Lost property, done properly
Anyone on site reports what's missing in under a minute. Your team matches it from a simple review queue. Whatever is left shows up on your own screens without being asked, so nobody keeps a spreadsheet or digs through a crate at the front desk.
Nothing to install, no new password, and no more queue of people asking at the desk.
Who it's for
The crate by the front desk is not a school problem. It turns up anywhere a few hundred people spend their day, and it is always more or less the same crate.
Schools and colleges
Jumpers, bottles, PE kit, calculators. Pupils report it themselves instead of being sent to ask at the office.
Offices and campuses
Laptops, chargers, passes, headphones. Someone logs a find at the desk and the owner spots it on the screen by the lifts.
Stadiums and arenas
Forty thousand people, ninety minutes, one exit. Stewards log what comes in and the queue outside the office never forms.
Stations and transport
Items handed in across platforms and depots, in one place, searchable by whoever happens to be on the desk that shift.
Events and festivals
Stand it up for a weekend, brand it for the event, hand people a link, and export whatever is left on the Monday.
Hotels and venues
Housekeeping logs what a room leaves behind. Front of house answers the phone call with an actual record in front of them.
The crate by the front desk
Somebody loses a jacket. It goes into a crate, a cupboard, or behind the desk, and that is more or less the end of it. People email. People ring. Whoever picks up describes the contents of a bin bag from memory, and eventually somebody turns up on a Thursday to look through it themselves.
Most of it never gets claimed. The owners want it back. They just cannot see it.
Currently held hostage
School, office, stadium or station, the contents barely change. See how many you recognise.
Lost Properly turns that crate into a queue. Every one of those gets a photo, a date, a place it turned up, and somebody looking for it.
How it works
01
Whoever lost it signs in and describes it. Category, brand, colour, where they last had it, and a photo if they have one. If they haven't, they can sketch it or pick one from the Stock Cupboard. It takes under a minute and nobody on your team is involved yet.
Less time than it takes to walk to the front desk.
02
Found items get logged through a short review queue. Lost Properly checks new reports against what has been handed in and surfaces the likely matches, so nobody is cross-referencing a description against their own memory.
“Blue-ish bottle, west side, Tuesday” becomes something you can actually search.
03
Unclaimed items appear on the display board by themselves, in reception, the canteen, the concourse, wherever your screens already are. People glance up, recognise their own coat, and go and collect it.
The crate empties without anyone being asked to sort it.
No photo? No problem.
Every lost property form asks for a picture, and the person filling it in is describing something they no longer have. Lost Properly gives them two ways round that, and neither needs a photo they never took.
Both are optional, and either beats a blank grey box sitting in the queue.
<60s
To report a lost item
Start to finish, on the device already in their hand.
3
Taps to log a find
Photo, category, where it turned up.
0
Apps to install
It runs in the browser everyone already has.
1
Afternoon to set up
Logo, colours, sign-in. Tea optional.
Built for three different screens
FOR EVERYONE ON SITE
Anyone reports a loss themselves, with the login they already have. They can browse what has already been handed in before they even submit, so a good share of items get found without your team lifting a finger.
FOR STAFF
Found items get logged once. From there your team works a single dashboard: confirm matches, mark items returned, and deal with anything that has sat unclaimed too long.
FOR YOUR SCREENS
Once it is pointed at a screen it needs nothing from anyone. Items appear when they are logged and drop off when they are claimed, so it is always current. No more stale printouts taped to a noticeboard.
Make it yours
You get your own logo on the nav bar and the sign-in screen, and your own colour pulled through the whole system, display board included. Have a play:
That is the real board, by the way. It is what goes up on the screen by the front desk.
Northgate
Lost & Found
Navy jacket
Water bottle
Laptop charger
The bits people always ask
Through the account they already have. Lost Properly sits behind your existing sign-in, so there is no new password for anyone to forget by Wednesday. If you would rather keep it simpler still, your team can log items on someone's behalf, and visitors can be given a link that needs no account at all.
Only the item. The display board shows what was found, where, and roughly when. It never shows anyone's name or their report. Names stay in the dashboard behind the login, which is why the board is safe to leave running in a public space all day.
Sketch turns a written description into a simple illustration of the item. That is the whole job. It never sees anyone's own photo, it does not draw people, and what comes out is clearly a drawing rather than a photograph.
Safeguarding filters sit in front of it and behind it. Every description is screened before anything is drawn, and anything that isn't a plain description of a lost item is refused outright. The finished image is checked again before it can reach a queue or a public board, and staff can pull any image from either in a single tap.
And if you would rather not use it at all, turn it off for your organisation. People then use the Stock Cupboard and photo upload only.
You set the shelf life. Thirty days, a half term, the end of a season, whatever your policy says. Lost Properly flags items as they age out and gives you one list to work from, so the clear-out takes an hour instead of a weekend.
Whoever already receives handed-in items, usually the front desk. Their job goes from “describe a jacket over the phone” to “take a photo, tap a category.” Everyone else does the rest themselves, which is the point.
No. If you have a screen showing notices, it can show the board. If you have not, any spare display and a browser will do. Everything else runs on the devices people already sign in to.
An afternoon for setup, a week for word to get round, and about a fortnight before somebody says “oh, that's where my bottle went.” We do the branding and configuration with you on the call.
Book a demo
Tell us a bit about where you work and we will set up a short walkthrough: reporting, the dashboard your team would use, and the live display board, all with your colours and logo already on it.
Twenty minutes, no slides, and we will use your own crate as the example.