A clock-in app can become the provider's record of when a shift started, ended, or required correction. Do not leave its setup for the caregiver to solve at the door. The person who controls the schedule should carry the service from invitation through testing, routine use, and removal. Start with the written schedule described in Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring.
1. Name who owns the service
Ask: Who operates the app? Who creates the family account? Who creates the caregiver account? Who answers setup questions? Who can correct a missed clock-in? The answers may differ depending on whether you hire through an agency or directly, the two lanes outlined in Hire a Caregiver in St. Louis: Agency or Direct.
Write down: Service name: __________. Account owner: __________. Setup contact: __________. Correction contact: __________. After-hours contact: __________.
Stop if the provider requires the app but cannot name anyone responsible for activating it or correcting its records.
2. Get the complete installation instructions
Ask the setup contact to send the download link, supported device requirements, account-creation steps, permission requests, clock-in method, clock-out method, and password-reset route in writing. Do not install an app from a search result when the provider can send the exact link.
Before accepting permissions, read the phone's permission screen. Ask whether the service requires location, notifications, camera access, contacts, or background activity. For each requested permission, write down what function stops if you decline it.
Write down: Required permissions: __________. Optional permissions: __________. Provider's explanation: __________.
Pause if the written instructions and the permission screen do not match. Verify the explanation against the provider's public materials or the public agencies collected on the site's Sources page.
3. Keep family and caregiver accounts separate
Ask whether the family needs its own login or only receives reports. Do not give the caregiver the family password, and do not use the caregiver's personal login to review shifts. Ask who can see schedules, visit records, notes, corrections, and location information.
Write down: Family login holder: __________. Caregiver login holder: __________. People who can view records: __________. Password-reset contact: __________.
Stop if the only proposed setup requires two people to share one password or if nobody can explain which account controls the record.
4. Load one shift exactly as agreed
Compare the first scheduled shift in the app with the written work plan. Check the service address, start time, end time, caregiver name, and any instructions shown inside the timekeeping screen. Treat a mismatch as a setup problem before it becomes a disputed shift.
Write down: Written shift: __________. App shift: __________. Differences sent for correction: __________. Person confirming the correction: __________.
5. Run a test without creating a false work record
Ask whether the service has a training mode, demonstration account, or provider-led test. If it does not, ask the provider how to test setup without recording work that did not occur. Test sign-in, schedule visibility, notifications, password recovery, and the route for reaching support.
Do not assume that opening the app proves clock-in will work at the house. Complete the provider's approved test from the actual service location if its process depends on location or a code kept there.
Write down: Test method approved by: __________. Functions tested: __________. Failed step: __________. Resolution: __________.
Pause the launch if the provider tells you to create a false shift merely to see whether the system works.
6. Observe the first live clock-in and clock-out
For the first shift, have one named person verify four events: the caregiver can sign in, the correct shift appears, the clock-in is accepted, and the clock-out is accepted. Record what the family can see after each event.
Write down: Observer: __________. Clock-in visible where: __________. Clock-out visible where: __________. Missing information: __________.
If an event fails, use the correction contact from Step 1. Ask what record will show the original entry, the correction, the person who made it, and the reason. Keep the provider's response with the shift record. This follows the site's stated practice of separating what a source says from what still needs confirmation, described in How We Write the Sheets.
7. Reconcile the first three shifts
After each of the first three shifts, compare only five fields: scheduled start, recorded start, scheduled end, recorded end, and caregiver name. Send one written correction request for every mismatch. Do not let a verbal explanation replace the corrected record.
Write down: Shift checked by: __________. Mismatch: __________. Request sent to: __________. Corrected record received: __________.
Walk away from the service arrangement if required records repeatedly fail and the responsible party will neither correct them nor provide another usable recording method. If the unresolved problem affects the hiring path itself, use the contacts gathered at Local Help for Hiring a Caregiver.
8. Define the shutdown before you need it
Ask how the caregiver account is disabled, how family access ends, how records are exported, how long records remain available, and who confirms removal. Put those steps in the same folder as the installation instructions.
When the work ends, export the records you are entitled to keep, disable the caregiver's access, remove the app from any family-owned device, revoke permissions, and request written confirmation that the account is closed or reassigned.
Write down: Final record exported: __________. Access disabled by: __________. Device permissions removed: __________. Closure confirmed by: __________.