If you've ever been a trial secretary, you know the drill. Days before the trial, you're hunched over a laptop, copying names from one spreadsheet to another, formatting gate sheets by hand, and praying you didn't mix up an armband number. It's tedious, error-prone, and it eats up hours that could be spent doing literally anything else.
The truth is, most of this paperwork can be automated. Let's walk through the key documents every trial produces and talk about how much time each one really takes.
Gate Sheets
Gate sheets list the running order for each class. They tell the gate steward who runs next, so dogs and handlers are ready at the line. For a typical weekend trial with 20 classes, you might need 20 separate gate sheets.
Manual time: About 15–20 minutes per sheet if you're copying from entry lists, sorting by jump height, and formatting for print. That's 5–7 hours for a full weekend trial.
Automated time: Seconds. Once entries are in the system, gate sheets generate instantly — sorted, formatted, and ready to print.
Scribe Sheets
Scribe sheets are what the scribe uses ringside to record each dog's faults, time, and result. Each dog gets a line or a section, and the scribe fills it in as the run happens.
Manual time: Similar to gate sheets — about 15 minutes per class to set up. You need the dog's name, handler, armband number, and jump height on each sheet.
Automated time: Generated alongside gate sheets. No extra effort.
Armband Lists
Every competitor gets an armband number for the trial. The armband list maps numbers to handlers and dogs. It's used by gate stewards, scribes, and the trial secretary throughout the day.
Manual time: About 30–45 minutes to assign numbers, cross-reference entries, and print the list. Longer if you have move-ups or day-of entries to accommodate.
Automated time: Armband numbers are assigned when entries close. The list is always up to date, even with last-minute changes.
Catalogs
The catalog is the official record of the trial. It lists every dog entered in every class, organized by jump height and running order. Some organizations require catalogs to be submitted after the trial.
Manual time: 2–4 hours for a full weekend trial. Catalogs need careful formatting, and one typo can mean a dog's result doesn't count.
Automated time: Generated from the same entry data as everything else. Print-ready in seconds.
Results Reports
After each class, results need to be compiled, sorted by placement, and posted for competitors to see. At the end of the trial, final results go to the organizing body for title tracking.
Manual time: 15–30 minutes per class to sort, calculate placements, and check for errors. For a 20-class weekend, that's another 5–10 hours.
Automated time: Results calculate as scores are entered. Placements update in real time.
The Excel Trap
Many clubs start with Excel or Google Sheets, and it works — at first. You build a spreadsheet for entries, another for gate sheets, another for results. You link them together with formulas. It feels clever and efficient.
Then things go wrong. A formula breaks. Someone accidentally deletes a row. You need to handle a move-up mid-trial, and the whole chain of linked sheets falls apart. You spend 20 minutes fixing formulas instead of running the trial.
Excel is a general-purpose tool being forced into a very specific job. It doesn't know what a jump height is. It doesn't understand that a dog can't run in a class it's not entered in. It can't warn you when an armband number is duplicated. All of that logic lives in the trial secretary's head, and if that person isn't available, nobody else can figure out the spreadsheet.
Adding Up the Savings
Let's do rough math for a typical two-day trial with 200 entries across 20 classes:
- Gate sheets: 5–7 hours → minutes
- Scribe sheets: 5 hours → minutes
- Armband lists: 45 minutes → seconds
- Catalogs: 2–4 hours → minutes
- Results reports: 5–10 hours → real-time
That's roughly 18–27 hours of volunteer labor that can be reduced to under an hour of setup and data entry. For clubs that run multiple trials per year, the cumulative time savings are enormous.
What Doesn't Change
Automation doesn't replace people. You still need gate stewards, scribes, timers, and a trial secretary making decisions. What changes is that those people spend their time on judgment calls and problem-solving instead of copying data between documents.
The scribe still records faults ringside. The gate steward still calls dogs to the line. The trial secretary still handles conflicts and questions. But nobody is spending their evening before the trial hand-formatting 20 gate sheets.
Barkloop automates gate sheets, scribe sheets, armband lists, catalogs, and results — so your volunteers can focus on running the trial instead of fighting spreadsheets. Less paperwork, fewer errors, more time with the dogs.