Keep referrals, move-ins and house responsibilities from slipping between shifts.
A referral needs a response while staff check a bed, paperwork and move-in requirements. The Forge connects the resident’s administrative record and house work so the next staff member can pick up the handoff. This is operational coordination, not a clinical record system.
Sample workflow
Steps from start to finish
Availability of these steps: Available
Review the referral and residence
Confirm availability with authorized staff
Review intake requirements
Agree the next contact and house handoff
Sample sequence for sober living & recovery residences. It shows a typical order of steps, not a record of anyone’s results. Your plan and account access decide which tools your team can use.
Tools for this work and their current status
- Business records (CRM): Available, Forge Start
More detail about this industry example
Not every action is included or automatic. Confirm current tools and setup before you rely on them.
How can a sober living operator run several houses without a binder in each one?
Once a placement is accepted, a move-in checklist opens (Limited release, Forge Start). It tracks house rules, portal access, the signed agreement and the restricted period. The record keeps the referral source (Limited release, Forge Start). A stay is a lease with start and end dates (Limited release, Forge Pro). Every house is set up separately, with its own address, its own supply stock, and its own staff. One login covers all of them. Access is enabled per business.
Ask how The Forge fits sober living & recovery residences
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Where this industry loses time and margin
Referrals go cold because nobody answered the discharge planner fast enough
A referral from a treatment center, detox, drug court, or family arrives as a lead tagged with who sent it (Limited release, Forge Start). Bed availability is not attached to the lead, so staff confirm an open bed before they accept the placement. The referring agency is not shown the lead's status. Access is enabled per business.
See how The Forge fixes lead follow up →Nobody can say how many beds are open right now without calling each house
Each house is set up on its own, and each resident's move-in and discharge sit on their record. Open beds stop being a number the owner reconstructs from memory on a Sunday night.
See how The Forge fixes multi location operations →Certification renewal turns into a week of hunting for documents
Agreements, house rules, insurance records, and inspection paperwork live in one document trail per house. The annual renewal becomes a review of what is already filed rather than a scramble through old email.
See how The Forge fixes manual reporting →Program fees are tracked in a notebook, and partial payments make it worse
Fees are invoiced per resident, partial payments are recorded against the balance, and arrears surface as a conversation to have this week. A resident can see their own balance without asking a house leader.
See how The Forge fixes software fragmentation →How the work can move through The Forge
- 1
Intake application to reviewed applicant
An intake form on the website feeds applications straight into the pipeline. Each submission opens a review task covering the answers and the documents the house requires, so an applicant is moved forward or declined with a recorded reason rather than drifting.
- 2
Program fee to paid balance
Fees are invoiced per resident on the operator's own cadence, and partial payments post against the balance. A past-due fee opens a task to have the conversation in person, which in a recovery residence is a retention matter long before it is a collections matter.
- 3
House supplies to restock
Supplies are counted per house from a running record of what came in and what was used. An item falling to its reorder point raises an alert naming that house. So does a batch of test kits or donated food nearing expiry.
- 4
Route roster to safe drop-off
Enter each resident's pickup point as coordinates for meetings, work, and appointments, since the roster has no address lookup. Stops are ordered by distance estimates, not live traffic. The driver marks each resident boarded, dropped off, or absent. A run that ends with someone not dropped off or marked absent raises an in-app alert.
One workflow, start to finish
- 1
Referral to move-in
A referral from a treatment center, detox, drug court, or family arrives as a lead tagged with its source (Limited release, Forge Start). Bed availability is not on the lead, so staff confirm a bed before accepting. When a placement is accepted, the move-in checklist opens on that lead (Limited release, Forge Start). It covers house rules walked, the signed program agreement, the restricted-period end date, and portal access. Access is enabled per business.
What managers can see once this is running
Open beds by house
Which houses have room right now, so the answer to a referral call takes seconds rather than a round of phone calls.
Referral source to move-in
Which referral relationships actually fill beds, as opposed to which ones send the most names.
Program fee collection
Paid, partly paid, and unpaid by resident and by period, with arrears visible while they are still small.
Length of stay by house
How long residents stay in each house. It is the outcome question referral sources ask before they send anyone.
Discharges by reason
Program completion against relapse, non-payment, and rule violations, tracked over time rather than recalled.
Supply stock by house
What each house has on hand, what is below its reorder point, and what is close to expiring.
What stays connected
Keep what works. Replace what does not. Connect the rest through The Forge. For sober living & recovery residences, that usually means the systems below stay in place and connect in: The Forge does not force you to rip them out.
- Stripe (Connect your own account, Forge Pro)
- QuickBooks Online (Connect your own account, Forge Pro)
Current connector status per app is tracked on the Integrations page , status changes as connectors are validated.
Optional deep diveDetailed industry requirements
Roles, workflows, requirements and launch considerations for your team to review.
Signs your current tools are slowing the work down
- A discharge planner calls about a bed and it takes two hours to answer whether one is open
- Program fee balances live in a notebook that only the owner can read
- Certification renewal starts with a week of searching for signed agreements
- Two houses run out of drug-test kits in the same month and a third has a full case
- A resident asks what they owe and three people give three answers
- The move-in walkthrough depends on which house leader happens to be on that night
- Nobody can say which referral relationships actually filled beds last quarter
- A house leader leaves and the referral contacts leave with them
- Nobody is sure whether adding a seventh resident changes the rules the house operates under
- A resident misses a meeting and the house has no record of when or whether they were picked up
More places this work loses time
Each house buys its own supplies and nobody knows what any house has
Supplies are counted per house, not for the operation as a whole. When drug-test kits or paper goods run low at one house, the alert names that house, and often a transfer beats an order.
New residents get different rules explained by different people
Every resident goes through the same move-in checklist (Limited release, Forge Start), covering house rules and the signed program agreement. Portal access is checked on the same list, and the restricted early period is recorded with its end date. Access is enabled per business.
See how The Forge fixes work falling through cracks →When a house leader moves on, everything they knew leaves with them
Referral sources, fee arrangements, agreements, and the history of each resident's stay live on records rather than in one person's phone. The next house leader inherits the context instead of rebuilding it.
Staff can't confirm which residents got to meetings, work, and appointments, or who is still out
The roster covers meetings, work, and appointments. Pickup points are entered as coordinates. Stops follow estimated distance, not live traffic. The driver marks each resident boarded, dropped off, or absent. A run that ends with someone not dropped off or marked absent raises an in-app alert. Text updates stay off until an Owner turns them on and texting is set up.
What may be replaced, and what stays
What The Forge may replace
Tools and manual processes that may no longer be necessary.
- A binder of intake paperwork in each house
- Program fee balances kept in a notebook or a personal spreadsheet
- Referral follow-up that depends on remembering to call back
- Supply lists texted between house leaders
- Certification documents reassembled from email once a year
- Move-in walkthroughs that vary by whoever is on that night
What The Forge may integrate with
Systems you keep: The Forge becomes the layer above them.
- Your accounting file can be connected to bring in customers and invoices read-only, so they are not retyped (Connect your own account, Forge Pro).
- Residents can pay from the emailed link (Limited release, Forge Core). That needs a payment processor your house connects itself (Connect your own account, Forge Pro). Access is enabled per business.
Example week (illustration, not customer results)
An operator running four houses with twenty-two beds
Illustrative example, not a demonstrated automatic workflow or customer result. A detox discharge planner calls Thursday about a client leaving Monday. The referral is logged as a lead tagged with the planner's agency. The applicant applies that evening. Monday runs the move-in checklist every house uses: house rules walked and the agreement signed. Weeks later, house two drops below its reorder point on test kits, and house four has a spare case.
Questions about Sober Living & Recovery Residences
Bring the job, handoff or follow-up your team keeps chasing. See what to keep, replace or connect.
Full $249 applies toward Managed Launch, an annual Core or Pro agreement, an approved integration, or migration assistance.