A job changed while you were on it
By the end of this article you’ll know how an office change reaches a job that’s open on your phone, what happens to your own change when the two collide, and what Needs review is asking of you.
The office and your phone both work on the same job, and neither waits for the other. Your taps are saved on the phone and sent on the next sync; the office’s edits come down on the same sync. Usually that just works. This article is about the rest.
How a change reaches you
The job page and the Work list re-read themselves every time a sync lands — you don’t have to leave and come back. So if the office moves the appointment, swaps a service, adds a note or puts a second person on the crew, the job you’re looking at simply updates, with no toast. The Synced 3 changes toast you sometimes see counts your changes going up, not theirs coming down.
Two changes are louder:
- You’re taken off the job. It leaves your phone on the next sync. On Work the row is gone; if you had the job open, the page says Couldn’t load this job. That’s the whole message — ask the office if you weren’t expecting it.
- The office cancels it. The badge turns Canceled, the row drops out of the day’s count, and the page says No further actions for this job.
A sync happens when you open the app, when signal comes back, every five minutes while you have it, and when you pull Work down.
When your change and theirs collide
Say you tapped Complete Job in a driveway with no signal, and meanwhile the office canceled the job from the desk. Your tap arrives after theirs. The office’s version wins, every time: the job snaps to what the office has, and your change is set aside — never silently. The sync bar shows a 1 to review badge and a toast says 1 change was overridden by the server.
- Tap the badge, or go to You → Needs review.
- Each row names the job and says what happened, in plain words — for example Your status change wasn’t applied — the job is already “Canceled” on the server.
- Do what the row implies, if anything, then tap Dismiss. The row stays, dimmed, so you can look it up later; Clear all empties the list.
Nothing on this screen changes the job. It’s a record; the fix, if there is one, is back on the job page.
What the reasons mean
- … the job is already “Completed” on the server. — the office (or your lead) got there first. Nothing to do.
- This job was reassigned, so your change wasn’t applied. — it’s someone else’s now. It’s already off your phone.
- This job was removed on the server / This job is no longer available — the office deleted or canceled it.
- Only the job’s lead can do that, so your change wasn’t applied. — you’re a helper on this job. The lead makes that change.
- The office requires every step done or skipped before a job completes — 2 steps were still pending … — finish the checklist and complete the job again. See Job notes and the service checklist.
- You’re booked, off, or not working at the new time, so the appointment wasn’t moved … — the office’s time was kept; pick a time you’re free.
- The day hadn’t been started on the server, so the skip didn’t apply … — start your day and skip the stop again. See Skip a stop you can’t complete.
Money is handled separately
A payment or expense the office refused is pinned at the top of Needs review, above the list, with its own Retry and Dismiss — and Clear all never touches it. Cash you collected that the office has no record of is the one thing this screen won’t let you sweep away.
Good to know
- The office’s version wins because it’s the one the customer, the invoice and the rest of the crew see.
- A change you make after the sync — on the job as it now is — goes through normally.
- Needs review keeps the last 100 entries. Dismiss clears the badge without deleting anything.
- If a job vanished and nothing under Needs review explains it, it was moved outside the days the phone keeps, or taken off you with no change of yours to refuse. Ask the office.