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Get your team set up

Step-by-step guides, in the order a new team sets things up — from your first admin settings to dispatching your first callout. Most teams are fully configured in under an hour.

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  1. 1Team setup & admin settingsCreate your team profile and get familiar with the Admin Configuration page — the home base for everything you’ll configure in the guides that follow. 5 min
  2. 2Adding & inviting membersBuild your roster by emailing invitations to members, who set their own passwords — or add members directly and manage roles, permissions and sign-in emails. 6 min
  3. 3General availabilityA one-tap heads-up that answers the question command asks before every callout: if we page the team right now, who could actually respond? 3 min
  4. 4CalTopo integrationLink your team’s CalTopo account once, and SAR21 builds a fully-foldered mission map automatically every time you create a callout. 10 min
  5. 5Equipment inventory & asset IDsGet your gear into SAR21 — by hand, by spreadsheet import, or both — and set up asset IDs, categories, and the locations your equipment actually lives in. 6 min
  6. 6QR labels & scanningPrint QR labels on Avery sheets or a Dymo or Brother label printer, then scan gear with your phone camera or a USB barcode scanner. 4 min
  7. 7Inspections & readinessSet up inspection checklists, let any member report a problem from the field, and see at a glance what is ready to go out the door. 6 min
  8. 8Equipment on callouts & trainingsCheck gear out at the trailhead, track what went where, and reconcile what came back — including the radios your team keeps long term. 5 min
  9. 9Creating trainingsSchedule general or specialty trainings with instructors, equipment, linked certifications, and recurrence — members RSVP from the web or mobile app. 5 min
  10. 10SkillsSkills are a team-defined list of things a training teaches, such as rope rescue, GPS navigation or scene safety. They label trainings so the calendar shows what each session covers. They are not certifications, and they do not grant anything. 3 min
  11. 11Marking attendanceMembers RSVP themselves; admins confirm who actually showed up. Confirmed attendance feeds training percentages and auto-renews linked certifications. 5 min
  12. 12Volunteer hour trackingTurn attendance into approved hours of service without a paper sign-in sheet: draft time sheets from every training, callout, event and meeting, let members log unscheduled work, edit and approve from one place, print the sheet a sheriff or board asks for, and report by member, category or month. 12 min
  13. 13Creating calloutsSpin up a mission in under a minute: incident type, status, staging locations, key points — and a CalTopo map that builds itself. 5 min
  14. 14Callout notificationsDispatch critical alerts by push and email from the Mission Alert Center, target groups or individuals, and watch responses land in real time. 5 min
  15. 15Law enforcement agency accessMost SAR teams deploy at the request of a sheriff’s office or law enforcement agency. Give those partners their own web portal access — they see team availability at a glance and submit standby or deploy requests that alert your leadership instantly. 6 min
  16. 16Teams & search assignmentsOnce members are responding, the search planner turns a list of names into an organized operation: overhead roles, typed field teams, search areas, briefings, and a running radio log. 7 min
  17. 17Clue tracking & CalTopo syncClues flow both ways: field teams drop them in the CalTopo app, command reviews and triages them in SAR21, and every status decision is reflected on the map automatically. 5 min
  18. 18Search Urgency AnalysisReplace the paper urgency chart: score the ten standard factors — before a callout even exists or right on the callout page — and get an instant, color-coded response recommendation that’s logged for your team’s records. 6 min
  19. 19AI Behavior InsightsTurn the case details you already entered — subject profile, clues, urgency score — into a lost-person behavior analysis with prioritized search areas and concrete tactics. 3 min
  20. 20K9 unitGive your search dogs a real place on the team: their own roster, disciplines with expiry dates, availability their handler controls, a tick on every callout and RSVP, and a record of the work they do alongside their handler. 7 min
  21. 21GroupsCallout groups grew up. A group is now a list of people with leaders, a colour and, for an operational group, requirements its members must keep meeting: certifications, education modules, training attendance, approved hours, permissions or an operational K9. Members stay active while they meet them, and callouts can page only those who do. 8 min
  22. 22The mobile appEvery member should install the SAR21 mobile app — it’s how critical callout alerts break through Do Not Disturb, and the whole team stays one tap away. 3 min
  23. 23Subscription & cancellingWhere to find your plan, who on your team can cancel it, and what happens to your records afterwards. 3 min

Can’t find what you need?

Email support@sar21app.com — a real person (the founder) reads every message.