To track attendance at a corporate event, load the invited list as identities, define the activities you want counted, scan each person’s QR at each activity and report unique accepted attendance against the invited number. Sociana records the attempt, scanner and time, and exports attendance per activity.
Who this guide is for
You are the event lead or HR partner for an annual meet, strategy meet or town hall. A leader will ask “How many came to the gala dinner?” and finance will ask “How many of the invited actually attended?” You want one source for both answers by 11 pm, not three sheets on Monday.
What to count and against what
“Attendance” hides several questions. Registered is not present. Present at entry is not present at the plenary. Present at the plenary is not present at the dinner. A report that gives a single number invites an argument.
Fix the denominator first: the invited list. Then fix the numerator for each activity: unique accepted attendance, meaning distinct people whose scan was accepted. Present at entry divided by invited is a different figure from present at the dinner divided by invited, and both are valid answers to different questions.
| Question | Numerator | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Did people come? | Unique accepted at entry | Invited |
| Did they stay for content? | Unique accepted at the plenary | Present at entry |
| Did they join the evening? | Unique accepted at the dinner | Present at entry |
| Did they come back? | Unique accepted on day two | Present on day one |
Step by step
Step 1: Start from the list
Import the invited list with name, employee code, mobile or email, city and zone. Keys matter: the employee code is the natural identifier. At Unstoppable NAMI 2026, registration captured employee code, city and zone, which allowed attendance by zone. See member imports and profiles.
Step 2: Choose the activities
List what the leader and finance care about: entry, plenary, breakout, dinner, bus. Limit to what you will report. Use the attendance activity plan. For rules and points, see configuring attendance rules and points.
Step 3: Prepare the identity on the phone
Each attendee has an Event QR Code on their Profile, used for check-in and sessions. In the invitation, tell them where it is. The same personal identity serves entry, contact exchange and reward redemption.
Step 4: Staff the scanners
Owners and Managers scan with Take Attendance. Add a manual route for dead phones. See QR attendance and activities.
Step 5: Watch the live count
During the event, the lead sees counts. At NAMI, the Take Attendance screen also showed document status on scan, so the desk could chase missing IDs on the spot. For mobile dashboards inside the app, see in-app mobile dashboards.
Step 6: Handle late and unscheduled arrivals
Walk-ins and late arrivals are normal. Allow manual add with a reason and flag it. Record them; do not suppress them. A report with a note “12 manual adds” is better than one that hides them.
Step 7: Let the window close and freeze the count
When an activity’s time window ends, late scans are rejected and logged, which is why windows matter. Export the attendance file after the evening session while the team is still in the building.
Step 8: Report with denominators and dates
State each figure in one form: “Dinner: [n] of [m] present at entry ([percentage]), [date].” Fill the brackets with your own counts; the form is the point. Separate by zone or group where useful. The event outcome report provides a layout.
Preparing the report before the event
Draft the report template the week before. List the figures you will give, the denominators and the groups you will cut by. Mock one table with placeholders: entry by zone, plenary by zone, dinner by zone. Agree with HR and finance that this is the format. When the attendance export arrives, filling the template takes minutes rather than days.
Decide also what you will not report. Per-person attendance may be sensitive in some companies; agree who may see the individual log and who sees only the aggregates. State it in the report so a reader knows what the numbers do and do not cover.
Checklist for the week before
- The invited list is final, with a unique key for each person and the fields you want to cut by.
- Activities are created, named in plain words and limited to what you will report.
- Time windows match the run-of-show, with a margin for a late start.
- Scanners are briefed, rehearsed on real phones and assigned to doors.
- Guests know where their QR is, from an invitation line and a banner on Home.
- The manual add route and its owner are named.
- The report template is drafted with denominators, and the people who will read it have seen it.
- A named person will export and archive the attendance file on the night, not on Monday.
If any line is not ticked three days out, fix it first. Attendance is the figure leaders remember, so an hour of preparation is well spent.
Pitfalls
- Reporting one number. Give three or four, each with its denominator.
- Tracking too many activities. Report what is used.
- No identity key. Without an employee code or mobile, matching fails.
- Hidden manual adds. Show them.
- Counting scans instead of people. Use unique accepted attendance.
India and SAARC notes
Indian corporate meets are often held at resorts a few hours from the city, where signal is patchy and guests arrive in waves by coach. Test scanning at the venue. Meetings and incentives make up about 70% of MICE business hosted by Indian five-star properties (PIB explainer, 2019 study), so your event is one of many sharing the hotel’s staff; agree with the hotel who can stand where. Zone, region and circle are the natural cuts in Indian sales organisations. Attendance records also support AGM and statutory needs for associations, so export the scanner and time as well as the count.
How Sociana handles this
Attendance is modelled as activities with sub-activities and rules for windows, groups, tickets and repeat scans. Attempts, scanner and time are recorded, and unique accepted attendance per activity is the headline metric, with points on completion and reversal if you use them. Unstoppable NAMI 2026, the NAM India annual strategy meet at Aamby Valley on 3 to 5 April 2026, used Take Attendance with document status, an Event QR Code and zone-aware notifications; see the case study. Try the QR attendance scanner demo.
FAQ
Can we get attendance by zone or department?
Yes, if you capture those fields at registration or import them. Attendance can then be read by group.
How do we track people who leave early?
Create sub-activities for the parts of the programme you care about, such as the plenary and the dinner, and scan at each.
Can attendees check themselves in?
Where self check-in is allowed for an activity, yes. See self check-in without staff.
What does the export contain?
Unique accepted attendance per activity, a scan attempts log and points awarded and reversed. Format and fields are set at kickoff.
Related reading
Glossary: attendance activity, unique accepted attendance, participation rate, self check-in. Occasion hubs: corporate annual meets, sales kickoffs, town halls.