How to Track Attendance in Airtable

The easiest way to track attendance in Airtable is to create one record for each person at each session. That lets you answer questions such as who attended a workshop, which sessions Sarah missed, and how many people attended today.

Use three tables for this setup:

Create the tables

In People, create one record for each person. Add fields such as Name, Email, Phone, and Role.

In Sessions, create one record for each class or event. Add fields such as Session Name, Date, Location, and Facilitator.

In Attendance, add these fields:

• Person, linked to the People table
• Session, linked to the Sessions table
• Status, with options such as Expected, Attended, Absent, and Excused
• Notes, for anything the facilitator needs to record

Each Attendance record should link one person to one session. For example, Sarah's attendance at Workshop 1 is one record, and her attendance at Workshop 2 is another.

This table is the link between People and Sessions. It means one person can attend many sessions, and one session can have many people.

Mark attendance from the table

Use this method when you already know who is expected to attend.

Before the session, create an Attendance record for each expected person and set Status to Expected. During the session, change the status to Attended as people arrive. Afterward, change anyone who did not attend to Absent or Excused.

To make this easier, create a filtered view in the Attendance table for the session happening today. Filter Session to the current session, then group the view by Status.

If creating the records manually takes too long, you can automate the process when a new session is created. The automation can find the people who should attend and create one Attendance record for each person. See how to automatically generate attendance records for workshops in Airtable.

Count attendance automatically

You can count attendance from the linked records in the Sessions table.

Add a Total Registered Count field. Set it to count the linked Attendance records for that session.

Add an Attended Count field using the same linked records, then add the condition Status is Attended. Airtable will count only the people whose attendance status is Attended.

To show the attendance rate, add a formula field called Attendance Rate:

IF({Total Registered}, {Attended} / {Total Registered})

Format the formula as a percentage. The result will update whenever you change an Attendance record.

You can use the same Count field approach in the People table to see how many sessions each person attended.

Let attendees mark themselves present

If people will check themselves in, create a form connected to the Attendance table. Add the Person and Session fields.

Set Status to Attended as the default value. Each submission will then create one Attendance record for that person and session.

For an in-person event, prefill the Session field with the session's record ID and turn the form link into a QR code. See Airtable's prefilled form documentation for the URL format.

Anyone with the form link can choose a person and submit it, so this works best when a simple check-in is enough. If a facilitator needs to verify attendance, use the table-based method instead.

Do not pre-create Expected records in the Attendance table when the form will create the records. If you need both a pre-created roster and public check-ins, keep the form submissions in a separate Check-ins table.