Booking an order offline, and what the outbox shows

The app is built to work offline. When a rep opens an outlet and books an order, the order is saved on the phone first, with or without a signal. Nothing waits for a connection.

What is stored on the phone

The day's route, the customer list, prices, discount charts and free-goods schemes, so booking works exactly the same offline as online. Orders, check-ins, photos, forms and payments are stored as they happen.

The outbox

The app shows an outbox with a count for each kind of record waiting to upload: orders, check-ins, forms, new customers, deliveries, van unloads, close-day records and breaks. When the phone finds a signal, the outbox uploads on its own. A rep can also open it and send any queue by hand.

What comes down

Master data is refreshed by change date, so a phone on a slow connection pulls only what changed since it last synced, not the whole price list.

Good practice

• Make sure the day is synced before the rep leaves the office in the morning.
• Have reps open the outbox at the end of the day and confirm it is empty before closing the day.
• If a record is rejected on upload, the outbox shows it, and the manager can see what needs correcting.