Appearance
Drop-offs on the phone
Some activities are drop-offs: you leave something in the kennel, such as a frozen treat or a toy, and walk on. Your shelter decides which of its activities are drop-offs. A drop-off is logged as done the moment you log it. There is no timer, no question about where the animal is going, and no survey.
You can log a drop-off for one animal, from Start activity, or for a whole kennel row, or every animal of one kind, from Home.
One animal
- Open the animal, from Scan or Browse, and tap Start activity.
- A drop-off says Drop-off · no timer under its name. Tap it. If your shelter wrote a note for it, What to do opens under it.
- Tap Log drop-off.
- Depends on your shelter: if the animal needs a cleared handler, the same pop-up as for any activity comes first. See Start.
- Depends on your shelter: if the activity has steps to follow, the Before you start sheet comes next. Its button reads Log drop-off too.
- The phone says, for example, Frozen treat logged for Rex. and goes back to where you opened Start activity.
If the drop-off can't be logged, the reason shows just above Log drop-off, for example Already logged in the last 15 minutes. The reasons are listed under Why an animal isn't logged. If ShelterSync says the animal needs a handling confirmation, the cleared-handler pop-up opens. Confirm it, and the phone sends the drop-off once more. If ShelterSync still says it needs one, the phone says This animal needs a handling confirmation first. Tap Log drop-off to confirm it, or ask a member of staff.
If the phone can't reach ShelterSync for the checks it makes before sending, it says Network error: unable to reach server and sends nothing. If the drop-off itself is sent but no answer comes back, or ShelterSync runs into a problem with it, the phone says the drop-off may or may not be logged (and, for a problem on ShelterSync's side, gives a reference to quote). Tapping Log drop-off again within 14 minutes of that drop-off is safe: if it was logged, the phone says, for example, Frozen treat is already logged for Rex. and goes back. Time spent on the cleared-handler pop-up counts. After those 14 minutes, while Start activity stays open, the phone won't send it again: it says ShelterSync didn't confirm the drop-off sent at that time, and asks you to have a member of staff check the animal's record.
Drop-offs for a whole row
Home shows Log a drop-off for a row when your shelter has at least one drop-off activity. It isn't shown to a foster-only account: the row log is for animals at the shelter.
On Home, tap Log a drop-off for a row.
If your shelter has more than one drop-off activity, choose the one you are handing out.
Choose where:
- under Kennel rows, any place with kennels under it: a row, a building, or a whole site. Each says how many animals there the activity is for.
- under Whole species, for example All dogs: every animal of that kind at the shelter, wherever it is.
Only the kinds of animal the activity is for are counted, and a place with none of them isn't listed.
The animals are listed in the order of their kennels, each one ticked. An animal out on an activity starts unticked and says Out on an activity now, so not ticked. (one that isn't available says Not available now, so not ticked.). Untick any animal that didn't get one. Under the list, the count, for example 38 of 40 ticked, shows how many will be logged. A log covers up to 200 animals: with more ticked, the phone says so and Next stays off until you untick some, or go back and choose a smaller row.
Tap Next. If you like, write a note under Note (optional). It is saved with each animal's drop-off.
Tap Log for 38 animals (the number is your count). The phone asks, for example, Log Frozen treat for 38 animals?. Tap Log, or Cancel to go back to the note.
The phone says how many were logged, for example Logged 37., and names every animal you ticked: under Logged, or under Not logged with the reason. If ShelterSync didn't answer, or ran into a problem, some are under Not confirmed or Not sent instead (see If the phone gets no answer). Tap Done to go back to Home.
Each animal gets its own record. Going Back from the list after unticking an animal asks Discard your changes? first.
Why an animal isn't logged
ShelterSync checks each animal as it would for Start activity. An animal that doesn't pass is left out and listed with the reason. The others are still logged.
| The phone says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Already logged in the last 15 minutes. | Someone logged this drop-off for this animal less than 15 minutes ago, perhaps from another phone. It isn't logged twice. |
| Not available right now: out on an activity or a movement, or marked unavailable. | The animal is out of its kennel on an activity, being moved, or marked as not available. |
| Not in its kennel right now. | The animal's place isn't one of the shelter's kennels, for example a yard. |
| No kennel recorded for this animal. | ShelterSync doesn't know where the animal is. Ask a member of staff to set its location. |
| Needs a handling confirmation first. Log it from the animal's own page. | The animal needs a cleared handler. Log its drop-off from Start activity, where you can confirm it. |
| This activity isn't offered for this animal's species. | The activity is set up for other kinds of animal. |
| Has left the shelter. | The animal has been adopted, transferred or fostered, for example. |
| Not found. It may no longer be at this shelter. | ShelterSync couldn't find the animal. |
| That activity is no longer available. | The activity was turned off while you were logging. |
| Couldn't log this one. Try again. | Something went wrong for this animal. Try again sends it again. |
If the phone gets no answer
The phone sends the animals 50 at a time, one batch after another, and stops at a batch that gets no answer, or that ShelterSync runs into a problem with. It says, for example, No answer from ShelterSync for 50 animals, so they may or may not be logged. (or, for a problem on ShelterSync's side, ShelterSync ran into a problem with 50 animals, so they may or may not be logged.), and the result shows:
- under Not confirmed, each animal in that batch, with what happened and the time it was sent. It may or may not be logged.
- under Not sent, the animals after it. They weren't sent, so they aren't logged.
Tap Try again for 70 animals (the number is how many can be sent again) to send them. It is safe: ShelterSync skips an animal it logged in the last 15 minutes rather than logging it twice, and an animal that turns out to be logged already is counted under Logged, as Already logged when you tried again.
The phone counts those 15 minutes from the first request for an animal that wasn't confirmed, not from the latest try, and checks it again just before each request it sends. So from 14 minutes after that request, the phone doesn't send that animal again: it stays under Not confirmed, and the phone asks you to have a member of staff check its record.
How a drop-off counts
A drop-off counts toward the animal's daily plan by the activity's Typical minutes, as your shelter had them set when the drop-off was logged, or by none when it has none. It isn't time you spent with the animal, so it isn't added to Your week in review on Home. A drop-off never shows in the bar above the tabs, because nothing is running.