Running the kiosk

The kiosk is the screen a parent uses to check their kids in. It runs at its own address, outside the dashboard, so the tablet in the foyer carries no other church data and nobody signs in to it.

Each service has its own check-in. For a service built from a template with a check-in mode and a service time, check-in runs itself. It opens one hour before the earliest service time, once a kiosk has the link open, and closes once the night is over. A one-off service's check-in never opens on its own, so you open it by hand. You can still open check-in early, close it mid-service, or reopen it by hand; check-in that you close by hand stays closed until someone reopens it. A service built from a template has one kiosk link that works every week, so the tablet can keep a bookmark. A one-off service's link works only for that service.

Before your first Sunday

Two things have to be in place before a parent can finish a check-in:

• At least one active room. Scout assigns rooms itself from each child's birth date, and with no rooms the check-in stops with "No room available for [name]." See Setting up rooms.
• A 4-digit kiosk PIN. Without one, your volunteers cannot reach staff tools on the tablet at all. There is a section on this below.

Opening check-in, closing it, and loading the Check-in page all need the Manage rooms & sessions permission. The Volunteer role has it by default. See What each permission controls.

Open check-in

For a service built from a template, you usually don't have to. Once a kiosk has the link open, check-in opens on its own one hour before the earliest service time. The card reads "Check-in opens on its own at 8:00 AM when a kiosk has the link open. You can also open it now." A tablet that loads the link early shows a waiting screen that reads Check-in opens on its own about an hour before service time, and it switches to the keypad when check-in opens.

A one-off service's check-in never opens on its own. Its card reads "This check-in doesn't open on its own. Open it when people start to arrive." Opening by hand is for the exceptions: a one-off service, or an event that starts early.

1. 1

   Open Check-in

   In the sidebar under Sundays, click Check-in. Under Today there is one card per service today. If there is none, there is no service on the calendar for today. See Setting up your first service.

2. 2

   Click Open check-in

   Find the service you are about to run and click Open check-in. The card shows a live count once people start arriving.

3. 3

   Get the link onto the tablet

   The card shows a QR code, the kiosk link, Copy link, and Open the kiosk here, with the line "Scan this code with the tablet's camera to open the kiosk." Point the tablet's camera at your screen and tap the notification. The kiosk opens with no typing and no signing in on the tablet. On the tablet itself, click Open the kiosk here instead. To send the link to whoever is holding the tablet, click Copy link. The link is there before check-in opens, so you can do this step at any time.

What a parent does

There is no sign-in screen on the kiosk. The link opens straight onto Welcome to [your church] and a keypad.

1. 1

   Taps in a 10-digit phone number

   Under Enter your phone number to find your family. the parent taps their number on the on-screen numpad. There is no text field and no name search, and nothing on the kiosk scans a QR code. Scout searches on its own the moment the tenth digit lands. It matches the last ten digits of whatever is stored, so +15551234567 and (555) 123-4567 both find the same person. A shorter number will not search at all. The kiosk stands in a public room, and a partial number could put another family's names on the screen.

2. 2

   Deselects anyone who is not staying

   The household comes up under Select the children to check in. with every child already selected. Tapping a child removes them from this check-in. Each tile shows the child's age as 7yr or 18mo. Adults in the household appear faded and cannot be selected.

3. 3

   Taps the check-in button

   The button at the bottom counts what is selected: Check In 2 Children, or Check In 1 Child for one. Scout matches each child's age against your rooms' age ranges and assigns the room. A child with no birth date on file goes into the first active room on your list.

The confirmation screen reads All Checked In! and lists each child with the room they are going to.

The labels print themselves

Half a second after the check-in, the kiosk fires your browser's print dialog. There is no Print button, and no way to reprint from that screen. It reads Labels are printing. Here's where to drop off:, then clears itself back to the keypad after 15 seconds. The one button on it is Check In Another Family.

Each check-in prints two labels per child, one for the child to wear and one for the room's sign-in sheet, plus a parent receipt. All of them carry the same 4-character security code, built from an alphabet with I, O, 0 and 1 left out so nobody misreads it aloud. The receipt also carries a QR code, but only when that household has authorized pickups saved. Without them it prints the code and the line Present this code at pickup.

The label layout is drawn for a 62mm continuous roll (a Brother QL-820NWB with a DK-22205 roll is what it is tested against). Whatever print dialog your browser shows is the dialog a volunteer will confirm for every family, so set the tablet's default printer and walk one fake family all the way through before Sunday.

Staff tools on the tablet

Everything beyond checking a family in sits behind a PIN. Triple-tap the faded Scout logo in the top-left corner (three taps inside about a second), then enter your 4-digit PIN on Staff Access. Staff tools opens down the left side with:

• Quick Register New Family, for a family who is not in Scout yet
• Check out a family, which takes the 4-character Pickup code from the parent's receipt. See Picking up kids.
• Look Up Family, a phone box that runs the same complete-number search as the keypad
• This service and Rooms, read-only counts. The service name appears here and nowhere else on the kiosk.
• Close check-in, covered at the bottom of this article. Not the control you want mid-service.

The panel locks itself after 60 seconds of nobody touching it, and one PIN entry buys a 15-minute window, so re-entering the PIN during a service is routine. The header counts it down: Auto-locks in 42s.

Registering a family at the kiosk

A parent cannot add themselves. New families go through staff tools: open the panel, tap Quick Register New Family, and fill in the parent's First name, Last name and phone, plus a first name for each child. Add another child adds a row; a child's last name is optional and defaults to the parent's.

Fill in each child's birth date as well. It is the only thing Scout has for choosing a room, and without it the child lands in the first active room on your list.

Register Family creates the parent as an adult, the children as children, and a household named after the parent's last name, then searches that phone number so you can carry straight on with the check-in.

Multiple services

Each service has its own check-in and kiosk link, and two check-ins can be open at once. A 9:00 and an 11:00 service that share one service template share one link: the kiosk follows whichever check-in for that template is open. Two different services on one morning, each with its own template, each need their own tablet link.

Watching the room while check-in is open

When check-in is open, Check-in is your live view and refreshes every 30 seconds:

• The count on the check-in card: how many are here now, and how many have been picked up.
• Rooms, one card per active room. A room with a capacity gets a meter that turns amber at 80% and red at 100%, and a full room shows an At suggested capacity pill. Capacity never blocks a check-in.
• Checked-in kids, a table of Child, Room, Code, Time and Status. Each row reads "Checked in by" and the full name of the adult who checked the child in. A released child reads Picked up, with by and the name of whoever collected them underneath, for example "by Sarah Mitchell".

End of service

You can close check-in yourself, or let it close on its own. Check-in still open after the night is over closes itself the next morning (after 4 AM in your timezone, so a service that runs past midnight is never cut off). Closing by hand ends it immediately: from Check-in with Close check-in, Scout asks Close check-in? and warns that nobody can check in or be picked up through the kiosk afterwards. Closing also expires any pickup passes still outstanding, so leave check-in open until the last child has left. The kiosk switches to Check-in is closed on its own.

Closed by mistake? The card stays under Today with a Reopen check-in button. Reopening does not revive pickup passes that were already expired.

Staff tools on the kiosk also carries Close check-in, which closes it from the tablet after the staff PIN. Either place works.

When the wifi dies (student check-in)

A student self check-in kiosk keeps working with no connection at all. While the tablet is online with check-in open, it quietly saves what it needs; from then on, students can type a phone number, tap their name, and sign up as first-timers exactly as usual — the screen shows a small Offline pill and nothing else changes in the check-in flow. Every check-in is saved on the tablet with its real time and uploads on its own the next time the tablet touches a connection, even if check-in has already closed by then. Once everything has uploaded, the tablet shows a green All 14 check-ins uploaded — you can close this now pill (with your own count) and clears what it was holding. That pill is the signal that the tablet can be closed or put away; until it appears, leave the kiosk open.

Two things to know:

• Let the tablet load the kiosk somewhere with wifi first — before carrying it to the room with none. That first look is when it saves the active check-in and the list it needs.
• If the server refuses a saved check-in when it uploads (rare — usually someone archived mid-week), it appears under Couldn't upload in staff tools on the tablet. Check the person in by hand if they were there, then dismiss it.

The family kiosk needs a connection to check anyone in; offline support covers student self check-in.

Next: Setting up rooms covers the age ranges Scout assigns from, and Picking up kids covers the release side.