The check-in station

Check children in at the door: find the family, tick the children, check their rooms, and print their tags and the parent's stub.

The station is the screen at the door: a laptop or iPad on a table, signed in as the volunteer. You find the family, tick the children, and print a name tag for each child and one stub for the parent. The check-in team, admins and the Check-in role can open it.

Open the station

Open Check-in, then press Open the station. The station fills the screen, with no menu. Press Exit station in the bar at the top to go back to Today.

The bar shows Check-in and your church's name, the time that's open, how many children are in the rooms now, like 12 here, and the printer. Children who have been picked up aren't counted.

The time is a green pill, like "Sunday 9:00 am · open". Each time is offered from 30 minutes before it starts until it ends. If two or more times are open at once, the pill becomes a switch with each time on it. The station starts on the one that opened most recently, and you can pick another. A time you pick stays picked until it ends.

When no time is open, the bar says when the next one opens, like "Sunday 9:00 am · opens at 8:30 am". If your church has no times yet, it says "No check-in times yet." The check-in team also sees "Ask the office." The office sees Add them in Settings.

With two campuses, a station runs at one. The first time, it asks Which campus is this station at?, then offers only that campus's times and rooms. The bar shows the campus by your church's name, with Change campus.

Admins and the Check-in role also see Make this a self-serve station in the bar. On a device that's still a self-serve station, the bar hides it. See Self check-in.

Before the first family, press Print a test label in the bar. Once a test label has been sent to print from this laptop or iPad, the bar says Printer ready instead. That doesn't mean the printer is on now. See Label printers.

The search is on the left and the family opens on the right. On a narrow screen the right side moves below the search.

While the station waits

While you wait for the next family, the right side says "Find a family to check in, or add a new one." It doesn't list the families who just checked in, so nobody walking up to the station can open one. Pickup codes never show on the station.

Check a family in

Under Find a family, type a last name or the last four digits of a phone.
Press Enter to open the first family, or pick one from the list.
Tick the children to check in. They start ticked. Each child shows their grade, or their age if they have no grade.
Check each child's room. Press Change to pick another.
Press Check in 2 and print. The number is how many children are ticked.

A tag prints for each child, then one stub for the family. The search clears, ready for the next family.

The right side then shows a green card, like "Mateo and Lucia are checked in". It lists their rooms and what printed, like "2 tags and 1 stub printed". It also says who to give the stub to: "Hand the stub to Ruth. Its code is the only way to collect them." The code is printed on the tags and the stub, and it never shows on the screen. After 25 seconds the card goes, and the right side goes back to "Find a family to check in, or add a new one."

Check in at most 12 children at once.

Rooms

Rooms are suggested by grade first, then by age, in the order of your rooms in Settings. See Set up Check-in.

A child with no birthday shows Age not set and has no room suggested, so pick one. Their birthday can be added to their record in People later.

A full room shows its count on the child's card, like "Toddlers: 12 of 12". It doesn't stop the check-in. You decide whether there's space.

Allergies

A child's allergy shows in a black block on their card, like "Allergy: peanuts". It prints on their tag too.

Staying for a later time

If the children are staying for the next time as well, tick Staying for 11:00 am too before you check in. The box names your next time. They're checked in to both with the same tags and code, and one set of labels prints.

A door pass or family card

A parent may bring a door pass on their phone, or a printed family card. See Self check-in.

Press Scan beside the search, then hold the QR up to the camera.
Or type the code into the search box: six characters for a pass, like K7M-4QX, or twelve for a card. Dashes and spaces don't matter. Press Enter.
A USB barcode scanner works too. It types the code into the search box and presses Enter for you.

A door pass opens the family with the children on the pass ticked, in their suggested rooms. A family card opens it with nobody ticked. Check the ticks, allergies and rooms as usual, then check them in. Using a pass here marks it used, so it can't be used again.

A card's code leaves the search box as soon as the family opens, and the station never shows a card's code back, even one that matched nothing.

Six letters can be a pass code or a last name, like Fuller. When no pass matches, the station searches for the name too.

A pass for another time

If the pass is for a different time from the one in the bar, the family says "This pass is for 11:00 am". While that time is open, Switch to 11:00 am beside it moves the station to it. If you check them in to the time in the bar instead, the pass isn't used, and stays good for its own time.

If a pass or card doesn't work

"This pass has been used." or "This pass has been cancelled." The parent can get a new pass on Your week, or you can find the family by name.
"This card has been cancelled." The office cancelled it. Find the family by name, and ask the office for a new card.
"No pass or card matches K7M-4QX. Try the family’s name." A scanned code matched nothing.
"No family or pass matches ‘K7M4QX’. Try a phone number, or add a new family". A typed code matched no pass and no family's name.
"No family, pass or card matches that code. Try the family’s name." A typed card code matched nothing. The station never shows a card's code back.
"Too many tries. Wait a minute, then try again." Too many codes matched nothing in a minute.

Undo and reprint

For 25 seconds after a check-in, Undo and Reprint sit on the green card. If you open another family in that time, they move beside the search. Undo takes back the check-in you made, and opens the family again. Reprint prints the same labels again.

After that, an admin or the Check-in role can remove a check-in from the room's roster. See Rosters and pickup.

A child already checked in

A child already checked in to this time can't be ticked again. They show their room, like "Checked in, Preschool", with a Reprint tag that prints their tag again. It never prints a new stub.

A child who has been picked up shows "Picked up" and the time instead, like "Picked up, 10:14 am", with no reprint of their tag or the family's stub.

A lost stub

If a parent has lost the stub, someone from the office reprints it at the station. Admins and the Check-in role see Reprint stub under the children of a family who's checked in. It prints the family's stub again, with the same code, and no tag.

A stub prints for the check-in team only in the 10 minutes after the check-in, for its first print or a Reprint after the labels didn't print. After that, only admins and the Check-in role can print one.

If the labels don't print

The check-in is saved before anything prints. If the labels couldn't be sent to print, the green card says "The labels didn't print. Reprint them before they go." After the card goes, the station says Saved. The labels didn't print under the search, with the children's names and a Reprint. It stays until they're sent.

The station can't tell when the printer is off, out of tape or off the Wi-Fi, or when someone presses Cancel on an iPad's print sheet. If nothing comes out of the printer, press Reprint on the green card, for 25 seconds after the check-in. After that, find the family again and press Reprint tag beside each child. For the stub, ask someone from the office to press Reprint stub.

If the device loses its connection, a bar says "Not connected. Check-ins will fail until it's back." and the check-in button is off. If the connection drops as you press it, the button says Not connected. Try again. Nothing is half saved. Press it again once you're back online.

If a family isn't found

The station finds a family when its children are marked Child in People and are in a household. If no family matches, it says "No family matches ‘Okaf’. Try a phone number, or add a new family".

Try the other way: the last four digits of a phone, or the last name.
Press New family for a family who's new to your church. See New families at check-in.
For a child in People who isn't in a household, put them in their family's. See Households.

Still stuck? Ask Silas