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# Care plans

A care plan schedules tasks for an animal, group, or place. Use it for work that should appear in **Today's care**. Use [a record](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/adding-a-record-19abyub/) for something that already happened.

## Start a plan

1. Open the animal's **Records** area, then **Care**, and choose **Create plan**.
2. Check the selected animal. You can also start from **Care plans** in **Today's care**.
3. If starting choices appear, choose **Start with one task** to build the routine yourself. Otherwise, continue with the task form.

![Creating a care plan for the selected animal](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/053/3e3/5ab/1f5be.png)

If a recommendation is available, **Use this plan** keeps its reviewed tasks, while **Customize a copy** lets you tailor a copy. **Describe your routine** can turn text or photos into a draft to review; it does not save the plan by itself.

## Build the schedule

1. Enter **Plan name** and optional **Notes for your team**.
2. Choose **What care is needed?** and enter a clear **Task title**. Add any instructions someone doing the task will need.
3. Choose a **Cadence** under **How often?** For example, use **Every day**, **Selected weekdays**, or **After it is completed**.
4. Set **Timing** under **When should it happen?**
5. Choose **Alert** separately. A scheduled task does not have to send an alert.
6. Use **Add another task** for more work in the same routine.

![A care task with cadence, timing, and alert choices](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/b5b/c97/cce/ecc96.png)

Review **Check the first week**, including the displayed timezone, dates, and times. Correct any problems before choosing **Save care plan**.

![The first-week preview before saving a care plan](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/514/5ad/e73/449d8.png)

## Complete or change planned care

Open **Today's care** and use the task's available action. If a record form opens, enter what actually happened before saving. A measurement needs the value you observed; setting up the plan does not supply a future reading.

To change a scheduled task, open **Care plan details**, then **Change schedule**, when offered. Choose **Only this task** or **This and future tasks**, review **Preview change**, then **Save change**. Completed history is left alone.

## Manage or end a plan

Open **Care plans** and choose **Manage** on the plan. Use **Edit plan** when available. Some advanced task details cannot be changed in the editor.

Choose **End care plan** only when the routine should stop permanently. Confirming removes open and future tasks from Today without marking them done. Saved records remain. The ended plan cannot be resumed, and a reminder already being sent may still arrive.

For shared routines, see [Care plans for animal groups](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/care-plans-for-animal-groups-1ginhfu/).

### Related information

- [Reminders and upcoming care](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/reminders-and-upcoming-care-1fwvc8/)
- [Care plans for animal groups](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/care-plans-for-animal-groups-1ginhfu/)
- [Care, growth, and identity records](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/care-growth-and-identity-records-ixpf3/)