TimelyChurch — Knowledge base

Managing Classes

Classes in TimelyChurch represent your church's Sunday School rooms, Bible study groups, and other educational settings where teaching takes place. Each class has an assigned room, age range, teachers, and a roster of enrolled students.

Accessing Classes

Classes are a type of Group, so they live inside the unified Groups module -- there is no separate "Classes" item in the admin sidebar. To find your classes:

Open People > Groups from the sidebar, then click the Classes tab. Each type tab (All, Private, Public, Teams, Classes) shows a count, and selecting Classes filters the list to your Sunday School classes, Bible study groups, and other educational settings.
You can also reach Groups from the Check-in page via the Groups/Classes link in the setup tip.

The Groups list (with the Classes tab selected) shows:

A type filter row (All / Private / Public / Teams / Classes), each with a live count, plus list and grid view modes.
A search bar for finding specific groups and classes by name.
A class row for each class showing its name, age range or time slot, room, teacher(s), and member count.

Click a class to open its detail page, where you manage the roster, attendance, teachers, and settings.

Creating a New Class

On the Groups page, click Add Group and choose the Class type.
Fill in the class details. Depending on where you create the class, you may see some or all of these fields:
- Name (required) -- The display name of the class (e.g., "3rd-5th Grade Sunday School").
- Description -- An optional description of the class, what is covered, etc.
- Age Range / Min Age / Max Age -- The target ages for the class. (A descriptive Age Range text field, up to 50 characters, is also available in class settings.)
- Min Grade / Max Grade -- The grade levels the class serves, from Pre-K through Adult.
- Room -- Select from your church's configured rooms (from the Rooms module). Rooms provide capacity and amenity details. A freeform room text field is also available for churches that do not use the Rooms module.
- Time Slot -- The meeting time (e.g., "9:00 AM" or "11:00 AM Service"), up to 50 characters.
- Requires check-in -- Whether attendance for this class is recorded through the Check-in module.
- Auto-Enroll -- When enabled, eligible students can be automatically enrolled based on age/grade criteria.
- Color -- A color used for visual identification on cards and calendars. Defaults to blue.
- Active -- Whether the class is currently active. New classes default to active.
- Teachers -- Assign one or more teachers to the class.
Save to create the class.

Class Detail Page

Clicking on a class opens its detail page, which provides a unified "My Class" experience organized into three tabs.

Page Header

The header displays:

Class name, age range, room, and primary teacher.
Color-coded icon for quick identification.
Quick stats: Enrolled count, Here Today count, and Not Marked count.
Settings gear button to access class configuration.

Today Tab

The Today tab is the primary view for Sunday morning. It shows:

The full roster with attendance status for each student.
Quick-tap buttons to mark each student as Present, Absent, Late, or Excused.
A Mark All Present or Mark All Absent button for bulk attendance.
Check-in status for students who were checked in through the Check-In module.
A filter to search within today's roster.

Attendance updates happen instantly via AJAX -- there is no need to submit a form or refresh the page.

Roster Tab

The Roster tab manages student enrollment:

A list of all currently enrolled students showing name, age, grade level, allergies, enrollment date, and family information.
An Add Student button that opens a searchable dropdown to find and enroll people.
A Remove action on each student to unenroll them from the class.

History Tab

The History tab shows past attendance data:

A summary of the last 12 weeks of attendance records.
Each week shows the date, present count, absent count, late count, and total.

Class Settings

Click the gear icon on the class detail page to access settings. The following fields can be updated:

Basic Information

Name -- The class display name.
Description -- A description of the class.
Color -- The accent color for visual identification.
Active -- Toggle the class on or off.

Age/Grade Configuration

Age Range -- Descriptive text for the target age range.
Minimum Age -- The youngest age allowed (0-18).
Maximum Age -- The oldest age allowed (0-18).
Minimum Grade -- The lowest grade level.
Maximum Grade -- The highest grade level.
Auto-Enroll -- When enabled, eligible students can be automatically enrolled based on age/grade criteria.

Room Assignment

Room -- Freeform room name/number.
Room (from Rooms module) -- Select a preconfigured room that includes capacity and amenity details.
Time Slot -- The meeting time for this class.

Teacher Management

Assigning Teachers

When creating a class, you can select teachers from the dropdown. Only users with a teacher or church administrator role who belong to your church appear in the list.

Syncing Teachers

To update the teacher roster for an existing class:

Open the class detail page.
Navigate to the teacher management section.
Select the teachers you want assigned.
Click Save.

Previous teacher assignments are replaced with the new selection.

Lead Teacher vs. Co-Teachers

The first teacher assigned is the Lead Teacher.
Additional teachers are assigned as Co-Leaders.
To change the lead teacher, use the Set Lead Teacher action. This demotes all current leaders to co-leaders and promotes the selected teacher.

Teachers in the System

Teachers are tracked as leaders of the class rather than as enrolled students. This means they appear in the class's member list as leaders, not in the student roster.

Classes Are a Kind of Group

A class is simply a special kind of group. The students you enroll are listed as active members of that group, and the teachers are listed as its leaders. If you export your data or look at the activity log, classes will appear alongside your other groups.

Filtering and Searching Classes

Search

Type in the search bar to find classes by name, description, room, or age range.

Filters

Status -- Show Active only, Inactive only, or all classes.
Teacher -- Filter to show only classes taught by a specific teacher.
Has Teachers -- Show classes that have at least one teacher assigned, or only unassigned classes.
Archived -- Include archived classes, or show only archived ones.

Reordering Classes

Classes have a sort order that controls how they appear in lists:

Classes are automatically ordered by their sort order value, then by name.
New classes are assigned the next available sort order.
Admins can reorder classes via drag-and-drop on the class listing page.

Bulk Actions

Bulk Toggle Active

Select multiple classes and activate or deactivate them at once.

Bulk Archive

Select multiple classes and archive them in a single action.

Archiving and Deleting Classes

Archive (Deactivate)

Archiving a class sets it to inactive. It remains in the system but does not appear in active class lists.

Open the class detail page.
Click Archive.
The class is deactivated and you are redirected to the class list.

Restore

On the class list, filter to show inactive classes.
Click Restore on the archived class.
The class is reactivated.

Permanently Delete

Find the archived class.
Click Permanently Delete.
All member enrollments for this class are removed.
The class record is permanently deleted. This action cannot be undone.

Rooms Integration

When rooms are configured in the Rooms module, they appear as options when creating or editing classes. Selecting a room from the dropdown automatically associates the class with that room, providing:

Room capacity information (useful for knowing how many students can be enrolled).
Amenity details (projector, whiteboard, sound system, etc.).
Building and floor information for wayfinding.

You can still use the freeform "Room" text field if your church does not use the Rooms module.