Present — Help & Support
Present is a roll-call tool: one roster, attendance in seconds, and fair random picks. Only the person taking the roll needs the app. Nobody else has to install anything, sign up, or scan a code.
Getting started
The first screen is empty. To see how the app works, tap “Load a sample roster” — it creates demo data with 10 members and 3 past sessions. You can swipe it away whenever you like.
1. Create a roster
Tap + in the top right → give it a name (e.g. “Biology · Period 3”) → pick a type.
Adding everyone at once: the new-roster screen has a multi-line text box. Put one name per line — you can paste straight from a message, a note, or a spreadsheet column and build the whole class in one go.
2. Take attendance
Open the roster → tap the green Quick attendance card. Three ways to work, switchable at the top:
- Grid: everyone starts as “None”. Tap a person to sign them in; their tile drops to the Signed in section below. Whoever is left at the top is absent. This is the fastest way.
- One by one: one large card per person. Swipe right for present, left for absent, or use the four buttons underneath. Good when you need to check carefully and can’t miss anyone.
- Seats: work from your real seating chart (set it up first, see below). An empty desk is obvious at a glance.
Almost everyone is here? Tap “Mark all present” to sign in the whole roster at once, then tap the few who didn’t show to un-sign them. Both directions take a single tap.
Need to mark someone late or excused? Press and hold any tile in Grid or Seats, then choose Present / Absent / Late / Excused from the menu. The same menu has “Mark as not signed in” to send someone back to the top.
Tap Done in the top right to save. Anyone not signed in is recorded as absent. If you tap Done without signing anyone in, the app asks you to confirm first, so you can’t save a whole class as absent by accident.
3. Pick someone at random
Open the roster → tap the purple Random pick card → Pick one.
4. Set up seating
Open the roster → Seating chart → use the Rows / Cols steppers at the top to size the chart → tap an empty seat to place someone. Or skip the work: ⋯ in the top right → Auto-arrange, which fills the seats in roster order.
Frequently asked questions
Does my data sync between my iPhone and iPad?
Yes. As long as both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account, everything syncs automatically — there is nothing to set up. Sign in to the same account on a new phone and your data comes back on its own.
Sync doesn’t seem to be working. What should I check?
In order:
- Are both devices signed in to the same Apple Account? (Settings → your name at the top.)
- Are the devices online?
- Settings → your name → iCloud → make sure iCloud Drive is on and your storage isn’t full.
- Wait a few minutes. Syncing happens in the background — usually seconds to a minute or two, longer on a poor connection.
- Still nothing? Quit the app completely (swipe it away from the app switcher) and reopen it.
Do the people being called need the app?
No. Present is only for the person taking the roll. Students don’t install anything, don’t register, and don’t scan anything. When you need to report attendance, use “Share summary card”.
How does Fair mode work?
With Fair mode on, the fewer times someone has been picked, the more likely they are to come up next — which fixes the “it’s always the same three kids” problem. Each person’s pick count is recorded and visible in their member details. To start over, use ⋯ on the random-pick screen → Reset pick counts.
There is also a No repeats this round switch: once someone has been picked, they won’t come up again until everyone has had a turn.
I take the roll several times a day. How do I tell the sessions apart?
Every session has a label field at the top, pre-filled from the time of day (Morning meeting / Morning / Afternoon / Evening). Change it to whatever fits — “Afternoon assembly”, “3rd period”, and so on. The history then reads “Morning meeting 08:00”, “Afternoon assembly 15:00” — no guesswork.
I made a mistake, or someone showed up late. Can I fix it?
Yes. Open the roster → History & stats → tap into that session → tap the status on the right of that person to change it.
Amendments leave a trace: the status gets a small marker, and the line underneath reads “Amended: Absent → Present · time”. The original status is kept, and you can choose Undo amendment from the same menu at any point. Attendance rates and the absence list update immediately.
If someone joined the roster after that session took place, they show as No record for it — tap to add one.
Is the app in English or Chinese?
Both. The interface follows your device language: an English device shows English (the app is called Present), a Chinese device shows Chinese (the app is called 点到). Change it under Settings → General → Language & Region; there is no separate setting inside the app.
How is the attendance rate calculated?
Attendance rate = (Present + Late) ÷ total sessions. Late still counts as having shown up. Every statistic is computed live from the actual records rather than stored as a separate number, so it is always accurate.
Can I get a deleted member back?
Swiping a member away in the member list archives them — their past attendance records are kept in full, so your historical statistics stay intact.
⚠️ Deleting an entire roster, however, permanently removes that roster and all of its history. Please be careful.
How do I hand an attendance sheet to my school?
Open the roster → History & stats → share button in the top right → Export CSV. You get a complete member-by-session matrix including attendance rate and absence counts, and it opens cleanly in Excel or Numbers.
How do I send attendance to a parent or a group chat?
From the same share menu, choose Share summary card. It renders an image you can filter by All / This month / This week, then send through the normal iOS share sheet.
Where are member photos stored? Are they uploaded?
Photos stay on your device and in your own private iCloud space. They are never uploaded to any developer server. Photos are chosen through the system picker, so the app never gets access to your whole library.
Is my data safe? Can the developer see it?
No, we can’t. Everything lives in your own private iCloud database, encrypted by Apple, readable only by devices signed in to your account. Present has no accounts, no server of its own, and no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs. See the privacy policy for details.
How do I delete everything?
- Deleting a roster in the app removes that roster and all of its records.
- After uninstalling, open Settings → your Apple Account → iCloud → Manage Account Storage, find Present, and delete its iCloud data.
Does it support iPad?
Yes. On iPad the roster list sits on the left and the details on the right; on iPhone it collapses to a single column. Everything syncs with your iPhone under the same Apple Account.
Feedback & contact
Run into a problem, find a bug, or have an idea? Please write to:
When reporting a bug, these details help us track it down faster:
- Device model and iOS version
- App version
- The exact steps that led to the problem