What routines are
Routines are the recurring checklists that appear in your staff's app: opening checks, closing procedures, cleaning schedules, temperature monitoring, and anything else you want done on a schedule. Each routine has a category, a set of checklist items, a schedule, and an assignment.
Where to find them
Everything to do with tasks lives under Tasks & routines in the Operations part of the sidebar. It opens on Today and has five pages:
Today: every task scheduled today across your sites, routines and quick tasks together. Overdue tasks come first, then the rest by the time they are due, and the tasks already done fold into one line at the bottom. The chips at the top (To do, Overdue, Done, Missed or late) narrow the list, and the location picker narrows it to one site. Open a task to see what was recorded, or to resolve one that was missed. Other days are on the Calendar.
Routines: the routines you have set up, filtered by category, where you create, edit, duplicate and reorder them.
Quick tasks: the one-off jobs raised on the spot that are still open.
Categories: the built-in categories and your own, described below.
Automations: rules that act on tasks for you, for example raising a task when a temperature is out of range. See Rules and automations. This page only shows when the Automations module is on.
The Tasks today figure on the dashboard and its list of tasks still to do both open Today.
Routine categories
A category groups your routines and gives each one a sensible icon and colour. The built-in categories are below, and you can add your own.
Category | Typical use |
|---|---|
Opening | Start-of-day setup and safety checks |
Closing | End-of-day shutdown and lock-up checks |
Temperature | Fridge, freezer, cooking, and hot-holding monitoring |
Cleaning | Cleaning schedules and clean-as-you-go checks |
Fire Log Book | Weekly alarm tests, emergency lighting, extinguisher and fire door checks, and drills |
Fire Safety | Fire checks set up before the fire log book existed |
First Response | First aid kit and defibrillator checks |
Maintenance | Routine equipment and premises checks |
Pest Control | Bait station and proofing checks |
Training | Learning tasks staff complete (see completion modes below) |
Induction | New-starter onboarding steps |
To add your own, click + New category on the routine form, or open Tasks & routines > Categories. Give it a name, an icon, and a colour. You can also tick Add to a compliance score to link it to a compliance area (Food Safety, Fire Safety, Location Monitoring, Equipment, or Team); when it is linked to Food Safety, Fire Safety, or Location Monitoring, completing its routines counts towards that area. Custom categories appear as a filter tab on the Routines page and in the staff app, and you can open a category's records any time from the View Records action on a routine.
Creating a routine
Open Tasks & routines > Routines and click New routine
Name it and choose a category
Add your checklist items, choosing a field type for each
Set the schedule and the assignment
Save
Generate a routine from a chemical or equipment
You do not always have to start from scratch. From a COSHH chemical, choose Draft a handling routine to draft a safe-handling checklist from its hazards, storage, and spillage detail. From a piece of equipment, click Add > Set up a maintenance routine to draft a maintenance schedule from its type and service interval. Paddl writes a first draft you review and edit before saving, so the routine matches how you actually work.
Field types
Every checklist item has a field type that decides what staff enter and how it is checked. There are sixteen, split into general fields and temperature fields.
General fields
Field type | What staff enter |
|---|---|
Checkbox (Yes/No) | A simple done or not done |
Text Input | A short line of text |
Text Area | Longer notes or a description |
Number | A numeric value |
Count | A tally, for example stock quantity |
Dropdown Select | A choice from a list you define |
Time | A time, for example when something was done |
Photo Upload | Photo evidence taken on the device |
Signature | A signature captured on completion |
Sound Level (dB) | A decibel reading for noise monitoring |
Temperature fields
Temperature fields carry the relevant food safety limits, so an out-of-range reading is flagged and raises an alert automatically. Choose the one that matches the check.
Field type | Use it for | Typical target |
|---|---|---|
Fridge / Freezer Temperatures | Chilled and frozen storage | Fridge 0 to 5°C, freezer -18°C or below |
Delivery Check | Temperature of stock at goods-in | Chilled 8°C or below, frozen -18°C |
Cooking and Reheating | Core temperature when cooking or reheating | 75°C core, or 70°C for 2 minutes |
Hot Holding | Food held hot for service | 63°C or above |
Chilling Times and Temperatures | Cooling cooked food down safely | Into the fridge quickly, within your set time |
Probe Calibration | Checking a probe reads accurately | 0°C in iced water, 100°C in boiling water |
Smart fields
A few things make these fields more than a paper form:
Equipment linking: link a temperature field to a specific fridge or freezer from your Equipment list, so the reading is tied to that unit and the right limit is applied.
Conditional logic: show a follow-up item only when it is needed, for example asking for a corrective action only when a reading is out of range.
Automatic flagging: an out-of-range temperature is marked high priority and raises an alert without anyone having to notice it.
Scheduling
Set how often a routine appears:
Frequency | When it appears |
|---|---|
Daily | Every day, or only on chosen days of the week |
Weekly | On the weekdays you select |
Monthly | On chosen days of the month |
Quarterly | On chosen months and days |
Yearly | On a chosen date each year |
Hourly | At a repeating interval through the day |
You can also set a start and end window and more than one time per day, so a check can be due, for example, at open, mid-service, and close.
Example: If different cleaning jobs happen on different days, create a separate routine for each day rather than one long list, so staff only see what is actually due.
Time allowed to complete
Each task stays open for the Time allowed to complete you set on the routine, from 15 minutes up to a week. It is two hours unless you change it. When that time passes with the task still open, it is overdue.
Up to 24 hours suits any schedule. Longer than a day is for a checklist the team works through over several days, such as weekly cleaning jobs ticked off whenever there is a quiet moment. To set one up:
Set the frequency to Weekly and pick one day, the day the week starts (for example Monday).
Choose the time it opens (for example 09:00).
Set Time allowed to complete to 1 week.
One checklist then opens on Monday at 09:00 and is due the next Monday at 09:00, when the next week's opens. Anyone can tick items off on any day, everyone's progress is kept, and it stays on the task list all week without showing as overdue. If it is still not finished, it becomes missed two hours after it is due. On the Routines page it reads, for example, "Mon at 09:00, open for a week".
A task can never stay open into the same routine's next one. A weekly routine on Mondays and Thursdays allows at most 3 days, and a daily routine at most 24 hours; longer choices are greyed out, and if a schedule change makes the time allowed too long, the form says so and saves the longest it allows.
You can ask Paddy too, for example: "Create a weekly cleaning checklist that opens on Monday and stays open all week, with these jobs: ...". The confirm card says "open for a week" before anything is saved.
A schedule describes a normal week. If a whole site is shut for a stretch, do not unpick its routines: add a closure period to the location instead, and every routine stops for those dates and resumes afterwards.
Completion modes and quick tasks
Most routines simply recur on their schedule. Training and induction routines have two extra completion modes:
Recurring: the normal scheduled routine that repeats (the default).
One-time completion: staff complete it once and it is permanently tracked, used for an induction step.
Recertification required: it must be redone periodically, for example yearly refresher training.
A quick task is different again: a one-off job you raise on the spot rather than a scheduled routine, useful for a "do this now" instruction to a person or location. Raise one with the Quick task button on any Tasks & routines page; the open ones are listed under Quick tasks and appear on Today when they are due.
Assigning routines
Assign to | Who sees it |
|---|---|
A location | Anyone who checks in there, ideal when shifts rotate |
A staff group | Everyone in that group, such as Kitchen |
Specific people or managers | Only the named individuals |
Only seeing one venue, or a venue is missing? You can only assign a routine to locations you are assigned to. If a venue is missing from the list, an owner needs to add you to it under Team > Team Members, then edit your locations. If your business has only one location, routines apply to it automatically and there is no location to choose.
Changing or unassigning later
Assignments are not fixed at creation. Open the routine from Routines, edit the assigned locations, groups, or people, and click Save changes. To unassign, remove the relevant target and save.
Duplicating a routine
If you want a routine that is almost the same as one you already have (the same checks at a different venue, or a copy with different start times), do not rebuild it. On the Routines list, click the Duplicate action on the routine. Paddl creates a copy called "Copy of ..." with all the same items, schedule, and assignments, and opens it for editing.
The copy is created paused, so it will not generate any tasks until you are happy with it. Adjust whatever is different (the location, the times, who it goes to), then turn it on to make it live. Owners and managers can duplicate routines.
If a routine appears twice
The usual cause is overlapping assignment, for example to a location and to a group the same person belongs to, which makes it show up once for each. Open the routine, check the assignments, and remove the overlap. If duplicates persist after that, contact support.
Something not adding up? See A routine is not showing up in the app or A routine is not generating any tasks at all.