | Production lead | Ten minutes now saves an hour of show-day questions |
Show day: load-in through strike
Adapt the row labels to your world — doors might be a ceremony, a reception, or a corporate keynote. The structure holds either way: build, test, run, strike, count.
| When | What | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Load-in | Arrive with a buffer before the contracted window and check in with the venue | Crew lead | Your standard buffer, applied every time, is what makes you the reliable vendor |
| Setup | Build, cable, then test — in that order | Crew lead | Testing while building hides which change broke what |
| 1 hour before doors | Full run-through of every system, then stop touching things | Crew lead | Problems found now are fixable; problems found at doors are public |
| Doors | One person owns the room, one person owns the equipment | All | When everyone owns everything, nobody owns the failure |
| During | Run the plan; log every change as it happens | Crew lead | The log is tomorrow's invoice defense and next month's better plan |
| Before overtime | Confirm any overtime with the client before it starts, not after | Crew lead | An overtime surprise on the invoice costs more than the overtime |
| Strike | Count equipment into cases against the manifest it went out on | Crew lead | Strike is where gear disappears — count it here, not at the warehouse |
| Load-out | Sweep the space, photograph it empty, confirm nothing left behind | Crew lead | The photo also documents the condition you left the venue in |
The day after and the week after
The event ends; the job does not. This is the phase most timelines skip, and it is where the money and the next booking live.
| When | What | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day after | Check equipment back in against the checkout list; flag missing and damage today | Ops | Same-day counting is the difference between findable and gone |
| Day after | Back up any recordings, photos, or files from the event | Ops | Before anything gets reused or wiped |
| 1-2 days after | Send the final invoice or the balance reminder | Office | Invoice while the event is still glowing in their memory |
| 2-3 days after | Send a thank-you note and ask how it went | Sales | This message is where referrals and reviews come from |
| Week after | Reconcile actuals against the quote: labor, sub-rentals, damage, extras | Office | This is how you learn whether the job made money |
| Week after | Debrief: one thing to fix before the next event | All | One thing, written down, actually changes — a list of ten does not |
Running this without the paper
In OpsVue, this timeline is what a workflow is: the named steps of your process, with timed steps anchored to real dates — the event date, the day a document was sent, the day the client accepted. Notify-team steps mint real tasks for named people when their boundary arrives, so "2 weeks out: reconfirm the venue" stops being a memory and becomes an assignment with a due date. The Company Calendar puts every dated thing — jobs, delivery legs, equipment windows, tasks, money due — on one grid, which is this template rendered across every event at once.
One honest boundary: client-facing messages in OpsVue are staged as drafts in an approval inbox — a person reviews and approves before anything goes out, and nothing auto-sends. The day-before confirmation still comes from you; the software just makes sure it is drafted, on time, every time. OpsVue is in early access, and the timeline above is yours to use either way.
OpsVue is operations software for rental, sales, and service teams — quotes, inventory, workflows, files, and payments in one connected system. Start a free trial →