TroopPlan User Guide

Getting started

TroopPlan is Troop 222’s private app. It’s invite-only: troop leaders create every account. The website and the iPhone app use the same account and show the same information.

Signing in

• Google or Apple. Tap Continue with Google or Sign in with Apple. This works when the troop has that email on file.
• Username and password. Type your username, tap Continue, then enter your password.
• Email code. Type your email address in the username box instead. We email you a sign-in link and a 6-digit code. Open the link on the same device, or type the code into the app. It works once and expires after 15 minutes.

Getting the iPhone app

The app is in testing through Apple’s TestFlight. Ask a leader for an invite, install TestFlight, then install TroopPlan from the invite. Allow notifications when the app asks, so you hear about messages and trip plans.

Who can do what

* A trip planner is that trip’s scout in charge or adult in charge, set on the trip’s details.

Trip planning

Every trip is planned in the Planning Hub. It walks the planners through nine steps, from who’s going to a published plan that tells each person their patrol, tent, ride and cooking job.

The workflow

1. 1Roster
2. 2Patrols
3. 3Tenting
4. 4Car Pool
5. 5Itinerary
6. 6Meal Plan
7. 7Duty Roster
8. 8Gear
9. 9Publish

Steps can be done in any order, with one exception: the Duty Roster needs Patrols finalized first, because cooking jobs are assigned by patrol. Each step shows its status:

Finalize locks a step so nothing changes by accident; Edit reopens it. Needs attention means something changed after it was finalized, for example someone cancelled. Hover the step (website) or open it (app) to see what.

Choosing the tools a trip needs

The first time a planner opens a trip’s plan, a checklist appears with every tool checked. Uncheck what the trip doesn’t need, like Tenting for a day hike or Meal Plan when everyone brings a bag lunch, then tap Start planning. Roster and Publish are always on.

• Change it later with ⚙️ Tools (website) or the sliders button next to Outing Plan (app).
• Removing a tool that’s in use takes two clicks. Nothing is deleted: turn it back on and everything you entered returns.
• Turning off Patrols also turns off the Duty Roster.

The nine steps

1Roster

Everyone who RSVPs “going” appears here, split into youth and adults, with the waitlist shown separately. When sign-ups close, the planner taps Finalize Roster to lock the headcount.

2Patrols

Tap Auto-Patrol to build patrols in one click:

• About 6 per patrol (7–8 when needed to avoid leftovers, never fewer than 4). Adults get their own patrol.
• The highest-ranked scout becomes Patrol Leader; on a tie, the older scout.
• An Assistant Patrol Leader is picked for each patrol.
• Ranks and new scouts are spread evenly, so no patrol is all first-years or all senior scouts.

Planners can move people and change the Patrol Leader or APL from the drop-downs. When Patrols are finalized, everyone (and the parents of youth) gets a notification with their patrol and leaders, and the line-up is posted in the trip’s chat.

3Tenting

Tap Auto-Tent. It follows Youth Protection rules: scouts share with scouts of the same gender and close in age; adults share with adults of the same gender. Planners can swap people, and TroopPlan warns if a tent breaks a rule. The number of tents feeds the Gear step.

Campsites. On a camping trip, open Campsites in the Tenting step and add the sites the troop booked: a name, whether it is a group site (for scouts) or an individual site (for adults), how many people it holds, how many cars can park, and optionally the loop or area it is in. Then tap Assign tents to sites. Scouts go into group sites first, with patrols kept together. Adults go into individual sites, grouped together in an area away from the scouts, with families together. Tents are made first if anyone is missing one. Each site shows how many people and cars it has against what it holds. This is only a suggestion: tap any tent to move it, and anything that breaks a rule (too many people, too many cars, adults with scouts) shows as a warning instead of being blocked. Everyone sees their campsite in My Plan.

4Car Pool

Tap Auto-Carpool to fill cars, keeping families together where possible. Cars default to 5 seats; set 4, 6 or 7 from the seat menu. Pick a driver for each car. Drivers must be adults, and picking one moves them into that car.

5Itinerary

Set each day’s start and end time (arrival and departure). The day becomes a grid of 30-minute slots; click a slot to add an activity, notes and who leads it. Meals outside a day’s window are greyed out in the Meal Plan automatically.

6Meal Plan

Each patrol plans its own menu. Pick the patrol from the menu switcher, then choose a recipe for each breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Patrol Leader and APL can edit their patrol’s menu; planners can edit every menu and copy one patrol’s menu to another.

• Skip a meal the group won’t eat together, or mark it Bring from home with a note (e.g. “bag lunch”).
• Cookware: list the pots, pans and utensils each meal needs. They roll up into each patrol’s gear list.

7Duty Roster & cooking signups

Every patrol gets a primary cook and a helper for each meal it cooks, plus a cleanup slot each day. Adults sign up in the adult patrol.

1. Open signups (planner), with an optional deadline. Patrol members and parents are notified, and it’s posted in the trip chat.
2. Claim a slot. Scouts, or parents for their scouts, open the trip and pick a slot in their own patrol. A person can’t be cook and helper for the same meal.
3. Reminder. The day before the deadline, anyone without a slot gets one automatic reminder. Planners can also send one by hand.
4. Auto-fill (planner) fills what’s left. Scouts who still need cooking requirements for their rank get primary-cook slots first.
5. Finalize. Everyone gets a notification listing their own jobs, e.g. “Sat dinner – Primary cook”.

8Gear

The gear list builds itself: tents from Tenting, a stove and fuel for each patrol, and cookware from the Meal Plan. It’s grouped by patrol so each patrol knows what to carry. Planners can reserve troop gear straight from the list, and anything the troop is short on is flagged. Gear is informational and has no Finalize button.

9Review & Publish

Publish unlocks when every step the trip uses is finalized. Publishing:

• posts a summary in the trip’s chat,
• notifies everyone going and the parents of youth going,
• fills in each person’s My Plan.

If plans change, reopen the step, fix it, finalize, and publish again. Everyone gets the update.

My Plan: what everyone sees

Open any trip on the website or in the app. The My Plan card shows you and the family members you’re going with:

Tapping a trip notification opens that trip in the app.

Messaging

Kinds of chats

Everyday use

• Start a chat: the + button (app) or New message (website). Search for people; pick one for a DM or several for a group.
• Unread chats move to the top of the list, above the collapsed sections.
• Links in messages can be tapped. A TroopPlan trip link opens the trip in the app.
• React, attach, delete: on the website, hover a message for 😊 reactions and 🗑 delete, and use 📎 to attach a photo or PDF. In the app, press and hold a message for Copy, Report and Delete.
• Scotty, the troop’s AI assistant, answers questions about the troop. Chat with it directly, or type @scotty in any chat.

Notifications for each chat

Each chat has three settings: All messages, @Mentions only or Off. Change it from the chat’s details in the app (tap the chat name → Notifications), or the 🔔 menu in the chat header on the website.

• To get someone’s attention in a busy channel, type @ and their username.
• Leaders can use @everyone to notify all members for important news.

Managing a group

Open the chat’s details (tap its name in the app, or Members on the website). Group admins can add and remove people, make others admins, and switch a group between public and private. Anyone can leave a group, or join a public one.

Safety, reporting & blocking

• No adult–scout one-on-one. When an adult messages a scout, the scout’s parent or guardian is added to the chat. If no guardian has an account, the message can’t be started; add a second adult instead.
• Groups with scouts must have either no adults or at least two. The app stops the last second adult from leaving.
• Private groups and the Adult Leadership and Parents Only channels are adults only.
• These checks run on every message, not just when a chat is created.

Report a message

Press and hold the message (app) or hover and click 🚩 (website), then choose a reason. Every troop leader is notified, and leaders review reports within 24 hours. They can remove the message for everyone.

Block someone

In a chat’s details, press and hold the person (app) or click Block (website). You stop seeing their messages and notifications, and they can’t start a new chat with you. Unblock from Profile → Blocked People. Blocking never removes a parent from their scout’s chats.

Your profile & family

• Personal details: preferred name, email, phone, birth date, address, and your household’s address.
• Dietary & allergies: nut-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, other allergies and medical notes. Trip cooks and planners rely on these.
• My Family (parents): update each of your scouts’ preferred name, birth date, email, phone, address, and dietary or allergy information. Legal name, rank and patrol are managed by leaders.
• Change password (at least 12 characters). Other devices are signed out.
• Appearance (app): System, Light or Dark.
• Delete account (app): signs you out everywhere and removes your login and contact details. Tick Also erase my personal details to ask an admin to erase your birth date, contact, medical and dietary information too.

Submitting expenses

Bought something for the troop? Send the receipt in and the Treasurer pays you back. A receipt is required for every expense.

The quick way: give Scotty the receipt

1. Open Scotty and tap the paperclip. Take a photo of the receipt or pick one (photo or PDF).
2. Check what Scotty read. Scotty lists the shop, date and each item with its amount. Fix anything that is wrong, and pick a category for each item.
3. Say what it was for. Choose the outing it belongs to (or none) and add a short description.
4. Submit. It goes to the Finance Hub for approval, and you get a PDF copy to keep.

On the website: Finance Hub

Open Finance Hub → Submit Expense, add each item with its amount, attach the receipt and submit.

What happens next

The Treasurer reviews it. You get a notification when it is approved or sent back. If it is sent back, the note says what to fix; correct it and submit again.

Rank advancement

TroopPlan follows a rank from the first requirement to the Court of Honor. Your paper Scout Handbook still gets signed, and TroopTrack is still the troop’s official record while this is being tested.

1. Ask for a sign-off. In My Journey, tap Request sign-off on a requirement you are ready for. Parents can ask for their scout. Signers get a notification.
2. A signer signs. Have the scout show or explain the skill, then tap Sign — or Not yet with what is still needed. Signers can also open a scout’s checklist and sign without a request.
3. Add handbook photos. If some requirements are signed only on paper, upload photos of those handbook pages.
4. Submit for Scoutmaster review. The Scoutmaster checks the list and photos, then accepts or sends it back with a reason.
5. Scoutmaster conference. The Scoutmaster records the date. The scout moves to the Advancement panel.
6. Board of Review. The panel schedules a board (it appears on the calendar) and asks parents to volunteer on the event page. After the board, the panel records the decision. Approved means the rank is earned that day.
7. Court of Honor. The panel ticks off ranks and merit badges as they are presented.

Who can sign

• Scoutmaster, Assistant Scoutmasters, Advancement Chair and assistant: any requirement, any rank.
• Star, Life and Eagle scouts are signers automatically; the Scoutmaster can also add First Class scouts. They sign Scout through First Class requirements, for scouts below their own rank.
• Notifications go to the signers in the scout’s own patrol. Signers in other patrols still see the request in Sign-offs and can sign it if needed.
• Nobody signs their own requirement, or one for someone in their own household — scouts and adults alike.
• The Scoutmaster conference and Board of Review boxes tick themselves when those steps are recorded.

Merit badges, service and positions

• Merit Badge Counselors see My merit badge scouts in their profile: start a scout on a badge and mark it complete. Completed badges count toward Star, Life and Eagle.
• Service hours are logged by the Service Co-Ordinator, from outings, or automatically for a service project event once attendance is confirmed. My Journey shows your hours since your last rank next to the service requirement.

Meetings and outings count as evidence

1. Planner says what the event covers. On the event page, open Advancement. Pick a rank and then a requirement from the pull-down (it adds a short tag such as “First Class 2a”). For merit badges, tap one of the five common ones — Hiking, Cooking, Camping, Swimming, Biking (Cycling) — or search for any other, then pick the badge’s requirements from its own pull-down (or none, if the event covers the badge in general). If it is a service project, tick This is a service project, pick Conservation, Community or Other (for Other, type what it is), and enter the estimated hours per scout. Tap any tag, such as “First Class 2a”, to read the full requirement. If it covers none of this, tick No advancement focus. An event can’t be published until one or the other is answered.
2. Adults in charge. Two to four registered leaders who RSVPed run the event. A planner can pick them; otherwise the leaders who said “going” are used.
3. Confirm attendance. When the event is over, the adults in charge get a reminder. One of them ticks the scouts who were there.
4. Evidence appears. Each scout who attended sees “Covered at … — you attended” on those rank requirements, and signers see them in Sign-offs. Merit badge requirements show for counselors and the panel under the scout’s merit badges (Advancement Hub → Merit badges).
5. Service hours are added. For a service project, every scout who attended gets the estimated hours in their service log, so they count toward Star and Life. A leader can still change a scout’s hours afterwards.
6. A signer still signs. Attendance never signs anything by itself. The signer checks the scout knows the skill, then signs — one at a time or Sign all for a scout.

Merit badges recorded by the panel

Advancement Hub → Merit badges: find a scout, then start or complete any badge (summer camp, outside counselors, older records).

Board of Review volunteers

A board needs at least three adults. Scoutmasters and Assistant Scoutmasters do not sit on boards, and you never review your own child. Open the Board of Review event and tap I can sit on this board.

Admin tools

For troop leaders and admins. In the app: Profile → Admin Tools. On the website: the admin pages in the menu. Leader and admin accounts use two-factor sign-in.

Daily jobs

People & program

Money, gear & data

FAQ