Can I make a timesheet app which requires a Q...

[Nathan_McGregor]

Can I make a timesheet app which requires a QR code to sign in, and then forces them to enter extra information when they use that same QR code to sign out?

I work for a civil construction company and have made a comprehensive timesheet app which requests an employee’s: work hours, machine time, materials used and a brief description of what they did that day. At the moment I have it set up so that all users must enter all this information upon entry so that nothing is missed. They may also make the entry whenever they like (e.g. at home after work).

Sign in: I would like to put a QR code on site that must be scanned on arrival. Scanning will set their start time.

Sign out: They would then scan the same QR code at the end of the day to sign out. But when they sign out, they would have to also record the other information I mentioned above.

Is this possible and can anyone teach me how to do this? This will solve a lot of problems we’re having with late entries.

Thanks very much in advance.

[Grant_Stead]

Hi Nathan! For sure! What I like to do is have a column in the project table [assigned_code] and make it scanable. Then you can print up a code for the project board, and change it out randomly. This helps deter people from taking a picture and replicating it, and scamming the system. So then you just use any random generator, and any of the free QR generators, and print up a big one, after it’s printed/posted the project manager scans it into the app as the assigned code.

Part 2 is forth coming

[Grant_Stead]

@Nathan_McGregor so, in your clock in table, you’ll need two columns for this next part, what I call a sacrifice column to collect the assigned code. (i.e. scan the QR code) Then another column that is that actual REF back to the project, but instead of selecting the project from a drop down, we’re going to populate it with an app formula. So you do a lookup. Lookup the scanned code against the project tables assigned code, to return the project ID.

[Nathan_McGregor]

Sign out View - The problem is that when I go into the table view and select the entry, the scan out column no longer appears. At this point I want them to be able to use the scannable column to scan the site’s QR code; I would then make them enter in the machine hours and what they did on site today.

Is there a way to make the scannable column visible in this view?

[Grant_Stead]

@Aleksi_Alkio can you look into Nathan’s app? You’ll probably be able to spot quickly what’s up…

[Grant_Stead]

@Nathan_McGregor now, you only want that formula to calculate once initially. Because if/when the code changes, and if you open up that clock record then the app formula would try and lookup a code that no longer exists and break stuff… So to make an app formula calculate once use this… IF([ISBLANK([_THIS], , [_THIS])

[Grant_Stead]

@Nathan_McGregor help.appsheet.com - List Expressions and Aggregates

LOOKUP({MatchValue}, {TableName}, {MatchColumn}, {ReturnColumn}) List Expressions and Aggregates help.appsheet.com

[Nathan_McGregor]

Thanks, Grant! I’m off to a good start now. The part I’m stuck at is:

I need to be able to go back into the entry to clock out, but when I go into an entry and click edit, I can’t see my “Scan out” column (I can see it if I never leave the entry in the first place).

Is there something specific I need to do to be able to see this when I try to sign out?

[Grant_Stead]

@Nathan_McGregor not, nothing specific. Do you have any show_if designated?

[Nathan_McGregor]

@Grant_Stead Nah, I turned off all the show if designations to test, and it still doesn’t come up in the non-form view. Is it because it’s a scannable column?

[Grant_Stead]

Oh, you’re talking about the detail view. Try explicitly adding that column as quick edit

[Nathan_McGregor]

The view I use is the table view; this is so the staff can easily see what days they have and haven’t filled in.

[Nathan_McGregor]

Sign in View - This is the form view before I save the entry (note that the ‘scan in’ column is not visible here because I have it automatically hide itself once it’s scanned). This is what it will look like after they sign in. At this point they simply save the entry.