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Attendance and check-in

Attendance in Famlo is taken one meeting at a time, on a roster built for a phone held at a door. It records two different things: whether a child was there, and who handed them over at each end of the day.

This guide is for the people who run an activity on the day. Only an organization's owner, co-leader, and event manager can open a roster or mark anyone. See Members, roles, and messaging for how roles are assigned.

Open the roster​

  1. Open the activity from your organization's console.
  2. Select Take attendance, beside the Roster heading.
  3. You land on Attendance, a list of every meeting for that activity.
  4. Select the meeting you are running.

On the console dashboard, the today widget carries a Take roll button that goes to the same list, so you do not have to find the activity first.

The meeting list​

Each row shows the meeting's label — its own name, or its date — and how many attendees are expected. On the right sits either a count of how many have been recorded out of how many are expected, or a green Done badge once every expected attendee has a record.

A recurring series lists its whole term here, one row per meeting. A one-off activity lists a single row.

If the list is empty you will see "No meetings scheduled yet. Set a date on the activity to take attendance." Setting the date on the activity is what creates the meeting.

Who appears on a roster​

A meeting's roster is the active bookings for that meeting, read fresh every time you open it. Nothing is reserved in advance and nothing is copied forward.

That matters for series. Each meeting carries its own registrations, so a family who is booked into one date appears on that date's roster and not on the others. If a registration is cancelled, that child drops off the roster; if a registration is added an hour before you start, they are there when you open it.

An empty roster reads "No one is registered for this meeting yet."

Mark who is there​

Every child on the roster has the same four buttons, in this order:

  • Present
  • Late
  • Excused
  • Absent

Select one. The button you chose stays highlighted, and the count in the header updates to "N / M present". Present and Late both count toward that number; Excused and Absent do not.

Only one status applies at a time. To correct a mistake, select the right one — it replaces what was there. There is no undo control, and no "no show" status.

The header also carries a note that allergies, special needs, and medical notes are shown for the attendees registered here. Those appear as badges under each name, so you can see them without leaving the roster.

Drop-off and pick-up​

Custody is recorded separately from attendance, and separately at each end. This is the part of the roster that answers "who has this child now".

Under each child's status buttons sit two panels:

  1. Drop off — select it when the child arrives. The panel is replaced by "Dropped off" and the time.
  2. Pick up — select it when the child leaves. The panel is replaced by "Picked up" and the time.

Each of the two records the time it happened and the person who recorded it. They are stored as two separate events, not as one presence flag, so a morning hand-over and an afternoon collection are both answerable afterwards.

Pick up stays unavailable until a drop-off has been recorded. Recording a drop-off for a child you had marked Absent lifts them to Present, because they are plainly here; an explicit Late or Excused is left as you set it.

Once a time is recorded it stays. The roster shows it as text rather than a button, so there is nothing to clear or re-tap by accident.

Let parents sign their own children in​

Every meeting has a printable sign-in code. Parents scan it and sign their own children in and out, which keeps the queue at the door moving while custody is still recorded properly.

  1. On the roster, select Show sign-in QR.
  2. The Scan to sign in page shows the code for that meeting, with the activity title and the meeting label under it.
  3. Select Print this code to put it on paper, or leave it on screen at the door.

The instruction printed under the code reads: "Parents: scan with your phone camera, sign in to Famlo if asked, then tap to drop off or pick up your children."

What a parent gets is a page listing only their own children who hold an active booking for that meeting. Each row shows "Not signed in yet", "Dropped off" with a time, or "Picked up" with a time, and a single button — Drop off or Pick up — under it. Once both are recorded the row reads "All done for today".

A parent can only ever sign in a child in their own family who is booked into that meeting. Present, Late, Excused, and Absent stay with your staff; a parent cannot set them. A parent's drop-off records their child as present, and your roster updates to match.

The code is tied to one meeting. Use that meeting's code rather than reprinting an old one.

Reminders​

On the day of a meeting, everyone who organizes the activity gets an in-app reminder while the roster is still incomplete. It stops once every expected attendee has a record, so finishing the roster is what ends the nudging.

There is no attendance export​

warning

Famlo has no attendance export. There is no CSV, no PDF, no printable roster report, and no attendance report of any kind — for a single activity or for a series. Attendance is readable on the roster inside Famlo and nowhere else.

If you or your families need attendance records for a state filing, keep your own record alongside. Do not plan a reporting requirement around an export that does not exist.

The roster also has no search box, no status filter, and no progress bar. It is a plain list of the children booked into one meeting.

Troubleshooting​

I cannot find Take attendance. The control sits on the activity page beside the Roster heading, and only owners, co-leaders, and event managers see it. A member manager or billing manager cannot take attendance.

A child I expected is not on the roster. The roster is that meeting's active bookings. Check the family completed registration, that payment went through for a paid activity, and that they booked this date rather than another in the series.

The list says no meetings are scheduled. The activity has no date set. Add one on the activity, then reopen Take attendance.

Pick up will not respond. It stays unavailable until a drop-off is recorded for that child. Record the drop-off first.

I marked the wrong child present. Select the correct status on that child's row — it replaces the old one. There is no undo button.

I recorded a drop-off in error. The time cannot be cleared from the roster. Note the correction outside Famlo and carry on.

A parent says the code will not work. They need to be signed in to Famlo, and they need a child with an active booking for that meeting. A parent with nobody registered is sent back to the activity list.

What's next​