Notes are only as useful as they are findable. Without categories, you end up with a pile of freeform text that's hard to filter, report on, or act on. Set these up before your team starts entering records and you'll save yourself a lot of cleanup later..
What you'll learn:
How to set note defaults for seasonality and record association
How to create categories and assign them to the right user groups
How to test your categories before your team starts using them
Video Walkthrough
Set Note Preferences
Navigate to Admin > Camper Setup > Note Categories.
Click the gray Preferences button on the right, under Settings.
Set your defaults for new notes — including seasonality and whether notes associate with a person or household.
📋 Note: These are defaults only. Anyone adding a note can still adjust seasonality and person/household association on the individual note when needed.
Click the green Add Note Category button.
Name the category and select which user groups can access it.
💡 Tip: Keep sensitive categories — like Behavior Problems or Medical Notes — restricted to the user groups that actually need them. Limiting access reduces clutter and protects sensitive information.
Under the Notify column, click the envelope icon to set tower and email notifications for specific users when a note in that category is added.
Use the edit and delete buttons on the right to update or remove categories at any time.
🎯 Try it now: Go to Admin > Camper Setup > Note Categories, set your note defaults, and create at least two categories your team will actually use. Come back when you've saved them.
Test Before You Go Live
After creating your categories, add a few test notes to confirm everything looks right.
Navigate to Reporting > Administration > Notes and use the category filter on the right to verify your notes are appearing and filtering correctly.
💡 Tip: Think about how you'll want to report on notes later. If you'll ever want to pull all Behavioral Problem notes for a specific season, that category needs to exist — and be used consistently — from the start.
Before you move on, check yourself:
Have you created categories that reflect the types of notes your team enters most often?
Do you know which user groups can access each category?
Have you tested your setup by adding a note and filtering for it in reporting?
Ready for the next step?
Get Support: Help Tickets and Tech Support — learn how to reach the Campminder team when you need help
Add Notes to Records — start using your new categories across camper and staff records
Notes Reporting — pull and filter notes across your camp data