Core Docs - Church Management - Use Web-Based Self Check-In

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-08-31 7:23 AM

Sunday morning doesn't have to start with a line. Self check-in moves check-in off your kiosks and onto the phone already in someone's pocket. There's no extra iPad to buy, no stand to build and no cart to wheel out when a big weekend fills the lobby.

People find themselves, pick who's coming in and head straight to the room. Rock remembers them on that phone, so next week is faster still. And because the launcher looks at where they are, nobody checks in from the couch at home by mistake.

The screens people move through are the same ones your kiosks show, so there's nothing new for anyone to learn. When labels are needed, they get a QR code to scan on the way in. When they aren't, check-in finishes right on the phone.

Mobile App Check-in
This article covers checking in from a page on your website. The Rock Mobile app has a separate check-in block that you can set up, and its QR codes work the other way around: the phone scans a code to start check-in instead of showing one for a kiosk to scan. See Check-in in the mobile developer docs.

Find the Mobile Check-in Launcher Page

Rock ships the launcher on its own page, ready to configure. Go to Admin Tools > Settings > Pages, then open External Homepage > Support Pages > Mobile Check-in Launcher. The page's route is /mobilecheckin, which is the address people will visit on their phones.

The block has two sets of settings. Select the ti ti-edit icon on the Mobile Check-in Launcher block for the Mobile Launcher Settings, which is where you choose the kiosks, theme, check-in configuration and areas. Select the ti ti-settings icon for the block's properties, which hold the QR code option and the wording of every message people see.

Prepare the Kiosk

Self check-in still records attendance at a kiosk, so the launcher needs to figure out which kiosk the person is using. How you prepare the kiosk depends on which method you'd like to use.

Set the geo-fence on the kiosk's device record under Admin Tools > Check-in > Devices. Draw it wide enough to cover your parking lot, since that's where most people will be when they check in.

Mobile Launcher Settings

Select the ti ti-edit icon on the Mobile Check-in Launcher block to open these settings. This is where you tell the launcher which kiosks to consider and what people can check into.

Enabled Devices - The kiosks the launcher will consider when it works out where someone is. Leave it blank to consider every kiosk. Usually you'll pick one kiosk per geo-fenced area or campus.

Theme - The check-in theme this page uses, overriding the one set on the site. Leave it blank to use the site's theme. Only themes built for check-in appear here, since other themes don't have the layout this page needs.

Check-in Configuration - The check-in configuration self check-in should use, such as Weekly Service Check-in. This decides how check-in behaves, the same way it does at a kiosk.

Check-in Areas - The areas people can check into from their phone. Only areas that belong to the check-in configuration you chose are available.

Disable Location Services - When enabled, the launcher won't ask for the phone's location. People pick from a list of active campuses instead, and their own campus is listed first.

Block Settings

To open these settings, select the ti ti-settings icon on the Mobile Check-in Launcher block. The settings are grouped into the sections below.

General Settings

Disable QR Code - When enabled, no QR code is shown after check-in. Use this for events that don't print labels, where people can finish check-in right on their phone.

Select All Schedules Automatically - When enabled, every available schedule is selected for people instead of asking them to choose. This also means anyone with nothing to check into is skipped quietly rather than being shown a skip screen.

Mobile Person

Log In Page - The page used to log someone in. Leave it blank and the log in button won't be shown.

Phone Identification Page - The page used to identify someone by phone number. Leave it blank and that button won't be shown.

Text

This section holds the wording of every message the launcher shows, so you can put it in your church's own voice. There's a heading for the page, a prompt asking people to identify themselves, the explanation of why their location is needed, and a message for each situation the launcher can run into: a welcome back, no services available, a location that can't be determined, no kiosk nearby, no campuses available, and nobody in the family who can check in.

These messages accept Lava, so you can greet people by name. CurrentPerson, Kiosk and NextActiveTime are all available.

Checking In from a Phone

Here's what someone experiences when they open the launcher on their phone.

They identify themselves. Anyone already signed in is recognized straight away, and so is anyone who has checked in from that phone before. Everyone else chooses Log In or Phone Lookup. With phone lookup they enter their mobile number and Rock texts them a six digit code.

Enter the mobile number, then select Lookup.

Enter the six digit code Rock texted, then select Next.

Rock welcomes them and asks about their location. Once Rock knows who they are, the welcome message you set appears with a Check In button. Their phone then asks permission to share its location, which Rock matches against your kiosks' geo-fences to work out which kiosk they're at. If you've turned location services off, they choose their campus from a list instead.

Select Check In to get started.

They choose who's checking in. Their family is listed, with anyone Rock expects to see already selected. From there they work through the same selection steps a kiosk would show, such as picking a room when more than one is available.

Select everyone who's checking in, then select Next.

Select a room for each person. Rock only asks when more than one room is available.

Check-in finishes. A confirmation lists each person, the room they're checked into, and any achievement they've reached. Selecting Done returns them to the welcome screen, where their QR code is waiting.

Checking out isn't part of self check-in. People check out at a kiosk as usual.

QR Codes and Labels

After someone checks in, their phone shows a QR code. Scanning it at a kiosk prints that family's labels, so people can get their tags without standing in line to check in first. See iPad Barcode Scanning for how to set a kiosk up to read codes with its camera.

Selecting Check In Additional Individuals starts check-in again for anyone else, and Rock adds those people to the same QR code rather than producing a second one. A family arriving in stages still ends up with one code that prints everybody's labels, so there's only ever one thing to scan at the kiosk.

Self check-in QR codes stay tied to their service time. A code only prints labels while that check-in window is open, so a screenshot of last week's code can't produce tags at the kiosk.