Community centers. Youth programs. Food pantries. Adult education classes.
Your participants are in Salesforce already. With a card or a QR code, their attendance can be too, the moment they walk in the door.
TL;DR
- Each participant holds up a card or a QR code on their phone at the door. One scan, and their attendance is recorded in Salesforce right then.
- Use a phone camera, a USB scanner, or the participant's own phone. No sign-in sheet, no typing names, no new system to learn.
- The scan fills in the records Nonprofit Cloud (now also called Agentforce Nonprofit) already uses: the Benefit Session and each person's Benefit Disbursement.
- Your reports stay current the same day, so the count your funders ask for is ready when they ask.
- The alternative is the session's Attendance tab, where staff mark each person Completed or Absent by hand, usually after class.
In this article
- Attendance in Salesforce with one scan at the door
- Scanning vs clicking, side by side
- Why attendance is the part that gets postponed
- The records behind attendance in Nonprofit Cloud
- Without a scanner: the standard Attendance tab
- Before you start: a short checklist
- If you are still on NPSP and PMM
- FAQ
Attendance in Salesforce with one scan at the door
Here is a Tuesday tutoring session with a barcode or QR code. Participants check in by scanning, and Salesforce is up to date before the class even starts. The Nonprofit Cloud records stay exactly as they are. Only the way attendance gets filled in changes.
Gimbal Barcode is a native barcode and QR code solution for Salesforce. It is a managed package listed on the Salesforce AppExchange. It lets you generate barcodes and QR codes from data on any Salesforce record, and scan them in Salesforce to insert, update, or view records, or run custom business logic.
What the participant has
- A photo ID card with a barcode or QR code, printed from their Salesforce record. (See Create ID Cards and Track Attendance.)
- Or a QR code on their phone. You send a unique link by email or SMS. It opens a personal QR code they show at the door, just like a concert ticket. No app to install. (See QR Codes, Simplified, and Fully Native in Salesforce.)
What happens at the door
- A staff member or volunteer opens the scan screen in Salesforce on a phone, tablet, or a computer with a USB scanner.
- They choose Tuesday's tutoring session.
- Maria walks in and holds up her card.
- The scan finds Maria's record and updates her attendance for that session. The who, what, and when are recorded directly in Salesforce, in realtime. (Exactly which record and status a scan writes is configured to match your org.)
- The next person scans. A line of 30 kids moves about as fast as they can hold up a card.
- After the session, anyone who did not scan is still listed as Enrolled. You mark them Absent using the normal Attendance tab steps below.
If you build in Salesforce Flow, Gimbal also includes a scanner component you drag onto the Flow canvas. One Flow can serve desktop and mobile. (See Gimbal Barcode Scanner for Flow.)
You can watch the attendance demo here: Video: Create ID Cards and Track Attendance.
Scanning vs clicking, side by side
| Clicking (standard Nonprofit Cloud) | Scanning (Gimbal Barcode) | |
|---|---|---|
| When attendance is recorded | After the session, or days later | At the door, as each person arrives |
| Who enters it | A staff member, from memory or a paper sheet | The scan, triggered by the participant's card or phone |
| Records updated | Benefit Disbursement status | The same records, inside Salesforce |
| Typing names | Yes, to find people | No |
| Drop-in visitors | Create an ad hoc disbursement by hand | Can be set up so a scan creates the visit record |
| Equipment | A computer | A phone camera, a USB or Zebra scanner, or the participant's phone |
| Paper sheet needed | Often | No |
One AppExchange reviewer put the equipment question simply: "You can use the camera on the mobile app. You can use a Zebra scanner. You can use a computer with a USB Scanner. Whatever you need, it works."
Why attendance is the part that gets postponed
Without scanning, attendance is often the last thing to get built. An organization moves to Nonprofit Cloud, and attendance is moved to "phase two." The participants are in Salesforce, but the sign-in sheet is still on a clipboard by the door. Someone types it in later, when they have time.
Program teams ask for the scan version in public: "How to add attendance of our students using QR code and update that info back to Salesforce. Also maintain integrity of that attendace." (Trailblazer Community, May 2024) Nonprofit Cloud already has a place for attendance. A scan is simply the fastest way to fill it in.
The records behind attendance in Nonprofit Cloud
If you set this up, it helps to know which record a scan fills in. Your org may say Nonprofit Cloud or Agentforce Nonprofit. The record names are the same. Salesforce describes these objects in its Trailhead modules (records that track your programs, enrollments and deliveries).
| Record | What it holds | Attendance example |
|---|---|---|
| Person Account | The participant | Maria, age 14 |
| Program | A high-level area of your mission | Youth Programs |
| Program Enrollment | Links a participant to a program | Maria is enrolled in Youth Programs |
| Benefit | A service you deliver | After-School Tutoring |
| Benefit Assignment | Connects a participant to a benefit | Maria is assigned to tutoring |
| Benefit Schedule | Creates the sessions (one time, recurring, or irregular) | Tutoring, every Tuesday and Thursday |
| Benefit Session | One session, with a start and end date and time | Tuesday, 4:00 to 5:30 PM |
| Benefit Disbursement | Records that a person received the benefit, and how much | Maria attended Tuesday's session |
The two records that matter most on the day are the Benefit Session (the class) and the Benefit Disbursement (each person's line for that class). Salesforce also lets you create a disbursement "ad hoc," which is useful for drop-in visits that are not on a schedule.
One trailblazer summed up how this feels at first: "We are confused between Programs, Program Engagement, Service, Service Delivery, and Service Session." (Trailblazer Community) Those are the older PMM names, but the feeling is the same. Keep the table above handy.
Without a scanner: the standard Attendance tab
This is the click-through process a scan replaces, and the one you still use to mark anyone who did not scan as Absent. These steps follow Salesforce's own Trailhead unit, Manage schedule participants and attendance.
Set up once per program
- Enroll each participant in the program (Program Enrollment).
- Assign the benefit to each participant (Benefit Assignment).
- Create a Benefit Schedule. Salesforce creates the Benefit Sessions for you.
- Add participants to the schedule (up to 100 at a time) or to a single session (up to 20 at a time).
On the day of each session
- Open the Benefit Session record.
- Click the Attendance tab. Each person starts with the status Enrolled.
- Select the people who came. Click Edit Status and choose Completed.
- Select the people who did not come. Click Edit Status, choose Absent, and set the quantity to 0.
Salesforce then says: "All of the benefit disbursement records for these participants are updated with the new status values." Totals roll up to the benefit and the program, so your reports stay current.
This is a solid, native process. Step 7 is the one a scan takes over: instead of a staff member working from a list after class, each person is marked as they walk in.
Before you start: a short checklist
- Your schedule exists in Salesforce. Benefit Schedules and Sessions should be created before the first class. A scan needs a session to land on.
- Every participant has a record. Walk-ins are fine, but decide now how you will handle a person with no card.
- Decide card or phone. Older participants often prefer a card. Teens often prefer a QR on their phone. You can offer both.
- Pick your scanning device. Test it at the real door, with the real lighting and the real Wi-Fi.
- Decide what "Absent" means. Will someone mark the unscanned people Absent after each session, or at the end of the week?
- Think about privacy. A card should show only what staff need at the door. Keep sensitive details on the Salesforce record, behind your normal permissions.
- Know what your funders count. Many funders ask for two numbers: how many different people you served, and how many visits in total. The NASCSP definition of an unduplicated count is "counting one person one time for any given service." When each visit is its own record in Salesforce, both numbers come from the same data.
Common mistakes I see
- Printing cards before the participant records are clean. Merge duplicates first.
- Scanning into a session that was never created. Build the schedule first.
- Keeping the paper sheet "just in case" for months. Then nobody trusts either one.
If you are still on NPSP and PMM
Many organizations still run the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) with the Program Management Module (PMM). Salesforce stopped adding new features to its managed packages, including NPSP (Salesforce Ben), and as of December 2025 NPSP is no longer offered as a preconfigured package in new production orgs (Trailhead). New orgs start on Nonprofit Cloud.
In PMM, attendance lives on the Service Session, with a Track Attendance component and an Attendance Status field on each Service Delivery (Trailhead). One admin on Reddit described the pain well: "adding the attendance by day takes ages as there are a lot of participants." (r/salesforce)
The scanning idea is the same. The scan updates the records you already use. If you plan to move to Nonprofit Cloud later, a scan-based process can move with you, because the door routine stays the same. Only the records behind it change.
FAQ
Can Salesforce scan barcodes on its own? Partly. Salesforce has a BarcodeScanner feature for developers, but it "does not and cannot function when running in a web browser." It works inside the Salesforce mobile app and Mobile Publisher apps (Salesforce Developers). Someone still has to build the screens and the logic. Gimbal Barcode gives you that, ready to configure, on desktop and mobile.
Do participants need to download an app? No. A participant can carry a printed ID card, or show a QR code that opens from a link you send by email or SMS. Staff scan it. As one program director wrote, "The last thing I want to do is download an app." We agree.
Will older participants manage it? A card is the simplest option. They hold it up, the staff member scans it, and they go in. Nobody has to type or remember a password.
Do we need a developer? Gimbal Barcode installs from the AppExchange as a managed package and is configured inside Salesforce. Many teams have their Salesforce admin work with us on setup. If your process is unusual, it can be configured and customized to fit.
Will it fit our custom org? It works with the records you already have. It does not replace your data model or take over your org. A scan inserts, updates, or views the Salesforce records you choose.
How do I get an unduplicated count for my funder? If every visit is its own record, a standard Salesforce report can count unique participants and total visits from the same data. Scanning helps because every visit is recorded, not only the ones someone remembered to type in.
Does scanning work without internet? This depends on your sites and devices. Tell us where you run programs, and we will tell you plainly what will work there.
See it in action
Gimbal Barcode is used by 100+ organizations and has 91 reviews on the AppExchange, with a 4.87 average. One reviewer wrote: "I will be recommending Gimbal Logic for my nonprofit clients who need to quickly scan in program participants and track attendance at events and classes."
If you have questions about anything in this article, or if your requirements differ a lot or a little from what is shown here, please get in touch. We are happy to show you a short live demo in your own setup and talk about next steps.