Reconciling a front desk roster after an outing

Reconcile the roster by walking the building against the board, one dog at a time, right after the outing returns. An outing scrambles the order dogs come back in, and the board can lag behind the door. The fix is a short physical check: count the dogs in the room, then tick each one off the board and correct any strip that disagrees.

Do the count before the notes

Count first, then read. Walk the room and count dogs, then open the board and tick each dog present. If the count and the board differ, find the dog before changing anything. A dog may be in a different group, in a quiet pen, or already collected. Correct the strip only after you have seen the dog or confirmed the pickup.

A sample reconciliation sheet

Illustrative, invented details, for a small group:

Dog	Board says	Seen in room	Action
Bramble	in building	yes, group 2	none
Coco	in building	no	check quiet pen
Dill	gone home	yes, group 1	reopen, note error
Echo	in building	yes, group 1	none

Result: Coco found in the quiet pen and left as in building; Dill's strip reopened with note "marked gone in error during outing return, 3:40." What you can verify: the ticked board matches the dogs you can see, and every correction carries a time.

When a dog is missing from the count

Stop the reconciliation and search the building before touching the board. Tell the person leading the group and check the last place the dog was seen. Only after the dog is found or its departure is confirmed should the strip be changed. Write what happened in the note so the next shift understands the correction.

Close the loop with the group leader

After the board matches the room, tell the group leader the final count. If a strip was wrong, say which dog and why. The change you can see is a board that agrees with the room, a short list of corrected strips, and a group leader who knows the count is settled.

Related: Dog Daycare Manager features.