Diaries fail on missed reminders, not on question design. Capture reminds participants by email or SMS when a task is due, the next day and before the window closes, respects quiet hours in their own time zone, and shows your team who is falling behind.
Free sandbox · No credit card · 21 CFR Part 11 aligned
When due
18:00
Your evening diary is open
Next day
18:00
Reminder: your diary is still open
Final notice
21:30
Last chance before the window closes
Quiet hours
22:00 to 08:00 in the participant's time zone
Stops
As soon as the task is completed
How reminders work in Capture
Why it matters
In trials with diary-based endpoints, such as migraine days, bowel movements or pain scores, each missed entry is missing data, not a symptom-free day. A few missed days before a visit can make the visit score invalid. Good reminders are the single most effective way to protect those days, and they cost far less than chasing participants by phone.
The balance is important. Too few reminders and entries are missed; too many and participants start ignoring them or drop out. A short ladder that stops as soon as the task is done, respects sleep, and ends with a clear last chance works for most studies. See patient diary software.
Reminders work together with completion windows. A window stops participants filling in a week of entries from memory on the day before a visit, which is a well-known problem with paper diaries. Choose the enforcement mode per task: hard windows for endpoint diaries, softer ones for less critical questionnaires.
Window -3 / +3 days around the anchored target date
Soft window
Stays available with a protocol deviation flag
Hard window
Locks outside the window
Warning only
Stays available with a warning
Auto-close
Marked missed when the window closes
The ladder
| Step | When | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | When the task becomes due | Prompt the entry at the planned time |
| 2 | The next day, if still open | Catch entries missed the first time |
| 3 | Before the window closes | Final notice before the entry is marked missed or late |
| Stop | As soon as the task is completed | No unnecessary messages |
| Quiet hours | In the participant's own time zone | No messages at night |
Oversight
Diary compliance is visible per study, country and site, with at-risk participants and overdue tasks flagged, so sites can call before a gap grows. Completion status updates in real time as participants submit.
At-risk participants
Enrol yourself as a test participant in the free sandbox.
Good practice
Tell participants at consent what reminders they will get and when, and use the channel that suits your participants. Schedule daily diaries at a time that fits the question: evening for "today", morning for sleep. Keep the diary short on good days with skip logic, so a reminder leads to a one-minute task, not a chore.
Review compliance weekly. A participant whose compliance drops usually has a reason: a new phone, travel, illness or waning motivation. A short call from the site at the first sign of trouble saves more data than any automated message.
Setup
Email or SMS, as participants prefer.
Matched to the question's recall period.
Hard for endpoint diaries, softer for others.
Participants told about reminders and contact details.
Weekly review of at-risk participants.
Who calls participants who fall behind.
Yes. Each reminder carries a secure link that opens the task directly, with no login screen.
They stop participants filling in several days from memory and keep diary endpoints valid.
Up to three per task: when it is due, the next day, and a final notice before the window closes. Reminders stop once the task is done.
Yes, by email or SMS, with a secure link that opens the questionnaire directly.
Yes. They never arrive during quiet hours in the participant's own time zone, and there is a daily message cap.
It depends on the mode you choose: soft, hard, warning-only or auto-close, where the entry is marked missed.
Yes. Compliance is shown by study, country and site, with at-risk participants and overdue tasks flagged.
Yes, in the free sandbox with every feature.
Reminders, windows and compliance tracking. Free sandbox.