When you open the groups screen, the first list you see is your group categories. Whenever you create a new group category, you must specify a method of tracking attendance for all the groups or classes assigned to that group category. There are three options for tracking attendance:

• Detailed: Keep track of who was present in each group for each event
• Count: Keep track of how many in each group were present at each event
• None: No attendance tracking for the groups in this group category

For example, if you want to keep track of who was present each week in your Sunday school classes, you would create a group category named “Sunday School” and set the Attendance tracking method to “Detailed”. If you want to keep track of how many people attend worship services each week, but not who is present, then you could create a group category named “Worship Services” and select “Count” method for attendance tracking. For committees, teams, or ministries that do not have regular meetings or do not require attendance tracking, set the attendance tracking method to “None”.

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. It is also not recommended that you switch a group category’s tracking method back and forth between detailed and count, but that you consistently use the same method for that group category.

HINT: When using the Count method for tracking attendance, it is not necessary to assign people to the groups you have created for that group category (but you certainly can do so if you wish). If you want to track the total number of people in your worship service (using the count method), create one group for each “group” of the worship service you want to keep track of (adults, children, preschool, etc). You must include at least one group in every group category for the attendance features to work. Additionally, when using the detailed method for tracking attendance, each group or class must have at least one individual assigned to it for the attendance features to work.

Groups and Classes
When you select an item in the list of group categories, the groups or classes assigned to that group category will appear in the bottom window. This window allows you to create and edit group names, assign groups to departments or sub-categories, and print labels for one or more groups.

Departments and Subcategories
You have the ability to organize groups and classes into departments or subcategories. In the example above, the Preschool Class is in the “Preschool Department”. To create or edit departments for the current group category, double-click on the blue text inside one of the selection boxes under the "Department/Subcategory" label, or type the name of a new department (as seen above), and ChurchTrac will create it for you automatically. Deleting a Group or Class You should take special precaution when deleting a Group. If you delete a group, then all the attendance records associated with that group will be unrecoverable. It is advised that you change a group’s status to inactive instead of deleting it. Inactive groups are hidden from view until you click the “Show Inactive Groups and Classes” button.

Adding a New Group or Class
To add a new group, click the “Add a New Group” button on the bottom left of the groups screen. You can also type the name of a new group directly into the group name field marked with the star (*). When you click on a group name in the list, the individuals assigned to that group will be displayed in the window on the right side of the screen.

Hint: You can change the order that entries appear on both the list of groups and list of departments. Select a group name, then click the up and down arrows at the bottom of the window to move the entry up or down in the list. Double-click on a department to edit the order that the departments will appear in. Groups and departments will appear in the same order on attendance reports and group-related printouts as they do here.

Adding People to a Group
The right side of the groups screen lists the individuals who have been assigned to the selected group. You can specify each person's role and status in the group. To add a person to a group, select the person's name from the selection box, as shown below. A person's name must be entered into the database from the people screen before you can assign that name to a group.

Hint: New names can be added to a group by selecting a name from the list next to the field with a star (*) at the bottom of the list. To speed up the selection process, try typing the first few letters of the person’s last name, and then confirm your selection by pressing enter or selecting the name from the list.

You can double-click on a person's name in this list to instantly view that individual's information on the People Screen.

You can also automatically promote group members to a new group when they reach a certain age. For example, if Sherrie is in the Four Year Olds class, you can click the "group promotion" button on the toolbar to automatically promote her to the Five Year Olds class. Important: It's a good idea to set up all your groups and classes, as well as their members, before creating attendance records. ChurchTrac uses existing groups, classes and members when creating attendance entries, so no entries will be created if you haven't entered the classes and participants! Always set up groups and group members before creating attendance records!