Smartphone App

TrackAbout Module
Module Name:	Smartphone App
Short Description	TrackAbout's smartphone app for iOS and Android enables users to perform a variety of asset tracking operations.
Supported In:	TAMobile Android, TAMobile iOS
Business Process:	Asset Management, Production, Distribution, Supply Chain
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Hardware Purchasing Recommendations

See Smartphone Hardware Purchasing Recommendations

Features

Geolocation

• Capture device GPS information during scanning. This GPS data will be displayed in a map view on the website when reviewing Record details. Location Services should be enabled on the device. See Smartphone Geolocation for details.

Supported Action Types

• Add New/Register Asset — Initialize new assets or edit existing assets in TrackAbout

• Add New/Register Container/Pallet — Initialize new containers/pallets in TrackAbout

• Add New/Register Bulk Tank — Initialize new bulk tanks in TrackAbout

• Analyze/Analysis -— Record measurements of individual gas components

• Asset Search — Search for assets by tag and view asset details and history

• Branch Transfer Send/Receive — Transfer assets between locations in two steps

• Close Product Lot — Update the status of product lots to closed

• Collect Many Signatures/Sign Later — Allows collecting signatures for multiple deliveries to the same location at once, after the last delivery.

• Create Order — Order creation, with the ability to add line items to the order by scanning existing assets (to look up their product code)

• Customer Audit — Count all assets found on customer premise

• Delivery — Delivery of assets, including not-scanned and hard good/consumable support

• Dynamic forms — Collect custom data on any record*

• Empty Container/Pallet — Removes all items from a container/pallet

• Fill — Record the filling of assets

• Fill for Customer — Fills assets at a customer's site, without bringing the assets back in-house

• Find Inventory — Lookup assets on the go by product code or location

• Generic Action — Part of the Dynamic Workflow module, this action allows clients to create custom workflows

• Inspection Scan/Sort Asset — Sort individual assets when no container is needed or available.

• Load and Unload Truck — Track assets loaded onto and unload off trucks, including not-scanned and hard good/consumable support

• Locate — Set location of assets to internal branch locations

• Maintenance — Record maintenance on assets

• Make Pack — Combine several assets together into a single "pack" and begin tracking the pack by a new barcode, preserving information about the combined assets

• Material Consolidation — Record materials used for filling a container

• Photo Capture — Capture pictures as part of Deliver, Flag for/Send to Maintenance, and Generic actions.

• Physical Inventory — Conduct internal inventory audits.

• Print Lot Labels - Allows printing of lot labels from the device via a compatible printer

• Receive from Vendor — Record assets obtained from a vendor

• Reclassify Assets — Change service of assets

• Register Bundle — Combine several assets together into a single "bundle" and begin tracking the bundle by a new barcode, without recording information about the combined assets

• Remove from Lot — Clear the lot number from assets

• Replace Barcode — Replace worn or missing barcodes while retaining asset history and traceability

• Reserve for Order — Assign specific assets to an order

• Return Assets — Similar to Delivery action, but allows returns only

• Send/Flag to Maintenance — Indicate an asset requires maintenance

• Sort Container/Build Pallet — Add assets to a container/pallet in preparation for Filling, Delivery, Maintenance and Interbranch Transfer

• Sort Trip Load/Picking — Prepare an order for delivery

• Unmake Pack — Dissociate uniquely tracked assets from a pack

• Customer Portal (formerly Follow-On Tracking):

  • Asset Search — Search for assets by tag and view asset details and history

  • Move Asset — Tracks customer movement of assets between their internal locations

  • Record Weight/Volume — Sets an asset volume or weight depending on asset type

  • Set Volume — Allows your customer to set assets' volume

Provisioning the Smartphone Module

The Smartphone module needs to be provisioned and enabled in your instance. Contact TrackAbout Sales for pricing and details.

Once provisioned, the Support Team will enable and configure the module for your instance.

Roles, Permissions and User Setup for Smartphone

Mobile Roles Setup — Mobile Roles must be configured in your environment before the app can be used. The new role MUST have "Smartphone and Tablet" checked or selected.

Setup Internal Users — For each new smartphone user:

• Check the box TAMobile Android/iOS

• Assign the TAMobile Rugged and TAMobile Desktop role and save the page.

Where To Download the App

TrackAbout Mobile 7 is available from the App Store on iPhone and iPad, and the Google Play Store on Android mobile devices. Just search for "TrackAbout".

If you use Mobile Device Management for deploying apps, you can download the latest version of the Android app as an APK here.

Smartphone Vendor-Specific Help

See Smartphone Vendor-Specific Help for notes about configuring smartphone devices from specific hardware vendors.

Offline Mode

Field workers often lose network connectivity due to lack of signal. The app handles this transparently to the user.

If the app does not have network connectivity, it saves records locally until the device is back online. The user will be shown a notification that unsaved records are being retained locally.

Once the device is back online, the app sends data automatically without user intervention.

Enabling Integrated Scanning Hardware

Some rugged devices have dedicated, integrated scanning hardware. Enabling these is usually a two-step process.

Step 1 is to configure the scanning hardware using the vendor's built-in app. See Smartphone Vendor-Specific Help for details

Step 2 is to teach the app that a dedicated scanner should be used instead of using the built-in camera for scanning.

The user must do a "Scan Check" and use the hardware scanner successfully. These are the steps.

• Log into the TrackAbout app

• Go to Settings

• Click "Check barcode scanning" under 'Scan Check'

• When you see "Use this screen to test the scanning capability of your device," scan a barcode using the hardware scanner (don't select orange scan box to bring up camera). The barcode scanned will appear on the screen.

• Click back and a new option appears, "Preferred Scan Method".

• Ensure "Preferred Scan Method" is set to "Hardware Scanner"

Enabling the Hardware RFID scanner in the TrackAbout Mobile

• Log into the TrackAbout app

• Go to Settings

• Click "RFID settings"

• Click "RFID device"

• Select your RFID device from the list and click on "Save"

• Test scanning an RFID tag, and set the global power level

• If your device also has an integrated hardware barcode scanner please ensure you follow the steps above to setup the hardware barcode scanner as well

Printing

If you have TrackAbout's POD module, you can pair your devices with a TrackAbout certified printer. Check our certified devices page to see which printers are supported and contact support@trackabout.com to get set up.

App Upgrade Reminder

When a new version of the app is published in the app stores, the TrackAbout app will prompt users to upgrade.

One week after release, users will receive a message once every day reminding them to upgrade.

We always encourage ensuring users are using the very latest version of the app.

Login Session Duration

Users will remain logged in for 30 days.

After 30 days, the user will be logged out and asked to re-enter their credentials.

In-App Settings

Access Settings from the app's main menu.

Preferences

Font Size — Sets the size of text in the app: Normal, Large, or Extra Large.

Vibrate on Scan — When checked, your device vibrate when it scans.

Require Wi-Fi for photo uploads — When checked, photos will only be uploaded to TrackAbout when your device is connected to Wi-Fi.

Scan Check

Check barcode scanning — Lets you do a test scan.

Data Wedge settings — Additional settings.

RFID settings — Configure the app for scanning RFID tags instead of barcodes.

Server

Environment — The environment the app logs into, either Production (www.trackabout.com) or Test (test.trackabout.com).

Version

The version of the app. Make sure that you have the latest version of the app downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play stores depending on your device. Updating to the latest version of the app may resolve any issues or problems you may be experiencing with the app.

Things To Know about the TrackAbout Mobile 7 for Smartphones

Searching within Lists

Several screens contain long lists of information. When a search box is offered, here's how it works:

• If there are 200 items or less, we show them all.

• If there are more than 200 items in the list, you have to search to get results

• The search starts after typing 2 or more characters

• The way results are displayed can differ by type of data, but the general logic is:

• Search results contain all items whose Name are contained in the search terms. We also do a fuzzy match, so if the letters of the search terms appear in order, we match that. Searching for "OX100" would match "Oxygen 100". "OX100" would also match "One Box of 10 screws and 50 bolts" (because O X 1 0 0 shows up in that order in that phrase).

• Some searches, such as Customer, and Location, search additional fields, such as ID/Number, Name, or Description. Priority is given to the primary identifier, usually Name or ID/Number and the additional fields are secondary in priority.

• First, we show items whose Number ("MId" in techie terms) starts with the search term, sorted alphabetically. These are things like Customer Number, Location ID, Product Code Name.

• Then we show items with display names (Customer Name, Location Name, etc) that contain the search term, sorted alphabetically.

• Product code searches use a slightly different logic:

• Whole terms are matched,

• All fields are searched, including Product Code name, description, Asset Category name, Asset Group name, and Asset Type name.

• Terms may be in any order

• For example, searching for "ox med" would match "oxygen medical" in the name (or any field) as well as "medical oxygen" in any field. It would also match a product whose Category name is "medical" and Product Code name contains "ox".