Attendance records for German prevention courses (ZPP): the 80 percent rule in practice

Reimbursement runs through the participants: they pay for the course themselves and submit your completion certificate to their insurer. Without clean attendance documentation you cannot honestly issue the certificate, and your participants are left covering the full cost.

There is also your own risk: issuing certificates that are not backed by documentation damages your credibility with insurers and the ZPP. A gapless record protects both sides.

The rule of thumb: participants who attended at least about 80 percent of the course units receive the completion certificate. For a classic 8-week course that means at most one to two missed units, depending on the insurer.

Important in practice: the exact threshold and reimbursement amounts differ between insurers. Do not promise participants specific reimbursement amounts; point them to their insurer instead. Your job is correct documentation, not reimbursement promises.

Most documentation problems are created in week one, not week eight. Three things are worth settling before the first unit starts:

First, close the participant list at the start. An 8-unit course is a fixed group, and the arithmetic is unforgiving for late joiners: someone entering at unit 3 has already missed two units and can reach at most 6 of 8 — 75 percent, below the usual threshold. Flag that to a late joiner honestly before taking their money; a place in your next course serves them better than a course they cannot complete on paper.

Second, decide when you record: tick attendance immediately after each unit, not from memory at course end. A record reconstructed in week eight is exactly the kind insurers have no reason to trust — and neither will you. Third, tell participants the 80 percent rule at unit one. People who know a missed evening has consequences plan around it, and nobody is surprised at certificate time.

An audit-proof record per course contains:

• Course name, course period, and the individual sessions (for example 8 units with dates).
• All participants by name, marked present or absent per session.
• Corrections traceable (late sign-ins added, not silently overwritten).
• At course end: attended units per person, as a number and in percent.

Take an 8-unit evening course. Participant A attends all eight units: 100 percent, certificate issued, no discussion. Participant B misses one unit in week four: 7 of 8 is 87.5 percent, comfortably above the threshold — certificate issued.

Participant C misses units 4 and 7: 6 of 8 is 75 percent. This is the grey zone. Some insurers accept it, others do not — and that decision is theirs, not yours. What you do is precise and honest: the certificate side of the question belongs to the threshold you apply consistently, and the record states 6 of 8 attended. What you never do is round 75 up to "about 80" as a favor. The favor becomes your problem the moment an insurer looks closely, and it is unfair to every participant who rearranged their week to actually attend.

The example also shows why percentages should be calculated, not estimated: with 8 units, one absence is the difference between 87.5 and 75 — a single evening decides the certificate.

The paper list in the course room works until it gets lost or someone has to calculate percentages by hand. A spreadsheet works until several courses run in parallel and latecomers join.

In Timeplanned you tick attendance right after each unit, per participant and session. Attended units and percentages are always up to date, and at course end you see immediately who reached the threshold. The same attendance data also feeds your monthly billing if you bill ongoing lessons alongside prevention courses. Free for 60 days, no credit card.

Unlike one-to-one lessons, prevention courses rarely have make-up sessions: a unit happens or it does not. If you cancel a unit yourself, the course shifts, and the attendance rate refers to the units that actually took place. For handling short-notice cancellations in one-to-one teaching, see our guide on no-show fees.

A tidy list per unit covers the normal weeks. These are the situations that produce messy records, and the clean way through each:

• Arrived late, left early — decide one consistent rule before it happens, for example: present means attending more than half the unit. Apply it to everyone, and note genuine deviations ("attended 30 of 75 minutes, counted absent") instead of quietly deciding case by case.
• A unit you cancel — the course extends or the unit is made up; either way it does not count as an absence for anyone, and the attendance rate is calculated over units that actually took place. Record the cancellation itself, so the eight planned dates and the eight delivered dates stay reconcilable.
• A participant switches between your parallel courses — attending Thursday's unit instead of Tuesday's can be fine for the same course content, but the record must say so explicitly per unit. Two half-documented lists that only you can mentally merge are not documentation.
• Corrections after the fact — a forgotten tick happens. Add it with a note, never overwrite silently. A record with visible, dated corrections is more credible than a suspiciously perfect one.
• After the course ends — keep the record. Participants submit certificates to insurers weeks or months later, and queries come back to you. A record you can produce on request is the whole point of keeping one.