Member mornings, sensory-friendly hours, members-only lectures, free garden walks: the program costs nothing, but you still want to know which members came. The slow version is a staff member typing names into Altru while a line forms at the door. The fast version uses the barcode already printed on the membership card. Getting from one to the other is mostly about deciding what you need to record, then setting up Altru so a scan is all it takes.
Start with what you actually need to capture
“Scan members in” can mean three different things, and each one points to a different setup:
- A headcount. You only need to know how many members showed up. You don’t need a transaction per person.
- Named attendance. You want each visit tied to the constituent record, so you can query who attended, follow up afterward, or measure how often members use their benefits.
- Capacity control. The program has limited space, so you need to know in advance who is coming and stop at a number.
Be honest about which one you need. A lot of teams build a full transaction workflow for an event where a clicker count would have been enough, and staff resent it. Others count heads and later wish they could pull a list of attendees for a survey.
Option 1: A $0 program sold at the door
For named attendance without pre-registration, set the free program up in Altru the way you would any program, with a price of zero for members (and, if it’s members-only, no public price at all). At the door, staff look up the member, add the $0 item, and complete the sale. Because it’s a real transaction, it lands on the constituent record and shows up in your queries and reports like any other admission.
The speed comes from the lookup step. Many front desks use a handheld USB barcode scanner, which behaves like a keyboard: it “types” whatever is encoded in the barcode into the field that has focus. If your membership cards print a number Altru can search on, a scan into the constituent or membership search can replace typing a name. Two things to confirm before you rely on it:
- What the barcode on your card contains. It may be a lookup ID, a membership card number, or something else depending on how your cards were set up and printed. Scan a card into a plain text editor to see exactly what comes out.
- Whether that value is searchable where staff will be working. Test it in your daily sales workflow, ideally in a sandbox or on a slow day, with a few real cards: a current member, a household member, and a recently renewed member with a new card. If the search doesn’t find the record from the scanned value, ask Blackbaud support which fields that search looks at before you change anything.
Once the lookup works, the remaining clicks are adding the free item and finishing the transaction. Keep the $0 item at the top of the program list for that day so staff aren’t scrolling.
Option 2: Free advance registration, then scan the ticket
For programs with limited space, register members ahead of time instead. Offer the program as a $0 advance sale with capacity, either through your online sales or by phone. Each registration produces a ticket with its own barcode, and on the day you scan the ticket rather than the membership card.
This handles capacity and names in one step, and it shifts the data entry off the day of the event. The tradeoff is no-shows: free registrations get abandoned more than paid ones. Some organizations overbook slightly or open a standby line at the door for walk-up members, who then go through Option 1.
Option 3: Count at the door, reconcile later
If you only need a number, don’t create transactions at all. Check membership status at the door (a glance at the card’s expiration date, or a scan to confirm the member is current), count entries, and record the total in whatever you use for attendance reporting. It’s the fastest door experience, but you won’t be able to answer “which members came?” later, so make that choice on purpose.
Small things that make the door faster
- Decide on households in advance. If one card covers two adults and children, should staff record one entry or one per person? Write the rule down so it’s consistent across shifts.
- Plan for the forgotten card. A name search is the fallback. Keep it, but make the scan the default.
- Handle expired members kindly. Agree beforehand whether a recently lapsed member gets in, gets offered a renewal on the spot, or is turned away, so the volunteer at the door isn’t improvising.
- Build the attendance query before the event. If you’ll want a list of attendees for follow-up, make sure the $0 item or program is easy to filter on. Fixing naming after the fact is tedious.
Where a mobile scanner helps
Option 1 assumes a staffed workstation. Free programs often happen in a garden, a classroom, or a lawn where there’s no register. Our Ticket Scanner scans Altru tickets and membership barcodes at the door on mobile devices, which suits Option 2 (scanning $0 advance tickets) and quick status checks for Option 3 away from the front desk. If you need each walk-up member recorded as a transaction, plan that part in Altru as described above.
Quick answers
Do members need a ticket for a free program?
Only if you want named attendance or capacity limits. For a simple headcount, checking the membership card is enough.
Will a $0 transaction affect revenue reporting?
It records a sale with no revenue. Check with your finance team how $0 items appear in the reports they use, and name the item clearly so it’s easy to separate out.
