How to use Jack Docs

The short version: everything you log - a dose given, a feed started, a diaper changed, a note about how your child seemed today - becomes a timestamped entry in your child's timeline. Appointments and recurring care tasks live on the Calendar (separate from medication dosing). Nothing is ever silently deleted; edits and deletes are things you do on purpose. Jack Docs works offline: if you log something with no signal, it's saved on your device and syncs automatically the next time you're connected.

Getting started

Create your family's account at the signup page - it takes about a minute, and you become the account's owner and first admin. Everyone signs in with their email address. If you ever forget your password, use the "Forgot password" link on the sign-in page.

Add a care recipient

A "care recipient" is the child (or adult) whose care you're tracking. Most families only need one, but Jack Docs supports more than one recipient per account if you're tracking care for more than one child. An admin sets up recipients from the admin panel, and can turn specific categories (medication, feeding, diaper, demeanor, observation, journal) on or off per recipient if you don't need to track all of them.

The fastest way to log something

The dashboard has a big "+" button that opens Quick Entry - pick the type of thing you're logging (medication, feeding, diaper, demeanor, observation, or journal) and fill in just what's needed. If you've set up quick-log buttons for medications or feeds you give often, a single tap logs the whole thing with its usual dose or amount already filled in - no typing required.

If you lose signal

Keep logging. Jack Docs saves everything you enter to your device first, then syncs it to the server as soon as you're back online. A small sync status indicator in the header shows whether everything is saved (green), waiting to sync (yellow), or actively syncing (blue) - you never have to wait for a connection before logging care.

Medications

The Medications tab under Settings (admins only) is your medication library - every medication your care recipient takes, with its usual dose, unit, and route, plus optional inventory tracking and reminder settings. Logging a dose from Quick Entry or a dashboard panel is just picking a medication from that library, so the more complete the library is, the faster logging gets.

Adding a medication

From Settings → Medications, an admin adds each medication with its name, usual dose and unit (for example "5 ml" or "1 tablet"), and one or more administration routes (oral, tube, nebulizer, and so on - routes are managed per recipient in the same tab). A medication can have several routes at once, with one marked as the default that's pre-selected when logging.

Quick meds - one tap to log

Any medication in the library can be flagged "Show as quick med." Quick meds show up as their own one-tap buttons at the top of Quick Entry and in the dashboard's quick actions - tapping one logs the dose immediately using the medication's default amount and route, no form to fill in. There's an optional "add a note" toggle if you want to note something unusual without slowing down the common case.

Today's med schedule - for fixed daily times

Give a medication "Schedule Times" (for example 08:00, 14:00, 20:00, in your household's timezone) and it appears on the dashboard's "Today's med schedule" panel as a checklist for the day: one row per scheduled time, each with a one-tap "Give" button. Every row shows whether that dose is given, due, missed (unmet a few hours past its time), or upcoming, plus a running "X / Y given" count for the day.

Medication reminders - for "every so many hours" dosing

A medication with an interval (and no fixed Schedule Times) gets a reminder that repeats a set number of hours after the last dose - useful for as-needed or PRN-style medications on a minimum-interval basis rather than a fixed time of day. These show up in the dashboard's "Medication reminders" panel, which lists interval doses due in the next 24 hours with Log dose now, Snooze, and Dismiss buttons for each. Fixed clock times do not appear here.

Which one should this medication use?

• Dosed at the same clock times every day (like 08:00/14:00/20:00)? Set Schedule Times - it belongs on Today's med schedule.
• Dosed "every 4 hours as needed" or otherwise counted from whenever it was last given, rather than a fixed time of day? Use an interval reminder instead - it belongs on Medication reminders.

Pick one mode per medication when you can: Schedule Times for Today's med schedule, or an interval for Medication reminders. If both are set in the library, Jack Docs uses the clock schedule on Today's med schedule only; the reminders panel shows interval meds without fixed times. On the dashboard, Medication reminders renders above Today's med schedule.

Early-dose warnings

If you log a dose earlier than expected - from either panel or Quick Entry - Jack Docs shows a warning asking you to confirm before saving it, so you notice before double-dosing by accident. It's a warning you can dismiss, not a hard block, since you know your child's situation better than the app does.

Inventory and low-stock warnings

Set "Doses On Hand" on a medication and Jack Docs counts it down automatically every time a dose is logged (and counts it back up if a logged dose is deleted by mistake). Set a "Refill Warning At" threshold and Today's med schedule shows a "Refill soon" note with the doses remaining once the count drops to or below that threshold - enough notice to call the pharmacy before you're down to the last dose.

Feeding

Jack Docs supports three feeding modes, so it fits however your child is actually fed rather than forcing every feed into one shape.

• Bolus - a defined amount given over a short time (a syringe or gravity feed through a tube, or a bottle). Log the amount and formula type; it's recorded as a single completed entry.
• Continuous - a pump running over an extended period, most often overnight or during the day at a set rate. Start the feed with its rate (ml/hr) and Jack Docs shows a live banner on the dashboard while it's active. When you stop the feed, you can enter the pump's actual total if it differs from the estimate - the actual total is what gets used for the day's feeding total.
• Oral - feeding by mouth, logged with notes rather than a strict volume when that fits better (though an amount can still be recorded).

There's also a separate "Water" quick-entry option for plain water flushes, which counts toward the daily total but is tracked and reported separately from formula. Common feeds can be saved as quick-feed templates - one tap logs the feed with its saved amount, duration, or rate. Set a daily volume goal (in ml) for a care recipient and the dashboard shows a progress bar toward that goal for the day - a running total for your own tracking, not medical guidance; always follow your care team's specific feeding plan.

Calendar & care tasks

The Calendar is for everything that is not a medication dose but still needs a date and a nudge: clinic appointments, therapy, ordering feeding supplies, G-tube changes, and other recurring care chores. Medication dosing still lives under Medications and the dashboard med panels - Calendar deliberately does not replace those.

Open Calendar from the menu (or the Calendar control on the dashboard). You get two views:

• Upcoming - a list of what's coming next, including overdue tasks.
• Month - a month grid with marks on days that have items; tap a day to see that day's list.

Appointments vs recurring tasks

• Appointments - one-off visits (doctor, specialist, therapy). Can include a time of day. When the day has passed, they're done unless you reschedule them.
• Recurring care tasks - things you repeat on a schedule, like "order supplies every 2 weeks" or "change G-tube every 3 weeks." In the current version these are all-day items (no clock time). You choose how often: every N days, weeks, or months.

What to do when something is due

Items that are due today or overdue also show on the dashboard so you don't have to open Calendar first. On the dashboard and on Calendar you can:

• Complete - mark a task done. For a recurring task that you finished late, Jack Docs asks whether to keep the original schedule or schedule the next occurrence from today (so a G-tube change done a week late can push the next one out correctly).
• Remind tomorrow - push the reminder one day without rewriting the whole plan.
• Reschedule - pick a new date (with a one-tap "Tomorrow" shortcut).

Edit (change the title, notes, or recurrence) is available on the Calendar screens, not on the dashboard due list - so quick dashboard actions stay simple.

Subscribe from your phone calendar

Under Settings → Calendar you can create a private calendar link (and QR code) to add to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. That feed is read-only: changes still happen in Jack Docs, and your phone calendar shows what's scheduled. You can rotate or revoke the link anytime if a device is lost or shared by mistake.

Caregivers & roles

Care for a medically complex child is rarely a one-person job. Jack Docs is built for a whole team - co-parents, grandparents, home nurses, and school aides - to log and read the same timeline, each with access that matches what they should actually see and do.

Inviting someone

From the admin panel, an admin creates an invite: pick a role, choose which care recipients the person should have access to, and share the invite link with them directly - they'll set their own password when they accept it. Pending invites can be reviewed or revoked at any time before they're used.

Roles

• Admin - full access: manage medications, recipients, invites, and other users' access, in addition to everything a caregiver can do.
• Caregiver - can log and edit care entries for the recipients they've been given access to.
• Read only - can view the timeline and reports for their assigned recipients, but can't add or change entries. Useful for a family member who wants visibility without editing rights.

Access is scoped per care recipient, not account-wide - a home nurse can be given access to one child's records without seeing another family member's data if your account has more than one recipient.

Two-factor authentication (2FA)

Each person can turn on two-factor authentication for their own account from Settings. Scan the QR code with an authenticator app, confirm the 6-digit code once to finish setup, and you'll be asked for a code at sign-in from then on. Turning on 2FA also generates one-time recovery codes - store them somewhere safe.

Doctor reports

The Report page turns weeks of logged entries into something you can actually hand to a doctor or specialist - no more scrolling through your phone in the waiting room trying to remember when the last dose was.

• Medication summary - each medication's schedule alongside how many doses were given versus scheduled over the date range, so gaps are visible at a glance.
• Feeding totals - daily totals with an average across the range, broken out by formula versus free water when both were logged.
• Diaper patterns - frequency and type over the date range.
• Journal notes - your free-form observations for the period, in case something you wrote down two weeks ago turns out to matter at the appointment.
• Growth - the most recent logged weight and height, when available.

Open the Report page, pick a care recipient and a date range, and the report builds automatically from your logged entries. Use the Print or Save as PDF option to bring a copy to the visit. Because every entry is timestamped and attributed to the caregiver who logged it, the report reflects what actually happened, not what everyone remembers happening.