What Are Checklists?

Last updated: July 22, 2026

Overview

Checklists are recurring, team-based task lists that structure your practice's operational routines — opening and closing procedures, daily setup, weekly and monthly duties, and any repeatable process you want your team to follow consistently.

A checklist is built from a template. The template defines the tasks and which team owns them; the practice then works a fresh copy of that list each day, week, or month. As staff check off tasks, TeamCare records who completed each item and when, so you always have an accountability trail and a completion rate.

Find checklists under Team Ops → Checklists.

Templates vs. Checklists

Checklists have two layers:

  • Checklist Template — the reusable definition: a title, an owning team, a frequency, and the list of tasks. This is set up once and reused.

  • Checklist — the working copy your team actually fills out for a given day, week, or month.

Each period, a working checklist is created from the template, and its items come from the template's tasks.

Team Types

Every template belongs to a team, which groups and color-codes it in the queue:

Team

Description

Front Desk

Reception and front-office routines.

Clinical

Doctor and assistant chairside routines.

Hygiene

Hygiene department routines.

Billing

Billing and collections routines.

When you open Checklists, the view defaults to your own team (doctors and assistants see Clinical), and a team filter lets anyone switch to "All Teams" or a specific team.

Frequencies

Each template runs on a schedule:

Frequency

When it's due

Daily

End of the current day.

Weekly

End of the current week.

Monthly

End of the current month.

In the queue, templates are grouped under Daily / Weekly / Monthly headings, each showing how long until it's due.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the difference between a template and a checklist? A template is the reusable definition (tasks + owning team). A checklist is the working copy your team fills out for a specific day, week, or month.

Q: Do I need to create a new checklist every day? No. Templates recur automatically at their frequency. A working copy for the current period is started when someone begins it — see Working the Checklists Queue.

Q: Why do I only see certain checklists? The queue defaults to your own team. Use the team filter to switch to "All Teams" or another team.