Walkthrough: Send a shift report to a parent

A handoff goes one way — the parent briefs the sitter. A shift report goes the other way: you covered the shift, and now the parent needs to know how it went. CareHaven writes it up from what you already logged, and hands the parent two things at once: a link they can open with no app installed, and a PDF they can print or keep. Available

This walkthrough builds one from start to finish.

Before you start

The child has to be a profile in your CareHaven, because the report is built from what you logged against that profile during the shift. If you logged the shift on your own phone, you are already set.

Step 1 — Open Shift report

Tap Main Menu → Team → Shift report. The Shift report row sits in the Coordination section of the Team hub, just under Receive Handoff.

Shift report is built for whichever person the Team hub is currently showing — the screen itself has no name display and no switcher; its only button is Done. If you need a different child, close this screen, tap the person pill at the top of Home (or any hub) to switch profiles, then come back to Main Menu → Team → Shift report.

Step 2 — Check the shift window

The Shift section at the top shows a Start and an End.

CareHaven fills these in for you:

• If you started a care shift (Main Menu → Team → Care Shifts), the report starts when that shift started.
• If you did not, it starts at the first thing you logged today.
• If you logged nothing yet, it starts at 3:00 PM.

End is right now. Tap either date to change it. Everything below updates as you do.

Step 3 — Review what CareHaven logged

The What CareHaven logged section lists six groups: Meals & feeding, Sleep & naps, Meds given, Toileting, Mood & check-ins, and Behaviors. Each shows how many entries fall inside the window, with the entries listed underneath.

Every group has a switch, and every switch starts on. Turn one off to leave that group out of the report. A group with nothing in it says Nothing logged and cannot be turned on.

Naps are handled a little differently: a nap that started before your shift and ended during it still counts, and one that is still going reads still asleep.

Step 4 — Add your own words

The Add section has four fields. The first three are lists: each item gets its own row. Tap Add another highlight (or Add another concern, Add another follow-up) under a list for the next row, or press Return on a keyboard. The red minus button next to a row removes it.

• Highlights — the good parts. ("Asked for help without being prompted.")
• Concerns — what you want them to keep an eye on. ("Skipped the afternoon snack.")
• Follow-ups for the parent — things the parent should do. Each row becomes a to-do in their app if they save the report.
• Note — anything else, in your own words.

Step 5 — Say who you are

In About you, type your name. CareHaven fills it in when it can.

Include my phone/email is off. Leave it off and the report carries no contact details at all. Turn it on and two optional fields appear. Both may stay empty.

• Phone takes a US number and formats itself as you type: (555) 555-1212. It needs all 10 digits.
• Email needs the usual shape: name@example.com.

If either field has something in it that is not complete, a red note appears under it and Send to parent, Share PDF only and Copy link stay greyed out until you fix or clear it.

Step 6 — Read the preview

The Preview section shows the report exactly as the parent will see it — same order, same wording, on screen and on paper.

Step 7 — Send it

Tap Send to parent. The share sheet opens with two things attached: the link and the PDF. Pick how you want to send it.

Two other buttons sit underneath:

• Share PDF only — no link, just the printable file.
• Copy link — puts the link on your clipboard to paste anywhere.

Sent appears under the buttons once a send actually goes through. Cancelling the share leaves the form exactly as it was.

What the parent sees

If they do not have CareHaven: tapping the link opens the report right there, read-only, with a Save this in CareHaven row at the bottom. Nothing is saved to their phone.

If they do have CareHaven: tapping the link opens the Shift report screen with a Save to CareHaven step, which asks two questions:

1. Who is this for? — if a profile matches the name, it is already picked. If more than one matches, they pick. If none match, CareHaven offers to add the child as a new person, using the age from the report. There is also a Someone else... row for the full list.
2. What will be saved — a Journal entry (always), one to-do per follow-up (they can turn this off), and the Report pages in Documents (they can turn this off).

Tapping Save to CareHaven writes all of it at once. Open takes them straight to the journal entry.

If they tap the same link twice, the second time says Already saved and writes nothing.

If the parent has never opened CareHaven before

They can install CareHaven and open the same link again — the report is offered on the welcome screen, and saving it creates the child's profile in one step.

What the report never contains

• No diagnoses.
• No contact details for you unless you turned them on.
• Nothing written by AI. Every line is either something you logged or something you typed.
• Nothing leaves the phone except the link and the PDF you share yourself. The report is encrypted inside the link, and the key travels in the part of the address that never reaches a web server.

Related

• Walkthrough: Create a handoff for a sitter — the other direction: briefing a sitter before the shift, not writing one up after it.
• Sharing & reports — the other ways to hand off what you know.
• Sharing care with others (sync) — for co-caregivers who edit the same profile, not just read a one-time report.
• Care to-dos — where a saved follow-up lands once the parent saves the report.