How do I set up groups and attendance?

A mistake that many new users make is trying to set up attendance features before setting up the nuts and bolts to make attendance work.

The first step is to enter the names of your people on the people screen. You don't have to include all their contact information at first, but you need at least a core group of names before the attendance features will work well.

Next, after your names have been entered, you'll need to set up your groups or classes that you want to keep track of. Most churches want to keep attendance records for Sunday school, Discipleship groups, worship services, or ministry teams. These are all examples of "group categories" in ChurchTrac. A group category is a collection of groups or classes that you want to track together.

Each group category will consist of one or more groups, and each group will likely contain one or more people. The illustration also  demonstrates the relationship between group categories, groups, and group members:

Your group categories, group names, and group members should all be set up using the groups screen before attempting to use the attendance features in ChurchTrac.

When you first open the groups screen in ChurchTrac you are prompted to select or create a group category. Select an existing group category from the list, or double-click inside the selection box to create a new group category or edit your existing group categories:

When you double-click inside the selection box (pictured above), a window appears that lists your group categories (pictured below). You can add a new group category name in the blank space at the bottom of the list. When you create a new group category, you also need to select a method for tracking attendance.

There are three choices for attendance tracking: Detailed (you check each person present or absent), Count (you enter the total number present in each group), or None (attendance tracking is not available). It is very important to choose a method and stick with it, so think carefully about which method of attendance tracking you want to use. You are able to change your attendance tracking method later, but it may create problems with accessing attendance and printing attendance reports after you change the attendance tracking method.

Note: The attendance tracking method you select for a group category applies to every group that you create as part of that group category. In other words, you can't have one Sunday school class that uses the Detailed tracking method, and another that uses the Count attendance tracking method. All groups or classes in a group category share the same attendance tracking method.

When you have entered the name for your new group category and selected an attendance tracking method for it, click the X in the top right corner of the window to close it and return to the groups screen. From the groups screen you can now select your new group category.

When you select a group category from the list on the groups screen, the list of groups that belong to that group category are displayed in the window below the group category name, as pictured below. You can add new groups or classes to your group category, or edit the names that appear in the list.

You should also assign each group or class to a department or subcategory. You can create new departments and subcategories by double-clicking inside one of the blue text boxes under the "Department/Subcategory" heading.

To assign a person to one of the groups you have created, click on the group name. When you do, the people assigned to that group will be listed in a window on the right side of the screen. In the example below, The Sunday School group category is selected at the top, the "Five year Olds" class is the group name selected, and the members of that class are listed on the right.

HINT: When using the Count method for tracking attendance, it is not necessary to assign people to the groups you have created. If you want to track the total number of people in your worship service, create one group here for each part of the worship service you want to track. You must include at least one group for the attendance features to work. In the worship attendance example, you may want to enter preschool or children separately from the total number of adults present. If so, create one "group" in the list for the group you want to track.

You can add new members to a group by entering the name (last name first) at the bottom of the list of members on the right. You can also assign each person to a role within that group or class, such as Member, Teacher, Leader, etc. (you can also create your own custom entries by double-clicking on the blue text). Finally, each person, by default, is assigned an Active status in the group. Any members that are Inactive will not appear on roll sheets or the attendance screen.

TIP: You should enter all your groups and assign people to each group before proceeding to the attendance screen.

Once the groups and group/class members have been set up on the groups screen, you can create attendance events for those groups. The attendance screen allows you to select a group category and date to enter or edit attendance. Begin by selecting the group category from the first selection box at the top of the screen. Then enter a new date to create new records, or select an existing date from the list of dates to edit attendance records. You can also use the calendar button next to the date field to create new attendance events.

When you enter a new date, a new set of attendance records will be created using the groups and group members you set up on the people screen. In the example above, the Detailed attendance tracking method was used for the Sunday School group category, so you are able to check each person present or absent. If the Count method had been used instead, there would be a place to enter the total number of people present in each group.

The right side of the screen has buttons to perform various attendance-related tasks. To add a new person to the current group or class, click the button labeled: "Add a Guest or New Member". You can choose from dated roll sheets, or generic roll sheets that can be used for multiple events.

The Attendance Mailing Labels button allows you to print mailing labels for absentees, create reports, or send email to absentees (using the people screen filter). The "Manage Group Attendance Records" button allows you to remove groups from the selected attendance event, or to add a group.

Attendance reports can be accessed from the Attendance Reports button on the main toolbar.