September 28, 2026 · Operator guide · By Joseph Casaceli

9 records a sober living certification review asks for

When a certification reviewer, a probation officer or a funder asks a sober living home for records, the question is not whether the house has rules. It is whether the house can prove it followed them. Most operators run a decent house. Fewer can pull a complete file on any resident in five minutes. Here are the nine records that come up in nearly every one of those requests, what the reader is checking, and how to keep each one without a binder.

Why documentation is most of compliance

Certification by your state's NARR affiliate is a claim that your house runs the way its written policies say it does: residents are screened, tested, home by curfew, charged under a signed agreement and moved out with a plan. A reviewer cannot watch the house for a month. They read. They pick residents from the roster, ask for each file and check whether the paper matches the policy. A missing agreement or a test log with gaps is not a small oversight to them. It is the only evidence they have.

The same is true when a court asks whether a resident has been testing clean and making curfew, or when a funder that paid for a bed asks what happened to the person in it. They need dates, times, results and signatures.

Many affiliates publish a checklist; if yours does, read it before a review. The requests still tend to fall into the same nine records.

The nine records

1. Signed house agreement

What they look for: a signed, dated agreement for every current resident, on the current version of your rules. They compare the signing date to the move-in date, confirm both the resident and a staff member signed, and read the terms: fees, deposits and refunds, testing, curfew, visitors, what leads to discharge and how a resident raises a grievance.

How to keep it: one master template with a version date in the footer. When the rules change, every resident signs the new version. File the signed copy on the resident's record, not in a house folder, so it is still retrievable after they leave.

2. Intake application

What they look for: a completed application for each resident, dated on or before move-in, with your screening questions answered: substance use history, medications, legal status, medical needs, emergency contact and consents. If your written policy sets admission criteria, the reviewer will look for the question on the form and the answer on file.

How to keep it: one application, the same questions every time, and nobody moves in without it. An online application link ends the retyping and the missing second page. Keep it with the agreement so the two dates line up.

3. Drug and breath test log

What they look for: a log that matches your written testing policy. If the policy says weekly random tests, the log should show that for every resident, not only the ones you suspected. Each entry needs a date, the kind of test (urine, breath, oral swab, lab send-out), the result, the substances covered and who administered it. A positive result should connect to a note about what happened next. Results left "pending" and never updated are a gap.

How to keep it: log the test when you do the test, not at the end of the week from memory. Keep it per resident, and close out pending results when the lab reports.

4. Curfew and meeting attendance

What they look for: proof the house enforces the structure it advertises. For curfew, who was home by what time each night and what happened when someone was not. For meetings, dates, meeting names and some form of verification: a signed slip, a staff note or a location check-in. A letter that says "attends meetings regularly" carries less weight than a list of dates.

How to keep it: a nightly curfew check that produces a timestamp, and a meeting record kept as meetings happen rather than reconstructed at month's end. Read both weekly so a pattern gets a conversation before it becomes an incident.

5. Passes

What they look for: for any night away, a request, an approval by a named staff member, the dates and the return. They cross-check the curfew log: a resident absent at curfew with no pass on file is either a missed pass or a missed incident.

How to keep it: a written request with dates and destination, approved in writing and filed on the resident record, with the curfew log showing the resident on pass rather than absent.

6. Incident notes

What they look for: dated, factual notes for anything out of the ordinary: a relapse, a conflict, a medical event, police contact, property damage, a rule violation with a consequence. Each note should say what happened, who was involved, what staff did and what the follow-up was, and name the staff member who wrote it. A discharge for a rule violation with no note behind it is a serious gap.

How to keep it: write it within 24 hours, use the same short template every time (date, time, people, what happened, action taken, follow-up) and file it on the resident record next to the test or pass it relates to.

7. Medication log

What they look for: that the house knows what medications are on site, stores them the way your policy says and limits who can see the information. Residents on medication for addiction treatment should be handled the way your written policy describes.

How to keep it: a per-resident medication list with start dates and changes, updated at intake and whenever a prescription changes, visible only to the owner and the staff who need it. If the house holds any medications, keep a count-in and count-out record.

8. Financial and rent ledger

What they look for: a per-resident ledger with every charge, every payment, the date, the method and the running balance. They compare the fee on the ledger to the fee in the signed agreement, check that deposits and refunds were handled as promised and look for cash with no receipt. For a funder it is proof the scholarship money went to that resident's fees and nowhere else.

How to keep it: record every charge and payment the day it happens, partial payments included, and issue a receipt for cash. A ledger per resident, not one spreadsheet for the house, survives a manager change.

9. Discharge outcome and follow-up

What they look for: the exit date, the reason (completed, left voluntarily, discharged for a violation, transferred to a higher level of care), where the resident went and whether anyone followed up. Funders in particular want retention and what happened 30, 90 and 180 days after exit.

How to keep it: record the exit the day it happens with the reason and housing status, and calendar the follow-up dates with a name next to each. A two-minute call at 30 days, logged, is data most homes do not have.

If you run on binders and group texts

Most homes start with a binder per house and a group text for staff. The failure points are predictable. The binder is in a car, a flooded office or the last manager's apartment. The pass approval is in the group text somewhere, three hundred messages up, on a former manager's phone. Nothing can be searched by resident. And every staff phone holding resident names, test results and medications is a privacy exposure you did not intend.

If you are staying on paper for now, do four things. Keep one folder per resident, not per house, with the nine records in the same order every time. Put a one-page index on the front listing what is in it and what is missing. Move anything decided by text into the written log the same day. And once a month, pull three folders at random and read them the way a reviewer would. What you cannot find in five minutes is what you will not find during the review.

How Sober Living Companion keeps these automatically

A binder fails because the record is a separate task from the work. You do the drug test, then you still have to go write it down. Sober Living Companion is built so the record is a byproduct of the work: do the thing in the app and the record exists, on the right resident, with a timestamp. It is sober living management software from Empower Next Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

• House agreement: agreements and fill-in forms are e-signed in the app or through an emailed browser link; the signed copy records name, date and time, and IP address, and saves as a PDF. Staff can pre-fill an agreement before sending it.
• Intake application: each home gets an online application link with e-signature, a house dropdown and editable questions. A disqualifying answer flags the application, every submission lands under Pending Admission, and SSN and ID are stored encrypted with only the last four digits visible.
• Drug and breath test log: each UA or BA is logged with the date, kind, result and substances, and a pending lab result is completed later.
• Curfew and meetings: residents make curfew and meeting check-ins with GPS from the free resident app, which also has an AA/NA meeting finder.
• Passes: residents request overnight and multi-day passes in the app and staff approve them there, so the request and the dates are on the record.
• Incident notes: documents and fill-in forms live on the resident record, so an incident write-up is filed with the resident it concerns.
• Medication log: medications are recorded on each resident's record, and owners can hide medications and documents from house managers who do not need them.
• Financial ledger: fees run weekly, monthly or daily with partial payments tracked. Residents pay by card, CashApp, Zelle or Venmo, card payments made in the app are recorded automatically, and every resident has a money log.
• Discharge outcome and follow-up: outcomes check-ins run at intake, monthly, quarterly, at exit and at 30, 90 and 180 days after exit, with built-in measures such as housing status, employment and recovery capital. Campaigns auto-enroll a house, new intakes or discharged clients, and retention and follow-up results export to CSV.

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest and backed up hourly. A multi-house dashboard with house-scoped managers lets an owner see every house while each manager sees only theirs. The price is one flat $60 per month for the whole organization, unlimited houses and residents, no setup fee and no per-bed or per-user pricing; the first month is free with the code FIRSTMONTHFREE, and you can cancel anytime. A CSV import brings an existing roster over. The sober living compliance software page walks through each record in more detail, and you can call (916) 877-6237 or email info@empowernextproject.org with questions before a review.

Sources

• National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR)
• How to start a sober living home (Sober Living Companion guide)

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