Shared Handhelds

A phone or handheld stays signed in as the account that set it up. When several workers pass the same device around, everything they do is recorded under that one account. The worker switch fixes that: the device asks Who’s working?, and the person picked is recorded on every move, stage change, harvest, discard, lot action and bag or lot packed onto an order with Scan to pack until they finish or the device sits idle.

The switch is off for every farm until a Manager or Owner turns it on. With it off, nothing changes.

What it does, and what it doesn’t

• It records who did the work. The person picked is named on the record and in the activity log, beside the account the device is signed in with.
• It is an honor system. A badge or a name says who is recorded, not who is holding the device. It is the same rule as at a scan station.
• The signed-in account is still the limit. The device can only do what its account’s role allows. Picking a Manager on a device signed in as a Worker does not give anyone Manager actions.
• Only active team members at Worker or above can be picked. Viewers, people who have left the team and revoked badges are refused.

Who can turn it on

Managers and Owners.

Turn it on

Either:

1. Open Settings in the sidebar and turn on Worker switch on shared phones in the Optional features card.

Or:

1. Open Configuration > Stations.
2. In the Shared handhelds card, tick Worker switch. It saves right away.

In the same card, Worker idle time (minutes) sets how long a device can sit unused before it forgets who is working and asks again. It is 30 minutes unless you change it, and can be from 1 to 480 minutes. Change the number and click Save idle time.

Phones pick up the change the next time they load your farm’s settings.

Print badges

Badges are the same ones used at scan stations. Open Configuration > Stations, go to Badges, make a badge for each worker, and print the sheet. A badge you revoke stops working on every device.

Badges are optional: workers can also tap their name in the list.

What a worker sees

When the switch is on and nobody is picked, the device shows Who’s working? over everything else. The worker either:

• scans their badge with the handheld’s scanner, or
• taps their name in the list.

The screen closes and the work they do is recorded under their name. Scanning a block label or anything that isn’t a badge on this screen says That’s not a badge.

A device signed in as a Manager or Owner also shows Record as me, which records work under the signed-in account, as before. A device signed in as a Worker has no way past the screen without picking someone.

On the Scan screen, scanning a badge switches who is working without leaving the screen, and the screen shows Recording as and their name for a few seconds. A badge that has been revoked, or isn’t from this farm, shows That badge isn’t recognised. Ask a Manager to print a new one. and nobody is switched.

While Who’s working? is open it takes every scan. Scanning a block label then does nothing to the screen behind it.

When they finish

Open More. Under Work, the Who’s working row shows who is recorded. Tap it when you are done: the device forgets you and asks again for the next person.

Idle time

If nobody uses the device for the idle time, it forgets who was working and asks again. Each recorded action resets the clock.

Offline

Work done while the device is offline is saved on the device with the name of the worker who did it. It is sent when the device is back online, whoever is picked by then, and still names the worker who did it.

The team list is kept on the device so the Who’s working? list works offline once it has loaded. A device that has never loaded it says so; badges still need that list too.

When Sporeline refuses an action that was saved on the device, the later actions on that same block, bag, lot, transfer or count are held on the device so they are never sent out of order. More > Sync lists the refused action under Needs attention with Sporeline’s reason and how many actions are waiting on it. Tap Redo to send the refused action again once the item is ready for it; the actions waiting on it are sent after Sporeline confirms it. Tap Delete to drop the refused action instead (the device asks once before it deletes), and the actions waiting on it are sent. Retry failed still puts every refused action back in line, in the order they were done. A device that is switched off or restarted keeps the hold, and a station’s Undo still works on an action that is waiting.

An action saved on the device is not sent on its own once it is more than 7 days old, because the item has probably changed since. It shows under Needs attention instead:

• Queued 9 days ago, never sent. Still do this? It never left the device. Tap Send to send it as it is, or Delete.
• Sent 9 days ago; Sporeline never confirmed it. It went out but the answer never came back, so Sporeline may already have it. Tap Check to open the item and see whether it is already there, then Send or Delete. After this long Sporeline may not recognise it as the same action, so a Send without checking could record it twice. Actions saved before this version of the app are treated this way, since the older app did not record when it sent them. If an action you sent this way is still not confirmed 7 days after you tapped Send, it comes back here so you can check it again.

The 7 days are counted with the device’s own clock.

The first time this version of the app opens, it marks the actions already saved on the device as possibly sent. Until that has worked, the device sends nothing and More > Sync says the queued actions are on hold; it tries again on every sync.

If the device cannot read its list of actions that need attention, More > Sync says so under Needs attention and keeps showing the last list it read until the next sync can read it. If a Redo, Send or Delete could not be done, the card says so; tap it again.

Scan stations

Kiosk mode is not affected. A scan station keeps its own Who is working at this station? picker.

Limits

• No PIN yet. Picking someone does not ask for a PIN. PINs are planned for a later release.
• Counts and site transfers are not attributed yet. A count recorded or a transfer received on a shared device is still recorded under the signed-in account.
• Changes made from the device without going through its saved-work queue, such as Move by scan while online, are recorded under the signed-in account for now.