Set up the desk, then run the day

Before the event

One-time setup, for whoever prepares the machines. Work through it in order; nobody on the floor needs to touch any of it on the day.

1. 1Install

   Download the installer from the desktop check-in page and run it. There is one build for Windows and two for macOS, Apple silicon and Intel.

   Windows: expect a blue warning screen

   Windows shows Windows protected your PC. Choose More info → Run anyway. This is not a virus alert — Windows shows it for every new program it has not seen signed before, and the Windows build is not code-signed yet. The macOS build is signed and notarized, so it opens without a warning.

   • No administrator rights needed on Windows — it installs per user, so an ordinary staff account is enough
   • About 300 MB once installed
   • Any printer already installed on the computer will do

2. 2Sign in and open the event

   The sign-in screen offers four ways in. They all open the same desk; they differ in what they leave on the machine.

   Way in	How it works	Good to know
   Password	Email and password of a bagevent account with access to the event	The only way that sets up offline sign-in on this machine (step 7)
   Email code	A one-time code is emailed to you; no password is typed	Needs the network every time
   Scan with app	The desk shows a QR code. Scan it in the bagevent app on a signed-in phone and approve it there	No password touches the desk. You pick the event on the phone and the desk opens that one event only
   Google or Apple	Opens your browser to finish sign-in, then returns to the app	Only offered while online

   After a password, email-code, Google or Apple sign-in, pick the event under Select an event. Switch event at the bottom left changes it later.

   Shared laptops: use Scan with app

   A volunteer never learns an account password, and the session is limited to the single event that was approved on the phone. The trade-off is that a scan sign-in cannot be used to open the desk with no network, so prepare the offline pack from a password sign-in.

3. 3Sync the roster

   Opening an event pulls the full attendee list onto this machine on its own. After that the app syncs every 60 seconds in the background — pushing queued check-ins up, pulling roster changes down — and does a fuller refresh every 5 minutes. Sync data on the Check-in screen, or Sync in the top bar, does it on demand.

   

   Do this before you leave the office

   The roster lives on the machine, so searching and checking in never depend on the network. But the first full pull does. Discovering at the venue that a laptop was never synced is discovering it too late.

4. 4Choose the channel

   A channel is a check-in point: the main entrance, the VIP lounge, a workshop room. Bind this desk to one in Settings → Channel (check-in point), or in Devices → Channels, where you can also create a new one. The top bar shows the channel in use, or No channel.

   • With no channel chosen, scans are recorded against the event’s default point. Reports then cannot tell this entrance from any other
   • A channel can be limited to certain tickets. A ticket it does not admit is refused at that desk, with a message telling the operator to send the person to an entrance their ticket opens
   • Check-ins captured offline are sent later against the channel they were captured at

5. 5Printer and badge template

   Open Badge templates and confirm the design for this event. The page is read-only: templates are built by the organizer in the web app, and Design badges online takes you there. This machine keeps a copy, which is why badges still print with no network.

   Then open Devices. Under Printers press Use on the printer this desk prints to and Test to print a sample. Print routing sends particular tickets to particular printers, for example VIP badges to the printer loaded with different stock.

   Badges do not print on check-in until you say so

   Print a badge when someone is checked in on this PC is off on a fresh install. Switch it on in Settings or on the Print server page if this desk hands out badges. Leave it off if badges are printed in advance and laid out on the table.

   Never select a file printer such as Print to PDF

   The app keeps file printers out of the print server and hides them on the Devices page behind Show file printers. A badge routed into a PDF leaves the person at the front of the queue holding nothing.

6. 6Turn phones into scanners

   This PC can also host up to 3 phones or handheld scanners over the venue network, all printing to the printers attached here. Useful for splitting an entrance, or for sending someone into the queue to scan while it is still moving.

   

   1. 1Press Start server
   2. 2On Windows, if the yellow banner appears, press Allow through firewall and approve the administrator prompt. Do not skip this. Without the rule, check-in on this PC works perfectly and paired phones simply never connect — nothing on screen looks wrong
   3. 3Press Pair a device on Channel A, B or C and scan the code with the phone. The code changes every minute
   4. 4Approve the device on this PC. A paired phone can do nothing until someone at the desk presses Approve. The same step names the channel, picks its printer and sets which tickets it admits
   A device binds to a channel, not to a printer

   So when a printer jams or runs out of labels, the server can send that channel’s badges to another printer without anyone re-pairing a phone in the middle of a queue.

7. 7Prepare the offline pack

   Venue networks fail. While you still have one, open Offline mode and press Go offline to package the whole event — roster, form answers, badge templates, channels and collection points — onto the machine, so the desk keeps working when the network does not.

   

   With no network	Works	Why
   Scan and check in	yes	Queued locally, sent on the next successful sync
   Undo a check-in	yes	Also queued
   Find someone by name, company or email	yes	Searches the roster on the machine
   Print a badge	yes	Assembled from the cached template
   Self-service kiosk	yes	Check-in codes are matched against the roster on the machine
   Collection points	yes	Only points the organizer marked as working offline, and not gift or access-control points
   Hand out gifts	no	Stock is counted on the server
   Walk-in registration	no	The server issues the ticket code
   Change someone's ticket	no	The decision has to reach the server
   Approve a pending registration	no	The decision has to reach the server
   See purchased add-ons	no	Read from the order on the server

   • Opening the desk with no network needs the account password, and it only works on a machine where someone has signed in with a password online at least once. Five wrong attempts block it for five minutes
   • Days offline sets the lease, from 1 to 30 days. A change applies the next time you press Go offline
   • When less than a day of the lease is left, the app shows a banner with Renew it
   An offline pack is your attendee list

   Names, emails and phone numbers, sitting on a laptop that leaves the office. The lease is the one lever that limits it: long enough to cover the event, short enough that a forgotten laptop stops being a copy of your attendee list. Seven days by default.

8. 8Desk settings

   

   • Desk name — sent as the check-in source, so reports can tell desks apart. Name them the way the floor plan does, and press Save desk settings
   • Ignore a repeated scan for — 3 seconds by default. Scan guns fire twice on a slow trigger; the second read is ignored instead of raising a false “already checked in”
   • Sound on scan — leave it on. In a noisy hall, the beep tells the operator the scan landed faster than the screen does
   • Background sync every — 60 seconds by default, and no shorter than 15
   • Check for updates, under About — the app also checks once each time it starts, downloads a new version in the background and installs it when you quit

Troubleshooting

What actually goes wrong at a desk, and what is actually causing it.

Phones cannot reach the check-in PC

On Windows it is almost always the firewall rule: open Print server, look for the yellow banner and press Allow through firewall. Check-in on the PC itself keeps working throughout, which is why nothing on screen points at the cause. Two other causes: the device was paired but nobody pressed Approve on the PC, or the print server stopped because a different event was opened.

A scan shows “Already checked in” straight after it worked

A slow scan-gun trigger fires two reads. Nobody is counted twice: the second read is answered with Already checked in. Raise Ignore a repeated scan for in Settings (three seconds by default) and the second read is dropped quietly.

No badge comes out

Check that Print a badge when someone is checked in on this PC is switched on; it is off on a fresh install. Then check the event has a badge template for that ticket, that the printer is ready, and that it is not a file printer such as Print to PDF. A repeat scan never prints a second badge; use Print badge on the row for that.

The unsynced count will not clear

Press Sync once. If the number does not move, the network is still down or the backend is unreachable. If the top bar reads Offline session, press Reconnect or sign in again: an offline session does not upload. An item the server refused stays queued and is listed with its reason under Dashboard, Needs attention. Nothing is lost, and you can keep checking people in the whole time.

The row shows a status instead of a Check in button

Cancelled, refunded, awaiting payment, pending review and rejected registrations cannot be checked in. That is the server's decision, not a fault on the machine. A pending review can be approved from the Dashboard if your role allows it; the others have to be resolved by the organizer in the web app.

Windows shows a blue warning when installing

The Windows installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows shows the warning it shows for every unfamiliar program. Choose More info, then Run anyway. The macOS build is signed and notarized and opens without a warning.

A page says it is not part of your role

Your account's role at this event does not include that function. Ask an owner or admin of the organization to add it to your role, then reopen the event.

The roster is empty after opening an event

Opening an event starts a full sync on its own. If that first sync failed, usually because the network dropped, press Sync data on the Check-in screen.

This manual covers bagevent Onsite v1.0.0. Every screenshot is of the running application on Windows, with a demo event. Wording on screen may shift between versions; the way the desk works does not.