This release includes:

To access Attendance Tracker, ensure you are on the My Apricot Tab. Expand My Apricot Tools in the left side navigation and click “Classes & Terms”.

Important notes:

As Apricot is a highly configurable product, we need to ensure we are using participant Tier 1s and selecting which Quick View fields are visible when enrolling participants in terms. This takes any guess work out and ensures the best user experience.

To do this, we use Feature Configuration. This is shared with Apricot Schedule, a feature that also relies on mapping.

Feature Configuration is accessed by either selecting the pencil icon next to “Classes & Terms” page title or linked in a term that has been created, but no enrollments have been completed.

Only Administrators can access Feature Configuration. Standard Users are shown an error if they try to access.

To begin using Attendance Tracker meaningfully, we need to understand which Tier 1s and associated Quick View fields should be used.

At least one Tier 1 (Participant Form), Name Field and one Quick View are required. Quick views are required to differentiate participants that may have the same name. The first Quick View is used in both the Attendance Table and the Enrollment Table; secondary Quick View is used to populate a column in the Enrollment Table.

Sites can have a maximum of two Tier 1s used in Attendance Tracker. Currently, those Tier 1s can be different than the Tier 1s chosen in the Schedule tab. However, we do not recommend this course of action.

When ready, click Save. You will be shown an additional confirmation.

Classes are the broadest and mostly static concept in the Attendance Tracker.

A class is Apricot’s representation of a course/meeting that recurs with different groups of students/participants over time. A class will generally have the same content/agenda no matter when it is offered.

Ex. Mental Health Counseling, Tax Prep, Accounting 101

Above is the Classes Table. Here, a site can see all previously configured classes. In this case, Parenting Class has been offered 2 times, 1 of which are currently in progress.

The Classes Table’s columns are sortable, and the table can be searched. Clicking the eye icon will take you to the Terms Table (described in next section). Clicking the kebab menu open allows you to delete a Class.

Important Note: Currently, you can delete a Class with active terms. This is bad! That would mean you would lose access to all data, especially data you are currently recording, that Class holds. We are going to fix this.

To add a new class, click “New Class”, located top right in the Classes Table. You will then be asked the Name, Description, Sites applies and Status of the Class.

Name and Sites are required. Sites are automatically populated with all Sites. You can click the “X” to remove or “Select All” in the drop-down to repopulate.

Sites are applied at the Site level. Programs are applied at the Term level.

All Class Names must be unique.

Active or Inactive is simply a way to signal to users which Class is currently being used, and which is not. Users can still access all previously recorded data for Inactive Classes. Currently, you can add terms to Inactive Classes. This is likely to change.

If you need to adjust the Class after creation, Click the eye icon on the Classes Table.

This will take you to the Terms Table. You will always see Class Details above the Terms Table. Click Edit to make any changes.

Term is the most important construct of Attendance Tracker. A Term represents the particular iteration of a class in time. Schedule, days off, location, success criteria and roster are all attached to the Term.

Ex. Fall Semester 2021, Summer Semester 2021, Tax Prep 1A, Session 3.2

Above is the Terms Table. This will show you all offerings of the Class. In this case, Parenting Class has been offered twice, the Summer Semester 2021 is currently in session.

Here I can see Term’s name, association programs, start and end date. The columns are sortable and searchable.

I can click the eye icon to view and record data against the term. I can also click the kebab menu to delete the term.
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​Important Note: Currently, you can delete ongoing terms, meaning user will lose access to the data in the interface. Be careful.

Terms are created in three parts.

Note, any configured fields can be edited after a term is started should that become necessary. Ex. Change in schedule, change in requirements.

First, users need to choose a Name for the Term. Terms names need to be distinct within a Class. For example, you can have a Summer 2021 term under Math Camp and a Summer 2021 term under Reading Camp.

Next, users should select which Programs are associated with the term. Programs are important because only participants within that program show up in the Enrollment Table.

Location is an optional field that signals to users where a term is taking place. This is a free text box that is of course reportable.

This is where users set the schedule for their term. This is important because only days that are expected to have classes can have data recorded.

There are two ways to set a Term’s schedule: Recurring or Specific Date(s).

Recurring Schedules

A recurring schedule function much like Outlook. Users can select the occurrence intensity: Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly.

Then users can select the frequency within the chosen occurrence. Ex. every other week, every month.

Then, depending on your occurrence, the correct options will appear. Ex. days of the week (weekly), or first – fifth Monday (monthly).

Next, users should pick the start and end date. This also informs the calculation of which dates can have data recorded.

Start and end time may also be used if so inclined. Much like location, these are nice to have and will primarily be used in reporting.

Because we have set a recurring schedule, it is possible certain holidays breaks or off days for the site would be included automatically. Or, if a snow day happens within a term, users can include the snow day here, so attendance trends are calculated correctly.

To solve for this, users should use the Select Days Off calendar. Simply click the date. The date will be populated in list. Users can remove the date by clicking the trash can.

For certain types of classes, there may be a limited number of meetings. For example, a workshop with only three dates or a training with only 1 date. Or it could be the case that a schedule does not fit neatly into recurring structure.

In these cases, it makes sense to use the Specific Date Scheduler.

User simply needs to click dates on the calendar that the term will be meetings. Dates will be populated in the right-hand list and can be removed by clicking the trash can icon.

Completion Criteria is one of the biggest value-adds of Attendance Tracker. If users tell us what good attendance means for the term, we can show how participants are progressing in their terms.

Good attendance differs from term to term. For a court-mandated class good attendance could be 90%. For Summer Camp, it could be six out of ten.

Using Completion Criteria is optional. User should uncheck Completion Criteria if they would not look to use.

There are two ways to set criteria: by percentage or by a specific number of “presents”. Select the radio button of your preference and enter your criteria as prompted below.

Knowing this information will also help Bonterra as now we can reason about structured attendance data.

Risk Indicators

Risk indicators will show how close to/far from the needed completion criteria for a particular term a participant is.

There are two categories, the completed term values and the in progress term values.

Note: The check for these values runs nightly, so if a class concludes, the updated values will not be available until the next morning.

These values will appear if the term has completed as of the time the values are updated.

these values will appear if the term has not completed as of the time the values are updated.

In certain cases, attendance needs to be taken more than once a day. This is a limitation of the Registration Grid.

Sessions may be configured to take attendance more than once a day.

To configure a Session for a Term, click the eye icon in the Terms Table. This will take you to the Attendance Table.

Click Session Manager on the right above the Attendance Table.

By default, Terms are assumed to be one session, i.e., attendance is expected to be taken once a day.

To add a session, click Add Session. Two Sessions will appear, one labeled Default and one ready to be named.

To change the names (including Default), click the pencil icon. Type desired name and click green checkbox. Rename all sessions as needed.

Note: Sessions will appear in the Attendance Table in the order they appear here. Make sure to double check order before saving.

Make sure to click save for changes to go live in the Attendance Table. When taking attendance, make sure you are in the correct Session tab.

For many organizations, just tracking present or absent is not enough for their operations or funder requirements.

To track additional data points, users should take advantage of Attendance Note Settings.

For the first release, the options of additional data points are standard:

To access Attendance Notes Settings, click the kebab menu to the right of Sessions Manager.

Users can select as many or as little options as they like. In this case, my term is using tagging, activities, and notes.

From Display Options, users pick which additional points they would like to collect. All, none, or some may be selected using the toggle on the right.

Attendance Tagging allows to tag present attendances as “make-up” or “tardy”. This is useful if you need to report on tardiness.

If turned on, this is how that data will be asked for:

Time In / Time Out allows users to record the amount of time a participant spent in class. This is useful is you need report on dosage metrics, or are billing based on time staff spent with participants.

If turned on, this is how data will be asked for:

The time zone associated with time in / time out is based on the device’s time zone, then stored as UTC.

Activities completed allows users to record what a participant did in their classes. This is important if you need to report on what happened, not just if someone was present. A good example is if a meal or snack was provided, that can be recorded here.

To configure Activities a user needs to both turn on the toggle and configure Activity Options.

Navigate to Activity Options tab within Attendance Note Settings. To add an activity click Add Activity and type desired input. Make sure to click both the check-mark and the Save button when done.

Users can input up to 25 activities.

If turned on, this is how data will be asked for:

Notes with Quick Note Options allows users take notes for an individual participant or for the entire roster. This is important when you need to capture context during classes, like who you need to follow up, if there was a disciplinary problem or other important information.

Notes can be used with or without Quick Notes.

Quick Notes are a usability enhancer. It is likely some notes are recorded repeatedly. Instead of typing the same note again and again, you can configure a Quick Note. With one tap, the quick note text is populated in the note box.

Like Activities Completed, there is an extra configuration step.

Navigate to the Quick Notes Options tab. Here you can add, edit and delete Quick Notes. To add a Quick Note, click “Add Quick Note” and click the green check-mark. Make sure to click Save.

If turned on, this is how data will be asked for:

If turned multiple data points are turned on, this is how data will be asked for:

The final step needed before users can begin taking attendance is building your roster. This is how we associate which Tier 1 records are enrolled in a term.

To build your roster, click Enroll Participants within the Term View.

The Enrollment Table will pop up and display participants within the Term’s assigned program. The Enrollment Table understands this from Feature Configuration. Neat!

The Enrollment Table is searchable and paged.

To add a participant to your roster, click the check mark next to their name. You can enroll all participants by clicking the checkbox next to the Name column header.

Click Save when ready. Your roster will now appear in the Attendance Table, ready for data entry.

Note: You cannot unenroll a participant from the Enroll Table. The check mark will persist.

Unfortunately, not all participants make it to the end of their courses. Or we may have enrolled someone in error.

To unenroll a student, click the kebab menu next to their name in the Attendance Table. Click unenroll.

Upon selecting unenroll, a popup will appear requiring an unenroll reason. These reasons are reportable.

These reasons are not customizable, but the list has several options that should cover most use cases.

Once a participant is unenrolled, you can no longer record data for them. All past recorded data is visible and editable.

Unenrolled students will only show in the Attendance Table if Show Unenrolled is checked.

To see reason enrolled, hover over the exclamation point icon.

It may be the case that we need to bring our participants back into the roster. To re-enroll a student. Open the kebab menu and select re-enroll.

Let us put it all together! Once all needed configurations have been completed, you are ready to record attendance data.

All data entry happens in the Attendance Table. The Attendance Table is searchable. The Name column is sortable A-Z and Z-A by First Name and Last Name.

The Attendance Table view will always be a weekly view. You can navigate week by week by click the arrow at the top. Dates are noted in the column headers. Clicking View Today will take you back to the week that today’s current date falls.

Only days that are on the schedule will have data entry controls.

If your term is using Sessions, make sure you are in the correct tab when entering data.

To mark an individual participant as present, click the green checkbox. To mark a participant as absent, select the red x.

To change the data that was entered, hover over the selection and make the appropriate change.

Users can also mark the entire roster as present or absent by using group controls, which are located beneath the date.

Important Note: It is possible when using group controls that any data entered for individual participants could be overwritten. Users are warned if this will happen.

Additional attendance data points are also recorded in the Attendance Table. To enter additional data points, click the notes icon in either the group controls or within the row.

If attendance data points have been recorded, the notes icon will appear in yellow and show a small yellow dot.

Note: If using group controls for attendance data points, it is possible to overwrite previously entered individual data.

Note: There is a character limit of 500 characters for the Notes field.

The Attendance Tracker also offers warnings if there is potential data missing. A green check-mark will appear next to a date if every participant has data recorded for the day. A yellow exclamation point will appear if some participants have data, and some do not.

Users can hover over the icon to see more details about the flag.

Reporting on Attendance Tracker is available in both Apricot's native reporting functionality, as well as Apricot Results Reporting for Apricot 360 clients. For the sake of simplicity though, we will only be digging into the native reporting aspect here.

If you are interested in learning more about Attendance Tracker reporting in ARR please refer to this article!

Please note: Any Attendance data recorded will sync overnight and be available for reporting the following day. Similarly, if a participant is put into a class but has not been marked Present/Absent AND no notes have been attached then they will NOT show up in a report even after an overnight sync.

All Attendance Tracker data is available under the “Attendance Tracker” section (beneath Sites & Programs) in the Field Choices palette.

All the below pieces of information held in Attendance Tracker are reportable and can be combined with other Tier 1 & Tier 2 fields when building reports. Please note data is not reportable in real time. Attendance data is synced nightly and will be up to date the following date.

It is likely the most popular will be: Attendance Date, Attendance Status, which will tell you what term days a participant was present or absent.

Grouping, filtering, and other useful Apricot reporting tools can be applied to Attendance Tracker data.