---
title: "Fix an attendance mistake"
description: "Correct a missed check-out or a wrong absence, and backfill whole days of attendance that were never recorded."
type: troubleshoot
updated: 2026-09-14
canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/situations/fix-an-attendance-mistake
roles: ["super_admin", "center_admin"]
platforms: [web, ios, android]
---
Attendance mistakes happen: someone forgets to check a child out, or marks the wrong child absent. You fix them from **Families & Children → Attendance**. Pick the date at the top, and you'll see that day's records with **Check In**, **Check Out**, and **Mark Absent** actions.

## A child was never checked out

If a child went home but was never checked out, their day looks like they're still present. On the Attendance page, set the **date** to that day, find the child, and use **Check Out**. Their record is corrected.

## A child was marked absent by mistake

Set the date, find the child marked absent, and check them in. Marking them present replaces the absence.

## A child was never checked in

If a child was here but nobody checked them in, set the date and use **Check In** for them.

## A child left and came back the same day

Check them out when they leave and check them in again when they return. Both stays are kept, so a before-school child who comes back after school has a morning stay and an afternoon stay on the same day. The attendance board draws one bar per stay, the child's history lists each stay, and the day's hours are the stays added together. See [Before and after school care](/owners/centers/before-and-after-school-care).

## Correct one stay of a day

Open the day's editor as usual, from the pencil on the attendance board or on the child's Attendance tab. On a day with more than one stay you are asked **which stay** first; the times you then change belong to that stay only. A stay cannot be moved so that it overlaps another stay on the same day.

## One child missed a whole past day

If a child came in yesterday (or any past day) and nobody recorded them at all, there is no row to edit. Add the day from the child's profile instead:

1. Open the child's profile (**Families & Children → Families**, then **Profile** on the child) and go to the **Attendance** tab. This works on the web dashboard and in the iOS and Android apps.
2. Click **Add missed day**.
3. Pick the day, choose **Was here** or **Was absent**, and for a present day enter the drop-off and pick-up times in your center's time zone.
4. Click **Add day**.

The day appears in the child's history right away, and hourly billing counts it like any other day. If a record already exists for that day you'll be told to edit that one instead; nothing is overwritten. This is for owners and center admins, and only for past days: use **Check In** for today.

## A whole day, or a whole month, was never recorded

One child at a time is fine for a stray mistake. When a run of days is missing, because you moved to NestliCare mid-year, or a bus route's arrivals were never tapped in, use **Backfill** instead.

1. Go to **Families & Children → Attendance**.
2. Set the date to the day you need to fill. On a past day with nothing recorded, there is also a backfill link in the empty state.
3. Click **Backfill**.
4. Set the **times for children marked present**. These become the check-in and check-out times for everyone you mark present, and you can override any individual row.
5. Mark the roster. Each child is **Skip**, **Present**, or **Absent**. **All present**, **All absent**, and **Clear** set everyone at once, and the search box helps on a long roster. Add a reason for the absences if it helps your records, for example that the program had not started yet.
6. Click **Save**, or **Save & next day** to move straight on to the following day.

<ScreenshotWithPointers
  src="/screenshots/owners/situations/backfill-attendance-modal.png"
  alt="The Backfill attendance sheet: a day picker, default times, All present and All absent, and the roster with Skip, Present and Absent per child"
  pointers={[
    { x: 28.5, y: 16.5, caption: "The day you are filling in. The arrows step through days." },
    { x: 40.4, y: 16.5, caption: "Default times for everyone marked present. Override any single row." },
    { x: 58, y: 21.7, caption: "All present, All absent, or Clear, for the whole roster at once." },
    { x: 60.5, y: 33.1, caption: "Per child: Skip, Present, or Absent." },
    { x: 26.4, y: 87.9, caption: "The count tells you how many already have a record. Those are left untouched." },
    { x: 58.8, y: 86.8, caption: "Save & next day marches you through a gap without reopening the sheet." },
  ]}
/>

Backfilled records are written as complete days: checked in and checked out, with both times in your center's time zone. On the attendance board they carry a **Backfilled** pill, so months later you can still tell entered history from a live tap.

<Callout kind="info" title="Backfill never overwrites">
Children who already have a record for that day are skipped, not replaced. You can safely run backfill over a day that is half filled in, and only the gaps are written. A day the schedule says nobody was in can still be backfilled, because what actually happened beats what was planned.
</Callout>

Backfill is available to owners and center admins, and each run is recorded in your audit trail.

## Catch mistakes before they add up

The **Data Health** report (under **Reports**) flags records with something missing, like a check-in with no matching check-out. Glance at it now and then, and before any licensing visit, to catch stray attendance gaps.

<Callout kind="tip" title="Timezone matters">
Attendance times use your organization's time zone, set under <strong>Settings → General</strong>. If times look off by a fixed number of hours, check that your time zone is correct.
</Callout>

Related: [Reports overview](/owners/reports/reports-overview), [Get ready for a licensing visit](/owners/reports/reports-overview).