You will need the Full Write App permission to turn on pre check-in. Members do not need a permission to use it.
Pre check-in lets a family choose who is coming before they leave home. The app gives them a scannable pass, and a volunteer or kiosk scans it on arrival to complete the check-in. It takes the queue out of the check-in area on a busy Sunday.
There are two halves to it: a setting your church turns on, and the flow a member follows on their phone.
Turning pre check-in on
Turn on the feature
Go to Mobile App in the left navigation menu of One Church Software and stay on the General tab.
Find the Pre Check-In panel on the right side of the page.
Turn on Enabled? The Barcode Format choice appears underneath once the toggle is on.
Click Save Now in the banner that appears at the top of the page reading You have unsaved changes!
Warning: This is not the same toggle as the one at the top of the page. The Enabled? toggle in the Setup panel is the master switch for the whole mobile app, and the one in the Pre Check-In panel turns on this feature only. Both need to be on for members to use pre check-in.
Choose the code format
Under Barcode Format, choose the kind of code the app produces:
QR Code - recommended. QR codes are much easier to scan from a phone screen, and screen glare does not affect them. They need a 2D barcode scanner.
Striped Barcode - harder to scan from a screen, and glare can make it unreadable.
Tip: When your scanners cannot read the passes members bring in, this setting is the fix rather than the member's phone. Switch to QR Code and try again before troubleshooting anything on the member's side.
How members use pre check-in
Get a check-in pass
Pre check-in needs the member to be signed in, because the app has to know whose family to offer. A signed-out visitor sees Log in to check in your family and get a scannable pass. instead of the flow.
Open the app and sign in.
Tap the 3-bars menu in the top left, then tap Pre Check-In. Your church may also have placed a button on a screen that goes straight there.
On Choose who's checking in, tap the family members who are coming. Adults and children are listed together. Tap Check everyone to select the whole family at once.
Tap Check In. The app produces the pass.
At church, show the pass to a volunteer or hold it up to a kiosk to be scanned. Once it is scanned, check-in is complete.
What the pass shows
The pass screen reads You're all set! Scan this at a check-in station when you arrive. and lists exactly who it covers, so a member can check they selected the right people before they leave.
Two details on that screen come up often:
Brighten screen - a button under the code that pushes the screen brightness up so a scanner can read it. Worth pointing out to anyone scanning in bright light or holding up a dim phone.
The line under the names, reading Expires in a countdown, then Single use. Passes are time-limited and one-shot. Once a pass has been scanned, that code is spent.
If a pass does not work
The member sees "That pass expired." - the pass is past its window. Tapping Start Over generates a fresh one, which takes a few seconds.
The pass will not scan - check the Barcode Format setting first, and have the member tap Brighten screen. A striped barcode on a dim screen is the usual cause.
The code was already scanned - passes are single use. The member needs a new one from the app.
If nobody is listed to check in
A member seeing No family members with the message that there is no one to check in on their account has no family members attached to their profile in One Church Software. That is a data question on your side rather than a problem with their app, and it is fixed by linking their family in their profile.