A service reminder already existed: a “Maintenance due” word on an item's card, and an e-mail once per service cycle. But it had nothing to read. No screen, on the website or on the phone, let you say “every 500 km” or “every 90 days”: the reminder was waiting for thresholds nobody could set. And a kennel whose gear had not been entered on the website just saw “No equipment in service yet”, without knowing where to add it.
It is fixed on both sides.
What you do
On the phone, under Manage › Resources › Equipment: “Add equipment” at the top of the list (or on the empty screen, which now says how). One screen, the website's fields: type, condition, name, brand, assigned dog, purchase date, distance already driven, notes — and a “Service reminder” block: “Service every (km)” and “Service every (days)”. Tap an item in the list to edit it. “Retire this equipment” takes it out of the “in service” list; a banner offers “Undo”, and the “Retired” section at the foot of the screen keeps it readable, with “Put back in service”.
On the website, the Equipment form gains the same two fields.
Everything is written without a network: at the kennel, at the back of the shed, the item is created, and it leaves with the next moment the network is there.
What others see, and what they don't
The inventory is the kennel's: every member sees the list, the retired items and, on the phone, the “Maintenance due” word (the website does not show that word yet). Only the owner and the handlers add, edit or retire — a vet, a guide or a viewer sees the list, with no button, and cannot open an item: so the notes can only be read in the form, never on the card.
The service e-mail goes to the owner, the handlers and the vets whose access is active, unless they have switched off the kennel's e-mails or muted reminders. A viewer sees the word on the item; they don't get an e-mail.
What it doesn't do
This is not “not yet”: the phone does not delete an item. It retires it, which takes it out of the list without erasing its maintenance history. Deleting for good stays on the website, with its confirmation.
The photo and the catalogue model stay on the website. An item created on the phone has neither; a harness's model is cleared if you change its brand, or move it to a type that is not worn, because “Brand Model” would no longer be true. Creating for several dogs at once also stays on the website: the phone assigns one dog at a time.
The days interval does not run without a starting point. Days count from the last maintenance that resets the clock (inspection, repair, replacement), or, failing that, from the purchase date. An item with no purchase date and no maintenance logged is never “due” by days — that is intended, not an oversight: MushMate does not guess since when it has served you. Kilometers only count the outings linked to the item since the link has existed; nothing is recomputed on the past.
Three choices we made
No default threshold. We could have proposed “800 km” for runners or “one year” for a harness. We don't: a made-up number is a false reminder, and the kennel is the one who knows. Leaving a field empty means not being warned on that axis — and clearing a threshold when editing turns the reminder off; that is an explicit order, not an oversight.
“Retire” without a confirmation, but with “Undo”. With gloves, one more confirmation is one more gesture, and retiring destroys nothing. A mistake is undone in one gesture, and the item goes back in service from the “Retired” section.
The phone writes too, where it used to only read. The first design wanted the website to be the sole master of the inventory. We reversed it: the phone is what the musher has in hand, at the sled, and that is where you notice an item is missing.
See also the Guide: Gear.