FAQ — Beetably

🚀 Getting Started

Beetably is a private, web-based record-keeping tool for parents and caregivers of children and adults with special needs. You can log behavioral incidents, medical appointments, IEP meetings, therapy sessions, developmental milestones, and more — all in one secure place. An internet connection is required to use it.

After signing up, go to "My Profiles" in the left sidebar and click "Add Profile". Fill in your child's name, date of birth, and any relevant details. You can add diagnoses, medications, allergies, and your care team on the profile page.

Each profile can hold your child's date of birth, diagnoses, medications, allergies, emergency contacts, and care team details. From the profile you can access all linked logs — behavioral and medical incidents, therapy sessions, IEP meetings, appointments, milestones, advocacy notes, and communication logs.

💳 Plans & Pricing

The Free plan ($0) lets you create 1 profile (child or adult) and use the printable Student Profile Sheet and Class Dismissal Checklist — a simple way to share your child's key information with school staff, substitutes, and caregivers. Upgrade to Basic to add the Emergency Card, medication tracking, behavioral & medical logs, reports, reminders, and more.

The Basic plan ($5/month) includes 1 profile (child or adult), behavioral and medical incident logs, the Student Profile Sheet, Class Dismissal Checklist and Emergency Card, meeting & appointment reminders, PDF, CSV & Excel report exports, file references, alias name & privacy controls, calendar view & full-text search, two-factor authentication, and an activity audit log.

Pro ($9/month) adds up to 3 profiles, Share Access to invite a co-parent or caregiver, the Therapy Team & Session Log, and the full Events suite: IEP and 504 meeting logs, IPP / Regional Center meetings, medical appointment tracking, developmental milestones, child advocacy notes, and communication logs. Pro also includes priority support.

Basic is $5 per month and Pro is $9 per month, both billed monthly. There are no annual contracts. You can cancel at any time and your access continues until the end of the billing period.

🧾 Billing & Payments

Billing is handled securely by Stripe. You are charged monthly on the date you subscribed. We never store your card number — it is held by Stripe under their PCI-compliant systems.

Open the Billing section in the left sidebar and click "Manage Billing" to reach the secure Stripe portal, where you can cancel at any time. Your access continues until the end of the current billing period — you won't be charged again, and there's no partial refund for the remaining days. When the period ends your account moves to the Free plan; none of your data is deleted, though any profiles or features above the Free limit become read-only until you resubscribe.

You can switch plans anytime from Billing → Manage Billing. Upgrades (for example Basic to Pro) take effect right away, and Stripe prorates the cost — you only pay the difference for the days remaining in your current cycle. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period, so you keep your higher-tier features until then and are never double-charged. If a downgrade leaves you with more child profiles than the new plan allows, you'll be asked to choose which one(s) to keep active; the rest become read-only — no data is deleted — and they unlock automatically if you upgrade again.

We don't automatically refund to your card. Cancelling stops any future charges and keeps your access through the end of the period you've already paid for. A mid-cycle downgrade is handled as Stripe account credit that is applied automatically to your next invoice, rather than cash back. If you were charged in error or have a special circumstance, use the refund request option on the Billing page (or Contact Support) and we'll review it.

🔒 Privacy & Security

All data is transmitted over HTTPS. Sensitive fields — child names, diagnoses, incident details — are encrypted at rest using AES-256-CBC. Passwords are stored as bcrypt hashes so we can never see your actual password. Every account supports two-factor authentication (TOTP). You can also view a recent activity log on your profile page showing every sign-in, record view, and report export from your account.

Beetably is a personal record-keeping tool for family use — not a covered entity under HIPAA. We do not share your data and we use strong security practices, but we are not a clinical system and this tool is not a substitute for official medical record systems.

Yes. When creating a child profile, you can enter any alias name and an approximate date of birth — you don't have to store your child's real identifying information in the tool. When you export an official report, an optional window lets you enter the real name and date of birth for that export only. Those fields are never saved back to the tool.

By default, only you. If you'd like, you can use Share Access to invite specific people — a co-parent, grandparent, or caregiver — to an individual child's profile, choosing whether they can view only or also add and manage their own entries. Beyond anyone you personally invite, we never share your data with third parties, advertisers, or anyone else. Our team can only access records in very limited circumstances for technical support, and only if you request it.

When you delete your account, all your data — child profiles, logs, and personal information — is permanently and irreversibly deleted from our systems within 30 days. Billing records are retained by Stripe as required by financial regulations.

⭐ Features

Share Access lets you invite a co-parent, grandparent, or caregiver by email to a specific child's profile. Choose whether they can view only, or also add and manage their own entries. Access is granted one child at a time — it never exposes your other children or your account settings — and you can change someone's role or remove their access at any time. Open Share Access from the left sidebar, pick a child, and send the invitation. Share Access is a Pro feature.

The Student Profile Sheet is a printable one-page document that summarizes everything a caregiver needs to know about your child — communication methods, preferences, sensory sensitivities, calming strategies, care needs, and safety notes. Open any child profile, click Student Profile Sheet, fill in the fields, and download the PDF. Keep a copy in your child's backpack and give one to any new school staff, therapist, or respite provider.

Reminders let you set an advance alert for an upcoming dated event — an IEP meeting, evaluation, or appointment. Choose the date and time and up to two lead alerts (for example, 1 day before and 30 minutes before), and you'll get an email ahead of it. Reminders are a convenience, not a guaranteed alert, so please don't rely on them for time-critical needs. Open the child's profile and tap Reminders to add, edit, or remove them.

The Emergency Card is a compact, printable document with your child's most critical information for first responders or new caregivers: diagnoses, active medications, allergies, emergency contacts, and care instructions. Open your child's profile and click Emergency Card to download the PDF immediately. Update it whenever medications or contacts change, and keep copies in your child's backpack, your wallet, and with regular caregivers.

You can log: Behavioral incidents (severity, triggers, interventions, outcomes), Medical incidents, IEP meeting notes, 504 plan meetings, IPP / Regional Center meetings, Medical appointments, Developmental milestones, Child advocacy notes, and Communication (phone) logs. You can link to external files (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, or any URL) via File References on any record. Basic includes behavioral and medical logs; the full Events suite (IEP, 504, IPP, appointments, milestones, advocacy, and communication logs) is included in Pro.

The Class Dismissal Checklist is a customizable end-of-day checklist for paras, aides, or anyone responsible for your child at school dismissal. You build the list once — backpack items, medications, devices, communication steps, handoff instructions — and print multiple copies to use throughout the week. Each printed sheet has a notes section for the aide to write anything the parent should know.

The IHSS Hours Calendar helps IHSS caregivers and providers distribute monthly authorized hours across every active day. Enter your monthly total and Beetably calculates a daily target automatically. You can lock any day to fix its hours (it turns amber and is excluded from future rebalancing), edit individual days manually (the difference is spread across all other unlocked days), and mark sick days or out-of-country travel days so they snap to 0 and are excluded from the hour count. Open any child's record and navigate to IHSS Hours Calendar to get started.

There are two parts. The Therapy Team section stores each therapist's name, type, organization, phone, and weekly hours (both home and clinic). The Session Log lets you record individual sessions with dates, duration, notes, and goals covered.

Yes. From the Reports section, select a child and date range, then click "Export PDF". You can also export as CSV or Excel. If you used an alias for your child, the export window lets you enter the real name and date of birth for that report only — they are never saved to the tool. Medical appointment history and therapy team info each have their own dedicated PDF export as well.

⚙️ Account & Technical

Go to your Profile page and click "Enable Two-Factor Authentication". You'll be asked to scan a QR code with an authenticator app (like Google Authenticator or Authy). Once set up, you'll need to enter a code every time you sign in.

Yes. When creating or editing any log entry, use File References to link to files stored in Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, or any URL. The tool stores only the name and link — files remain in your own cloud storage where you control them.

On the sign-in page, click "Forgot your password?" and enter your email address. You'll receive a reset link within a few minutes. Check your spam folder if it doesn't arrive. The link expires after 60 minutes.

Beetably is a web-based service that works in all modern browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. An internet connection is required — it does not work offline. It is fully mobile-friendly and can be added to your home screen for quick access.

Yes. Beetably is fully responsive and works well on mobile browsers. On iOS, open it in Safari and tap the Share button → "Add to Home Screen" for a shortcut on your home screen. On Android, tap the browser menu → "Add to Home Screen". Note: this is a shortcut to the website — an internet connection is still required to use it.

Use the "Contact Support" link in the left sidebar to send us a message. Include as much detail as you can — what page you were on, what you were trying to do, and what happened instead. We aim to respond within 1–2 business days.

Still have questions?

We'll get back to you within 1–2 business days.

Cookie	Purpose	Duration
laravel_session	Keeps you signed in during your visit	Session
XSRF-TOKEN	Protects forms from cross-site request forgery	Session
cookie_consent	Remembers your cookie preferences	1 year

Cookie	Purpose	Duration
_ga	Google Analytics — distinguishes unique visitors	2 years
_ga_*	Google Analytics — stores session state	2 years

Frequently Asked Questions

Cookie Preferences