# Manually tracked item

A manually tracked item is a status page resource where you control the status yourself. Unlike other status page resources, which are connected to monitors or heartbeats, it has no automated checks — no alerts fire and no incidents are created automatically.

Use manually tracked items when you want full control over how a service's status is reported:

- Third-party services such as payment providers or CDNs, where you decide what to communicate to visitors.
- Services with custom SLA requirements, where you define what counts as downtime or degraded.
- Any service you want to include on your status page without setting up automated monitoring.

## How it differs from a monitor

|  | Monitor | Manually tracked item |
|---|---|---|
| Status updates | Automatic, from checks | Manual, from status reports |
| Incidents | Created automatically | Never created |
| Status history | Recorded automatically | Recorded from your updates |

## Add a manually tracked item

1. Go to [Better Stack](https://uptime.betterstack.com) → **Status pages** → your status page → **Configure**.
2. Click **Add resource**.
3. Choose **Manually tracked item** as the resource type.
4. Enter a **Public name**. This is what your visitors will see.
5. Click **Save changes**.

## Update the status

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Update the status of a manually tracked item by creating a status report.

1. Go to your status page and click **Create status report**.
2. Under **Affected services**, select your manually tracked item.
3. Set the status: **Downtime** or **Degraded**.
4. Add a **Title** and **Description** to inform your visitors.
5. Click **Publish**.

To return the item to operational, open the report, create a new status update, and set the status to **Resolved**.

> **Scheduling maintenance?**
> Create a maintenance report to show visitors that planned work is in progress.

## Status history

By default, a manually tracked item shows only its current status. You can also show a history of past statuses.

Configure the **Widget type** on the resource in your status page editor:

- **Plain** — current status only.
- **History** — daily status for the past 7, 14, 30, 90, 180 or 365 days.
- **Intraday history** — hourly breakdown of the current day.

Status history is built from your status reports. The more consistently you update reports, the more accurate the history will be.