Selection types are used to present the options people register for in a signup. Each attendee must choose a selection type to register, so at least one is required in a signup to collect registrations.
Selection types can be tailored to get what you need from every attendee. Important common factors to consider for setting up your selections are:
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different pricing for different attendee groups
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how you want to apply discounts,
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the information you need to gather based on roles or demographics
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locations you want to check people into
Here are some examples of common selection types:
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Roles - Leader, Volunteer, Greeter, Participant, Student, Chaperone
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Demographic Groups - Child, Adult, Parent, Single, Pre-K - 5th Graders, Seniors 55+
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Reservation Slots - Morning Class/Afternoon Class, Friday/Saturday/Sunday, 9 a.m. Service/11 a.m. Service
When you create the signup, a "Standard" selection type is created for you automatically. To customize it and add more selections, go to the Selection types tab on the Configuration page and select New selection.
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Create a new selection type.
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Edit existing selection types.
Choose the settings for the new selection.
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Give your selection type a name to let people know who or what they are registering for. Enter the cost for this selection, not including add-ons.
Tip
If there's no cost, set the price to $0, and it will be displayed in Church Center as "free."
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Choose which profile information to gather for each selection type during registration. These fields are connected to People profiles and will instantly update the attendee's current profile information. The exception to this is the Emergency Contact field, which will only be stored on the Registration.
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Required fields must be filled out for people to receive confirmation. When using age/grade/gender filters, we recommend setting the corresponding fields to Required .
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Help people register for the correct selection types by adding age, grade, and gender restrictions. People can only register for the selections their current profile information matches.
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Add a confirmation message that all registration contacts will receive by email once they enter all the required information in the registration form. The message will include all registration details for each attendee, any custom message you've added, and a link they can use to edit their registration.
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Use the radial buttons to determine what additional information should be collected about the attendee from the attendee information form. These fields also update the corresponding fields in the attendee's profile in People.
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You can make these options required, optional, or hidden.
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When creating a selection type specifically for children, you can hide the email address field, because the person registering the child will be required to enter an email address.
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Set your Church Center and deposit options for this selection.
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Uncheck the Show on Church Center box to remove the selection from the public page on Church Center. Only a Manager or Administrator can register people for hidden selections.
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Partial Payments allow a person to register without requiring an online payment. You can also use them to require a deposit when registering and allow them to finish paying their balance later. If you plan to accept cash or checks, set the deposit amount as $0.
Caution
Planning Center currently only supports USD and CAD currencies. An Organization Administrator chooses the currency when they initially set up the account.
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Select Save to add the selection type to the signup.
Notice
Administrators can edit a person's selection in the registration details.
If these options don't cover all the information you'd like to receive from an attendee, check out the other available options for collecting information with a Signup.
Most information collected with selections is pretty straightforward, but the grade can be tricky, especially if someone registers in the summer.
For instance, if an attendee registers in July with the grade they just finished, and you've already promoted grades in the system for the coming school year, that person's profile will be a grade behind their peers and need to be edited.
Important
When a registrant enters their grade, it will update the grade on their profile immediately.
To help avoid those situations, expand the Grade dropdown and select the title that will best guide people to enter their grade correctly for the time of year they're registering.
. Which grade field should I use?
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If you're collecting registrations during the school year, use Grade since there isn't any confusion over what grade kids are in then.
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If you have an event at the end of the school year before school lets out, Current Grade makes the most sense.
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If you are doing a summer camp and haven't promoted your kids over the summer yet, using Grade Most Recently Completed will work to get people to enter the grade that matches the current information in the system.
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If you have already promoted kids to their new grades, but you're doing VBS or grade-based signups before school starts back up, ask for the Grade Entering.
Important
If someone's birthdate and grade are already set, both fields will be locked to the registrant. The Grade field will always have the grade label.
To edit or delete a selection type, click on the selection.
Make any changes to the selection, and then click Save to save your changes. Click Delete to remove the selection type completely.
Danger
If a selection type is used for an active or canceled registration, it cannot be deleted.
If you do not see the option to delete a selection, at least one person is registered under it. You must reassign those attendees to a new selection or delete any associated registrations using that selection and refresh your browser.
If you still do not see the delete option in the selection, someone else has started registering for that selection in Church Center. If that person does not complete their registration within 15 minutes, it will expire, and you can then delete the selection. You also can hide it on Church Center to block anyone else from choosing it until you can delete it.
Once you've created selections, you can limit the number of people allowed to sign up for each specific selection or the signup as a whole by selecting Edit Capacities and entering the maximum number you want to allow.
Any box left blank will allow the capacity for that selection to be unlimited, up to the total capacity.
Note
See our Capacity for Signups guide for more details.
Click the Options button on the Selection Type tab and select Manage to set a maximum number of selections allowed in a single registration.
Use this option to limit attendees from registering for more than one selection or more than one person per registration.
Tip
In a Simple Signup, use the Options button to enable Split Registrations!