Corporate Magician: Contracts, Insurance, and Getting a Supplier Through Procurement
Corporate Magician: Contracts, Insurance, and Getting a Supplier Through Procurement
The hard part of a corporate entertainment booking is rarely choosing the performer. It's getting them onto your approved supplier list, obtaining a certificate of insurance with the wording your venue requires, raising a purchase order, and discovering three weeks out that finance needs a form nobody mentioned.
None of that appears on performers' websites. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist who works with corporate clients, and I want to set out the paperwork side of booking a corporate magician, and how to get it out of the way early.
Ask What Your Own Process Requires
Start here, since the delay is usually internal rather than with the supplier. Organizations vary enormously: some accept an invoice and a contract, others require vendor onboarding, security review, and a form set that takes weeks.
Find out what applies to a small supplier before you enquire, since it determines your lead time more than availability does. If your organization has a simplified process for low value or one off suppliers, that's worth knowing too, since it frequently exists and event managers frequently don't know about it.
Certificates of Insurance and Venue Wording
The single most common source of last minute scrambling. Most venues require a certificate of insurance from outside suppliers, and many require specific wording, such as naming the venue as an additional insured.
Ask your venue what they require in writing, pass it to your performer at booking rather than a fortnight out, and expect a certificate to arrive without chasing. Any professional carries public liability insurance and is used to producing this, and the delay is usually in obtaining the venue's exact requirement rather than in the performer supplying it. Get the wording first.
Purchase Orders Need Raising Early
Practically important and frequently overlooked. Many organizations can't pay an invoice without a purchase order raised in advance, and some won't allow a supplier to be engaged at all until one exists.
That matters to a corporate magician because a performer who arrives and invoices against no purchase order may wait months for payment through no fault of anybody. Raise it when you confirm the booking, tell the performer the number, and ask them to reference it on the invoice. It takes five minutes and prevents the most common payment problem in corporate bookings.
Payment Terms Mean Something Different to a Small Supplier
Worth understanding rather than treated as administration. Thirty or sixty day terms are unremarkable to a finance department and meaningful to a self employed performer who has already done the work.
That doesn't make your terms unreasonable, and it's worth being straight about them at the outset so nobody is surprised. Many performers ask for a deposit precisely because it de risks a long payment cycle, and a client who explains their terms at booking rather than at invoicing is doing something genuinely appreciated. If you can get an entertainment invoice paid faster, it's noticed.
Tax and Onboarding Documentation
The routine set worth requesting upfront. Depending on your jurisdiction and organization, that may include tax forms, bank details on headed documentation, a signed supplier agreement, proof of insurance, and sometimes a security or compliance questionnaire.
Ask for all of it at booking in one message rather than discovering each requirement separately. A performer who works with corporate clients regularly will send the standard set unprompted, and one who doesn't is worth chasing early rather than in the final week. The requirements rarely change, so a single request covers it.
What a Written Agreement Should Contain
Worth knowing what good looks like. A proper agreement sets out the date, the venue, the arrival and performance times, the duration, the fee, what's included, the deposit and balance terms, and what happens if either party cancels.
That's it, and it should be a page or two rather than a document requiring legal review. If you receive something vaguer, ask for the specifics in writing, since ambiguity about timings and inclusions is what produces disagreements on the day. If your organization requires its own contract instead, say so early, since a performer may need to read it rather than sign it immediately.
Regulated Organizations Need Longer
Worth stating plainly, since the lead time surprises people. In finance, healthcare, government, defense, and some legal environments, engaging any external supplier involves review processes that take weeks regardless of how small the engagement is.
None of it is difficult and all of it is slow. Start earlier than you'd need to elsewhere, ask what's required at the outset, and get your performer to supply everything upfront so the process runs in parallel with your planning rather than after it. The obstacle is almost never the approval, it's discovering the process exists three weeks before the event.
Ask for Everything at Booking
The practical recommendation that covers most of this. When you confirm, ask in one message for the contract, the certificate of insurance with your venue's wording, tax documentation, and anything your onboarding process requires.
A corporate magician who works corporately will have it back within a day or two. That single request removes almost every source of late scrambling, and it also tells you something useful about the supplier: professionals produce this immediately, and anyone who takes a fortnight to find an insurance certificate is telling you how the rest of it will go.
Who Needs to Know What
A small organizational point that prevents the usual confusion. Your venue needs the certificate of insurance, your finance team needs the tax documentation and invoice details, your procurement team needs whatever onboarding requires, and your performer needs the purchase order number and the venue contact.
Send each thing to the right place when you receive it rather than holding everything until the end. That's a ten minute habit and it's the difference between a booking that's quietly finished in week one and one that's still being chased in the final fortnight.
Why Book Magical Katrina
If you're booking through a corporate process, here's my case. I'm a member of the Magic Circle in London and the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, I've earned multiple magic awards, and I've performed for companies including Formula 1, the Olympics, Porsche, Prada, Zapier, and the Ritz Carlton, with appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Masters of Illusion. I send a written agreement, a certificate of insurance with your venue's wording, and tax documentation without being chased, I reference your purchase order on the invoice, and I'm familiar with corporate onboarding processes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes most of the delay?
Your own process rather than the supplier, since organizations vary from accepting an invoice and a contract to requiring vendor onboarding, security review, and a form set taking weeks. Find out what applies to a small supplier before you enquire, and ask whether a simplified process exists for low value or one off suppliers, since it frequently does.
What should we do about insurance certificates?
Ask your venue what they require in writing, including any specific wording such as naming them as additional insured, and pass it to your performer at booking rather than a fortnight out. The delay is usually in obtaining the venue's exact requirement rather than in the performer supplying it, so get the wording first.
Why does the purchase order matter so much?
Because many organizations can't pay an invoice without one raised in advance, and some won't allow a supplier to be engaged until it exists. A performer who invoices against no purchase order may wait months for payment through nobody's fault. Raise it at confirmation, give the performer the number, and ask them to reference it.
Are thirty day terms a problem?
Not unreasonable, and worth being straight about at the outset so nobody is surprised, since terms that are unremarkable to a finance department are meaningful to a self employed performer who has already done the work. Many ask for a deposit precisely to de risk a long cycle, and faster payment on an entertainment invoice is noticed.
What documentation should we request?
Everything in one message at booking: the contract, a certificate of insurance with your venue's wording, tax documentation, and whatever your onboarding requires. A corporate magician who works corporately will return it within a day or two, and anyone taking a fortnight to find an insurance certificate is telling you how the rest will go.
What should a written agreement contain?
The date, venue, arrival and performance times, duration, fee, what's included, deposit and balance terms, and cancellation provisions for both parties. That's a page or two rather than something requiring legal review. If your organization requires its own contract, say so early since a performer may need to read it rather than sign immediately.
We're in a regulated organization. How much longer?
Weeks rather than days, since engaging any external supplier involves review processes regardless of how small the engagement is. None of it is difficult and all of it is slow, so start early, ask what's required at the outset, and get everything supplied upfront so the process runs in parallel with your planning rather than after it.
How do I book you, and what will you send?
Reach out with your date, venue, event type, and guest count, and tell me what your procurement process requires. I'll send a written agreement, a COI with your venue's wording, and tax documentation without being chased, reference your purchase order on the invoice, and work to whatever onboarding your organization needs.
Do the Paperwork in Week One
Booking a corporate magician is straightforward and the administration around it is where bookings stall, almost always because a requirement surfaced late rather than because anything was difficult. Ask what your own process needs before you enquire, get the venue's insurance wording in writing first, raise the purchase order at confirmation, and request the whole document set in one message at booking.
Do that and the paperwork is finished in the first week, which leaves the rest of your planning for the parts that actually need attention.
Reach out with your event details and what your procurement process requires, and I'll send everything upfront.