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My church uses an outdated software system to check children in and out of Nursery, Sunday School, Cadets, etc. We're considering other alternatives like Planning Center. Would love to hear what other software platforms churches are using for safety/security and tracking attendance for children's ministries. What pros and cons have you encountered?

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After a quick survey of the communications staff here at the denomination, it seems like our churches all still use old fashioned pen and paper to check kids in and out of Sunday School and Nursery. I'm certainly interested to see if anyone else's church does anything different!

Our mid-sized church uses Planning Center. If you're already using software, this could be an easy transition.

We have a registration team that take one month each to be a welcoming and informative face at the check in desk every Sunday. They explain our ministries and check in process to visitors, hopefully building a connection along the way. They are really the only ones who use the checkin software, so the team of "experts" in using the software is actually quite small. Not everyone who volunteers in the various ministries needs to know how to do checkins. Planning Center has tons of customization, from how many name tags and "claim slips" you get for each kiddo in each ministry/ classroom, to what's on them, to how you generate reports about checkins after the event is over. One of the cons is that there is just SO MUCH you can do with Planning Center, and sometimes the amount of information and customization can be overwhelming. Sometimes I try to figure one thing out and it feels like drinking from a firehose. However, there's a really helpful online community of users on Facebook where folks help each other out and crowd-source answers to their questions. I've learned so much from that group. I've never had to contact the Planning Center helpdesk, but it appears that they are responsive and helpful. Hope that helps!

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