Getting started with the Check-In system
Introduction to the Check-In System
The Check-In system is designed to help churches and charities check people into their regular gatherings. Whether you want to register and check children into their groups quickly and securely and then, just as easily, check them out again at the end of the session or check contacts into your regular meetings so you can keep track of attendance over time, the Check-In system is a great tool to use. For contacts and children attending a regular gathering, attendance data is updated for the gathering in the Attendance module, while for children groups, attendance for each session is automatically added to the Children module.
The system is designed for use at in-person gatherings and events. When checking people into a gathering, you can record attendance for all attendees, both contacts and children, while for children groups, the system handles check-in for known regular children, serving team members and visiting families. It's incredibly versatile. You can run a Check-In session on a mobile device running the Check-In app (which has built-in drivers for easy printer connectivity) or in a browser environment.
We've designed the system to be used in a range of configurations. For all age gatherings, Kiosk mode, either staffed or unstaffed, enables an effiecent check-in experience, including a helpful Family search feature. For children groups, you might instead select to use Register mode at a central registration point or "in-room" by your friendly welcome team or group leaders but equally, unstaffed in Kiosk mode, parents and carers can self-check their children into groups.
When used with a compatible Brother label printer, the System can produce printed badges for the gathering or session or in quantities set on a group-by-group basis. The system can produce child name badges, parent pick-up badges, room badges, attendee and team badges or you can disable badge printing if it is not required for a session or gathering. For example, for a creche group, you might set the child badge quantity to two - one for the child and one for their snack box or changing bag.
A secure leader Admin area provides a helpful summary of check-in progress for the active sessions and gatherings, clearly demonstrating in what capacity people have been checked in, be that children, team or parents/carers into children's groups or contacts and children into a main gathering.
Importantly, children's group leaders have access here to all the information they need to manage their groups and the children in their care effectively and the Admin summary can help you manage each group's adult-to-child ratio - the Check-In summary shows adult-to-child progress, with the progress indicator colour alerting you to groups that are nearing capacity or approaching the maximum group ratio.
Your children group leaders also have an at-a-glance access to children's pertinent medical and allergy details, photo/video consent, additional child information and emergency parent/carer contact details - all essential before serving snacks or before the website photographer begins taking pictures.
The leader Admin area is also where in-room check-in is managed and where attendees can be checked out of sessions and gatherings when they finish. For children groups, leaders can match the secure check-in code on a parent/carer pick-up badge to the check-in list and the child's badge to ensure each child is returned to the correct responsible adult.
Importantly, the Check-In System is easy to set up and use. It's one of our most popular features, used by hundreds of churches every week. Leaders, parents, carers and visiting families often comment on what a great system it is. We think you will, too!
Check-In features at a glance
- Securely and quickly register and check children, attendees, visitors and your team into their groups and gatherings and check them out just as easily.
- Produce printed child badges, parent/carer pick-up badges, room badges, adult attendees badges and team badges using inexpensive hardware and stationery.
- Simple configuration for iOS and Android mobile devices or access on a desktop device using any browser.
- For children groups, Check-In supports a "Register first, Check in later" configuration for children, where children remain with parents/carers for the start of a meeting, and a "Register and Check in" configuration, where children go into their groups immediately.
- Choice of Register mode (for child check-in only) and Kiosk mode (for all attendees) for use in staffed and unstaffed configurations at a central Check-In registration point or in-the-room for each group.
- A comprehensive Admin area for children group leaders contains everything they need to manage the children in their care. This area provides easy and secure access to emergency contact details, pertinent medical information, additional needs, photo/video consent and other useful information.
- Give guests and visitors a great first-time check-in experience by collecting just the important information needed to register their children and assign them to groups quickly.
- Check-In session attendance data for children's groups is automatically added to your Children module, which includes a range of powerful attendance reports that give engagement insights into your Children's ministry.
- Check-In gathering attendance data for contacts is automatically added to your Attendance module, which includes a range of powerful attendance reports that give engagement insights into your gathering attendance.
- Printed children's badges display a code that group leaders can cross-match between the parent/carer pick-up badge and the child badge, ensuring that younger children are always returned to the correct responsible adult.
- QR-code support for quick check-in of children by your regular parents/carers with member-facing My ChurchSuite access.
Next steps
If you're new to the Check-In system, you will find it helpful to first work methodically through the following steps using the related article links at the end of this article:
- 1
- Grant user permissions for use of the Check-In system: Check-In user permissions
- 2
- Add a Group Setup for each gathering where attendance will be recorded: Group Setups
- 3
- Create gathering(s) if you have not already done so: Adding and managing gatherings
- 4
- Configure your gathering(s) for Check-In: Configure a gathering
- 5
- Download the Check-In app (see above) and, where badge printing is required, optionally connect to a printer: Connecting a Check-In printer
- 6
- Start your first session and explore the device settings: Running Check-In as a Kiosk or Running Check-in as a Register
- 7
- Check in some children and then explore the leader's Admin area: The Check-In Admin Area
Got a question?
You'll find the answers to most questions in our support articles, available through the Support menu. Select Get help and search by topic, phrase or keyword.
