A punch list is a plain list of every item that is not finished yet. In a home care start, the install is not one event. It is a run of small jobs between the signed agreement and the first routine week, and most of them stay open because nobody wrote them down as jobs. This guide covers the list itself. It is not a checklist for the house or for the aide's day.

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Open the list the day the agreement is signed

Start one page, on paper or in a file, and title it with the client's name and the agency's name. Copy the signing date from the signed page, not from memory. Every open item goes on this page the day it appears, even if it looks small.

What belongs on the list

Items usually come from four sources: the signed agreement, the agency's onboarding paperwork, the family's own notes, and what was said during the tour or the intake call. Write down:

  • Each paper the agency said it would send, with the day it was promised
  • Each office contact or scheduler the agency said it would name
  • Each item the family must supply or decide
  • Each question the agency could not answer on the spot

Give each item one owner

An item with no owner stays open. Put one name beside each line. The name is either a family member or a named person at the agency. Two names on one line means nobody owns it. If the agency owns the item, write the office contact's name and the way to reach that person, not only the company name.

Close items in writing

An item is closed only when its owner confirms it in writing, by email, text, or a line on the agreement. A phone call that ends with a promise that it is handled does not close the item until the words are on a page. When an item closes, write the date of the confirmation and the way it arrived beside the line.

Read the list before the first shift

Before the first scheduled shift, read the list aloud with the family member who answers for the house. Every line should show a closed mark or a named owner. Any line still open at that point goes to the agency office the same day, in writing, with a request for a reply.

Keep the list after the start

Do not discard the list when service begins. Items reopen. A replaced contact, a changed sheet, or a new house rule goes back onto the same page with its owner. The list becomes the running record of the install, and it is the first place to look when someone asks what was agreed.

Verify the agency before the list is opened

The list tracks what the agency promised. It does not confirm who the agency is. Before you open the list, run the agency through the federal lookups in How to check any home health agency in five federal lookups. If the agency offers non-medical home care rather than home health, use Home health versus non-medical home care: which record to check to pick the right record.