Creating an Event

Overview

An event is the top-level container for everything in PunchMonkey. Inside an event you create races, and inside each race you define legs and checkpoints. You only need one event per occasion (e.g. "Spring Scavenger Hunt 2026"), but you can have multiple races with different distances or difficulties running on the same day.

Step 1 — Create the event

1. Sign in at /login with your race director account.
2. From the Director dashboard, click Create Event.
3. Fill in the event name, optional description, start date, optional end date, and location.
4. Optionally set an Entry Code. When set, participants must enter this code in the app before they can access the event. Leave it blank for an open event. See Setting up Teams for more on entry codes.
5. Click Create event. You'll land on the event management page.

Step 2 — Add races

From the event management page, click + Create Race. Each race has:

• Name — e.g. "5k Course" or "Expert Division"
• Racer start time — the moment the clock starts for all teams in this race. The mobile app uses this to display elapsed time.
• Optional description and instructions visible only to the race director.

Step 3 — Add legs to each race

A leg is a section of the course with a defined Start and Finish NFC tag. Participants tap the start tag when they begin the leg and the finish tag when they complete it.

• Each leg needs a Start NFC UID and a Finish NFC UID — these must match the IDs written on the physical tags.
• Set an Order number to control how legs appear in the app's list.
• Set Checkpoint ordering to Sequential if checkpoints inside this leg must be completed in order, or Any for freeform.

Step 4 — Set Race Start and Race Finish tags

Each race can optionally have a designated Race Start tag and a Race Finish tag. When a participant scans the Race Finish tag, the app shows a "Race Finished!" overlay and stops the clock.

From the race management page, use the Set as Race Start and Set as Race Finish buttons on a leg row. A Race Start tag is typically the same physical tag as the first leg's Start — one tap records both.

Step 5 — Add checkpoints

See About Checkpoints for details on adding NFC checkpoints inside a leg.

Step 6 — Add teams

See Setting up Teams in a Race. Participants join teams themselves using the mobile app — no accounts or pre-registration needed.