How to evaluate fixed departure software with one real costing sheet

A polished demo can show a booking form and a revenue dashboard without answering the question that matters to a fixed departure operator: what does this batch earn when the group size or traveller mix changes?

Bring one real departure to the evaluation. Remove personal customer details if they are unnecessary. Ask the vendor to work through your commercial model while you check the numbers independently.

Start with the items behind one package price

Use a package containing a group-priced coach, accommodation, per-person meals, a guide and an optional activity. Ask where each supplier cost lives and how it connects to the customer selling price.

Can one selling line contain several supplier costs? Can you distinguish a group total from a per-person rate? Can a quantity represent nights or service units without silently multiplying the wrong scope?

A single field called “cost price” is not enough evidence that your model is supported.

Test the awkward group sizes

Enter the supplier's actual brackets and compare twelve, sixteen and seventeen travellers. Choose a boundary where the vehicle changes. Ask what happens below the lowest quoted bracket and above the highest one.

Check the output against a worked group-size example. The goal is not to see a percentage update; it is to understand why it updates and whether the assumed supplier quote is valid.

Add a family and another origin city

Test a child fare at the configured age boundary, a single supplement and an optional activity bought by only part of the group. Ask how the software distinguishes selling discounts from actual supplier costs.

Then introduce a city-specific transfer. Find out whether it belongs to a separate departure, a package option or another supported configuration. Require a demonstration of how shared costs avoid duplication. Do not accept “fully customisable” as the answer to a specific calculation question.

Follow the cost after the trip

Record a supplier invoice above the budget, a partial payment and an unexpected transfer. Check whether the original plan remains visible and whether unpaid supplier balances are distinguishable from cost incurred.

Ask the vendor to explain any rebasing of the budget to actual traveller count. Export or record the resulting figures and reconcile them with your own calculation.

Score the evidence

Area	Evidence to collect
Cost structure	Separate supplier items, units and quantities
Pricing	Correct group thresholds and traveller fares
Margin	Clear revenue and cost basis
Actuals	Budget preserved, variance explained
Payments	Partial payments and outstanding amounts
Team workflow	Ownership, access and usable exports

Mark each requirement as demonstrated, requires a manual process, or unsupported. Estimate the time a manual process would take across your season before choosing a tool.

Apply the same standard to Tourify

Tourify's fixed departure workflow includes item-level costs, group-size tiers, age-banded selling rates, margin comparisons and planned-versus-actual cost records. Ask us to demonstrate them using your own batch and check any city-allocation or traveller-mix assumptions explicitly.

For a step-by-step product walkthrough, read from cost plan to actuals in Tourify. Choose software on demonstrated fit with your work, not a long list of feature names.