Scoutbook, TroopTrack or both thoughts

So our troop is thinking on switching to Scoutbook solely. We currently use both, but importing advancements, awards and merit badges is tedious for our AC. He would like to switch especially since the calendar is fixed and you can now enter repeat dates such as troop meetings, plc, etc… A few of us are holdouts, and it may be an obsolete reason, but if there is information entered wrong in SB, you need to call council or national to fix this, correct? Also some are not a fan of entering troop financials into Scoutbook, no need for council or national to know our financial standing especially with the national lawsuits that happened. I love how we can place important documents, camp lists, waivers, photos, websites, etc into the “share tab” so parents and scout have one place to look. Looking for thoughts from other troops on where they stand, do you use two systems? TIA

@MichaelSzabo1,

When you say importing advancements, awards and merit badges is tedious for your AC can you elaborate on what he is finding tedious? Is it the advancement report from TT upload into IA2.0 now renamed to Scoutbook Plus, or is it items downloaded from Scoutbook uploading into TT?

I have not really checked out SB Plus since the calendar improvements however I have always liked the Calendar and Communication options in TT much more. There are many more features of TT than SB Plus, however not all units use them. The MoneyBook options have been superior in my opinion. The chat feature of TT is working really well, especially as more and more people download the Mobile App it gives instant communication. The checklists and sign up sheets are not feature in SB+ that I am aware of. I still think TT has much more to offer. As Scouts are Thrifty I get the push to move and they have made SB+ better however I still think it is a long way off from having the rich features of TT.

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it’s the advancement report from TT upload to IA2.0 (SB+). I was scoutmaster and now assistant sm soon stepping down to committee member and I agree with you that TT has much more to offer. If we switch to SB, I believe will be confusing to parents, just reading the comments in the SB forum. We haven’t used the chat app but have used Remind, and now switched to Whatsapp. I believe we are in for a long discussion on this… thank you for your input much appreciated!

We use both, but only use SB for advancement–because we have to.

I find SB to be very clunky. Not user-friendly.

If the issue for your AC is having to enter info in both places, you could choose to enter advancement only in SB, and tell parents that’s where they have to look for up-to-date info.

I have had HORRIFIC tech support experiences from National, so I wouldn’t believe that there’s much help if–nay, WHEN there are any issues. Even their tutorials are out-of-date, and FAQ’s are often vague and/or unclear.

I agree that I wouldn’t want to enter financials in SB.

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@MichaelSzabo1,

Interesting I have never really had any issues with TT to IA2.0 uploads, the occasional issue with a name not consistent but those were found early and corrected. I was AC when IA2.0 was implemented so worked with TT quite a bit testing the import. I have since trained 2 ACs, that were non techie, to do the uploads and they have not had any issues. I am curious what his issues are.

I will ask that question tonight since we have a committee meeting. I think one of the issues is having to record in two places and with SB there are other awards available. Quick question, can the entire troop be updated in one report or does it need to be by an individual basis?

BSA limits each upload to 100 records but it can all be reported as a batch of many people, definitely not individually. What awards are available in SB that are not in TT and don’t get uploaded? We do all of our advancement tracking in TT and then just upload to BSA. I have had a few Scouts do MBs with counselors that have entered them directly into SB then have to move those into TT, so far I have done that manually. I want to look at the SB exports and see if I can create an easy workflow to get those imported into TT. Just haven’t spent the time yet.

Speaking from Cub Scouts… The primary issue with Scoutbook, is that it can take “forever” to get scouts moved into scoutbook officially. There is no real working temporary. Trooptrack allows us to enter the info the day after roundup and get started in as little as 24 hours with communications, scheduling, etc… Plus Scoutbook is still slow slow to use.

Our ACs have always entered advancement into the national database (ScoutBook/Internet Advancement/ScoutBook Plus/whatever it was called before ScoutBook). I periodically export advancement data and load it into TroopTrack. We tell our parents that ScoutBook is the official record, and TroopTrack is simply a reflection of it.

TroopTrack still has numerous features that are superior to SB+ or simply don’t exist there so I expect we’ll be using it for many years to come.

@MarkNoll, I am curious how many issues you have with parents using two systems and being confused? Often times it is bad enough having one system and parents being confused I couldn’t imagine using two.