Opening & closing checklist

How it works

1. 1 Pick your kind of shop and the days you're open. You get a starter opening list and closing list, grouped by where each step happens, and you can change every step.
2. 2 Each morning and night, tick through the list on the phone or tablet by the door. The time and your initials go next to each tick, fridge readings are checked as you type them, and monthly, 3-monthly and winter steps turn up when they're due.
3. 3 Finish the run and it goes in the log, with tonight's note waiting for whoever opens. Print a wall sheet for the week, save reminders for the monthly checks, or download the log.

Free, with no account. Everything happens in your browser: initials, notes and readings are never sent to us, put in a link or logged. Remember is off unless you turn it on, and then keeps your lists and log on this device only. To share a day's report, copy it yourself.

Guidance, not legal or food-safety advice. Check with your fire department and public health unit.

Good to know

Why the monthly checks turn up on their own

Ontario's Fire Code has the owner check portable extinguishers every month and keep a record, often on the tag, with a yearly service by a qualified person. Emergency lighting is tested monthly too. These are the steps that get forgotten, so they join the opening list on the first open day of each month and stay until someone ticks them. See Georgina's guide to the Fire Code for businesses and the Fire Code, O. Reg. 213/07.

First aid boxes, every three months

For businesses WSIB covers, first aid boxes are checked at least four times a year and the inspection card is initialled (verify for your business). The checklist puts that check on the opening list once a quarter. See WSIB's first aid requirements.

Fridge readings

Cold food is kept at 4 °C or colder and hot-holding at 60 °C or hotter. Type the reading and the step ticks itself; anything outside the limit is flagged, and goes in the log and the temperature table as it was. See Toronto's Eight steps to a PASS and Ontario's Food Premises regulation.

Why salting gets a time and initials

Cities set their own rules for clearing sidewalks; Kitchener, for one, wants them cleared within 24 hours of a snowfall. In Ontario, someone hurt by snow or ice on private property has 60 days to give written notice (verify), and a dated, initialled record of when you salted is the kind of thing that helps. See Kitchener's snow clearing rules and the Occupiers' Liability Act.

Must-dos and skipping

A step marked as a must-do can't be left blank when you finish: tick it, or skip it with a reason, and the reason goes in the log. Anything else left unticked is logged as not done. A run left half done at midnight is logged as unfinished, so the week view shows the gaps.

One device, or a sheet on the wall

Ticks are kept on the device they were made on, so keep one phone or tablet by the door for the team. For paper, print the week's wall sheet: each step down the side, each day across, initials along the bottom.