How to Track Participation for Multiple Participants

To track participation for an activity involving multiple participants, start by clicking Participation in the left-hand navigation menu.

Please see this article to learn about recording participation for just one participant.

Click Enter for activity.

Step 1: Selecting the Activity/Session and Date of Participation

This opens the Record Participation for Activity form. This form has drop-down menus for selecting the Activity and Session for which you are recording participation. Any field marked with a red asterisk is required, including any custom fields.

If the activity for which you are recording attendance is not in the drop-down list, users with the proper security role can add it to the Activities section of the system. Click here for an overview of managing activities.

Select the desired Activity and Session.

Next, select the date of attendance using the calendar control icon or type the date in the date field.

Click Next Step.

Some dates on the calendar will be crossed out and are not selectable. Crossed-out dates represent dates not within the date range of the Session's Schedule or that the site is closed, as defined in the Site Calendar section of the system. Dates in previous or subsequent months may be visible but not selectable. Use the arrows at the top of the calendar to move forward or backward between months to select those dates.

Additional Information about Calendar Dates for Scheduled Activities

For scheduled activities, sessions are established for specific dates and times. If you choose to enter participation on a date that is not one of the specific dates the Session was scheduled for, the message below will appear.

You can change your selection to a date the session was scheduled to be offered by clicking Select another session/date. Alternatively, you can add this date to the session schedule and continue adding participants by clicking Schedule and continue.

A warning will appear at the upper right if the site is closed on the selected date. You cannot record participation on this date and must select another to continue.

Step 2: Select Participants

After selecting the correct date of participation and clicking Next Step, the Select Participants screen will appear. A list of people will appear and those in attendance, or absent, can be marked.

There are various items on this screen that can be utilized to more easily record participation.

Summary of Attendance Statuses

For the selected activity session on this date, there are 8 participants enrolled. No participation has been recorded yet as indicated by the zeros for the Checked in, Present, Excused Absence and Unexcused Absence statuses. As participation is recorded, these counts will be updated.

Session Times / Current Time Toggle

Next, consider how you want to record participation. Do you want to simply record the participant's presence, or is it crucial to record the precise start and end times for accurate duration of service tracking, billing, etc.?

When participation is recorded in the system, a Start Time and End Time for each participant are always recorded.

By default, the session's Start Time and End Time are used. These default times can be adjusted to meet your attendance recording requirements, e.g. if a participant arrived late or left early.

Alternatively, the current time can be recorded. Current time means the exact actual time attendance is recorded is saved in the system.

You can determine if you want to use the default sessions times or the current time by using the Session Times/Current Time toggle.

The Session Times option is best for when recording participation from paper sign-in rosters and when exact times are not required.

Current Time is ideal for real-time participation tracking, like marking attendees in and out at events with a mobile device or using a barcode scanner.

If Current Time is selected, after participants are checked or scanned upon arrival at your program, their status will be changed to Checked in and the time of scan or checked box recorded as in the image below. This feature allows program staff to know how many participants are present at the program at any given time. Generating the the Daily Activity Participation report with a filter on today can provide a quick list of those checked in.

Apply Filters (if needed)

There are various ways to change the view of participants listed in order to make recording participation easier.

By default, for scheduled activity sessions, the list of possible participants is filtered to those that are enrolled and active.

For unscheduled activity sessions, all active participants will appear by default in the list. As there is no enrollment for unscheduled sessions, the enrollment filter is not present.

A person is considered active if the participation date is within the registration dates for the person. To see the registration dates for a person, look at the Registration Information tab of their record.

Search bar: use the search bar to locate individual participants by typing in part of the person's name or ID number.

Sort arrows: click the up/down arrows next to the Last Name, First Name or Grade Level headers to sort the list according to that header.

Filters: For more detailed filtering, click the Filters button to the right of the Search bar. The Filter screen will appear.

As noted above, some filters will be applied immediately depending on if the session is scheduled or unscheduled.

To fine tune the possible list of participants for this activity session, apply one or more of the available filters.

The participant group filter is especially powerful if participant groups have been created. For more information on managing participant groups, see this help document.

Modify the filters to limit the list of possible attendees to meet your needs and click Apply Filter. You can record participation for one set of filters and then reset them and record participation for that filtered list. The filters are merely a way to limit the size of the potential attendee list.

Record Participation

To update a person's participation status along with others at one time, check the box to the left of each name.

A barcode scanner can also be used to mark participants as present. For details about recording attendance via barcode scanning, please see this article.

Checking the top box marks the check boxes for all participants listed below. If you want to update most of the people with a certain status, it is typically quicker to check all of them with this "all" box and then uncheck the few that should not receive that status.

Track Participation Multiple STudents.png

Updating Participation Status

The next step is to update the status and participation times of the checked people. This step must be completed, or no participation will be saved. The next steps are very important. Please continue reading to learn how to update the status of the checked participants.

Click the Set statuses/times button at the bottom of the screen.

The Multiple Participants form will open. This form will look different if a) Current Time or b) Session Times option was selected.

Current time: To record multiple participants as having checked in, verify the time and add any notes if needed. Then click Save Status.

Session Time: to record participation for multiple participants, select the appropriate status for the previously checked/selected participants.

Present: The participant was in attendance.

Excused Absence: The participant was expected to be in attendance but was not present and communicated a valid reason for missing the activity session.

Unexcused Absence: The participant was expected to be in attendance but was not, and did not provide a valid reason for missing the activity session; this constitutes a "no-show."

Then, verify the Start and End times. Time fields are not visible/required for Excused and Unexcused absences.

For those marked "Present," the Session Time/Current Time toggle selection made above is relevant. If you selected Session Time, the Start Time and End Time fields default to the Session start and end times set up in the Activities section of the system. If you selected Current Time, these fields will default to the actual time you opened the Set Statuses/Times window.

Change the times by clicking in the time fields and adjusting the hours, minutes, and AM/PM. You can also manually type the time into the time fields.

Click now to quickly change the Start Time or End Time to the current time when you are recording attendance.

The system will not allow you to select an End Time that is before the Start Time.

You can also enter Notes about the event's participation. These notes will be applied to each person selected and will be visible in their participant record's Participation section.

When you are done, click Save Status to update the Status, Start Time, End Time, and Notes for the selected participants.

Repeat the steps above to update the statuses/times of a different group of participants (e.g., to mark some with a status of "Unexcused Absent").

To save the recorded participation, click the Next Step button.

There are two other features on this page that are described here.

1. Deleting Participation

To remove participation from one or more participants, check the box to the left of their name(s). Below the listing of participation, click the Delete Participation button. Confirm the deletion and the participation status and times will be removed for the selected individuals.

2. Updating Status for an Individual Participant

To update an individual's Status, Start Time, End Time, and Notes, click on their name to open a form. This may be needed to adjust times if the person left the activity early or needed a different Note than others.

Click on Student Name Track Participation.png

Follow the previous steps to update their Status, Start Time, End Time, and add any individual Notes if desired.

Click Save Status when done to save changes for the individual.

Set Status for Remaining Enrolled Participants of a Scheduled Activity

When Next Step is clicked for a scheduled activity session, if any participants are still marked with a blue "Enrolled" status after recording those who were "Present," a Set Status for Remaining Participants modal window will open as shown below.

If you want to update the remaining participants to "Unexcused Absent" (for example), update the data fields and click Save Status. Then, click Next Step at the bottom of the Select Participants screen again.

If you want to leave the participants with an "Enrolled" status, click Skip this step. This will take you back to Step 3.

Track PArticipants Student Still marked as enrolled.png

Step 3: Summary

Here a summary of the activity/session date and participation counts by status will be displayed. If all looks accurate, click the Done button to return to the main Participation screen.

Participation Copy

This screen also contains a helpful feature that allow you to copy this date and activity/session participation to one or more activity/sessions on the same date. Click the Copy Participation button to open the following screen.

The Copy participation to other sessions screen offers multiple options for copying participation. These include:

What activities/sessions do you want to copy this participation to
If the copying is for only those enrolled in this session
What statuses should be copied (e.g., Present)

First, in the Copy to sessions drop-down, check which Sessions you would like to copy this just-recorded participation to. In this example, we will plan to copy "Tutoring" participation to "Snack | Afternoon Snack."

Next, if you want to have only participation copied for those that are enrolled in the Afternoon Snack session, select Copy Participants based on enrollment from the Copy participants drop down list options. If you want to copy participation for all those with participation recorded for Tutoring, regardless of whether or not they are enrolled in the Afternoon Snack session, select Copy all participants.

Finally, you can determine which participants will have participation copied based on their participation status in the Tutoring session. Check the participation statuses you would like to copy in the Copy statuses drop down.

After making the three selections, our example screen below indicates a plan to copy Tutoring participation to Afternoon Snack for all statuses (Present, Excused Absent and Unexcused Absent) for all participation regardless of enrollment in the Afternoon Snack session. When all options are selected as desired, click Copy.

A green message will appear, indicating that the copied participation records have been saved successfully. The Summary screen will be displayed again. Click Done to save all participation data and return to the main Participation Screen.

A few helpful tips...

Participation can be copied and edited later. For example, if some participants missed Snack but attended Tutoring, it's easier to copy all participation and then adjust individual records than to enter Snack participation manually.
The Copy Participation feature saves time for programs with scheduled sessions and enrolled students. By marking attendance for one session (e.g., Snack), you can copy participation to all other sessions for which the students are enrolled on that day. Selecting "Copy participants based on enrollment" marks students present in the initial session as present in all their other sessions for that date. If a participant leaves early, you can remove their participation from specific sessions by editing those attendance lists directly.

Updated August 10, 2026 14:32

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