How to set up child check-in

This is the end-to-end setup for a typical Sunday: several age groups, each in its own room, with labels and pickup codes. It looks like a lot of steps, but almost all of it is one-time configuration; the weekly routine afterwards is just launch, tap, done.

Setting it up

1. Start with the database: get your data ready for check-in. Children in the right age-range groups, leaders tagged, families linked, guardian mobile numbers, the MADI field. Nothing below works well without this.
2. Go to Site Settings > Events > Check-in Global Settings. In the site-wide section, set your label logo, point the MADI setting at your custom field, and choose a group to store one-off guests so casual visitors don’t clutter your children’s groups. Set a leader password you can share with your team, a short passcode is the point, it lets leaders access secure functions with four digits rather than a login, and set open and close times with room to breathe: two hours either side of the event works well, so kiosks can be launched while you’re setting up.
3. Create a check-in profile for each age group by copying the default child check-in profile (the built-in defaults can’t be edited, so copy and tweak). For each: name it after the group, enable separate registration and check-in if your children start the service with their parents, allow guests, set the summary email to go to that group’s leader, attach your terms and conditions and consent questions, and choose its labels.
4. On your main Children group’s check-in settings: untick Automatically include event group in check-in (you’ll add each age sub-group separately so each uses its own profile), set the leader term (Kids Team, say) and the kiosk background.
5. On each age sub-group’s check-in settings, set its profile. This is the golden rule from where settings live: a profile set on the group follows the group into every check-in, every week, at every event. If one group opens earlier than the rest, crèche usually does, set its open time here too.
6. Open your Sunday service event, go to its Check-in Groups tab, click Set Check-in Groups, tick the age sub-groups and save. Then click Copy to future events in series, one click, and every future Sunday is configured. You do not have to do this every week.
7. Verify: go to yoursite.org/checkin and you should see the event listed with each sub-group using its own profile and times. Run a test: launch a kiosk, register a leader’s family, check a child in and out, and read what prints.

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Good to know

• Pilot with one group for the first few weeks, crèche is the popular choice, and keep the clipboard register running alongside as a safety net. Once that group’s team and parents are comfortable, roll out to the rest. Going live in four rooms at once multiplies every teething problem by four.
• You can start with no labels at all, just registering and checking in and out, and add labels once you’ve chosen a printer. Every part of check-in is optional.
• Expect a small culture change: parents collecting their children rather than children wandering out is the whole point of pickup codes, and after a few weeks most parents prefer it.
• How the day itself works, launching kiosks, guests, incidents, closing, is covered in running check-in kiosks on the day.