Changelog

A Brand-New App

• Full-Window Web App: Verascribe Guardian is now a standalone app that opens in its own browser window — the whole screen for your records, instead of a narrow panel pinned inside a Google Sheet.

• Instant Saves: Entries save to your device the moment you hit save, then sync to your Google Sheet in the background. No more waiting on a rebuild after every entry.

• Always Up to Date: Because 3.0 is a web app, you’re always on the latest version — new features arrive on their own, with no more migrating to a new workbook just to get an update.

What You Asked For

• Bulk Logging: A new Single-day / Multiple-days switch lets you log a run of dates — a week of overnights or a recurring pattern — in a single action, with duplicate detection.

• File Attachments: The new Evidence Locker attaches the actual file (images, PDFs, audio, video) to any entry, and re-checks each file whenever you download it, so you’ll know if a stored copy ever changes.

See Everything at a Glance

• Live Dashboard: A redesigned dashboard with 20+ charts across Time Shared, Communication, Money Owed, Children & Care, and Significant Events — updating live as you log.

• Drag-and-Drop Calendars: A month/week Event Calendar you can rearrange by dragging, plus a planned-vs-actual Custody Calendar that shows where actual custody drifted from the plan.

• Finance Ledger: Child support arrears, reimbursable expenses, and personal expenses in one place — organized and totaled for you.

• Smart Search: Type ‘glasses’ or ‘overnight’ and jump straight to a pre-filled form.

Privacy & Permissions

• Fewer Permissions: When you set up 3.0, Google asks you to approve just three things — the Drive files the app creates with you, a license check, and sending a support email on request. The old in-Sheets version needed more.

• Verified by Google: Verascribe is now a Google-verified app, so the one-time ‘unverified app’ security notice is gone.

• Still Yours, Still Private: Your records live in your own Google account — your Sheets workbook for your logs, your Drive for your evidence. We cannot see them.

Reliability & Records

• Offline-First Saves: Entries are saved on your device first and queued to sync, with automatic retries — a brief network hiccup no longer blocks your entry.

• Draft Rescue: If your sign-in expires mid-entry, your notes stay on screen with one-click options to copy them and sign back in.

• A Clear Audit Trail: Every entry is timestamped and every change is tracked in an audit trail, so you keep an honest history of what was written and when.

• Guided Import: A step-by-step Import flow brings your records from the old workbook across — validating the file, saving to your device, then syncing in the background, and resuming if it’s interrupted.

• Backup Files You Can Trust: When you export your data, we now double-check that every single record, schedule, and setting made it into your backup file. No more worrying if important communication logs or custody records got left behind. Your backup file now comes with a special “seal of approval” that proves it’s complete and intact.

• Smart Import Protection: Before you restore from a backup, we now scan the file first to make sure it’s healthy and safe to use. If something looks wrong (like missing records or damaged data), we’ll tell you upfront instead of discovering problems halfway through importing. This prevents the headache of having to start over or losing data.

• Cleaner, More Reliable Experience: We fixed several behind-the-scenes issues that could cause confusion when managing children’s records or moving data between workbooks. The app now handles edge cases more gracefully, like when you delete a child’s profile or work with very large backup files. Everything just works more smoothly.

• Guardian-app: Fixed issue where workbook was incorrectly reporting its version number. Updated logic to pull workbook version explicitly from hardcoded app AppConfig.

• Guardian-lib: Updated logic to not fall back to hardcoded lib AppConfig.

• Doc props: Removed use of Workbook_Version doc props.

• Updates check: Fixed issue where “Last checked” was updated after successful license activation, but the check was not performed.

• Import: Increased timeout from 2 to 5 minutes for import processes to prevent timeouts and “Import took too long” errors when importing large datasets or when Google Servers are slow.

Legal & Documentation Accuracy

• Domestic Violence Incident Logging: Added a specialized ‘Domestic Violence Incidents’ sub-category with tailored incident types to help users document their reality with legal precision.

• Evidence Trail Tracking: Introduced an optional ‘Reported To’ selection field in the Significant Events category to help build a factual trail of evidence for court or authorities.

• Inclusive Case Roles: Added ‘Stepparent’ to the roles in ‘People’ settings, ensuring logs accurately reflect the full reality of your family’s support system.

• Audit Log Integrity: Resolved an issue where deleted event logs were saved to the Audit Log but missing from generated PDFs, ensuring your court reports are 100% comprehensive.

App Performance & Integrity

• Hardened Data Validation: Strengthened backend validation to ensure that every logged event is assured, reliable, and maintains perfect data integrity for litigation.

• Optimized Rebuild Speed: Set ‘Pool Sheets’ to be ‘on’ by default, significantly increasing the speed of sheet rebuilds for a smoother daily experience.

• Reduced Bundle Size: Offloaded the admin tools module from production workbooks, creating a lighter and faster app for all users.

• Reliable Sync Feedback: Fixed a UI bug that showed false-positive timeout errors, ensuring you only see a warning when a sync actually requires your attention.

User Experience & Guidance

• Calendar Helper Text: Added clear guidance to the Custody Calendar to explain how logging ‘Overnight Custody’ events automatically populates your visual schedule.

• 7-Day Free Trial: Integrated a new trial mode, allowing potential customers to explore the full power of the Litigation Command Center before purchasing.

What’s New: Clarity & Peace of Mind

• A Clearer Privacy Promise: We know “Google Permissions” can sound technical and intimidating. We’ve added a dedicated Privacy Policy sidebar that explains exactly what each permission means in plain, everyday language. We want you to feel 100% secure knowing exactly how your data is—and isn’t—being used.

• Schedule Safety Guardrails: Your schedule is the heartbeat of your planning. To ensure you never accidentally replace dates you didn’t mean to, the app now clearly lists the exact date range about to be updated. A quick checkbox confirmation ensures that every change is intentional.

• Smarter, Faster Reporting: Generating reports should be effortless. We’ve updated the date selection to “guide” you toward the months that actually contain data. This eliminates “empty” reports and saves you the frustration of trial and error.

Improvements & Technical Fixes

• Communication Log Fix: The Facebook Messenger option is now fully functional. You can select it and save your entries without interruptions.

• Calendar Syncing: Fixed an issue where extending your planning horizon wouldn’t automatically extend the schedule pattern. Everything now stays perfectly in sync.

• Smart Validation: We’ve added “warning-only” protection to high-traffic sheets (like the Dashboard, Summary Report and Custody Calendar) to prevent accidental edits while still giving you the flexibility you need.

• Data Cleanliness: Entries for money and night exchanges now prevent “0” or negative values, ensuring your financial and custody records remain accurate and professional.

• Field Logic: Parent and initiator fields now unlock more reliably once a child is selected, making data entry feel intuitive rather than restrictive.

• The “Invisible” Security Guard: Every time you log an event, the app now runs a silent background check. It verifies every detail and ensures your records are saved cleanly—even if Google’s storage services are having a slow day. You won’t see it working, but you’ll feel the reliability.

Improvements

• Single-Child Smart Defaults: In one-child households, the child dropdown auto-selects for you—just add the details and save.

• Finance Guardrails: Reimbursable expenses now block negative numbers and auto-calculate owed amounts to keep your math perfect.

• Communication Logs Stay Clean: We cleaned up the background lists so your spreadsheet stays organized and never sees ‘mystery’ data.

• Sync Bar Clarity: Success messages fade away after three seconds to keep your view clean, but yellow or red alerts stay visible (and pulse gently) so you never miss an issue.

• Friendly, Plain English Alerts: We replaced scary technical codes with clear, helpful messages. If the app needs permission or gets stuck, we now tell you exactly which button to click to fix it.

• Instant ‘Try Again’ Button: Internet blip? Instead of reloading the whole page and losing your place, just hit the new ‘Retry’ button to save your data instantly without creating duplicates.

• Smarter Connection Checks: We improved how the app handles slow internet. It now checks its connection immediately and stays calm if things are running a little behind, so you don’t see unnecessary error screens.

• Smoother Data Saving: We strengthened the system against random glitches to ensure your information is saved safely every time.

• Steadier Calendar Backfills: Custody schedules always start at the very first event, keeping the timeline smooth.

• Reliable Import Cancels: Stopping an import now ends immediately so you can move on without anxiety.

• Modern Communication Options: The Communication category now includes WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and X so you can record conversations on the channels you already use.

Bug Fixes

• Custom date windows now work exactly as chosen: You can set a start date that’s earlier than your first logged event, and the dashboard, summary report, and custody calendar will simply show the dates you selected (with blank spots where no events exist). No more confusing “Start Date can’t be earlier…” error.

• Behind-the-scenes safeguard added: We wrote an automated test to make sure this flexibility stays in place, so you can rely on the historical window you pick without surprises.

• Dates Save Correctly Again: Logs now keep the exact date you chose, even across time zones, so there’s no more “day-early” surprises when you look back at your records.

• Custody Calendars Stay in Sync: If you remove a child, parent, or relationship, the app now clearly warns you that the linked custody calendar will be cleaned up too. That keeps the sheet tidy and prevents orphaned calendars from lingering.

• Minute Picker Reliability: The minute dropdowns in Schedule & Parenting → Third-Party Care now show every option as expected, making it easy to log precise care times.

Security & Infrastructure

• Enhanced Privacy Scope: We reduced the app’s permission requirements. It now strictly operates under the Drive.File scope, meaning it can only access files it created, not your entire Google Drive.

• Modern API Migration: Upgraded the backend connection to Google’s Advanced Drive Service (v3). This improves the speed and reliability of PDF generation and file saving.

• Stability Improvements: Fixed several internal connection issues to ensure smoother performance on the latest Google workspace updates.

Financial Module

• New Personal Ledger: Added the ability to log Personal expenses. These items are excluded from debt calculations but are tracked for your total cost of parenting.

• Payment Methods: You can now specify the payment method (Cash, Card, HSA, etc.) for every expense entry.

• Smart Validation: The app now double-checks your financial entries to ensure required fields (like Payment Method for personal expenses) are filled in before saving.

Schedule Engine

• Segmented Scheduling: Completely rebuilt the schedule generator to support specific date ranges. You can now generate a schedule for a specific season (e.g., Summer) without overwriting future months.

• Retroactive Editing: Removed restrictions that prevented editing past dates. You can now generate schedules historically to fix gaps in your records.

• Smart Auto-Rolling: The system now remembers the End Date of your schedule patterns, ensuring that automatic nightly updates respect the boundaries you set.

• Maintenance Automation: Maintenance tasks (like cleaning up temporary PDF files and extending the calendar) now run automatically in the background, keeping your account clean and fast without you lifting a finger.

UI/UX Improvements

• Better Dropdowns: Upgraded all menu dropdowns to a new friendly interface that works better.

• Sync Visibility: Renamed the sync icon to a clear Sync Data button so you always know how to update your Summary Report and Dashboard.

• Menu Clarity: Renamed License to License & Updates to make updates easier to find.

• Smart Dropdowns: Updated all dropdown menus to be aware of the screen edges. If you open a menu near the bottom of the screen, it will now intelligently flip upwards instead of getting cut off, ensuring you can always see all your options without extra scrolling.

Bug Fixes

• Label Correction: Fixed a button that was incorrectly labeled “Download Summary Report” when it actually downloaded the Audit Log.

• Registration Flow: Fixed an issue where the app would sometimes ask you to register again even after you had already successfully registered.

• Large Backup Support: Improved the backup system to handle large workbooks more gracefully, preventing “timeout” errors during import/export.

• Report Criteria Serialization: Resolved a “Contract Breach” error that occurred when saving report criteria. The issue was traced to google.script.run failing to serialize JavaScript Date objects, causing the server to return null. Implemented server-side sanitization to convert dates to ISO strings before transmission and hardened the client-side Zod schema to handle various date formats.

• Audit Log Permissions: Fixed a bug where generating an Audit Log would fail with a Permissions Not Sufficient error. The app now correctly requests the necessary access to create Google Docs, so you can successfully generate and save your Audit Logs again.

• Stability Automation: We added automated checks to our development process to catch these kinds of permission issues before they reach you in the future.

• Import Error: Resolved an issue where importing small files (under 2MB) would fail with a “is not a function” error. This was caused by a missing connection between the app’s sidebar and the backend import function. The missing link has been restored, and direct file imports now function correctly.

• Version Display: Fixed a persistent issue where new copies of the workbook would incorrectly display “Version 1.0.0” in the Admin panel. The application now reads its version directly from the software configuration, ensuring that your system always reports the correct release number to the registry and support team.

UI/UX Improvements

• Settings Sidebar: Added explicit Add buttons next to the Child Name and Person Name input fields. This clarifies the two-step process (Add Entity → Save Changes) for new users who may not intuit pressing Enter.

• UI/UX: Updated button behaviors in the Settings forms. The Add buttons now correctly display a pointer cursor on hover and are visually disabled when the input field is empty to prevent blank entries.

New Features

• Unified Sidebar Interface (SPA): Replaced disparate HTML sidebars with a cohesive React application, enabling instantaneous switching between Event Logs, Settings, and Reports.

• Visual Pattern Generator: Added a Click-to-Build interface for creating multi-week custody schedules, replacing the legacy number-pattern entry method.

• Bulk Entity Management: Added the ability to create, edit, or remove multiple Children, Third-Party caregivers, and Relationships in a single transaction within the Settings module.

Performance & Infrastructure

• Architecture: Migrated frontend to a modern React stack.

• Batch Sync Protocol: Implemented a Queue & Sync architecture allowing rapid-fire event logging without waiting for server confirmation between entries.

• Write Performance: Optimized server-side write operations (measured 94% faster event logging).

• Reporting Engine: Re-engineered the PDF generation engine (measured 92% faster report compilation).

• Instant Navigation: Implemented local state caching to eliminate Google Sheets Lag during sidebar navigation.

Data Integrity & Reliability

• Import Safety Net: Added a pre-merge validation layer to file imports that rejects corrupt data before it impacts the database.

• Strict Contract Validation: Integrated Zod runtime validation for all server-client communication, acting as a checkpoint to reject malformed data.

• Smart Header Detection: The Edit Event engine now intelligently detects sheet structures, adapting automatically between Raw Log (Row 1 headers) and Summary Report (Row 4 headers) formats.

• Date Serialization: Hardened the Date transport pipeline with ISO-String transformation to ensure millisecond-level accuracy across timezones.