Completev1.13.0 · updated 2026-11-08

Session tracking

Scan attendees into individual sessions with a phone and a link — no dashboard account, no hardware, and a report afterwards.

What it is

Activities you want attendance for — a workshop, a lunch, a booth crawl — each with a shareable scanner link. Whoever holds the link opens it on their own phone and scans attendee badges into that activity.

When to use it

Certificates, CPD hours, sponsor reporting, or simply knowing whether the room you booked was the right size. It is also what feeds the digital passport.

Before you start

Attendees with badges — i.e. an imported or registered attendee list. Read the guide
The sessions you want tracked. They do not have to be agenda sessions.

Try it — this is a sandbox, nothing here is real

Set up a workshop scan, hand the link to a volunteer, and meet the three refusals the scanner gives.

One activity, no scanner link yet.

Workshop: Floor plans that work
12 Mar · 14:00 · Room 3 0 scans

A session with no scanner link cannot be scanned into by anyone.

A volunteer now has your whole event

A dashboard account can edit content, export attendees and publish. A scanner link can scan one session and nothing else.

https://org.nookpass.com/scan/9f3c2a71-…

Room 3 door
Workshop: Floor plans that work Enabled

Room 3 door — 14:02

Scanned

Sam Ortiz

Checked in to Floor plans that work.

Already scanned

Sam Ortiz was checked in at 14:02.

Attendance is a fact, not a counter. Letting a second scan through would turn a headcount into a turnstile count and quietly inflate every report.

Badge is not for this event

Badges are scoped to the event that issued them.

Session	Capacity	Scanned	Unique
Floor plans that work	60	38	38
Opening keynote	500	412	412

Afterwards

Disable the scanner links. They keep working until you do.

Click a control above. One of them is the mistake people actually make — take it on purpose.

Step by step

1
Turn session tracking onSessions & Passport → Sessions → Setup
The switch at the top of Setup is the whole module: off, scanner links refuse check-ins and the passport is hidden, and everything already recorded stays. While it is off, the Sessions and Passport screens carry a banner with a Turn on session tracking button, so you do not have to go looking for it. Every control on Setup saves as you change it — there is no Save button.
Tip. Let attendees scan themselves in is on unless you turn it off. Switch it off for an event that staffs every door and wants no unattended way to check in.
2
Create the activitySessions & Passport → Sessions
Name, time and where it is. Tracking activities are separate from agenda sessions — you can track a coffee break that is not on the programme.
Tip. To change a session later, press Edit on its card, or click its name.
3
Make a scanner linkSessions & Passport → Scanners
Each link is unguessable, and you choose how much of the programme it reaches: every session (the operator picks any of them), or only the ones you pick. Picking one is the fixed-door case — that link can never record into anything else. Picking several is the case in between: a team covering the three morning workshops gets one link and one QR code, picks between those three on the device, and cannot reach the rest of the day.
Tip. One link per door, not one per event — it is how a report tells the two entrances apart. Widen the scope only when the same person really is covering several rooms.
4
Decide how often one person may take partSessions & Passport → the session → How check-ins count
Once per person means one scan each, forever. Every time they attend counts each visit; set Limit per person for the ones that repeat but are not unlimited — three coffees per pass, a workshop that runs twice, one shuttle trip each way. 0 leaves it unlimited. A scan past the limit is refused, and the operator is told the number rather than a bare no.
Tip. This is the count, not the clock. Ignore repeat scans for below it guards the double-tap; the limit is what the pass entitles them to.
5
Decide whether it is a passport stampSessions & Passport → the session → Show on the passport
On, attendees collect the session as a stamp and it counts towards their progress; How to earn it and Description appear for its card, with icon, image and colour under Card style. Off, the session still records check-ins for your reports and is simply not on the passport, which is right for meals, shuttles and anything else you track without making it a prize. Every session starts on.
Tip. To set every session at once, use the Sessions tab on the Passport screen: the same switch, one row per session, with arrows that set the order the stamps appear in.
6
Scan
The scanner shows a camera and a running count. A valid badge is confirmed; a badge from another event, or one already scanned, is refused with a reason.
Tip. Scan on the session row opens the console in one tap, and every later press returns to the same tab — so checking a report mid-event and going back to the door is two clicks, not a hunt through the links panel. The same button sits on the report.
7
Or let attendees scan a codeSessions & Passport → the session → Self check-in QR
The other direction: instead of staff scanning badges, the ROOM shows a rotating QR and attendees scan it from their own phones. Show on this device opens that screen where you are. The link under it opens the same screen on a device with no dashboard account — a projector, a TV by the door, the venue’s own tablet — with an optional password on it.
Tip. The code changes every few seconds, and that is what makes it safe to show: a photograph of it stops working before it reaches a group chat. Never print one.
8
Or print the code on paperSessions & Passport → the session → Self check-in QR → Printed codes
For a room with no screen: a QR that never changes, for a poster by the door or a card on each table. Make several per session and label each one — “North door”, “Morning run”, “Table 4” — and the report’s Where it was recorded shows which code each person scanned. Print gives one A4 poster per code.
Careful. A printed code works for anyone who photographs it, from anywhere, for as long as it exists. If one gets shared, Replace it: every copy already printed stops working at once. Prefer the screen whenever the room has one.
9
Pause a session without losing anythingSessions & Passport → the switch on the session
The Accepting check-ins switch on each session is the door. Switched to Paused, every scanner and code refuses it and it leaves the passport — and everything already recorded stays. Delete is only for a session you never want to see again.
10
Read one session's reportSessions & Passport → the session → Report, or Reports → By session
Every session has its own report. It opens on two numbers that are not the same thing — check-ins (every scan) and unique attendees (how many different people) — because on a repeatable session 400 check-ins could be 400 people or 40, and only one of those means the room was full. Under them: when the door was busy, how people got in, which device recorded it, the ticket mix, the raw activity log, and the exportable list of everyone who took part.
Tip. The gap between the two headline numbers IS the finding. Equal means nobody came twice; a wide gap on a meal or an expo stamp is worth understanding before you quote either number.
11
Uncheck someone scanned by mistakeSessions & Passport → Sessions → Check-ins → the session
Check-ins lists every session; open one to see everyone checked into it, newest first. Search by name, email, company, ticket or device, then press Uncheck on a row — or tick several (or Select all after a search, say for “test”) and press Uncheck selected. There is no “are you sure?”: the row greys out with Undo beside it for five seconds, and a bulk uncheck also offers Undo in the message at the top of the screen. Keep working while it waits — the rest of the list stays live. The same screen opens from Check-ins on the session's row and Manage check-ins on its report. An unchecked attendee stops counting in the totals and the passport, and can be scanned in again.
Careful. Once Undo has gone, the check-in is removed for good — there is no restore. Anyone on the team can see the list; unchecking needs the Owner or Manager role.
12
Turn a link off
Scanner links can be disabled. Do that after the event rather than leaving working links in a WhatsApp group.
Careful. Anyone with the link can scan. It carries no password because the person on the door does not have an account.

When it goes wrong

Every one of these has happened to someone. Symptom first, because that is what you will have.

Sessions is not on the bar of appsgotcha

What you see: There is no Sessions icon to click.

Why: Add-on modules are not on the bar until you add them, or until you have opened them often enough that the bar adds them by itself — so an event that does not track sessions is not carrying the icon for one.

Fix: Click Apps at the end of the bar of apps on the left and click Sessions & Passport. To keep it on your bar, click Add beside it. Click Remove in the same menu when the event is over.

Gave a volunteer a dashboard account to scan withblocker

What you see: Door staff are signing into the organizer dashboard.

Why: It is the obvious thing to reach for, and it hands over the whole event.

Fix: Use a scanner link. It scans one session and can do nothing else, and it can be turned off afterwards.

Already scannedgotcha

What you see: The scanner refuses a badge that looks fine.

Why: That attendee is already checked into this session. Attendance is recorded once.

Fix: Nothing to fix — they are in. Re-entry counts are not what this measures. If the earlier scan was a mistake or a test, Uncheck it under Sessions → Check-ins and scan them again.

One person, dozens of scanswarning

What you see: A repeatable session shows far more check-ins than people — 23 scans from 2 attendees, say.

Why: A badge left in front of the camera. The console hands the lens back a beat after each success, and the badge that was just read is still there, so it reads again. Nothing stops that on a repeatable session whose Ignore repeat scans for is 0, which is the default.

Fix: The scanner now ignores the SAME badge for a few seconds after recording it, so a badge held up cannot run up a count — a different badge is still read instantly. For a durable guard across devices and reloads, set Ignore repeat scans for on the session to a few seconds.

Badge is not for this eventwarning

What you see: A valid-looking badge is refused.

Why: Badges are scoped to the event that issued them — common at a venue running two events at once, or with a returning attendee holding last year's pass.

Fix: Issue this event's badge. The attendee can open the current event in the app and show the badge from there.

Nobody could scan anythingblocker

What you see: The session exists and there is no way to scan into it.

Why: A session with no scanner link has no scanning surface.

Fix: Create a link under Scanners and send it to the door.

Signed the venue’s screen into the dashboardblocker

What you see: Getting a code onto a projector or a foyer TV means typing an organizer password into a device somebody else owns.

Why: The display screen used to be reachable only from inside the dashboard, so that was the only way to get it onto a wall.

Fix: Use Screen link on the session. It opens that one screen and nothing else, takes an optional password, and can be replaced the moment it has been forwarded once too often.

The screen says self-scanning is switched offgotcha

What you see: A display link opens to a message instead of a code.

Why: Attendees scanning themselves in is a separate switch from the module — Let attendees scan themselves in, under Sessions & Passport → Sessions → Setup. It is on by default, so someone has turned it off.

Fix: Turn self-scanning back on. Until it is, any code shown would be minted and then refused, so the screen declines to show one rather than build a queue that fails one person at a time.

The scanner's copied address doesn't open on another devicegotcha

What you see: You copied the scanner page's address and opened it in another browser or on another phone, and it says Sign this device in to scan.

Why: The scanner's address carries no sign-in. That is on purpose: it is what stops a copied address, or a tablet's address bar, from handing the link on. Only the full scanner link signs a device in.

Fix: If you are an organizer, press Organizer? Sign in to scan and sign in to your dashboard — you go straight to scanning. For door staff, send the scanner link from Staff scanners on the session instead of the page's address.

Scanner links still working weeks laterwarning

What you see: Scans appear on a report after the event.

Why: Links stay enabled until you disable them.

Fix: Disable them once the event closes. They are unguessable, not revoked by time.

What people ask

Kept in the words people use, because that is what you are about to type.

Does the person scanning need an account?

No. That is the whole design — the link is the credential.

Can I scan into a session that is not on the agenda?

Yes. Tracking activities are independent of the programme.

Does the screen in the room need a dashboard login?

No. Create a Screen link on the session and open that on the device. Add a password to it if the screen is somewhere the link might travel.

Someone photographed the code on our screen — is that a problem?

It stops working within about a minute. The code rotates, which is exactly why it is shown on a screen and never printed on a sign.

The QR on the screen is hard to scan from the back of the room.

It should not be any more — the code behind it is now a short address rather than a long signed link, so the same screen draws a far coarser, easier-to-read square.

agenda passport attendees