> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://partner-help.letsdothis.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bib assignment

> Assign bibs to participants in advance, or hand them out at the desk on the day, and the settings each approach needs.

A **bib** is the number a participant wears to identify them during your event. There are two ways to get bibs onto participants, and the check-in app supports both.

* **Assign in advance.** You decide who has which bib before event day, using **Bibs & waves** in your dashboard. Participants can be told their number ahead of time, and check-in is a matter of confirming it.
* **Assign at the desk.** Participants arrive without a bib. Your team gives out a bib and records it at check-in.

## Assigning bibs in advance

A **wave** is a start group with its own range of bib numbers — a first and a last bib number. Events that set off in stages use waves to keep each group's numbers together.

In your dashboard, **Bibs & waves** takes a CSV of your waves and their bib numbers. You then filter the participants on your Startlist — the list of everyone registered — pick the wave to put them in, and assign in bulk. You'll see a preview of the changes before anything is applied, and a warning if the wave doesn't hold enough bibs for everyone you selected.

If you assign in advance, these check-in app settings matter:

* **Require a bib to check in** is on by default, and works well here — everyone already has a number, so nobody should take part without one.
* **Enforce bib validation rules** holds your team to the numbers you've set as valid for each race or wave, so a mistyped bib is caught at the desk.
* **Allow bib reassignment** decides whether your team can move a bib to a different participant when something has gone wrong.

## Assigning bibs at the desk

If participants arrive without a bib, your team assigns one during check-in. They can scan the bib with the device camera or with a handheld barcode scanner, or type the bib number in.

For this to work, turn on:

* **Allow manual bib entry**, so your team can type a number rather than only scanning one.
* **Prevent duplicate bibs**, so the same number can't be given to two participants.

Leave **Enforce bib validation rules** off unless you've set up valid ranges — with no rules to check against, it will only get in your team's way.

If your bib numbers contain letters, turn on **Alphanumeric bibs**. **Advanced bib setup** then lets you allow specific characters — hyphen, square brackets, space and comma — if your bib numbers use them.

## Using both

Nothing stops you doing both: assign most participants in advance and let your team hand out spare bibs at the desk for on-the-day entries or replacements. Set the app up as though you were assigning at the desk — **Allow manual bib entry** and **Prevent duplicate bibs** on — so your team can still record a number that wasn't planned.

All of these settings live on the **Check-in** role. See [Bib rules](/docs/event-day/setting-up-the-check-in-app#bib-rules).