We're excited to introduce a brand new approach that connects Check-Ins and Registrations, built from the ground up. It's more simple, uses the new design, and has a few new features.
What's New
With this new approach we are no longer syncing two events together. Instead, we’re using stations as a window into the data in Registrations. That means you'll control everything from Registrations, but you can still use your station kiosks to check people in and print labels.
To get started, enable the Check-Ins integration from the settings page in Registrations. You'll then need to set two things: when you want to be able to check people in and what labels you'd like to print.
We'll automatically fill in your event dates and times, but you're welcome to add any more days and times that you'd like. For example, when testing, you'll want to make sure you add today's date to make sure it's available.
Then you can connect your selections and assignments to labels!
That's it! Everything is set up, and you'll be able to see your event on stations based on the days and times you set. No more jumping back and forth to Check-Ins or creating new sessions every day - set it and forget it, and let the magic take care of the rest!.
What’s different
With the legacy integration, you had a Registrations event that was connected to a Check-Ins event, and your Check-Ins stations were interacting with that Check-Ins event. Now, you only have a Registrations event; your Check-Ins stations are talking directly to Registrations.
This makes the integration much simpler to understand, set up, and use for your events! But it also means there are some important differences to understand when you set up and use the new integration. It’s a completely new way of looking at how we connect the two products together.
Setting up the integration
Sessions
For multi-day events in the legacy integration, you had to start a new session every day.
With the new integration, you define all your sessions in advance — and then your event simply appears on the station when you need it. You can now even have multiple sessions in the same day!
Labels
To print different labels for different attendees, you had to organize attendees into assignment areas, which then showed up as locations in Check-Ins, and from there you could select which labels to print for each attendee.
Now, you select which labels to print right in Registrations. If you want to print different labels based on the attendee’s selection — for example, you want security labels for kids but not for volunteers — you can do that in one step. If you’re using assignments to organize your attendees, you can connect those labels too, without needing to switch over into Check-Ins.
We’ve also added some new Registrations label fields, so you can create even better custom labels for your events!
Note: Currently, you cannot reprint a label from a Station with the new integration.
Checking in
Mobile pass and Church Center App
This new integration does not work with mobile passes or show on Church Center App (for pre-check or digital security labels). If that is required for your event, you may want to stick to the legacy integration.
Late additions and on-the-fly changes
With the new integration, you can’t edit assignments or check people in who haven't registered. Registrations is the source of truth, and that’s intentional! Assignment changes need to be made in Registrations before checking someone in — but on a station, a newcomer can scan a QR code and register on the spot, even on a self station.
Multiple locations at the same time
With the legacy integration, if you used assignments, you could have multiple Check-Ins events for the same signup, all running at the same time. With the new integration, you can only have one live event at a time.
“Checked in by” person and Trusted People
With the new integration, you can not set trusted people as the “checked in by” person when checking someone in for a Registrations event, because trusted people are exclusive to Check-Ins events.
However, the "checked in by" field will be set as the emergency contact of the registration. If there is no emergency contact, it'll be set as the registration contact person.
Check-outs
Registrations does not offer a check-out feature for attendance, so check-outs are not available with the new integration. If check-outs are vital to your event, we recommend using Check-Ins on its own and not using the integration — but do let us know that you’d like to see check-outs for Registrations events.
Reporting
In the legacy integration, you were not able to see who checked in for the event. And if anyone who didn’t pre-register was checked in “on the fly” when they arrived, or if someone was checked in to a different location than they were assigned to in Registrations, it was not reflected back in Registrations.
Now, an attendance report is created in Registrations for each of your sessions, so all of your attendee data — both who signed up and who showed up — is in one place. This means you will use filters in Registrations (instead of Check-Ins) to create reports after your event is over.
Please note that attendance records for Registrations events will not be stored in Check-Ins. This means some of the advanced reporting features you may be used to in Check-Ins — like seeing attendance across both Check-Ins and Registrations events, or running reports across multiple sessions — will not be available.
Eventually, we hope this new integration will be the future of Check-Ins and Registrations, but we need you to help us add new features! If any of these are important to you, or if you have anything more, please let us know so we can prioritize them.
We hope you enjoy!
Team Check-Ins & Registrations