Attendance Setup

Attendance may be taken for Events — such as Sunday worship — or for Groups and Classes — such as Sunday School, choirs, or committees.

 

Taking attendance may consist of either:

  • Taking a head count and entering that figure into the system for a given date.
  • Recording in the system the actual names of people who attended on a given date.

In either case, after completing Attendance Entry you will be able to create several different Attendance Reports, including a chart of the attendance, with or without the average attendance, and even reports of non-attenders.


"Events" vs. "Classes"

Before we begin with Attendance Entry, it is important to discuss the difference between "Events" and "Classes." These are two different entities with different purposes:

Events

  • Functions that everyone in your database can attend.
  • You must Add, Edit, or Delete Events to the software to begin tracking attendance for these types of functions.
    • Examples of Events might include:
    Sunday worship, community outreach, fellowship gatherings, etc.

Groups / Classes

  • Consists of your list of Groups / Classes or Committees.
  • In the Membership  Module of Church Windows, people from any Family Categories may be enrolled as members of Groups / Classes.
  • Only people who are already members of a Group or Class will be listed as Enrolled.  
  • Everyone else in The People File will be listed as Not Enrolled. 
  • Those not enrolled may be enrolled in the class at the time you are doing Attendance Entry for a given date.
  • Or, you can mark someone as attending but leave them not enrolled in that Group / Class.
  • Start by Add Groups / Classes and Managing Group Members using Assign Groups & Skills to create your list of groups and add people as members of these groups.
    • Examples of Groups /Classes might include:
    Sunday school, confirmation class, first communion classes, bible study, knitting/quilting circle, etc.


You may also want to customize your Attendance Options. Then see Attendance Entry to begin recording attendance.