Skill Check-Offs: Recording What Your Members Can Do

Training records show the hours your members put in. Skill check-offs show what they can actually do as a result. Every check-off creates a dated record of who demonstrated what competency, evaluated by whom — the digital equivalent of a task book, without the loose paper. How formally each check-off is signed is up to you, packet by packet (see Signatures or attestation below).

There are two ways to record skill check-offs in Command Established: batch check-offs after a training session (sign off on multiple members and multiple skills at once) and individual check-offs from a member's personnel record (sign off on a single skill for a single member). Most departments will use batch check-offs for the majority of their work — it's faster, it ties the check-offs to the training where the skills were demonstrated, and the instructor only signs once for the entire batch.

Batch Check-Offs After Training

This is the recommended workflow when you've just finished a training session and want to record which skills your members demonstrated. The batch flow lets you check off multiple skills for multiple trainees at once, with one instructor signature covering the entire batch.

Getting Started

1. Open the training session you just completed
2. Click Check off skills in the header actions
3. The system automatically pulls in the training's department members from the attendance list as your trainees (external personnel — mutual-aid or outside attendees — are excluded from the batch flow)

Step 1: Pick Skills

Select which skills were attempted during this training session. Skills are grouped by packet and then by section, so you can find the sheets you ran the same way they're laid out in your packet. Expand a section to check the skills you ran. You need at least one skill selected to continue.

Tip: If you run the same drill regularly and find yourself picking the same skills each time, this is the step where that repetition happens. We're working on the ability to pre-configure skills on a training so this step comes pre-filled.

Step 2: Mark Results

Each trainee gets their own card with the selected skills listed inside it. For each skill, mark a result:

• Pass: the member demonstrated the skill to standard
• Needs practice: the member attempted but isn't there yet
• Fail: the member did not demonstrate the skill

You can leave skills unmarked, since not every member needs to attempt every skill. Only skills with a result will create check-off records. Add optional notes to any skill to record specifics about the demonstration.

Skills with steps

Many skill sheets break a skill into individual steps. When a skill has steps, the trainee's card shows the steps instead of a pass/fail choice:

• Every step starts as passed. Click Mark steps and mark only the exceptions, meaning the steps the member missed. For a clean performance, just record the skill with all steps passed.
• Critical steps are marked on the sheet. Missing any critical step fails the skill.
• Safety checks: some skills include a safety check the member must perform. If it isn't performed, the skill fails regardless of the other steps.
• Passing score: if a skill requires a minimum number of passed steps, missing too many fails it.

The result is worked out from the steps as you mark them. If the evaluator disagrees with it (for example, a missed step was caused by faulty equipment rather than the member), they can override the result and must give a reason. The override and its reason are kept with the signed record.

Step 3: Review and Lock

Before signing, review all results one more time. The instructor is filled in for you: it's you if you taught the session (or the training lists no instructor), otherwise the training's first instructor. Change it if someone else evaluated. When you're satisfied, click Lock results and start signing. This freezes the snapshot — no more edits until you unlock.

If every skill you recorded comes from a packet that doesn't use signatures, the button reads Record check-offs instead and saves the batch right away. Steps 4 and 5 don't appear.

Step 4: Instructor Sign

The instructor provides one electronic signature that covers the entire batch. The system shows how many records across how many trainees are being signed for. Typing your full name is your signature; drawing it on the pad is optional. If you're the instructor and you've signed electronically before, you won't be asked to re-confirm the e-signature consent — only the statement of intent for this batch.

If the batch mixes skills from a signed packet with skills from a packet that doesn't use signatures, only the signed skills are covered by the signature. The others are saved alongside them without one, and the signing screen tells you how many.

If you need to make changes after signing, click Unlock results — but be aware this clears the instructor's signature and any trainee signatures already captured. Everyone will need to re-sign.

Step 5: Trainee Hand-Off (When Required)

Some skills in your catalog may be configured to require the trainee's signature in addition to the instructor's. If any trainees in the batch have at least one such skill (from a packet that uses signatures), a hand-off step appears.

The instructor passes the tablet or device to each trainee in turn. Each trainee sees only their own results (read-only) and signs to attest that the results match what they performed. Their name is pre-filled, so they only need to tick the two boxes; drawing a signature is optional. After signing, a "return the tablet" screen appears so the instructor knows to take the device back.

Skipping a trainee: If a trainee isn't available to sign, the instructor can skip them. Skipped trainees' records won't be saved. The instructor will need to re-sign because the batch has changed.

Once all trainees have signed (or been skipped), click Record check-offs to save everything.

Individual Check-Offs From Personnel Records

For one-off sign-offs — a member demonstrates a skill outside of a formal training session, or you need to record a retake — use the individual check-off from the member's personnel record.

1. Open the member's personnel detail page
2. Go to the Skills tab
3. Find the skill and click the check-off action, or click Record check-off to pick from the full catalog

The individual flow records a single skill for a single member with the same results, step evaluation, override, optional notes, and signature ceremony as a batch. The instructor defaults to you. For a skill whose packet doesn't use signatures, there's no ceremony at all: pick the result and click Record check-off.

Viewing Check-Off History

Every check-off, whether recorded in a batch or individually, appears in two places:

• On the member's Skills tab: shows the latest result for each skill, grouped by packet, and how many times it's been attempted
• On the training detail page: if the check-offs were recorded from a training session, they appear linked to that training

Each check-off also has its own detail page. Open one to see the result, the evaluator, notes, and, for skills with steps, every step as it was recorded, including which steps were missed, whether the safety check was performed, and any override with its reason. A signed check-off lists its signatures; an attested one shows who recorded it and when, and says plainly that it carries no electronic signature.

Signatures or Attestation

Not every check-off needs a formal signing ceremony. Each packet has a How are check-offs signed? choice (in Edit packet, or when you create a packet):

• Electronic signatures (the default): check-offs are signed electronically by the instructor, and by the trainee on skills that ask for it. Use this for curricula an outside body certifies, such as state Firefighter I or Driver/Operator sheets.
• Attestation only: check-offs are saved under the name of the person who records them, with no consent box, statement of intent, or signature pad. Use this for in-house drills where a dated, attributed record is all you need. The packet shows an Attestation only badge.

Changing the setting only affects check-offs recorded from then on. Every check-off keeps the kind of evidence it was recorded with, so switching a packet never makes an old signed record look attested, or the reverse. Compliance requirements count both kinds of check-off the same way.

Setting Up Your Skills

Before you can check off skills, you need to define what skills your department tracks. Go to Training in the sidebar, then click Skills. Skills live in packets: a packet is a set of skill sheets, such as Firefighter I, Hazmat Operations, or Pumper Driver/Operator, organized into sections.

• Install a packet from the library to start from a ready-made set of skill sheets, complete with their steps.
• Create your own packet for skills your department teaches that aren't in the library.
• The Department packet holds skills your department wrote itself.

Inside a packet you can add, edit, and reorder skills and sections. For each skill, you can configure:

• Name and code: the code is the sheet or drill number from your curriculum (for example 03-05), so a packet reads in the same order as the paper version.
• Section: the heading a skill is grouped under within its packet, such as SCBA, Ladders, or Communications.
• Steps: the individual actions an evaluator checks, with critical steps marked.
• Reference standard: the standard the skill cites, such as NFPA 1001 § 4.3.1. NFPA citations are recognized automatically and shown consistently across packets and check-off pickers; anything else is kept as a note.
• Custom fields: any custom fields your department has applied to skills appear here. A common use is a Course field so a skill can belong to more than one class (for example both a 16-hour intro class and the full 64-hour course).
• Requires trainee signature: toggle this on for high-stakes competencies where you want the member to co-sign their evaluation. It's off for new skills you create; packets installed from the library keep the setting each sheet ships with. To change it for every skill in a packet at once, use Trainee signatures on the packet page.

For more on installing, creating, and organizing packets, see Skill Packets.

Start with the skills that matter most for your department's operations and add more as your program matures. You don't need to define everything upfront; you can always add skills later and start checking them off.

Best Practices

Use batch check-offs for training days

When you've just run a drill with multiple members, always use the batch flow from the training record rather than individual check-offs. It's faster, the records automatically link to the training, and the instructor signs once instead of per-skill.

Mark results honestly

The value of skill tracking comes from accuracy. A "needs practice" result is useful information — it tells you where to focus the next drill and gives the member a clear path forward. A false "pass" just hides a gap until it matters on the fireground.

Add notes for context

When a result needs explanation — a member passed but struggled with one part, or failed due to equipment issues rather than skill — add a note. Notes are part of the signed record and provide context that a pass/fail alone can't capture.

Require trainee signatures for critical skills

For skills that carry real liability — SCBA operations, pump operations, vehicle driving — enable "requires trainee signature" on the skill (or for the whole packet with Trainee signatures on the packet page). This creates a two-party attestation: the instructor confirms the evaluation, and the member confirms they performed it. It's stronger documentation if questions arise later.

Review the Skills tab regularly

Each member's Skills tab shows their current competency picture at a glance — which skills are checked off, which need work, and when each was last evaluated. Use this during annual reviews, assignment decisions, or when planning the next training cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions