> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://app.simcare.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Custom Hour Templates & Group Supervision
> Build activity templates, assign them to cohorts, and configure how site and university group supervision are logged, counted, and signed.
An hour template defines the activities students can select when logging hours and the categories used on their hours document. Open **Program Settings → Hour Templates** (`/program#hourTemplates`) to build and manage templates.
Required hour totals are configured separately under **Terms and Tracks**. Creating an activity called “Group Supervision” does not, by itself, set a minimum number of group supervision hours.
## Build a custom hour template
1. Open **Templates** and select **New template**.
2. Choose a starting point:
* **Describe your program** creates an AI draft for you to review.
* **Start from a SimCare template** copies a provided activity structure.
* **Start from scratch** opens a starting structure you can customize.
3. Enter a **Template name** that identifies its purpose, such as “CMHC Practicum Hours.”
4. In **Sections & activities**, organize the activities students will log. Add definitions that explain what qualifies and distinguish easily confused activities.
5. Check both previews: **Student view** shows the activity choices and definitions; **Hours document** shows the document structure.
6. Select **Create template**. When editing an existing template, select **Save changes**.
Review every AI-drafted activity before saving. The draft does not establish your program’s hour requirements or decide which supervision your program accepts.
### Sections, activities, and definitions
Sections organize the template; the activities at the ends of the structure are the choices students log against. Place supervision activities within a supervision category so they are counted as supervision. Use explicit labels and definitions, for example:
| Section | Activity | Example definition |
| ----------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Direct | Individual counseling | Direct client contact during an individual counseling session. |
| Indirect | Documentation | Time completing clinical documentation outside a client session. |
| Supervision | Site Group Supervision | Group supervision delivered by the placement site's supervisor. |
| Supervision | University Group Supervision | Group supervision delivered by the student's assigned cohort faculty. |
For the last example, also select **University supervision** on the activity. Naming an activity “University” or “Group” alone does not enable the faculty-supervised workflow.
### Optional Track Hours Log layout
If your program uses the **Track Hours Log** report format, the builder also offers **Track Hours Log layout**. It lets you set the document title, accent color, PNG or JPEG institution logo, table headings and order, whether the site table appears, and whether zero-hour activities appear. You can also organize display labels and groups and map activities into them.
Display grouping changes how the document presents activities. Use **Sections & activities** to change what students can log. Signing roles still come from the report template.
Layout edits apply to untouched reports until their first signing document is created. Existing signing documents keep their saved layout. The preview uses sample content; actual PDF page breaks are determined when the document is generated.
## Assign the template to cohorts
Saving a template makes it available to your program. To use it, choose it when creating a cohort or open an existing cohort's **Cohort Settings** and change its hour template.
The **Cohort Assignments** view on the Hour Templates page is a reference list. Search by cohort or template and filter by term or active/archived cohort status. It shows each cohort's assigned template and whether that template is active. A cohort without a custom assignment shows **Default (system template)**.
After assigning the template, check that a student in the intended cohort sees the expected activity choices. A template saved in your program but not assigned to that cohort will not replace its activity list.
## Group Supervision Hours
Group supervision describes the format of supervision. The person providing it determines whether the student uses a placement site or the university-supervision workflow.
### Site group supervision versus university group supervision
| | Site group supervision | University group supervision |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Who supervises? | A placement site's supervisor | The student's assigned faculty for the selected cohort |
| Template setup | A supervision activity with **University supervision** unchecked | A supervision activity with **University supervision** checked |
| Site when logging | Select the placement site | No placement site is selected |
| Supervisor when logging | The site's supervisor | The resolved cohort faculty is selected automatically |
| Document routing | Site-supervisor document, with faculty countersigning if required | Faculty-supervised document; faculty signs as the supervising party |
| Required-hour counting | Included as site supervision | Controlled by the program's university-supervision counting setting |
Both individual and group faculty-supervised activities can use **University supervision**. It is not a group-only setting.
### Configure a faculty-led supervision group
1. Create a separate supervision activity, such as **University Group Supervision**, and select its **University supervision** checkbox.
2. Keep site group supervision as a separate activity if students also receive supervision at their placements.
3. Assign the hour template to the cohort that represents the supervision group.
4. Confirm each student has one resolvable faculty supervisor. FieldX checks the student's faculty assignment first, then the cohort's designated signing faculty, then a sole faculty member in the cohort.
5. Open **Program Settings → Settings** and set **University supervision counts toward required hours** to match your program policy.
6. If you use supervision breakdown reports, configure **Supervision activity classification** in Settings: classify the activity's format as group and select the appropriate provider. This reporting classification is separate from the template's **University supervision** checkbox.
A cohort with multiple faculty and no applicable assignment or designated signing faculty is ambiguous. Assign the appropriate faculty before asking students to log university supervision. Adding faculty as a site supervisor does not resolve this cohort assignment.
### What students do
Students open **Log Hours**, select the supervision cohort, and choose the university-supervision activity. FieldX clears the placement-site selection and assigns the cohort's resolved faculty as supervisor. The student supplies the date, duration, and other entry details.
University supervision requires a cohort and an assigned faculty member. It cannot be logged through the “without cohort” path. The entry date must also fit the cohort's term rules.
The entry may display **University Supervision** where a site label normally appears. This is a label for faculty-supervised hours; it does not create a placement site. Students do not need to add their university as a site for this workflow.
### How these hours count
**University supervision counts toward required hours** is on by default.
* **On:** university supervision contributes to counted supervision and total required-hour progress.
* **Off:** university supervision remains recorded and visible in **Total supervision**, but is excluded from counted supervision, counted total hours, and pace calculations that use the policy.
For example, a student logs 10 direct hours, 5 indirect hours excluding supervision, 2 site-supervision hours, and 3 university group-supervision hours:
| Figure | Setting on | Setting off |
| --------------------------------------- | ---------- | ----------- |
| Total supervision logged | 5 | 5 |
| Supervision counted toward requirements | 5 | 2 |
| Total hours logged | 20 | 20 |
| Total hours counted toward requirements | 20 | 17 |
Where a display says **Indirect (including supervision)**, its supervision is already included. Do not add the supervision figure again when calculating the total.
The setting does not delete entries or remove their signing requirements. An hour template also does not automatically establish a group-supervision minimum. Configure the relevant hour requirements or reporting requirement set separately.
### How faculty approve university supervision
Logging hours does not approve them. Approval happens through the report-signing workflow.
For reports that separate documents by supervising party, university-supervised entries route to a faculty-supervised document. The faculty member signs as the supervising party and does not sign that same document a second time as a faculty countersigner. Student signatures still follow the report's requirements.
Site-supervised entries follow their site document's required signing chain. A report containing both types may therefore need signatures on both site and university-supervision documents before the covered entries become approved. Turning university-hour counting off does not skip this process.
### Troubleshoot group supervision
| Problem | What to check |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Students cannot find the custom activity | Confirm the template is assigned to the cohort they selected. |
| The activity still asks for a placement site | Confirm it is a supervision activity and its **University supervision** checkbox is selected. A name alone is insufficient. |
| University supervision is disabled | Select a cohort, check its term dates, and resolve the student's faculty assignment. |
| University hours appear but do not increase required-hour progress | Check **University supervision counts toward required hours**. |
| A group activity appears under Other supervision in reports | Check **Supervision activity classification**. |
| Old logs still show the university as a placement site | Existing site-attributed logs are not automatically converted by adding or assigning a new template. Contact support about correcting historical records. |
## Edit, duplicate, or deactivate a template
Template cards show usage, status, and a read-only **Preview**. Use **Duplicate** for your own template or **Duplicate to my program** for a provided SimCare template.
Once logged entries depend on a template, safe-edit restrictions protect historical records. You can still rename activities, update definitions, and add activities or sections. Existing sections and activities cannot be deleted, existing activities cannot move into a different top-level section, and top-level section names are locked.
A used activity's **University supervision** classification is also locked. Create a new activity for a different classification. Duplicating a template preserves its activity identities, so a copy is not a way to reclassify historical activity types.
For a larger redesign, duplicate the template and assign the revised copy to future cohorts.
**Deactivate** hides a template from new cohorts without deleting it. Cohorts already using it keep logging against it and retain their documents. Turn on **Show deactivated** to find it again and select **Reactivate**.
See also [Setting Up Cohorts](/docs/fieldx/step-3-set-up-cohorts) and [Logging & Tracking Your Hours](/docs/fieldx/students/step-3-the-timesheet-tab-logging-hours).