Understanding Placeholders

They’re designed for organisations such as venues, suppliers and contractors who contribute data to events but don’t have full operational control or responsibility for the event measurement.

By creating a placeholder, you can collect and organise your operational data in advance. If you’re later invited to contribute to the event by the Event Owner, you can link your placeholder and transfer the relevant data into their event.

Why Use Placeholders?

Placeholders help you to:

• Collect data before an Event Owner invites you to TRACE.
• Record operational data for events where you don’t have measurement responsibility.
• Reuse data you’ve already entered instead of entering it again.
• Share accurate operational data with your clients through TRACE.
• Reduce duplicate data entry and improve data quality.

This makes collaboration between event organisers, venues and suppliers faster and more efficient.

What Data Can I Record?

You can use placeholders to record operational information that may later contribute to an event measurement, including:

• Energy consumption
• Water usage
• Waste
• Staff travel
• Other relevant Business Operations data

Recording this information as it becomes available helps improve the accuracy of event reporting and reduces the need to collect data retrospectively.

How Do Placeholders Work?

1. Create a placeholder for the event.
2. Enter the relevant operational data as it becomes available.
3. Continue updating the placeholder throughout the planning and delivery of the event.
4. If you’re later invited by the Event Owner to contribute as a Supplier, select Link Event.
5. Choose the relevant event and connect your placeholder.
6. Review the data before approving it for transfer into the Event Owner’s event measurement.

Once approved, the data you’ve already recorded will be shared with the event, saving time and avoiding duplicate data entry.

Linked and Unlinked Placeholders

• Unlinked Placeholders

Unlinked placeholders are placeholders you’ve created that have not yet been connected to an event in TRACE.

You can continue entering or updating data until you’re invited to contribute to the event.

• Linked Placeholders

Once you’ve linked a placeholder to an event, the recorded data is transferred into the Event Owner’s event for your review and approval before it becomes part of the event measurement.

This ensures you remain in control of the information you share.

Example

A venue hosts several conferences throughout the year but isn’t responsible for measuring the events.

Instead of waiting for each organiser to request energy and utility data, the venue creates a placeholder for each event and records:

• Electricity consumption
• Gas usage
• Water consumption
• Waste generated

When an organiser later invites the venue to contribute as a Supplier in TRACE, the venue simply links the placeholder to the event. The recorded data is transferred into the organiser’s event measurement for review and approval, saving time, reducing duplicate data entry and improving reporting accuracy.

To learn more about measuring Business Operations:

• Business Operations Hub
• What You Can Measure with TRACE Business Operations
• Data Entry and Management
• Understand Your Business Operations Dashboard & Categories