Works with Scoutbook Plus

DenBuddy and Scoutbook Plus

Scoutbook Plus is Scouting America's official advancement system and the record your council reads. DenBuddy sits on top of it: the DenBuddy Sync extension imports your den's roster and advancement from your own Scoutbook Plus session, you plan and run the meeting in DenBuddy, and the results go back when you press Send — or as a CSV you upload yourself, whichever you prefer.

Import your den free About the extension

DenBuddy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Scouting America. Cub Scouts, Scoutbook and adventure names are trademarks of their respective owners.

The whole relationship in one picture. Data comes in through the extension, and goes back only after you have seen the rows and pressed Send — or as a file you upload yourself.

Reads always. Writes only when you press Send.

Reads always. Writes only when you press Send. Data comes in through the browser extension; it goes back only after DenBuddy has shown you the exact rows, you have pressed Send, and it has filed them through Scoutbook's own Import Advancement path and kept the receipt. The CSV you upload yourself still works, and nothing in DenBuddy can unapprove, edit or delete an existing Scoutbook record.

How youth data is handled

Scoutbook Plus, legacy Scoutbook, and which one you are in

Scoutbook Plus is the newer interface at advancements.scouting.org, where advancement, the Den Leader Experience and reporting now live. Legacy Scoutbook is the older site many leaders still have bookmarked. The migration has been gradual, which is why so many leaders end up with two tabs open and no idea which one is authoritative.

DenBuddy works with Scoutbook Plus, because that is where the advancement data is served from today.

Scoutbook Plus: advancement entry, the advancement report, den and unit rosters.
Legacy Scoutbook: the older interface, still the way some units reach certain pages.
Either way, the record your council reads is the same record.

What DenBuddy adds

Scoutbook Plus is a system of record. It is very good at storing what a Scout has completed and very hard to plan from. DenBuddy takes the same data and answers the questions a den leader actually has on a Sunday night.

Who in my den still needs what, laid out as one grid instead of one Scout at a time.
What should Tuesday's meeting cover, given those gaps and the hour I have.
How do I take attendance without a clipboard.
How do I record eight Scouts times four requirements without losing an evening.

How the import works, step by step

The extension never has your Scouting credentials. It reads what your own signed-in browser session is already allowed to see.

Install DenBuddy Sync from the Chrome Web Store and sign in to DenBuddy in a tab.
The extension detects the DenBuddy tab and adopts that session, so it pushes as you.
Open Scoutbook Plus in another tab and sign in as usual, then browse your den.
Pick the den to import. The extension reads the roster and advancement and posts them to DenBuddy.
DenBuddy records the import as a run you can review in Settings, with counts of what changed.

What is imported, and what is not

DenBuddy asks for the minimum that makes planning possible, and leaves the rest where it is.

Imported: Scouts in the dens you lead, their rank and den, and their adventure and requirement completions with dates and approval state.
Not imported: parent contact lists, unit finances, payments, medical forms or anything outside the dens you lead.
Never transmitted: your scouting.org username, password or session token. The token stays inside the Scoutbook page and no part of it reaches extension storage.
Written only on your press: nothing goes back to Scoutbook on a timer, and nothing goes back at all until a pack admin turns on Write to Scoutbook and you press Send on a list you have read.

Getting advancement back into Scoutbook

After you record a meeting, DenBuddy stages a CSV of approved completions in Scoutbook's own column order: BSA Member ID, First Name, Last Name, Advancement Type, Advancement, Version, Date Completed, Approved and Awarded. You download it and upload it in Scoutbook. Rows that cannot be exported are listed with the reason so you can fix them, usually a Scout with no BSA member ID on the record.

Next steps

The DenBuddy Sync extension

What it asks permission for, why, how to install it, and what to do when an import does not appear.

What the import brings across

Roster, rank, den and every completed requirement, linked so a second import updates rather than duplicates.

What you can see once it is in

Every Scout against every requirement, with Bobcat first, which is the whole reason to import in the first place.

Step by step instructions Compare with pack management software

Scoutbook Plus questions

Is DenBuddy a Scoutbook replacement?

No. Scoutbook Plus is official, free and required. DenBuddy is the planning layer that reads from it. If you had to choose one, choose Scoutbook.

Is DenBuddy affiliated with Scouting America?

No. DenBuddy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Scouting America. Scoutbook and the rank names are their trademarks and are used here to describe compatibility.

Does DenBuddy work with legacy Scoutbook?

The import reads Scoutbook Plus, which is where advancement data is served from. If your unit still uses legacy pages for other tasks, that is fine and unaffected.

What is the Scoutbook Plus advancement report, and do I still need it?

It is the report Scoutbook Plus produces showing what each Scout has completed. You still need it for anything official, such as ordering awards at the Scout shop. DenBuddy reads the same underlying data so that planning does not require reading a report.

What if my den is not in Scoutbook yet?

Add your Scouts in DenBuddy by hand and plan straight away. You can import later, and the import links to the Scouts you already created rather than duplicating them.

Could this break when Scoutbook Plus changes?

Yes. The import depends on pages Scouting America controls, and when they change we update the extension. Your DenBuddy data keeps working while that happens, and you can always enter advancement by hand.