support@activitymessenger.com

Attendance tracking

Activity Messenger provides you with a powerful yet simple to use Attendance tracking tool. Built for classes and day camps, it works with any registration platform including Amilia, iClassPro, Active Network or Jackrabbit. It even works if you don't have a registration platform. You can import attendance from an Excel file.

Activity Messenger's Attendance tracking allows your staff (coaches, instructors and camp counsellors) to:

  • Track check-in and check-out times
  • Use from their smartphone or from a tablet
  • Add a comment (i.e. child is leaving for lunch)
  • Check that the COVID-19 screening form was filled
  • Lookup contact information including legal guardians and emergency contacts
  • Lookup medical information
  • Lookup extra questions
  • Send an email or a text message to the contacts of one or multiple participants
  • Lookup daycare options (morning or evening)
  • Lookup password to release custody of the child
  • Lookup pairing with a friend

Attendance is stored in Activity Messenger and provides a convenient report for contact tracing.


# Attendance lists

Each activity/class has its own attendance list. You can rename the list, assign staff, assign tags and even archive it.


# Export to Excel

You can export one or multiple attendance lists to Excel. Click on the bulk export menu and Export to Excel.


# Importing attendance from Excel/CSV

From the Classes menu, click on All attendance lists. Click on (+) to import attendance. Follow instructions.

Importing uses Activity Messenger's Excel/CSV import engine. Read those docs to find out supported columns. You can also download these samples to adapt your Student report exports: Excel (.xlsx) and CSV (.csv).


# Importing attendance from Amilia

From the Classes menu, click on All attendance lists. Click on (+) to import attendance. Click on the Amilia tab. You can import multiple activities from a program. Each activity will have its own attendance list. Each attendance list will have multiple attendance sheets - one per occurrence.

Attendance lists imported from Amilia are always kept in sync. Changes made in Amilia will automatically be synchronized. This includes new registrations, class schedule changes and even participant contact information changes.


# Importing attendance from Active Network

From the Classes menu, click on All attendance lists. Click on (+) to import attendance. Click on the Active Network tab. Follow instructions.

You will import an Excel file you previously exported from a Custom Report in Active Network. In your Custom Report, export the following columns:

  • Primary P/G: First name
  • Primary P/G: Last name
  • Primary P/G: Cell phone number
  • Primary P/G: Email address
  • Participant: Name
  • Participant: Date of birth
  • Participant: Grade
  • Season name
  • Session name
  • Session start date
  • Session start time
  • Session end date
  • Session end time
  • Session location

Activity Messenger will automatically detect a weekly recurrence looking at the session start and session end dates and times. You can then remove exception dates right before import.

You can download this Excel file to view a Custom Report sample: Excel (.xlsx).


# Importing attendance from iClassPro

From the Classes menu, click on All attendance lists. Click on (+) to import attendance. Click on the iClassPro tab. Follow instructions.

Importing from iClassPro uses Activity Messenger's Excel/CSV import engine. Read those docs to find out supported columns. You can also download these samples to adapt your Student report exports: Excel (.xlsx) and CSV (.csv).


# Importing attendance from Sport-plus

From the Classes menu, click on All attendance lists. Click on (+) to import attendance. Click on the Sport-plus tab. Follow instructions.

Importing from Sport-plus uses Activity Messenger's Excel/CSV import engine. Read those docs to find out supported columns. You can also download this sample to use as an example: Excel (.xlsx).


# Importing attendance from Skytech MIA

From the Classes menu, click on All attendance lists. Click on (+) to import attendance. Click on the Skytech MIA tab. Follow instructions.

Importing from Sport-plus uses Activity Messenger's Excel/CSV import engine. Read those docs to find out supported columns. You can also download this sample to use as an example: Excel (.xlsx).


# Assigning class to staff

Activity Messenger allows you to assign classes to specific staff. The permission level for coaches and camp counsellors is called Instructor. Read the permissions documentation to learn how to invite staff.

Instructors are limited to seeing classes that you assign. Click on the staff edit button. The class Settings popup appears. Select staff that can track attendance for this class.


# Tracking attendance

Each attendance list has one attendance sheet per occurrence or per day. Click on a list to access the sheet of the next occurrence.

Top left is the date of the current attendance sheet. You can click on the dropdown to access other days.

The cog button allows you to provide coaches and instructions with context about the class or activity. You can also modify the assigned staff.

Simply click on the check-in and check-out switches to track attendance. The system will record the date and time. Use the comment field if the child temporarily leaves for lunch or for an appointment.

Click on a row to expand it and access a participant's information card. You will find information about the contact owner, the second parent, emergency contacts, medical information and answers to extra questions. You also have access to the filled form.


# Changing the check-in or check-out date and time

If you need to modify the check-in or check-out date and time, you can do so by clicking again the toggle. A popup will give you that option. You can decide to clear the check-in or check-out time, or you can modify the date and time.


# Checking that a form was filled

If you use Activity Messenger's forms or waivers, you can select a form to check if it was filled for each participant. For example choose your COVID-19 screening form. You can even ask the system to check that it was filled the day of the camp.

An extra column Form filled will be added indicating Yes if it was filled, or No if it was not. Activity Messenger cross references the contact emails of the participant and his/her name. This covers the situation where mom is the main email on file yet dad filled in the form with his email. As long as dad's email is also on file, Activity Messenger will find a match.

Activity Messenger will display a question mark (?) symbol when the name of the participant does not match. You can easily access the PDF to double check.


# Pass or fail form questions

If you are running COVID-19 screening, Activity Messenger can flag forms that have not correctly answered all questions. It will write Pass or Fail in the filled form column depending on answers provided by the respondent.

Activity Messenger will compare answers with the Fail value in the configuration of the Radio button questions. If any answer matches the Fail value criteria, the check will fail.

For example, assuming your form contains these 3 questions, you can set their respective Fail values. To ignore the answer of a question, leave it blank.


# Vaccination check

Some provinces and states have implemented COVID-19 vaccination passports. Your organization may require that participants show proof of vaccination before attending a class. Activity Messenger allows you to track vaccination in Attendance lists.

Open an attendance list and expand a participant row. Under the Medical information, there will be a toggle called Vaccinated. Turn it on when you have verified proof of vaccination. That toggle will remain active for future occurrences of the class.

Activity Messenger shows a green syringe icon next to the participant that was vaccinated. With a glimpse you can quickly spot who is and who is not vaccinated.


# Tracking vaccination checks across multiple classes

By default Activity Messenger will track vaccination check per class. For example if a participant is in two classes, toggling Vaccinated in one class will not toggle in the other class.

You can change the behavior to apply across all classes. From the Classes menu, choose the "Vaccination check" option. A popup will allow you to change the setting.

The Vaccination check settings popup is only access to users with permission level "Account owner".
We identify a participant by matching the emails in their account (account owner, participant and other parent) and by matching their first name.


# Deleting all vaccination checks

If you require deletion of vaccination checks, you can do so from the "Vaccination check" settings popup. Click on the Delete button. The deletion will be permanent. It will not be possible to recover this data.


# Send an email or an SMS

You can select one or multiple participants. Then click on Message to send them an email or a text message. You can decide to send the email to the account owner (main email on file), the participant (when the child has their own email) or all contacts on file.