Guide
What a Check-Ins ratio does, and doesn't
The ratio on a Planning Center Check-Ins location is a limit at the door on Sunday. It's useful, but it isn't a staffing plan.
What it is
Each location in Check-Ins (a room, or a group within one) can have a minimum number of volunteers, a capacity, and a ratio of attendees per volunteer [1].
What it does
- It works at check-in. Check-Ins applies the ratio when children are checked in to the location, counting the volunteers who checked in there as a Volunteer [2].
- It's live. It reflects who is checked in at that moment, which is exactly what matters on the day.
What it doesn't do
- It doesn't know your schedule. It can't tell you on Wednesday that Sunday's schedule won't meet the ratio. You find out at the door.
- It counts volunteers who checked in, as a Volunteer. An adult who's in the room but didn't check in isn't counted. With the Services integration, a scheduled volunteer is checked in as a Volunteer only when the location's name matches their team or position name [3].
- A ratio alone doesn't keep two adults in the room. One adult and three children meets a 1:4 ratio. If your policy has a two-adult rule, the minimum volunteers setting is the one that speaks to it [1], and your schedule has to plan for it.
How to set it
Planning Center's own help explains it step by step: Create and manage locations and Filter people into locations. Use the ratio your church's child protection policy sets for each age group.
When a room is short anyway
- Don't leave one adult alone with the children while you sort it out.
- Send the next families to another room for their age, or pause new check-ins to that room.
- Call the hall monitor or a floater: a volunteer scheduled for exactly this.
- Plan for next time: staff for the busiest Sunday, not the average one.
Where Arkrooms fits
Arkrooms does the part before Sunday. It reads each room's past Check-Ins counts, staffs the rooms for the children you expect, and checks every schedule against your rules. During a service it tells your leaders when a room has more children than its adults cover.
Sources
- Planning Center: Create and manage locations
- Planning Center: Filter people into locations
- Planning Center: Check-Ins and Services integration
A guide, not advice: your church's own policy, your insurer and any state licensing rules that apply to your programs decide your ratios. Check-Ins changes over time; Planning Center's help is the source for how it works today. Last reviewed October 2026.