Crew Devices let your event-day staff and volunteers use their own phones for check-in, seating, giving, and other event-day crew tools, without logging into full CoolFocus accounts. Each phone pairs to a single event using a short-lived pairing code.
Crew Devices are managed from the Event Overview tab on a fundraising event record, in the Crew devices panel.
1. Open the fundraising event record.
2. On the Event Overview tab, find the Crew devices panel.
3. Click Generate to create a new pairing code.
This produces:
• A short pairing code (for example, ABCD-1234) that a crew member can type into the CoolFocus Events mobile app.
• A QR code and pairing link that a crew member can scan or open instead of typing the code.
• An expiration time for the code itself.
• The crew access valid until time, which is the point at which any device paired for this event loses access. This is tied to the event's scheduled end time (plus a short buffer), so crew access does not need to be manually revoked after the event wraps up.
• Click Rotate instead of Generate to immediately deactivate any currently active pairing codes for the event and issue a new one. Use this if a code was shared too widely or you want to start a new shift with a fresh code.
• Each active pairing code is listed under Active pairing codes, showing a masked version of the code, its expiration, and how many times it has been used.
• Click Revoke next to any code to deactivate it immediately. Revoked codes can no longer be used to pair new devices.
Pairing codes are single-use for pairing a device, but the resulting device access lasts until the code's expiration or the event's crew access window ends, whichever comes first.
Once a phone is paired to an event, crew members can use it to check guests in without needing a full CoolFocus login:
• Scan or enter a code: scanning a ticket's QR code, or typing in a ticket code, checks that ticket in immediately. If the code matches a registration email instead of a ticket, the matching registration is checked in.
• Search the guest list: crew can look up a guest by name, email, or ticket code to find their ticket or registration and check them in manually when a code isn't available.
• Add a walk-in: for guests who showed up without a prior ticket or registration, crew can record a walk-in with a first and/or last name (and optionally email and phone). Walk-ins are added as a registration with a Walk In status and are immediately marked present.
Checking in a guest who has already been checked in simply confirms their existing check-in time and does not create a duplicate or send another update; it is safe to scan or search for the same guest more than once.
All devices paired to the same event share a live connection, so a check-in, a walk-in, or an updated attendance count made on one phone shows up on every other paired device for that event almost immediately. This keeps multiple crew members working the door in sync without needing to refresh.
For security, a paired device only ever sees and affects the single event it was paired to. It cannot check in guests for, or receive live updates from, any other event, even if the crew member is switched to a different event's link.
• Only staff with access to the event record can generate, rotate, or revoke pairing codes.
• Codes are event-specific. A code generated for one event cannot pair a device to a different event.
• If crew access has already ended for an event (for example, the event is long over), you will not be able to generate a new pairing code.
