Adding attendance for a gathering

Before adding attendance data, you'll first need to add your various gatherings and set up the metricsets and metrics of interest that you'll collect data for over time. See our related support article on Adding and managing attendance gatherings.

Adding attendance (people tracking disabled)

Working within the Attendance section of the module, click Add attendance.

On the Add attendance pop-up, select the Gathering and the attendance Date using the date picker. Optionally, add any Notes relevant to the data for the date being added. Note the option to record that a gathering Didn't Meet - dates when a gathering didn't meet are not plotted on attendance graphs. The metric fields for each metricset are shown, ready to populate attendance data. Zero and empty values are permitted. Click Save to add the attendance.

After saving, the attendance View shows all the details just added and the metricsets are totalled. Click Edit if you need to make changes. Returning to the Attendance section, you can add attendance for other gatherings and dates.

When adding attendance and where you have multiple gatherings, an On this date widget shows a summary of all attendance for all gatherings for the date. From here, you can easily navigate between other attendances for the date being viewed.

Adding attendance (people tracking enabled)

A great feature of the module is tracking the attendance of people at your various gatherings. You can enable people tracking on a gathering-by-gathering basis. For example, you might track people at Sunday gatherings but not track them at certain midweek gatherings. Historic people tracking data is preserved if people tracking is subsequently disabled.

Before you can add people tracking data for a gathering, you'll first need to enable it. We've produced a related article on Adding and managing attendance gatherings that explains how to set up your various gatherings and how to enable people tracking for a gathering. You're now ready to begin adding attendance with people tracking.

Working within the Attendance section of the module, click Add attendance.

On the Add attendance pop-up, select the Gathering and the attendance Date using the date picker. Optionally, add any Notes that are relevant to the data for the date being added. Note the option to record that a gathering Didn't Meet - dates when a gathering didn't meet are not plotted on attendance graphs. Note that the metricsets and metrics are initially collapsed. You can either click Show Metricsets to add known attendance data first or click Next to begin recording people tracking data:

Selecting Next, the Add check-ins pop-up opens. You can Search for a particular person - the search filters as you type - or the pop-up can be filtered by People, Tag or [children] Group (if the gathering has an associated group setup). You can also select to Order either by First name or Last name:

It is possible to add a new person to check them in to the attendance record. Click +Add and, dependent upon who you are adding, select either +Add contact or +Add child:

Click the [plus] + symbol to add each person to the attendance record. The latest addition is initially shown with a delete icon but note that you can also click the tick next to a person if you subsequently need to remove them - perhaps if they were selected in error; they are then shown with a plus symbol once more:

By default, the person is added as an Attendee of the selected gathering. You can optionally select instead to record them as an Attendee or Team member of the gathering or of a children group associated with the gathering:

Once you have added all attendees and team members, click the [cross] x icon to close the pop-up:

The attendance View is shown, open on the Check-Ins tab, which shows a list of those recorded as in attendance for the gathering on that date. An Overview of the attendance is included and note the ability to Edit or Delete a person's attendance record:

Clicking a pill in the Overview filters the list of check-ins to just the people in that gathering or group:

The Overview can also be expanded, to show the details of Attendees and Team attendance:

Any smart-linked metrics will have been automatically updated as people were ticked. From this section, you can still search and add tracking for individuals by selecting + Add check-ins. Note also the bulk actions to Download [a] CSV of check-ins or Delete multiple check-ins. Again, any smart-linked metrics will be automatically updated as tracked people are ticked to add or removed. Finally, if not previously added, you can now complete the attendance record by clicking Edit at the top of the page:

On the Edit pop-up, record known metrics values for the gathering. Zero and empty values are permitted.

Note that smart-linked metrics, distinguished by a chain-link icon, are not editable. Smart-linked metrics will automatically populate with a value when people tracking data is added. In the example below, people tracking is enabled for the gathering and both the 'Total Adults' and 'Total Children' metrics have been set as smart-linked, which means the metric data will be populated when the people tracking data is later added. It's not possible to make changes to the value of a smart-linked metric but changes are made automatically when names are ticked when adding the people tracking data for the gathering and date. See the related article Adding and managing attendance gatherings for further information on smart-linking. Click to Next to return to the Details section of the View page.

The attendance View Details tab updates to show the total attendance for the gathering.

Finally, in this section, note the Engagement tab of Address Book contact profiles, which shows recent attendance tracking:

Or using the optional widget on the Details tab:

Managing and visualising attendance data

The module's Reports section includes two powerful reporting options to help you drill down into your attendance data and visualise changes and trends over time:

Additionally, as you add attendance data, the Attendance section gives an immediate visualisation with equally powerful filtering and data-grouping of attendance across each of your various gatherings:

Beneath the chart is your raw attendance data. You are able to Filter the list by Date, Day and Gathering to locate attendance data of interest:

And actions to View, Edit or Delete an attendance:

Bulk actions are available to Download CSV or Delete multiple selected attendances. Deleting attendance data is destructive and permanent and will impact reports, so delete with caution!

Top Tip: Smart tags and people tracking

Did you know there is a people tracking condition available for Address Book smart tags? Choose Attendance when adding your Smart Tag Conditions:

You can even invert the tag to match those who have not attended: