Form Timing out

Miranda_Lubarsk · 12-16-2019 05:51 AM

Hello all!

Quick question. A couple of my employees have complained that if they open a Timesheet (ie. form), and then exit the app to resume their work and open it later on, much of the time it times out and the opened sheet is lost.

We would like our employees to be able to open a Timesheet when they get to a client’s house so that the timestamp/start-time is entered, and then be able to change the end time and add information to the timesheet an hour or a couple hours later.

I have often done this and it hasn’t been a problem, but many of my employees are having this issue. Is there any way to prevent it?

Many thanks,
Miranda

Miranda_Lubarsk

Hello! Just wondering if anyone has seen my question and would be able to give any insight?

Many thanks.

Aleksi

Wouldn’t it better to save the form anyway so you won’t loose any data?

Steve

You could try turning off auto-updates. Auto-update will cause the app to sync automatically after 30 minutes since the last sync. Such an auto-sync can be prompted by returning to the app, as your users are experiencing. Of course, if you do this, users will have to manually sync the app to send their updates to and to get updates from others.

Given that the form does not auto-save, it’s bad practice to partially complete it and leave it unsaved. Consider implementing your time sheet in a way that better suits your users habits, perhaps as clock-in and clock-out buttons rather than as a form.

Miranda_Lubarsk

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the info. Can you talk to me more about clock-in/clock-out?? We need to record a LOT more information than just time usage at each visit, so just recording clock-in-clock-out as buttons wouldn’t work at all. We have to record tons of plants that we use, and specific information about those plants such as size & number. This is needed to know what to bill clients for, so it is imperative information.

Is there any reason that our method is “bad practice” other than having to remember to sync it later? I personally have never lost any information…it just syncs when I open the app back up. I would rather have the form saved with incomplete information and for the employee to have to open the form back up and edit it than anything else. Do you have any ideas about how to optimize this best?

Many thanks.

Steve

It’s “bad practice” to leave a form open with unsaved information for exactly the problems you’ve observed. Also, if the device battery dies or the app or device crashes or reboots, any unsaved data is lost.

In your case, you might consider using Quick Edit columns in a detail view. Each Quick Edit column modification produces a new row update message to the spreadsheet, keeping the spreadsheet fresher, or at least keeping a record of changes that won’t be so easily lost. Quick Edit columns aren’t suitable for all uses, though.

Miranda_Lubarsk

Thanks Steve,

I have used quick edits for other information, but I don’t think it would be applicable in this case. The way we input plants it would be not really apply. Thanks for your thoughts though. It’s unfortunate that there is no way to have a Timesheet open for a good period of time without losing information. Thanks for your thoughts though. Lmk if you have any others & thanks!