A check-in station is the screen your guests use when they arrive. They find their family, tap the people who are here, and can print name labels. This article walks through that, in the order it actually happens, and then explains each part of the screen.
Before anyone can check in, a station has to be set up and the event has to be set to track attendance. See How do I set up a check-in station? and How do I set up an event to track attendance?.
Tip: Anything a guest needs to do is open to everyone. Anything a volunteer or staff member does asks for the station PIN first: switching the event, opening settings, opening the rooms report, and the staff actions on a family's screen. See What are station pins?
Checking a family in, step by step
Step 1. Search for your family.
Type into the large search box across the top of the screen. It reads Search by name, email, phone, or barcode… and you can use any of those: a first name, a last name, an email address, or a phone number.
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Names appear as you type. There is no search button to press and nothing to submit.
Each result is one person: their photo (or their initials if they have no photo) and their name. If their birthday is on file, you will also see a small cake with their birthday and age, which helps when two children share a name.
If nothing matches, you will see We couldn't find '…' along with Check the spelling, or try your full name or phone number.
If your church allows it, New here? Add your family appears under that message so a first-time guest can add themselves on the spot.
Some stations show a keyboard on the screen next to the results. On a phone, or in a narrow window, your device's own keyboard comes up instead. If you are a volunteer working on a laptop, you can move through the results with the arrow keys and press Enter.
Tip: Not every station searches the same way. Some ask for a full phone number on a number pad, and some show a list of names to tap instead of a search box. If searching is not behaving the way you expect, see The three kinds of home screen below. You can also skip searching altogether by scanning a label. See Scanning a label or a barcode.
Step 2. Select your family.
Tapping any one person opens that whole household.
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It does not matter which family member you tap — a parent, a child, anyone — you will see everybody in the family on the next screen, and you can check in as many of them as you like from that one place. You do not go back and search again for each child.
Step 3. Tap everyone who is here.
Tap a person's row to include them; tap it again to change your mind. Selected people turn solid and bright, with a green check on their photo. Everyone you have not tapped stays faded and reads Tap to check in.
Additional detail
Additional detail
To include the whole household at once, use Check in all at the top.
On the right you will see a running count, such as 2 checked in · 1 checking in, so you can confirm you have the right people before finishing. Tapping part of that count briefly highlights the rows it is counting.
Some people may be faded with no way to tap them. That is normal, because the event's settings decide who is eligible. See What each person's row is telling you below for what every look means.
Step 3. Pick the service time.
If the event has more than one time, the times appear as buttons near the top of the family's screen. Tap the one this family is attending.
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The time you pick applies to the whole family, which is the usual case, since everyone came together.
A time only lights up when everybody selected shares it. That way one person's extra time never makes it look like the whole family is staying.
If one person needs a different time from the rest, you can set it just for them in the next step.
If the event only has one time, no buttons appear. There is nothing to pick.
Step 4. Make any individual selections
Tap the pencil on someone's row to open their choices right inside the row. Most commonly groups will need to be selected.
Group - Groups are the classes, rooms, or teams a person is checking into, such as a nursery class, a small group, or a serving team.
If your church requires a group, the row is marked Required and reads Choose a group to check in. until you pick one. There is no way to skip it.
Time — just for [their name] - use this when one person's time differs from the rest of the family. It only shows up when the event has more than one time.
Name label - set to Print or Don't print for this person. See the next step.
Tip: A person can only be checked into one group at a time. To move someone to a different group, check them out first, then check them back in.
Step 5. Say who is dropping them off.
If your church tracks this, a Checked in by chooser appears near the bottom asking Who is checking them in? Pick the adult who brought the family.
The station pre-selects whoever checked this family in last time. On a family's first check-in, it picks the family manager.
The person you pick is printed on the children's name labels as the contact, with their phone number, so a volunteer knows who to call.
You can only choose from the family's authorized people. See Who is allowed to check someone in or out below to change that list.
Step 6. Check how many labels will print.
This is worth a glance before you finish, because the button tells you the count. When labels are going to print, the button reads Finish & Print · 3 labels, meaning three labels for this family. Labels are the sticky name badges the station prints. When nothing will print, it just reads Finish
One name label per person. Every person you selected prints one, unless you turned it off for them. To skip someone's label, open their pencil and set Name label to Don't print. Their row then shows No label, and the count on the button drops by one.
Security labels are counted separately. When your church uses them, a minus and plus stepper appears at the bottom. These are the matching claim tickets a parent keeps so they can collect their child. Add one for each adult who might be doing the pickup, such as a second one for a grandparent.
The stepper only appears when a security label actually applies to somebody being checked in and at least one name label is going to print.
Step 7. Tap Finish (& Print).
The check-in is sent, the station clears itself immediately, and the labels print in the background. The next family can start typing right away, so nobody waits on the printer.
Tip: You do not have to check someone out to fix a mistake. Search for them again (or scan their label), open their pencil, change the group, time, or label, and tap Finish. To reprint a label, use Reprint labels in the … menu on the family's screen.
Checking someone out
There are two ways to check a guest out.
Find the family the same way you found them at check-in and tap the person's row. It reads Checked in · Room 4 — tap to check out, and tapping it marks them Checking out. Tap Finish to complete it.
Open the rooms report from the bottom of the screen and tap the person there. Their family's screen opens with Go back where Start over normally sits, so you can return to the report and carry on.
To check out a whole family at once, use Check out all at the top of their screen.
Adding or updating a family at the station
Two things open the same family editor:
1. The pencil beside the family's name on their screen.
2. The New here? Add your family action that appears when a search finds nobody.
It slides in over the screen and has two levels.
The household
Every member appears as a row with their photo or initials, their name, a Manager badge where it applies, and a one-line summary. At the bottom, ＋ Add a person searches for an existing person first and only offers to create somebody new if nothing matches. That order is what keeps duplicate profiles out of your database.
One person
First and last name (both required), email, phone, family position, gender, and relationship. Show more details opens birthday, address, and medical notes such as allergies. Each person is saved on their own, with their own Cancel and Save. Remove from household asks you to confirm before it does anything.
When you are adding a brand-new family, the editor stays open so you can enter the whole household in one go. Closing it drops you on that family's screen, ready to check them in.
A tour of the station screens
The rest of this article explains each part of the station in more detail. This is useful when you are setting one up, training volunteers, or working out why a station is behaving differently from the one next to it.
Choosing the event and service
A station that has just been set up opens on the Event Selection screen, because it does not yet know what it is checking people into. Once you choose, the event sticks and your guests never see this screen again.
To change the event later, tap the event name at the top or the service time at the bottom. Both ask for the station PIN. There is no pencil on either one; the name itself is the button.
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Events are listed with the open ones first and the closed ones after, each group in alphabetical order.
Tapping an event chooses it. If the event has one service time or none, the station goes straight to check-in. Only an event with two or more times opens up to show them, and tapping a time starts check-in.
If the station can only see one event, it opens that one automatically.
An event that is not open yet is grayed out and cannot be tapped, with the reason underneath, such as Opens for check-in at 5:30 pm or This event has passed.
The list checks itself about once a minute, so a station sitting on "Opens at 5:30 pm" becomes usable at 5:30 without anyone touching it.
If there is nothing to check into at all, the station says No events are available right now.
Repeating events move to the next day on their own
A repeating event is a separate event for each week, about once a minute it checks the date, and when the date changes it switches to today's event and keeps the same service time. On a station nobody is using, this happens quietly in the background.
The three kinds of home screen
On a check-in station, finding people is the home screen. Which one a station shows is decided by its Search Type setting when the station is set up. Guests never choose, and all three work the same way in the desktop app and the mobile app.
Text Search
The one shown in the walkthrough above: a large search box reading Search by name, email, phone, or barcode… with results appearing as the guest types, and a welcome message inviting them to start when nothing has been typed yet. A Text Search station will match part of a phone number, so a guest can type the last four digits and still find themselves.
Phone Pad
On the left is a number display and a large number pad. On the right Or scan your tag, which changes into the list of matches as soon as the first digit is entered, and changes back when the number is cleared.
A Phone Pad station only matches a complete phone number. It does not search until all ten digits are entered, so a partial number shows nothing at all. If someone tells you searching by phone number is not working, check that station's Search Type first, because a Text Search station does match partial numbers.
Roster Station
A Roster Station will display everyone on the guest list for the event. Youc an tap on a person's name to mark them present or use search box at the top that narrows the list as you type. This is the only home screen that shows who is already checked in: somebody already in shows their group and room underneath their name.
Above the list is a row of letters A–Z with an All button and a First / Last name switch:
Tapping a letter narrows the list to people whose name starts with it. Tapping it again, or tapping All, clears it.
Last is the starting point, and the list is sorted to match whichever you choose. The station remembers which one you picked; it does not remember the letter, so every guest starts on the full list.
Letters with nobody behind them are grayed out. Accents are ignored, so Álvarez sits under A. A name that starts with a number or a symbol only appears under All.
You can use the letters or the typing box, but not both. Typing clears the letter, and tapping a letter empties the box.
A letter with nobody behind it shows No names starting with M and a Show everyone button, so an empty letter is never mistaken for a broken list.
Tapping somebody who is not checked in opens their family's screen with that person already selected, because a tap on the list means "check me in". Tapping somebody who is already checked in opens the screen with nobody selected, since they are most likely leaving.
Scanning a label or a barcode
There are two ways to scan, and both skip the search entirely:
Badge scanner - a USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner that types like a keyboard. The station is listening for it on every screen, all the time; nothing needs to be selected or switched on first. The Badge scanner attached station setting only changes the wording of the on-screen hints. Set the scanner to send a CR suffix.
Device Camera - a full-screen camera view reading Hold your barcode up to the camera. It reads the code by itself and goes straight to the family's screen. After about eight seconds it adds Having trouble? Ask a team member for help. The camera button only appears when the device has a camera and Allow scanning with the camera is switched on, so you will usually see it on a phone or tablet and usually not on a station sitting on a desk.
A barcode can be the number on a person's profile under Info > Check-In, or the short code printed on their name label. Once a person has been checked out, the code on their printed label no longer works.
What sits at the top and bottom of the screen
Every screen on a station shows the theme you chose, the clock, and how the printer is doing.
At the top, in the center, is the event name. Tapping it asks for the station PIN and then lets you switch events. There is no service time underneath it; the service time lives at the bottom.
At the bottom you will find:
On the left - the service time in bold, which is the other way into the event switcher, with the app version underneath. On an event with no service times, there is no time shown at all.
In the center - the station's name over the current printer status, and on printers that report it, how many labels are left on the roll. Tapping either line opens the printer settings. The confirmation note after a check-in appears here.
On the right - today's date over a live clock, then the buttons for the rooms report and the station settings.
If the printer has a problem, a small warning icon appears at the bottom. Tapping it, the printer name, or the station name goes straight to the printer settings. On a phone-sized screen the bottom row collapses and the service time moves into the station panel.
The family's screen in detail
The family's screen is where every decision about a check-in is made, so it is worth knowing what each part of it is saying.
The buttons at the top of a family's screen
The family name, with a pencil that opens the family editor. This only appears when your church allows people to be added or edited at the station.
Check in all, or Check out all when everybody is already in.
Start over, which drops everything and returns to the home screen.
The … menu, which holds the staff-only actions.
Service times, when the event offers more than one.
A running count on the right, such as 2 checked in · 1 checking in, or Tap a name to check in when nothing is selected.
What each person's row is telling you
There are no check boxes and no status squares on a family's screen. How a row looks is what tells you what will happen to that person when you tap Finish.
Faded, reading Tap to check in - they can be checked in, and you have not selected them yet.
Solid and bright with a green check - selected to check in. The row also shows where they are going (their group and time, or their room), No label if their label is switched off, and a note if their time is different from the rest of the family's.
Solid and settled, reading Checked in · Room 4 — tap to check out - they are already checked in.
Amber, reading Checking out - you have selected them to be checked out.
Faded with nothing to tap, reading Not eligible to check in - the event's settings exclude them.
Faded and never tappable - view only. Check in all skips them too.
Faded, reading Tap to add to roster - they are not on a roster yet. Choosing a group in their pencil makes them ready to check in.
A spinner reading Finding room… - the station is working out which room they go in, and will then show the room, or No room found.
If nobody in the family can be checked in at all, the screen says so plainly: No one in this family is on a roster. Unable to check in.
Staff-only actions on a family's screen
The … menu holds three actions for volunteers and staff. All three ask for the station PIN, and each one only appears when it is actually available. If none of them are, the menu disappears rather than offering buttons that do nothing.
Visitor pass - appears when the event allows visitors. Adds a walk-in guest who has no profile yet, using a first name, last name, and an optional phone number. They join the family's screen already selected and ready to check in. An existing pass can be changed or removed from the pencil on that row.
Reprint labels - appears when at least one checked-in person could have a label. It opens a chooser with Select all and Clear, a security-label stepper, and a running summary such as 2 name labels · 1 security label. Reprinting does not change anybody's check-in.
Send message - appears when texting is switched on for both the station and the event, and somebody checked in can be messaged about. Pick the person, pick a template from Events > Check-In > Messages, pick who it goes to, preview it, confirm, and send. Anyone without a mobile number is shown as missing mobile number rather than quietly skipped.
Reprints use the original codes rather than creating new ones, so a reprinted security label still matches the child's label. But a reprint does not ask Who is checking them in? again, so the contact name and phone number are blank on a reprinted label. If the contact has to appear on the label, it needs to be printed as part of a check-in.
Seeing who is checked in right now
The rooms report shows everybody currently checked in, and you can check somebody out straight from it. Open it with the report button at the bottom right of the screen. It asks for the station PIN.
You can narrow the list by group, or by room where rooms are being used. Tapping a person opens their family's screen so you can check them out and come back.
Tip: Switch on Remember PIN on this station when you type the PIN in. The classroom routine of tapping a child in the report, checking them out, and coming back then works without retyping the PIN each time.
Who is allowed to check someone in or out
On a person's profile is a field called Authorized People. These are the people who may drop a child off and collect them, and it is this list the station offers when it asks Who is checking them in?
The family manager and their spouse are added automatically and cannot be removed. Whoever is chosen during check-in is printed on the children's name labels as the main contact, with their name and phone number, on everyone in the family who is not an adult at that moment.
The station pre-selects whoever checked the family in last. On a family's first check-in, it picks the family manager. You can choose any family member, as well as anybody listed as an external relationship on the person's profile. The list belongs to the whole family, not just the profile you are editing.
Checking guests into rooms
This feature is only available on the Core Plus and legacy Premium plans, because it needs resource management switched on.
As well as checking guests into groups, you can check them into rooms.
You choose which rooms are available for check-in, set how many people each one holds, and set the rules that decide who goes where. When it applies those rules, the system tries to keep families together. On the family's screen, a person being placed shows Finding room… and then the room they landed in, or No room found.
To use rooms, the event needs room management switched on as well as resource requests for the rooms you want to use. Once those are requested, the Check-In > Rooms tab is where you set the rules the system follows, and what it should do when two rooms tie: fill them evenly, or fill them in priority order.
Rules can use any combination of gender, language, family position, age range, and group membership, as well as a custom people query. A room's starting capacity comes from the maximum capacity on the room itself, and you can lower it for a particular event.
Troubleshooting, tips, and best practices
A few things that come up often, and some habits that make a check-in morning run more smoothly.
If Finish will not go through
Finish never fails quietly. Each message means something specific:
Retrieving check-in room details. Please wait. - the event places people in rooms and the station is still working out where they go. Wait a moment and tap again.
Group is required. - your church requires a group and somebody being checked in does not have one. Open that person's pencil and pick a group.
At least one time is required. - tap one of the service times at the top.
Session settings are still loading — try again in a moment. - the station is genuinely still loading. Tap again.
No event selected — start over and try again. - the station has lost track of its event. Tap Start over, then choose the event again.
Check-in failed: {reason} - the check-in was refused and the reason is given, such as a room being full. Act on the reason shown.
Check-in failed. Please try again. - the station never got an answer back. Check the internet connection and try again.
Tip: A check-in is accepted straight away and finished off a moment later in the background. That is normal, and it is why the rooms report can lag a beat behind a very fast check-in. Nothing has been lost.
Helpful tips
You do not need to check a person out to change their check-in. Search for them or scan their label, open their pencil, make the change, and tap Finish.
To reprint a label, use Reprint labels in the … menu on the family's screen. You no longer have to check the person out and back in.
A person can only be checked into one group at a time. To move them to another group, check them out first.
If a guest walks away part-way through, the station asks Are you still there? after 30 seconds of nothing happening, and counts down 15 seconds before returning to the home screen. Any tap, key press, or scan dismisses it. This never happens on a phone-sized screen or on the rooms report.
A station that loses its internet connection keeps working and shows a No internet connection banner. It cannot save check-ins or print while it is offline, but it does not forget which station it is, its theme, or its language, and it recovers on its own with a Back online message.
Best practices
For weekend services, create two sessions, one for the children and one for the leaders. It keeps them separate in your reports.
Give each session a different theme. It makes the station's current session obvious at a glance and helps prevent checking somebody into the wrong one.
Where you can, only use a station to check people in while the event is actually running. To change which service times somebody was checked into, bring them up on the station, change the times in their pencil, and tap Finish. There is no need to check them out first.
When you are confirming all the leaders were checked in after the event, filter the check-in logs table by the leaders session. Correct any wrong service times and add anybody who is missing.