Smart Lists guide

How to Track Payments, Grades, and Attendance for Any Group

A roster becomes far more useful when it remembers one number for each person. This guide shows how to track payments, grades, and attendance on a shared list, then read the totals or average in one glance.

What can a Smart List track for each person?

A Smart List stores a roster of people plus one configurable value for each person, such as a payment, a grade, or a point score. You decide what the value means once, enter it per person, and the list shows the total or the average automatically.

Most roster tools only hold names. The moment you need to remember who paid, who scored what, or who showed up, a plain list stops helping.

A tracker fixes that by attaching a single number to each name. That number can be money, a letter grade, points, or attendance credit. The meaning is yours to set.

Smart Lists keeps this deliberately simple. One value per person is enough to run a payment sheet, a small gradebook, or a contribution log without a spreadsheet.

Part of the complete Smart Lists guide →

How do you turn on value tracking?

Open Smart Lists, click Customize, enable Value Tracking, and choose Number or Letter grade. Name the value, then apply. A value chip then appears on every roster card.

You only configure this once per list. After that, entering values is a single click per person.

1. Open Smart Lists and paste, upload, or load your roster.
2. Click Customize App in the right panel.
3. Switch Enable Value Tracking on.
4. Set Value type — Number for money or points, Letter grade for A to F.
5. Add a label (for example "Amount Paid"), an optional unit, and an optional target.
6. Click Apply Changes.

How do you collect payments or dues from a group?

Use Number mode with a currency unit and a target per person. Enter each payment on the member card, and the Totals card shows how much you collected, who has paid, and how much is still outstanding.

This is the fastest part of the workflow. A coach collecting match fees can tick down the roster in under a minute.

1. In Customize, set Value type to Number, the unit to your currency, and a Target per member (for example 20).
2. Click the value chip on a member card and type the amount that person paid.
3. Press Enter, then move to the next person.
4. Read the Totals card: collected versus expected, the paid count, and the outstanding count.

The card also colors each chip by status. Green means settled, amber means partial, and red means nothing yet, so you can spot who still owes at a glance. A general overview of how a payment records value transfer applies here in miniature.

How do you track grades for a class?

Switch Value type to Letter grade for an A to F scale, or keep Number for point scores. The Totals card averages letter grades and shows the result as a letter plus its grade points, because grades average rather than total.

Letter mode stores each grade as points behind the scenes. That keeps averaging accurate while you still see a familiar letter on the card.

1. Open Customize and set Value type to Letter grade.
2. Click a student's chip and pick a letter, such as A, A-, or B+, from the dropdown.
3. Repeat for the rest of the class.
4. The Totals card shows the class average as a letter and its grade points, for example B+ (3.40).

This mirrors how schools convert marks into a grade average. The reference on grading in education explains why a consistent scale matters when you compare results across a group.

How do you import a roster from a spreadsheet?

Click Upload CSV under the Omni-Paste panel. Smart Lists detects the name, email, and score columns, shows a preview, and adds everyone in one step. You can also paste a messy list of names and let the parser clean it.

Teachers and coaches usually already have a sheet. There is no need to retype it.

1. Export your list as a CSV with a Name column. Email and a score column are optional.
2. In Smart Lists, click Upload CSV under Omni-Paste.
3. Check the preview, which reports how many names are new and how many are duplicates.
4. Click Add to Roster.

If a score column is present, value tracking switches on automatically so the imported numbers are visible right away.

How do you export or download the results?

Open the Export panel, choose CSV or JSON, and click Download. The file includes each person, their email, and their value, so you keep a clean record or share it with a co-organizer.

Your tracker should never trap your data. Download it whenever you need a copy.

1. Open the Export panel in the right column.
2. Choose CSV for spreadsheets or JSON for a full backup.
3. Click Download to save the file.

How do you send a quiz to your roster?

On Pro or Power, attach a Mind Print quiz to the list, copy its link, and share it with your group. After they play, open the quiz's Results view to read each score, then enter those scores into the value field.

This connects assessment to your roster without a heavy grading system. You stay in control of what gets recorded.

1. Build a quiz in Mind Prints, which is free.
2. In Smart Lists, open the Attached Quiz card and attach it. This step is available on Pro and Power.
3. Copy the link and send it by email, messaging app, or your class platform.
4. Each player types a name before starting, so scores are attributable.
5. Open the quiz's Results view to see names and scores.
6. Enter each score into that person's value field on the roster.

How many people can one roster hold?

A free roster holds up to 25 people, Pro up to 50, and Power up to 100. Existing larger rosters keep working, since the limit only applies when you add more.

Most classes and clubs fit comfortably on the free tier. Larger cohorts upgrade for more room and a bigger saved-list library.

Smart Lists also turns the same roster into balanced groups in seconds. If your next task is dividing people fairly, read how to split into fair teams.

Written byJ.D Cure