Check-ins event time count doesn't match actual check-ins totals.

[pastorhudson]

Affected Product
Check-Ins

Describe the bug
I've built a report that gets all the check-in data for events, locations, times etc. One of the events shows a single guest check-in on the event time.

However If I look at the actuall check-ins and filter by guest there is no guest check-in

event-time totals say:
regular=39
volunteer=25
guest=1
total=65

But the summed check-ins say:
regular=39
volunteer=26
guest=0
total=65

To Reproduce
I'm only seeing this on this single event. I'm sorry. I can't reproduce.

Expected behavior
I think the event time should correspond with the actual check-ins

Additional Context:

• https://api.planningcenteronline.com/check-ins/v2/event_times/41209164
• https://api.planningcenteronline.com/check-ins/v2/event_times/41209164/check_ins?filter=guest

I have..

• Reviewed the documentation found at https://developer.planning.center/docs
• Searched for previous issues reporting this bug
• Removed all private information from this issue (credentials, tokens, emails, phone numbers, etc.)
• Reviewed my issue for completeness

[github-actions]

Potentially Related Issues

I found some existing issues that may be related to this one. Please check if any of them address your question before waiting for a response:

🟣 #1436 — Missing custom headcount data via planning center API (Closed)

Summary: This issue involved custom headcount data appearing in the UI but being difficult to locate in API responses because headcount records lack date/time attributes. While the data was actually present in the API, it was mixed with other dates' records, making it hard to identify specific time slots.

Key discussion points:

• Headcount records only show 'total', 'created_at', and 'updated_at' attributes - they don't include date or time slot information by default
• Each time slot is returned as a separate headcount record, so UI totals are actually multiple individual records in the API response
• The recommended approach is to scope requests by first finding the event_period for a specific date, then getting event_times for that period, and finally getting headcounts for a specific event_time

Resolution: Resolved by clarifying that the data was present but needed to be accessed through a more specific API path hierarchy (event → event_period → event_time → headcounts) rather than querying all headcounts at once. The issue was one of data organization rather than missing data.

🟣 #1276 — Missing Headcount Records (Closed)

Summary: This issue involved missing headcount records where the total was 0. The user expected a headcount record for every AttendanceType/EventTime combination, but found that some zero-count records were not returned by the API.

Key discussion points:

• Headcount records are not eagerly created - they only exist when a count has been updated from the default
• This is documented behavior: headcount records will only be created when the count is updated
• Missing headcount records can be safely assumed to represent a count of zero
• Some zero-count records do exist in the API (those that were manually set to zero), but others don't exist at all (those that were never updated)

Resolution: Closed as expected behavior. Headcount records are not automatically created for every AttendanceType/EventTime combination. A missing record indicates a zero count that was never explicitly set. This is documented API behavior and users should treat missing records as implicit zeros.

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This comment was generated automatically. If none of these match your issue, no action is needed — a team member will review your issue soon.

[KatieRiley]

👋🏼 Hi @pastorhudson, I looked into this and found the issue, per-kind totals on the event time (regular_count, guest_count, etc) are cached values that are recomputed in the background when check-ins change. It looks like for this issue the cache got stuck on a stale value. Ive refreshed the cached counts for this event time so now Im seeing 0 for guest_count, the check_ins?filter=guest was always correct because its applying a scope to the live data instead of reading the cached value. Please let me know if you are seeing any more weirdness with this or any other event time!

[pastorhudson]

Thanks for the update. I think this one was also an issue.

Event id 568879
5-22-2023
Lists 2 regulars but everyone is listed as a student or volunteer

When compiling these reports I use the event time totals to verify that my check-in counts are correct and all match up. This is what exposed the anomaly. I could probably check many organizations to find all of these, but I'm not sure we'll be able to identify a pattern. Could it be there is a correlation to check-ins outages? These are the sort of edge cases that keep developers up at night 😅

[KatieRiley]

Hey @pastorhudson, because you are seeing multiple events with incorrect cached counts I would love to dive into this further with you. In order to do that though Ill need a little more information. To keep your information safe could you submit a ticket to our support team? You can reach them through our help page by clicking the blue Get Support button in the top right hand corner or from the check-ins app by clicking the ? on the side bar. Please include any other events and event times you are seeing this with and Ill get to digging!