A few weeks ago we released the fastest way for your families to check in, with Pre-Checks on the Church Center app.

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<a href="https://planning.center/blog/2019/03/family-pre-check-with-church-center" target="_self">Learn more</a> about the full Church Center app experience, or <a href="https://pcoaccounts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010614793" target="_self">enable Check-Ins in Church Center</a> now to get started.
 
Enjoy!
Team Check-Ins

New: Pre-Check your families with Church Center

One of the highest requested features for our new label editor has just been released: the ability to copy a label.
When you create a new label, you'll see a new option that asks if you'd like to copy an existing label. Once selected you'll see a list of all the labels you've already created with the editor. Currently you can only copy labels that have been created before with the label editor. 
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Enjoy! Team Check-Ins

Improved: Label Editor: Copy from another label

Through some great responses after releasing our <a href="https://planning.center/blog/2019/12/custom-labels-for-all-printers" target="_self">Label Editor earlier this week</a>, we're excited to add a few small improvements.
<h2>New Element: Times &amp; Locations</h2>
Instead of having two separate elements, one for times &amp; one for locations, we've now added one element to include both! This works really well if you're checking people into <a href="https://planning.center/blog/2019/08/multiple-times-multiple-locations" target="_self">multiple times</a>, as it has the same design as the station side. 
<img src="https://d2ddoduugvun08.cloudfront.net/items/0B3R1O311v1D1I062p1j/Image%202019-12-05%20at%202.54.16%20PM.png" width="571" height="326">
<h2>New Element: Custom Text</h2>
One of the first feature requests we've seen was to add the ability for static text. So we did that!
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This will also fix another popular request, where people would like the word "Age" before the age is printed. With a text element, you can add the word age yourself, then add the dynamic age element afterwards.
<h2>Other Small improvements</h2>
We also improved how Zebra labels look when printed and decreased the margins on default labels. We plan to add other changes in the future, so stay tuned!
Happy Checking In! Team Check-Ins

Improved: Label Editor Updates

We recently updated the way our Importer handles <a href="https://pcopeople.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/220345848#remote_id" target="_self">Remote IDs</a>. Before, creating a Remote ID for an existing profile was only possible when jumping through a bunch of hoops (which usually led to a headache). If you had a profile in your CSV that matched an existing profile by name and email, you could not create a Remote ID for that person.
All that has changed! Now, if you have an existing profile, and your CSV has a matching profile (by name and email) with a Remote ID, the Remote ID will be added to that existing profile.
The Remote ID is an import feature that ensures you are updating the correct profile. By using it in an import, you can update more data points, confident the correct profile is being updated each time. For more help with imports, check out the main article <a href="https://pcopeople.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/220345848" target="_self">here</a>.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact support.

Improved: Importing with Remote IDs

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Yes, you read that correctly: with Universal Printing (formerly Direct Printing), you can create custom labels and print them from <a href="https://pcocheck-ins.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/360000095747" target="_self">any supported printer</a>: Dymo, Zebra, Brother, and Citizen.
<h2 id="create-custom-labels">Create Custom Labels</h2>
When you add a new label you can build off of our default labels, or create your own masterpiece from scratch with a blank label. From there, you’ll be whisked away to a new world of creating or editing your own label for all your printers.
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<h2>Still in Beta</h2>
Before you get started, remember Universal Printing is still in beta. It’s in beta mostly because it changes the entire backend of how things are printing. While we’re confident this will be the future of Check-Ins, we need more people testing and helping us refine all the edges before taking it out of beta.
<h2 id="what-to-expect">What to Expect</h2>
Once you’ve <a href="https://check-ins.planningcenteronline.com/direct_printing_beta">enabled the Universal Printing beta</a>, it’s important to <a href="https://check-ins.planningcenteronline.com/labels">build a new label</a> next. Only labels created in the new label editor will print to all printers. We’ll automatically resize the label to work with the default label size of each printer. So, no matter if you’re using Dymo, Zebra, Citizen, or Brother, all your labels will look great. In most cases, Universal Printing will be a little bit faster than before, except for with Citizen printers. We’ll still print the new label design for you on the Citizen printer, but if you’d prefer to choose speed over the design you can turn off Universal Printing for that device in the app settings. Lastly, make sure you’re on the latest version of the Check-Ins app. For Android and iOS you’ll need version 1.5 or greater and with Mac and Windows, you’ll need version 1.8 or greater. Please share with us your experiences and your labels! We’d love to gather all the ways we can improve on this, and we’re excited to see what you will create. Happy Checking In! Team Check-Ins
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New: Custom Labels for All Printers

Did you create a test event or process some test registrations in preparation for a recent event? Instead of just archiving or canceling them, you can now delete them!
For events, you'll find the option to delete alongside archive:
<img src="https://pcoregistrations.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360051293494/mceclip0.png" alt="mceclip0.png">
For registrations, you'll find the button below the attendee summary on canceled registrations:
<img src="https://pcoregistrations.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360052186813/mceclip1.png" alt="mceclip1.png">
Both of these options are only available for events and registrations without payments. We know that financial records are important, so if payments have been processed, you'll need to archive the event or cancel the registration instead. 
Please remember that deletions are permanent. If you have any doubt, use the archive and cancel actions instead.

New: Delete registrations and events without payments

In addition to making lists of people who registered, you can now make lists of people who are set as registration contacts!
You can now add this rule to any new or existing list in People:
<img src="https://pcoregistrations.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360050401474/mceclip0.png" alt="mceclip0.png">

New: Make People Lists of registration contacts

As we've added features to Registrations, we've expanded the payment details and offered different ways of issuing refunds. These additions were helpful, but it was time to bring better organization and flow to these experiences.
Starting today, payment details will look like this:
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Most of the information shown here is the same, but we did add Stripe fees and a new net payment calculation to this view. We improved the organization of this information and clarified some indicators and buttons that were easy to miss before.
We also addressed some points of confusion when issuing refunds and made it so the experience of creating a refund is the same whether you initiate it from the payments list or from an individual registration.
<img src="https://pcoregistrations.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360050891873/mceclip1.png" alt="mceclip1.png">

Improved: Viewing payments and issuing refunds

Up to this point, events in Resources could have a "Primary Room" associated with reservation blocks. On our journey to enhance our calendaring powers 💪 we've made a change which takes that concept and makes it much more flexible and useful to a variety of situations.
Introducing the "Location" field!
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Now you're able to include any information that will help people get to your event whether it's an address, the name of a building, or a part of town. Our recommendation would be to use an address, but use it for whatever makes the most sense for your events.
To add location information to your event, hop into a reservation block and select "Edit".
<img src="https://pcocalendar.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360050734773/Screen_Shot_2019-11-05_at_4.16.44_PM.png" alt="Screen_Shot_2019-11-05_at_4.16.44_PM.png">
Here's what the event above looks like when you <a href="https://pcocalendar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/236105647-Share-Your-Events#iCal%20Feed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">share the iCal feed</a> to Google Calendar:
<img style="margin: 0 auto!important; display: block;" src="https://pcocalendar.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360049847494/Screen_Shot_2019-11-05_at_4.21.56_PM.png" alt="Screen_Shot_2019-11-05_at_4.21.56_PM.png" width="396" height="220">
So what happened to the Primary Room? Good question, I was just about to get to that.
We took all the existing events that had a Primary Room and put it into the Location field, so you don't need to worry about losing any of that information. However, there is one hiccup where you may need to make a change: <a href="https://pcocalendar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010091248-Create-Run-Reports#Create%20a%20Custom%20Report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">custom reports</a>.
Any custom reports using the primary_room_request field will need to be updated to use location instead. You'll be met with a warning at the top of any custom report using the deprecated Primary Room field.
As always, we're so excited to share these updates with you! Stay tuned as we're really close to releasing even more fantastic features that are going to further streamline your workflow and bring clarity to your church.
Team Resources Gabi, Kayla, Greg, Jesse, Nick, and Evan

New: Add Locations to Events

Sometimes, our churches end up with some really big households in their accounts. I don't mean Duggar family big, I mean Father Abraham big. But these households are almost never intentionally created that way — they usually come from either a misconfigured CSV import or because we haven't always had <a href="https://pcocheck-ins.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005050628#Manage%20Trusted%20People" target="_self">Trusted People</a> in Check-Ins.
These large households are unwieldy to work with and tend to break things, so there's now a limit to the size of a household of 20 members.
For some tips on how to best use Households in Planning Center, see <a href="https://pcopeople.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010073774-household-tips" target="_self">this help article</a>.

Improved: Household Size Limits

No, you didn't grab the wrong pair of glasses. 😀 The profile editor seen in all of our products (affectionately referred to internally as the Cross App Profile Editor Modal, or CAPEM) has been updated a little bit to be more readable and to work better on mobile devices.
<img src="https://pcopeople.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360050308513/Anni_Romero_-_People_2019-10-30_14-38-58.png" alt="Anni_Romero_-_People_2019-10-30_14-38-58.png">

Improved: Profile Editor

This update may not effect many people, but ever since we added the ability to check into <a href="https://planning.center/blog/2019/08/multiple-times-multiple-locations" target="_self">multiple locations at the same time</a>, there were a few people experiencing oddities with how many labels printed out.
Let's say you had two folders, each with the same name and security label added at the folder level.
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If you were to check into two locations, both in different folders (let's say both Giraffes and 1st-3rd Grade), Check-Ins would have printed two Name and two Security labels, because you could have added different labels to each folder. 
With this update, we only print unique labels. That means if Kevin checks into both of these locations, he'll only get one name and one security label. 
We hope this helps save some confusion and labels!
 
Team Check-Ins

Improved: Better Label Printing for Multiple Locations

If you're using Dymo with Windows or Mac, our <a href="https://planning.center/check-ins/download" target="_self">latest version of Check-Ins</a> now supports custom labels.
How it works
Once you've <a href="https://pcocheck-ins.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036685933" target="_self">created a custom label</a> in the Dymo Label Software, and uploaded it, Check-Ins will convert it to a version that will work with our Check-Ins app as a .pdf. 
When it doesn't work
Currently, there are only two instances where you should not use Direct Printing.
<ol>
<li>If you have any Zebra printers on your account. We currently don't support this format with Zebra printers, but we plan on supporting that in the future.</li>
<li>If you're using a Dymo twin turbo printer, and you're using the "choose roll" settings. We currently don't support choosing a roll, but this should also be coming soon.</li>
</ol>
Ok, what do I do?
Once you're ready, you can <a href="https://check-ins-staging.planningcenteronline.com/direct_printing_beta" target="_self">enable it here</a>. Make sure you're on the <a href="https://planning.center/check-ins/download" target="_self">latest version of the app</a>, and we'll start converting your custom labels!

New: Custom Label support with Direct Printing

We've added a new option to filter the event calendar: rooms and resources!
<img src="https://pcocalendar.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/360046146993/RR_Filter.gif" alt="RR_Filter.gif">
Selecting a room or resource narrows your view of events to only those using that room or resource. Need to see what's coming up in the Sanctuary this month? Trying to find out who's been leaving sticky stuff on the folding chairs? (Hint: middle schoolers) Pick any of those items from the search bar and you're one step closer to answers.
Rooms and resources work just like the other filter options. You can add multiple rooms and/or resources or pair them up with tags and approval status. This is especially helpful for getting quick intel on specific events or creating highly focused iCal feeds.
If you're taking advantage of organizing your rooms and resources into folders, you'll really like this: Selecting a folder from the search bar will filter your results to include events using any item contained in that folder. This offers a quick way to search for something like all production equipment without having to select every item individually.
We're so excited to share this and many other new features with you in the future. Thanks for letting us be a part of the good work you're doing.
Team Resources, Gabi, Kayla, Greg, Jesse, Nick, and Evan

Changelog

December 2019

November 2019

October 2019

September 2019

April 2019