Planning Center Check-ins SQL Queries
Transform Your Check-in Data Into Ministry Insights
Your check-in system is the heartbeat of your weekend services and events. With Parable’s SQL access to Planning Center Check-ins data, you can analyze attendance patterns, optimize volunteer placement, and ensure child safety—all with nightly-synchronized data at your fingertips.Quick Start
Ready to see who checked in today? Here’s your first query:What You Can Do With Check-ins Queries
👥 Track Attendance Patterns
- Monitor weekly service attendance trends
- Compare attendance across different service times
- Identify seasonal patterns in attendance
- Track first-time guest retention
👶 Manage Children’s Ministry
- Monitor classroom capacity and ratios
- Track volunteer-to-child ratios with current data
- Analyze age group distributions
- Generate security reports for child safety
🙋 Optimize Volunteer Placement
- Identify understaffed locations
- Track volunteer attendance and reliability
- Balance volunteer assignments across services
- Monitor volunteer check-in patterns
📊 Generate Leadership Reports
- Create attendance dashboards for leadership
- Track growth metrics across campuses
- Monitor event effectiveness
- Export data for strategic planning
Available Tables
Your Planning Center Check-ins data is organized into these main tables:Table | What It Contains | Key Use Cases |
---|---|---|
checkins_checkins | Individual check-in records | Attendance tracking, security codes |
checkins_people | People who check in | Person profiles, contact info |
checkins_events | Event definitions | Service times, recurring events |
checkins_event_times | Specific times for events | Service schedules, time-based analysis |
checkins_locations | Physical or logical locations | Rooms, classrooms, volunteer areas |
checkins_event_periods | Check-in sessions | Service-specific attendance |
checkins_headcounts | Manual attendance counts | Total attendance tracking |
checkins_check_in_times | Times people checked into locations | Location-specific attendance |
checkins_labels | Print labels for check-ins | Name tags, security labels |
checkins_stations | Check-in kiosk stations | Station performance, usage patterns |
Understanding Relationships
Just like with other Planning Center data, Check-ins stores relationships in separate tables to maintain data integrity:checkins_checkin_relationships
- Links check-ins to people, events, locationscheckins_event_relationships
- Links events to related entitiescheckins_location_relationships
- Links locations to events and parent locationscheckins_event_time_relationships
- Links event times to events and locations
Common Check-ins Scenarios
Finding Today’s Check-ins by Location
Tracking Volunteer Coverage
Next Steps
📚 New to SQL? Start with Basic Queries for simple, powerful queries you can use today. 🚀 Ready for More? Check out Advanced Queries for complex analysis and reporting. 📊 Need Reports? See Reporting Examples for complete, production-ready reports. 🔍 Want Details? Review the Data Model for complete table documentation.Common Questions
What’s the difference between an Event and an Event Time?
- An Event is the recurring definition (e.g., “Sunday Service”)
- An Event Time is a specific instance (e.g., “Sunday Service at 9:00 AM on Jan 7, 2024”)
- Event Periods represent active check-in sessions
How do I find people who haven’t checked out?
Look for records wherechecked_out_at IS NULL
:
What does the ‘kind’ field mean?
Thekind
field identifies the type of check-in:
Regular
- Standard attendee (usually children)Guest
- First-time or visiting attendeeVolunteer
- Someone serving in ministry
How do I track first-time guests?
Check for theone_time_guest
flag or kind = 'Guest'
:
Getting Help
- 🐛 Found an issue? Report it at github.com/getparable/parable-api/issues
- 📖 Need more examples? Check our other query guides in this folder
- 💬 Have questions? Reach out to your Parable support team
Your attendance data tells a story of growth and engagement. Let’s help you understand it.