Log Books: Daily Logs, Shift Pass-Ons & Department Communications

Every fire department has information that needs to flow between shifts, stations, and members — apparatus issues found during daily checks, notes from an incident follow-up, a heads-up from the chief about a policy change. Log books in Command Established give that information a permanent, searchable home with clear attribution, so nothing gets lost in a group text or buried in an email thread.

Choosing the Right Scope

Every log book is tied to a scope that determines how it's organized and filtered. Scope is an organizational category, not an access rule: a book can be department-, station-, apparatus-, or shift-scoped and independently be visible to the whole department or restricted to a smaller audience.

• Department — for announcements, policy updates, and information that crosses station boundaries.
• Station — for station-specific activity logs, building maintenance notes, and local information. Members can filter the log book list by station.
• Apparatus — tied to a specific rig. For apparatus-specific notes, recurring issues, and equipment status that travels with the unit.
• Shift — tied to a platoon and optionally a station. For shift pass-on reports where the outgoing crew hands off to the incoming crew.

The scope type is locked when you create the book — you can't change a station book into an apparatus book or vice versa. However, you can change which station, apparatus, or platoon the book is tied to after creation (e.g., move a station book from Station 1 to Station 2).

Creating a Log Book

1. Go to Log Books in the sidebar
2. Click New log book
3. Give it a clear, specific name — "Station 1 Daily Log" is better than "Daily Log" because members should know at a glance what they're reading
4. Choose the scope and select the associated station, apparatus, or platoon
5. Optionally add a description explaining the book's purpose
6. Owners and admins can optionally choose Restricted visibility and add editor or viewer users and groups
7. Save

Tip: Start with a small number of well-scoped books rather than creating one for every possible use case. You can always add more as your department's needs become clearer. A station daily log, a shift pass-on book, and a department announcements book cover most departments' needs.

Restricting a Log Book

Most operational books should remain visible to the whole department. For command handoffs, personnel administration, labor matters, or another running log with a narrower audience, an owner or admin can set Who can see this book to Restricted.

A restricted book and all of its entries are visible only to:

• Department owners and admins
• Users and groups listed as Editors (write access also implies view access)
• Users and groups listed as Viewers

Other members do not see the book in the Log Books list, search, dashboards, recently viewed items, mention back-references, or notifications. A direct link returns the same unavailable result as a book that does not exist, so its title and existence are not disclosed. Announcement entries from a restricted book also stay off station-board displays.

Department-wide log entry permissions do not make a restricted book visible. A member must first be an owner/admin, an editor, or a listed viewer. Once the member can see the book, their normal department permissions still apply; the per-book editor list is the exception that grants entry create/update access for that book alone.

Important: Restricted controls access inside Command Established. It does not change your department's retention, public-records, labor, discovery, or disclosure obligations.

Writing Entries

Open a log book and click New entry to compose. Each entry includes:

• Rich text body — full formatting support including headings, lists, tables, bold, italics, links, and block quotes. Drag and drop or paste images directly into the entry.
• Entry date and time — defaults to now, but you can backdate if you're catching up on a previous day's notes.
• Entry type — categorize the entry so it's filterable later:
  • Note — general observations and routine activity
  • Pass-on — shift turnover handoffs
  • Drill — training notes and evolutions
  • Maintenance — equipment and facility issues
  • Incident follow-up — post-incident debriefs and notes
  • Announcement — department-wide notices

Using @-Mentions

Type @ in the editor to link to people, apparatus, incidents, trainings, work orders, SOPs, pre-plans, hydrants, and more. Mentions create two-way references — the mention links to the referenced item, and that item's record shows a back-reference to your log entry.

When mention notifications are enabled on the book (the default), mentioned members who can see the book receive a notification so they know to read the entry.

Notifying a whole group, rank, or everyone

Sometimes the point of an entry is to make sure a set of people sees it, not to link to a record. Instead of tagging members one by one, type @ and pick from the Groups, Ranks, or Everyone categories in the popup, or just start typing a group name, a rank like @lieu, or @ev and the matching broadcast target appears at the top of the suggestions.

• @ a group — notifies every member of that group (for example, @Duty Officers or @Engine 2 Crew). The popup shows each group's roster size; the number actually notified can be smaller, since you, inactive members, and anyone who can't see the book are skipped.
• @ a rank — notifies everyone whose primary rank is that rank (for example, @Lieutenant). Personnel who hold the rank only as a secondary rank are not notified, even though the popup's count includes them.
• @Everyone — notifies every active member of the department. Because this reaches the whole department, the editor pauses before saving with a Notify N people? confirmation. The count it shows is every active member except you; on a restricted book the number actually notified is smaller, because members who can't see the book are skipped. Group and rank mentions save without the extra confirmation.

Example — Department Announcements. The chief needs all officers to know about a new mutual aid procedure before the weekend. In the Department Announcements book she writes an Announcement entry, mentions @Captain and @Lieutenant, and checks Request acknowledgement. Every captain and lieutenant gets a notification. Note that an entry records a single acknowledgement — the first person to tap Acknowledge — so this shows that someone has read it, not which officers still haven't.

Who actually gets notified. Broadcast mentions follow the same rules as mentioning a single person:

• The book's Notify mentioned personnel setting must be on (it is by default). Turn it off and broadcast mentions become plain labels.
• Only active department members are notified. People who have been removed from the department are skipped, including when a group roster still lists them. Direct and @rank mentions also skip archived personnel; @Everyone and group mentions go by department membership, so an archived person who is still an active member is still notified. Archived groups don't notify anyone.
• On a restricted book, only people who can see the book are notified. @Everyone on a restricted command log reaches the book's authorized audience, not the whole department.
• You never notify yourself.
• Each person gets one notification per save, even if they're covered by several mentions in it. (A later edit that adds a new group or rank notifies that audience again, including people already reached by an earlier mention.) If you're mentioned directly by name, your notification says "You were mentioned in …"; otherwise it names the broadcast, such as "@Everyone was mentioned in Daily Log."
• Notifications go out when a broadcast mention is first added. Editing an entry that already contains @Everyone (or a group or rank) doesn't re-notify; adding a new broadcast mention to an existing entry notifies only that new audience.

Broadcast mentions and read acknowledgements are independent, and they pair well: the mention gets the entry in front of people, and Request acknowledgement records the first person to confirm they've read it.

Inline Images

Drag and drop photos directly into the entry body, or paste from your clipboard. This is useful for documenting conditions — a photo of a damaged hose coupling, a whiteboard diagram from a training session, or the state of a piece of equipment.

Shift Pass-Ons and Read Acknowledgements

The pass-on workflow is one of the most valuable uses of log books. Here's how it works:

1. Create a shift-scoped log book tied to a platoon (and optionally a station)
2. Outgoing crew writes a pass-on entry summarizing what happened during their shift — calls, apparatus issues, tasks left incomplete, anything the incoming crew needs to know
3. Check "Request acknowledgement" on the entry (this is pre-checked automatically for shift-scoped books and pass-on entry types)
4. Incoming crew reads the entry and taps Acknowledge to confirm they've read it

The acknowledgement is a read receipt, not a legal signature — it records who acknowledged and when, creating a clear record that the information was received. Officers can see at a glance whether pass-ons have been acknowledged.

Tip: If your department doesn't use formal platoons, you can still use the pass-on workflow with a station-scoped book. The acknowledgement feature works in any book — just check "Request acknowledgement" when you write the entry.

Entry Templates

If your crews write the same kind of entry repeatedly — a daily activity summary with the same sections, a shift pass-on with standard categories — set up a template on the book so new entries start pre-filled.

1. Open the log book and click Edit
2. Open the Template panel
3. Build out the template using the same rich text editor — add headings, sections, placeholder text, or a checklist structure
4. Save

Every new entry in that book will start with the template content. Members can edit freely from there — the template is a starting point, not a constraint.

Example: Station Daily Log Template

## Shift Summary
[Summarize activity, calls, and notable events]

## Apparatus Status
[Note any issues, out-of-service rigs, or maintenance needs]

## Facilities
[Building issues, supply needs, cleaning tasks]

## Pass-On Items
[Anything the next shift needs to know or follow up on]

Controlling Who Can Write

For a department-visible book, any member with the department-level log entry permission can write. For members who do not have that department-wide permission, you can grant write access to specific books with a per-book editor list.

1. Open the log book and click Edit
2. Under Editors, add specific users or groups who should be allowed to write in this book
3. Save

The editor list adds write access — it does not take department-level permission away. On a restricted book, however, visibility is checked first: a department-wide writer who is not an owner/admin, editor, or listed viewer cannot discover or write in the book. Editors automatically receive visibility, so adding someone as an editor is enough to let them open and write in that one book.

Finding What You Need

Within a Book

The entry listing supports:

• Search — full-text search across entry previews and mention labels
• Filter by entry type — narrow to just pass-ons, just maintenance notes, etc.
• Filter by author — see only entries written by a specific member
• Date grouping — entries are grouped by calendar day (Today, Yesterday, then dates) for easy scanning

Across Books

When you view a personnel record, apparatus detail, or other entity, a Mentioned in section shows the accessible log entries that @-mention that item across the department. Restricted entries remain absent for viewers outside the book's audience.

Common Setups

Station Daily Log

Scope: Station Template: Shift summary, apparatus status, facilities, pass-on items Entry types used: Note, maintenance, incident follow-up Acknowledgement: Optional — useful if officers want to confirm they've reviewed daily activity

Shift Pass-On Book

Scope: Shift (tied to a platoon and station) Template: Calls run, apparatus issues, tasks in progress, incoming crew action items Entry types used: Pass-on Acknowledgement: Always — incoming crew acknowledges to confirm handoff

Department Announcements

Scope: Department Editor list: Chiefs and admin staff only Entry types used: Announcement Acknowledgement: Optional — useful for policy changes where you need confirmation that members have read the update

Restricted Command Log

Scope: Department Visibility: Restricted to owners/admins, the command-staff editor group, and any specifically listed viewers Entry types used: Note, pass-on Acknowledgement: Useful for duty-chief handoffs and time-sensitive follow-up Use case: A leadership running log that stays out of department search, shared dashboards, and member notifications unless the viewer is authorized

Apparatus Log

Scope: Apparatus (tied to a specific rig) Entry types used: Maintenance, note Acknowledgement: Rarely needed Use case: Ongoing notes about a rig's condition, recurring issues, quirks that crews should know about — complements the formal work order system with informal institutional knowledge

Frequently Asked Questions