What works offline and what needs a connection
By the end of this article you’ll know which parts of the app keep working in a basement garage or a dead-zone driveway, and which few things wait for a signal.
The short version
Your schedule, your jobs and your customers are downloaded to the phone, and almost everything you do to them is saved on the phone first and sent to the office later. Keep working; the thin bar at the top tells you where things stand.
A handful of actions need an answer from somewhere else right now — a card network, a map service, a vehicle database. For those, the app replaces the button with a plain notice rather than letting you tap something that quietly fails.
Works with no signal
Reading:
- Work — today’s route and every day the phone holds, with each job’s details, notes, photos and the customer’s address.
- Find — customers, vehicles, jobs, invoices and payments, searched on the phone.
- A customer’s page, their vehicles and history; Notifications; My Schedule — your hours, your time off and the company’s closures; the Company you’re acting as.
Doing — each of these is saved on the phone at once and reaches the office on the next sync:
- Starting your day, arriving, starting and completing a job, skipping a stop, claiming an open job.
- Notes and photos on a job; adding or removing services and add-ons.
- Creating a job or a quote for a customer already on the phone; having a customer sign a quote on your screen.
- Adding a customer or a vehicle, or fixing a phone number, a plate or a color.
- Building an invoice; recording a cash or check payment; recording an expense; clocking in and out.
- Requesting time off on My Schedule — the confirmation reads Request saved — 1 day is awaiting approval. and the office’s answer comes down on a later sync.
Where it matters, the screen says so in so many words — Saved on this device and sent when you’re back online. under a new customer, Saved. It’ll upload when you reconnect. on a photo, Queued — it will send when you have signal. on a quote you’ve sent.
Needs a connection
Each of these shows a notice in place of the control when you’re offline:
- Signing in. After that, the app opens with no signal for as long as you stay signed in.
- Charging a card. The notice reads Charging a card needs a connection and is never queued offline. You can still record cash or a check below — it will sync when you’re back online.
- Emailing a payment link — You’re offline. Reconnect to send the payment link.
- Decode VIN on a vehicle — VIN decode needs a connection. You can still enter the details manually and save.
- Use my location on a new customer’s address — turning coordinates into a street address is a lookup.
- Resend quote and Resend pay link on Work‘s Outstanding list — the button gives way to Reconnect to resend.
- Your home address and default route start on You.
- Drafting a reply to a review — Reconnect to draft a reply.
- Your Devices, and the help articles themselves — This needs an internet connection. Reconnect to continue.
None of these is queued. When the signal comes back, the control comes back, and you do it then.
Two lists that shrink offline
Searching for a customer or a vehicle while creating a job or quote uses what the phone holds rather than asking the office. The picker says so: Offline — limited to recent customers. and Offline — limited to synced vehicles. A customer the office added ten minutes ago won’t be in that list until your next sync.
Good to know
- The phone holds about three months back and two weeks ahead. On the month view, a day outside that window reads Not loaded rather than pretending you were free.
- Offline is a state, not a fault. The bar turns amber and reads Offline — Changes will sync when you reconnect. Nothing else changes.
- Timestamps are honest: a skipped stop, a signature, a clock-in or a cash payment made offline records the moment you tapped, not the moment the phone synced.
- A phone that goes a full week without reaching the server clears its downloaded data for security. You’ll see a warning banner for the last two days if you’re holding unsent work — see Sync problems.