To take attendance for 2,000 employees quickly, have every employee sign in before the day so their personal QR is ready, run several scanning lanes in parallel, give each lane a manual-add fallback and measure your own scans per minute in a rehearsal. Sociana records every scan; you decide how many lanes the crowd needs.
Who this guide is for
You are running a company-wide event: an annual day, a town hall, a family day or a festival with a few thousand employees arriving in the same window. A queue at the entrance is the first impression of the whole event. You want a plan that works from numbers, not optimism.
Why queues form
Large arrivals are lumpy. Doors open at a set time, and a large share of people arrive in the first half hour. If one scanner handles a person every few seconds, the maths is simple and unkind. Queues also form because people do not have their QR ready, because screens are dim, because the phone has no signal and because a name search fails when the guest is not on the list.
You can influence all four before the day. The fastest scan is one where the person has already signed in, knows where their QR is and walks up with their screen bright.
The throughput plan
| Variable | What to estimate | How |
|---|---|---|
| Arrivals in the peak window | Share of people arriving in the busiest 30 minutes | Past events, shuttle schedules |
| Scans per minute per lane | Real rate with your devices | Rehearsal with 30 volunteers |
| Lanes needed | Peak arrivals divided by (scans per minute times minutes) | The attendance capacity planner |
| Manual lane | One or two lanes for no-QR guests | Plan staff |
| Buffer | Extra lane for faults | One spare scanner |
Do the arithmetic with your own numbers; this guide quotes none, because your venue, your phones and your crowd determine them.
Step by step
Step 1: Get people signed in before the day
The biggest speed-up is pre-registration. Employees sign in with their employee code and password, or by email OTP, so their personal QR exists on their phone. At Tiger15, employees signed in with an Employee ID and password or an email OTP, then confirmed their identity with Confirm It’s You. See employee code login.
Step 2: Tell employees where the QR is
Send a message a few days before and the morning of: “Open the app, tap My QR Pass, raise screen brightness.” At Tiger15 a My QR Pass expanded for booths, gates and the rewards counter. See entry pass and personal QR.
Step 3: Create one entry activity with a generous window
Open the window before the doors open and close it after the last expected arrival. Use group eligibility if the event is split by department, but avoid fine splits that create more rules than lanes. See attendance rules and points.
Step 4: Set up the lanes
Lanes by surname, department or floor spread the crowd; pick the split that matches how people arrive. Put one Manager per lane with Take Attendance open. Mark lanes with big signs. Keep one lane for manual add.
Step 5: Rehearse the real rate
Run 30 volunteers through two lanes in the actual lobby with the actual phones. Measure scans per minute and note delays. Use the number to size the lanes. See fast attendance planning for the arithmetic.
Step 6: Add a manual lane
Some employees will not have the app or a working phone. A manual add by employee code or mobile keeps them moving. Allow it and log it.
Step 7: Use pre-scan and holding areas
If the lobby is small, queue people outside in lanes with scanners at the door. Another approach is to move scanning to the seating area on a staggered schedule. Either must be tested.
Step 8: Watch the counts and release lanes
As the crowd thins, close lanes and redeploy staff. Export the attendance at the end and reconcile against the employee list.
A rehearsal you can run in an hour
Invite thirty volunteers, ten per lane, and ask them to arrive as if it were the day. Use real phones, including a few older handsets. Start a stopwatch when the first person reaches the scanner and stop it when the thirtieth has been accepted. Repeat with the manual lane. Note every delay: a camera that struggled, a QR that was dim, a name that was not found.
Divide the thirty by the minutes and you have a measured scans-per-minute rate for your setup. Use it in the capacity planner instead of any figure from a brochure. Fix the issues you saw before the day, and repeat the rehearsal if you change the layout.
Checklist for the morning
- Lanes are signed and staffed, each with a Manager who has Take Attendance open.
- A spare scanner phone is charged and signed in.
- The manual lane has a person who can search by employee code or mobile.
- The entry window is open before the doors and set to close after the last expected arrival.
- A message reminding employees to raise screen brightness has gone out.
- A volunteer is ready to direct people to the correct lane.
- The live count is visible to the lead, so lanes can be added or closed.
- The export is scheduled for the end of the arrival window.
Leave a few minutes before doors open for one last test scan on each device. Cameras and sign-ins fail in the lobby for reasons that never appeared in the office.
Pitfalls
- No pre-registration. The queue is the cost.
- One scanner per 500 people. Size from the rehearsal.
- Dim screens. Remind guests.
- A lane for everyone who has a problem. Separate the manual lane.
- Fancy rules. Complex eligibility slows scanning.
India and SAARC notes
Android held 93.89% of India’s mobile OS market in September 2026 (StatCounter), so the scanning device and the employees’ phones are likely to be Android, and low-end handsets with dim screens and slow cameras are part of the crowd. Test on the oldest phone you can find. Shift workers and plant staff may arrive in batches by bus; coordinate with transport. Family-day events add companions and children, so decide whether they are scanned. Employee codes are the right key; do not rely on names, which repeat.
How Sociana handles this
Attendance is modelled as activities with rules for time windows, group eligibility, ticket requirement and repeat scans. Organisers scan the participant’s QR with the organiser app or add them manually; attempts, scanner and time are recorded; and points can be awarded on completion with reversal. One identity carries the entry pass, the personal contact card, the exhibitor scan, reward redemption and the activity QR, so a QR used at the gate also works at booths and the rewards counter. Tiger15 used one QR pass for booth visits, offline game scoring, attendance and stock-aware reward redemption. See the QR attendance scanner demo and in-app mobile dashboards for the role screens.
FAQ
How many scanners do we need for 2,000 people?
It depends on the peak window and the real scan rate. Rehearse, measure scans per minute and use the capacity planner.
Can employees check themselves in?
Where self check-in is allowed, yes; see the self check-in guide. For crowd control, staffed lanes are often faster.
What if employees have not installed the app?
Run a manual lane and send a pre-event reminder with a clear first step.
Can we reward on-time arrival?
Yes. Completion of an activity can award leaderboard points, which reverse if the scan is reversed.
Related reading
Glossary: QR entry pass, employee code login, personal QR, participation points. Occasion hubs: employee programmes, corporate annual meets, festivals.