Managing entry and attendance on event day
What actually breaks at the gate, and how to prepare your team before the first guest is standing in the queue.
Short answer
Smooth entry is less a technical matter than a preparation one. QR tickets and a scanning app that rejects duplicates are the base, but what decides the day is device count, a trained team, and a clear plan for the cases scanning will not solve.
Why QR and not a name list
A paper list cannot stop the same ticket entering twice, cannot give you a live count, and cannot tell you which gate is congested. A unique code solves all three: it is rejected if used, its time and gate are logged, and it appears in your reports immediately.
How many scanning devices you need
The practical rule: a scan takes seconds, but a queue is made of people, not of scans. Plan on most attendees arriving in the last thirty minutes before the start, and distribute devices across gates accordingly rather than evenly.
Staff permissions
Not everyone holding a device should be able to do everything. Separate whoever only scans from whoever can search by phone number, and from whoever can apply a discount. Log every action against the person who took it — that is what answers any question afterwards.
Preventing resale
A static ticket can be photographed and shared, and whoever arrives first gets in. A rotating code fixes this: it refreshes continuously so a screenshot is useless, and the ticket must be shown from the app. Turn it on for events in demand, not for everything.
The cases scanning will not solve
A guest who forgot their phone, a ticket bought for them by someone else, a name that does not match the ID, a child without a ticket. Agree an answer to each before the event, and give one person authority to decide. Queues stop at hesitation, not at technology.
After the event
Actual attendance against tickets sold is the most important number you leave with. No-show rates run high across events, and knowing yours changes your pricing and capacity next time.
Frequently asked
What if the network drops at the gate?
Prepare a fallback before the event: a backup hotspot, or one person authorised to search by phone number and verify manually for a limited number of cases. What matters is that the fallback is agreed, not improvised.
Can I see how many have arrived right now?
Yes. Every scan is logged in real time, so attendance figures appear during the event rather than after it, broken down by gate and ticket tier.
Put this to work on your event
Njadwil is a Saudi platform where you create your event, sell its tickets and manage entry from one place.
Start as an organiser