Core Docs - Church Management - Registration Templates

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-05-28 9:47 AM

As you've already read, templates contain a majority of the Event Registration's configuration. There's a lot to cover, so let's get started. To keep it simple, we'll break the screen down into bite-sized chunks. You can edit registrations under Tools > Event Registration.

Edit Registrations

Be Careful Enabling Prevent Duplicate Registrations
This feature can unintentionally expose attendee information because if someone knows a registrant’s name plus their email, phone or birthdate, they may be able to determine that person is attending the event.

Minimum Due Today and Amount To Pay Today

The Cost and Minimum Initial Payment fields described in the prior section above have a direct impact on the Minimum Due Today and Amount To Pay Today fields seen during the payment stage of the event registration process. Let's take a quick look at how these fields work together.

Let's say that you configure your template (or instance) so that it has a total Cost of $200 and a Minimum Initial Payment of $100. When the person goes to register and pay, they are limited by these settings. The Minimum Due Today field, which comes from the Minimum Initial Payment setting, means exactly what it says. The person will not be able to pay any less than $100 (in our example) no matter what. However, the person can pay more than the minimum. The limit to how much they can pay is the total Cost of $200.

So, in our example, the person can pay any amount between $100 and $200. Whatever amount is chosen would go into the Amount To Pay Today field. If a person in this scenario pays $150 today then they will be making a partial payment and will need to provide the remaining $50 at a later time. They could split that $50 into two $25 payments by making another partial payment.

Note on Payment Restrictions
If the Require Full Payment or Payment Plan setting is enabled on the template, it takes precedence over the Minimum Initial Payment configuration. Registrants will not be allowed to simply make a partial payment and leave an open balance; they must either pay in full or commit to a structured payment plan for the remainder.  

Electronic Signatures

Let's take a moment to point out a really powerful feature that we glossed over a bit. Rock can automate the process of requiring electronic signatures after each registration. We cover this topic in detail here.

Build Forms

Now for the fun part - creating the entry form. When you see the power here, you'll have no choice but to smile.

At a minimum you must collect the registrant's first and last name. But in most cases, you'll want to add at least a couple more fields. When adding fields, you have your choice of where and how they're stored. Let's look at the options.

Lock Existing Value

As noted above, when adding a form field you can choose to Lock Existing Value. This simply means the person's existing record in Rock will not be changed to match what the person enters during the registration process for the given field.

Let's say you enable this feature on the Birthdate field, and Ted Decker is registering his son Noah for camp. Noah has a record in Rock already, with a birthdate of 3/10/2014. If Ted gives a birthdate of 3/11/2014 during the registration process, it will essentially be ignored and Noah's birthdate will remain locked at 3/10/2014.

Enabling Lock Existing Value on a form field will sometimes mean the field can be seen but not changed. In the example pictured below, this applies to the First Name, Last Name, and Birthday fields.

In the image above it's important to note that Ted used the Family Member to Register drop-down, where he selected Noah Decker. This means Rock knows right away who the registration is for, so the fields with Lock Existing Value are not editable.

However, if the registration template is not configured to Show Family Members then Ted won't have that drop-down list to choose from. In that case, the Lock Existing Value fields will be editable so Ted can provide Noah's information manually. But just because they can be edited on the form doesn't mean the Lock Existing Value setting is ignored for these fields. When the registration is submitted and Noah's record is found, his existing data will still be unchanged. The same is true if Show Family Members is enabled, but Ted is registering someone outside of his family, as pictured below.

Just remember that in the example pictured above, Katie's name and birthdate will not be changed if that information is already in Rock. Those fields can be edited during the registration process, but that's only to allow Ted to complete the form for people outside his family. The Lock Existing Value functionality remains in effect.

Add Conditional Fields

In many cases unique information will apply to each registrant. Event registration form fields have conditions that control whether they are shown/hidden based on the registrar’s selection of a prior form field value.

The conditional field options will be different based on the Gender selection.

First, we'll have to add the form field on the event registration template. After creating the field, a filter icon-button will be shown on the forms grid.

Clicking on the ti ti-filter icon on the Form Field List will display the criteria selection for that field.

Limitations on Conditional Fields
You may have noticed in the Forms section above that not every field in our example registration form has the  icon next to it. That's because you can’t apply conditions to every type of field on your form.  
Only attribute fields that use a control which is text, list, checkbox, person picker, or date pickers can have criteria applied. In other words, if you don’t see the ti ti-filter icon then the field type you’re using can’t have conditional logic applied.  

Click Save. Now you can see that the fields with conditional rules have a highlighted filter button.

Limit Registrant Eligibility

Registrations aren't for everyone... well maybe they are, but each individual registration isn't for every person. Registrant Eligibility helps you limit who can register based on things like Age, Gender or even Data View. 

When someone registers for an event, they may have missing information that pertains to these filters. For example, if a person uses the Event Wizard and their gender is not yet on file, they will be prompted to provide it. If they enter a gender that is restricted for that event, the wizard re-validates when they click Next. The system will then warn the registrant that they do not meet the specific requirements for the event.  

Be Careful With Who You Limit
Use the Data View filter with caution. If the criteria are too narrow or the underlying data is outdated, you may unintentionally block people who should be eligible to register. Always double-check your Data View results before taking the registration live.  

Family Member Eligibility
In the Registration Entry block's family member dropdown, a family member only shows as Ineligible if their data is on file and doesn't meet your requirements. Those with missing age, grade or gender will still appear as an option so registrars can provide that information on the form.

When multiple rules are enabled, registrants must meet all selected criteria to register.

Use Registration Attributes

While customizing the template for your event, you can add Registration Attributes directly from the same section. This would allow for the collection of attributes about the registration that do not pertain to a specific registrant. Use the ti ti-circle-plus icon to open the attributes page.

Below you can see the Registration Attribute window open. Here you will create the attribute for the event. In the Categories drop down, you can choose to show this attribute at the start or end of the registration. If a category is not selected, the attribute will display at the end of the registration.

Attribute visibility is mainly controlled by security settings. The 'Public' checkbox pictured above acts as an override for situations where a person has rights to view an attribute, but we want to restrict visibility to attributes on public blocks. To hide a registration attribute, update the attribute's security to staff-only.

Great, now in this event template, every instance will have the same attributes on the registration.

To add a "hidden" or "staff-only" registration attribute to your template, create the desired attribute like normal and save the template. Then, edit the template and click the lock icon next to the attribute. Establish the appropriate permissions (i.e., only staff can view/edit) then save the template again. This will hide the attribute from the general public during registration, while allowing staff to view and edit it when managing registration details.

Set Up Registration Emails

Confirmation Email

After completing the registration, you can set up a confirmation email. This email also acts as an emailed receipt. Remember that the below settings are only visible if you enable Show Communication Settings at the bottom of the page under the 'Terms/Text' section.

While you're free to modify this email, we've provided a template that should work in most cases. Below we've shown what this sample email will look like. Note that the highlighted section comes from the Additional Confirmation Details field of the registration instance.

Reminder Email

We all appreciate reminders. Especially for events we may have registered for long ago. On this screen you can edit the reminder emails. When you create the registration instance (discussed next), you will configure when this email will be sent. Like the other communications, these settings are only visible if you enable Show Communication Settings at the bottom of the page under the 'Terms/Text' section.

Keep in mind that reminder emails go out to everyone who completed a registration, including those on the waitlist.

Again, we’ve provided you with a capable template. One thing to note here is that the template relies on the registration instance's Additional Reminder Details to set when the event will occur. We've highlighted this part in the email below.

Payment Reminder Email

Allowing partial payments is great, but getting the remaining balance has always been difficult. That was until Rock came around. With Rock you have several tools for getting the remaining balance quickly and easily. The configuration items in this section help set up the communication tools for these reminders. For the most part you can leave them as is. You can read more about these tools in the Payment Reminders text below. Remember that the below settings are only visible if you enable Show Communication Settings at the bottom of the page under the 'Terms/Text' section.

Customize Registration Terms

Event registrations can be used for several different kinds of events. To help fit different types of events, we allow you to customize many of the terms used during the registration process. In this section you can also configure the success text that displays on the final page of the registration screen.