Event day check-in desk for Gravity Forms registrations

A phone-friendly roster your front desk works out of: search attendees, tap to check them in, run the waitlist, and export the final list.

App
Gravity FormsGmailGoogle SheetsOperationsMarketingEmail AutomationData Sync
PromptCreate

Build me a registration desk app that my events team works out of on the day of an event, on a phone, instead of scrolling the Gravity Forms entries screen in wp-admin. The main screen is the attendee roster for one event form, and it has to be usable one-handed at a busy door.

Setup. In app settings, load my forms with the Gravity Forms List Forms operation and let me pick the registration form for this event. Then fetch the full form object for that form (List Forms returns complete form objects when you request specific form IDs) and use its field list to build a field mapping screen where I choose which field holds the attendee name, which holds the email, which holds the check-in status, and which holds the confirmed versus waitlist status. Do not hardcode field IDs: entry values are keyed by field ID and every form is different, so always read the mapping from the form object and let me pick. Store the selected form ID, the field mapping, the capacity number, and the export spreadsheet and tab in the app's own storage so the team does not re-pick them every time the app opens.

Roster view. Load every entry for the selected form with List Entries by Form, paging through until the whole list is in hand, and sort by entry date ascending so the roster order is the order people actually registered. Render each attendee as a large tappable row showing name, email, check-in state, and a confirmed or waitlist badge. A search box pinned at the top filters the roster by name and email as I type. Sticky counters across the top show checked in, expected, and waitlisted.

Capacity and waitlist. Capacity is not a Gravity Forms concept, so it is an app-level setting I type in. The first N registrations in registration order count against capacity and everyone past that number is displayed in a separate waitlist section, still in registration order. Show capacity used clearly, for example 84 of 120 checked in, 120 of 120 spots taken, 14 waitlisted.

Check-in. Tapping an attendee row marks them checked in. This is the critical technical detail: Gravity Forms Update Entry is a full replacement and any value not sent WILL BE BLANKED OUT, so the check-in handler must call Get Entry for that entry first, set the check-in field and a check-in timestamp on the object it got back, then send the complete entry object to Update Entry. Never build a partial entry payload. Tapping a checked-in person again un-checks them through the same read, merge, write path so a mis-tap is recoverable. Update the row optimistically and roll back with a visible error if the write fails.

Chase no-shows. A 'Chase no-shows' button in the toolbar emails every confirmed attendee who is not yet checked in, using the Gmail Send a Message operation, one personalised message per person addressed to them by name and naming the event. Show a confirmation with the recipient count before it sends, and a result summary afterwards listing who was emailed and any failures.

Promote from waitlist. A 'Promote from waitlist' action takes the next person up, meaning the earliest registration among the waitlisted, and does two things: emails them with Gmail Send a Message to tell them a spot has opened and how to claim it, and flips their entry to confirmed by calling Get Entry, changing only the confirmation status field on that object, and sending the full entry back with Update Entry. Refresh the roster afterwards so they move into the attendee section and the waitlist re-ranks.

Export roster. An 'Export roster' button appends the final attendee list to my spreadsheet with the Google Sheets Append Values operation: one row per person with name, email, confirmed or waitlist status, checked in yes or no, check-in time, plus the event or form name and the export timestamp. Let me set the spreadsheet and tab in settings and confirm the row count before it writes.

Design and behaviour. Build for a phone held at a door: single column, big touch targets, high contrast, search always reachable, and a confirm step before anything that emails people. Several staff may work the desk at once, so keep a manual refresh, re-read the roster after every write, and treat what is stored on the entries as the source of truth rather than local state.

What does this prompt do?

  • Pulls the full attendee list from your Gravity Forms registration form into a searchable roster, so staff can find someone by name or email in seconds on a phone.
  • Tapping a name checks that person in and writes the check-in back to their registration record, so the entry stays accurate no matter who is working the door.
  • Tracks a capacity number you set for the event, shows everyone past it as a waitlist in registration order, and promotes the next person up with a confirmation email when a spot opens.
  • Chases people who have not arrived with a one-tap email, and exports the final roster with check-in times to a Google Sheet when the doors close.

What do I need to use this?

  • A WordPress site running Gravity Forms, with your event registration form and its sign-ups
  • A field on that form to record check-in status, and one for confirmed versus waitlist (add them as admin-only fields if they do not exist yet)
  • A Gmail account for the no-show chase and waitlist emails the desk sends
  • A Google account and a spreadsheet to export the final roster into
  • The capacity number for the room or session

How can I customize it?

  • Set the capacity number per event, and change it mid-day if the room turns out bigger or smaller than planned.
  • Reword the no-show chase and waitlist promotion emails so they sound like your event.
  • Choose which registration answers appear on each attendee row, such as ticket type, company, or dietary needs, so the desk sees what actually matters.

FAQs

Do my front desk staff need WordPress admin accounts?
No, and that is the point. The submissions screen inside WordPress is limited to site administrators, so teams usually end up sharing an admin login or printing a CSV. This app is its own surface your staff open on a phone, so they work the roster without touching your website's admin area.
Will checking someone in overwrite the rest of their registration answers?
No. Before saving, the app reads that person's complete registration record, changes only the check-in status, and saves the whole record back. Everything they originally submitted stays intact.
How is the waitlist order decided?
By when people registered. The roster is sorted by sign-up time, the first people up to your capacity number are the attendee list, and everyone after that becomes the waitlist in the order they signed up.
Can several people run the desk at the same time?
Yes. Every check-in is written straight back to the registration record rather than kept on one phone, so anyone who opens or refreshes the app sees the same live roster.
Does it work without internet at the venue?
It needs a connection, because it reads and writes live registration data. If your venue has patchy wifi, have the desk work on mobile data and keep a printed backup list for the worst case.
Is capacity something I set up in Gravity Forms?
No, capacity lives in the app. You type in the number of spots for the event and the app tracks how many are used against it, so you can run the same setup for a 40 seat workshop and a 400 seat conference.

Related templates

Prospecting desk that builds account lists from the live web

Stop buying stale lists. Reps run a saved search, work the results like an inbox, and only the accounts they approve ever reach your CRM.

Hyperbrowser
HubSpot
Google Sheets
App
Influencer campaign roster board with AI creator briefs

Drag creators through Sourced to Wrapped on a board grouped by campaign, with audience stats on every card and a one-click brief for each creator.

HypeAuditor
Google Sheets
Notion
App
Morning repricing console for Shopify with margin-safe rules

Pick a repricing rule, send an assistant out to check competitor pages, then approve the new prices that clear your margin floor.

Hyperbrowser
Shopify
Google Sheets
App
Pre-flight bounce check before you launch a cold email sequence

See the projected bounce rate for any outbound send before it goes out, and keep the launch button locked until the list is clean enough to be safe.

Hunter
Google Sheets
App
Compare every Hireflix candidate for a role side by side

A calibration board that lines up every candidate's answer to the same question, hides names until your panel has scored, and writes the agreed rating back.

Hireflix
Gmail
App
Per-device electricity cost explorer for your smart home

Pick any date range and see what each device in your home actually cost to run, not just how many kilowatt-hours it used.

Home Assistant
Google Sheets
App

Run your event desk off a phone, not a printed list.

Set the roster up once and your team opens the same live attendee list at every event, with check-ins saved back to your registration form.