How to make QR code entry passes for your event — free, and checked from any phone

What a good entry pass needs to do

• Be unique: one pass per person, not one QR for everyone.
• Work once: after it’s scanned, the same pass — or a screenshot of it — should not get a second person in.
• Reach the guest easily: by email and WhatsApp, and be findable again if they lose it.
• Be quick at the gate: a volunteer should know in one second whether to let someone in.

The do-it-yourself way (and its weak spot)

1. Collect names on Google Forms.
2. Number each row in Google Sheets and make a QR code for each number with a free QR generator.
3. Send each guest their QR as an image on WhatsApp.
4. At the gate, scan with any QR app and tick the name in the sheet.

It costs nothing, but a normal QR scanner only reads the code — it doesn’t know whether that code was already used. With two gates, or a busy gate, the same screenshot can get in twice before anyone notices. And making and sending 200 images by hand takes a whole evening.

The free way with Yano: every booking gets its own pass

Create your event on Yano and share the booking link. Every person who books gets their own QR pass by email, with the event name, date, place, a directions button and your contact. Free events cost nothing on Yano — no credits are used for free passes.

• Group bookings: if one person books for four friends, each friend gets their own pass, and each can be sent to its person on WhatsApp with one tap.
• Lost passes: guests find them again at yano.club/my-tickets with their phone number and email.
• Already have a list? Import your Google Form or Excel sheet (name and mobile number) and everyone on it gets a real QR pass.

Checking passes at the gate

1. On your event, tap “Send scanner to staff” and share the link on WhatsApp.
2. Volunteers open it on their own phones — no app, no login — and enter the gate code if asked.
3. They scan. Green: let them in. Amber: already checked in, with the time, the name and the last four digits of the phone number. Red: not valid for this event or this day.

Several people can scan at the same time at different gates; a pass still works only once. Volunteers can find a guest by phone number if they forgot their phone, but they can’t see your money or settings.

For bigger nights: multi-day passes, walk-ins and balances

• Festivals over several days (Navratri, Durga Puja, Ganeshotsav, a college fest): sell day passes and all-days passes. A Day 2 pass is refused on Day 1, and an all-days pass works once each day.
• Walk-ins at the gate: sell a pass for cash or UPI from the scanner; the person is checked in and counted.
• Advance now, rest at entry: the scanner shows how much each guest still owes and records it in one tap.
• A USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner also works with the scanner page open.

Tips for a calm entrance

• Tell guests to keep the pass open and screen brightness up before they reach the gate.
• Two volunteers at a busy gate: one scanning, one sorting out problems on the side.
• The scanner checks every pass online. Where signal is weak, print the guest list as a backup before the event.
• Put the entry time and rules in your description so nobody argues at the gate.