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Square POS App: Timing out and resetting all data

Something really annoying is happening to my technicians in the field.  The square POS app is "timing out" and resetting all the information in the check out screen.  This is creating a huge problem.  Is this something new?  Is this a "bug"?  Has anyone seen a work around?

 

here is what happens:

 

1. My technicians (plumbing & heating technicians) arrive to home

2. Quote repairs using square's POS system

3. Do the work or just set the ipad down for a bit

4. Everything is gone from the app.

 

This is hopefully something that can be fixed...

 

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Admin

@mrjblanchard That's sounds strange and we haven't heard other reports of this that I'm aware of. So we can investigate this for you - are your technicians using the Dashboard to create Estimates (quotes) or are they using the Point of Sale app to enter a transaction?

 

If they're using the Point of Sale app are they using Open Tickets to save the quotes, or are they selecting items and then setting the iPad down for a bit with the intention of completing the payment when they've finished the work? 

 

And final question - when you say 'everything is gone' are they being signed out of the app or has the information in the cart (the informaiton entered before you tap Charge) disappeared? 

️ Helen
Seller Community Manager

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Beta Member

@Helen 

 

Our technicians are using the POS system to create "quotes".  Basically, they are selecting items in the check out screen to tally the charges.  This is done before the work is started.  

 

They are not using the "open ticket" option...  I am unfamiliar with the usage of this feature.

 

They simply setting down the ipad and going about their work.  When they pick it back up, everything is gone from their "cart"

 

I know that this is because we are using a restaurant / POS application for something it is not intended to be, but it is soooooooooooooooo close to being really useful for our home-services based business.  

 

Also:  What the heck is the deal with the "time-out" on the desktop browser version?... Who thought that was a good idea?....   I detest having to sign back in a thousand times a day.  

 

You guys are awesome!!! 

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Admin

Thank you @mrjblanchard, I understand what you're describing now. About how long is a typical job? I've been testing this and if you force quit the app, or sign out, anything you had added to the cart disappears.

 

Perhaps Open Tickets would help? Any of your technicians can enable Open Tickets from the Settings section of the Point of Sale app: It's a way to save items in a ticket, add a note and go back and add more items before then completing the sale. Admittedly this is one of the features that was designed with restaurants in mind — but I think it might be helpful for your business too!

 

I'm sorry for the frustration that the Dashboard timeout causes, it's a security measure but we're definitely hearing a lot of feedback about how frequently it happens - and I'll share your feedback about this with the Dashboard team..

️ Helen
Seller Community Manager

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The same happens even if you ate using tickets. Typically I will create a ticket, add a few items and then save the ticket. When I have more to add, I will lookup that ticket and open it and add the items. This is on my phone. I may need to go to another app temporarily to do a lookup and then flip back to continue. If I have been “too long”, as I return your app will do a reconnect to the reader, the ticket is no longer visible so I have to retrieve it...and because I did not save before leaving that screen, the additional items I added to the order are gone. I don’t want to save too soon because sometimes I have to change something on that line item. If you save it, you cannot do that. The only option then is to delete the line item and reenter it. It is more than frustrating. It is aggravating due to the poor design. A fix or workaround for this should have high priority because it is causing data loss.

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Square Community Moderator

Thank you so much for sharing this and taking the time to describe the frustrations and reasons behind why this change needs to happen. It makes sense that you would want a "draft" to auto-save so you don't have to renter the line items in if you leave the app for too long. 

 

Does the same thing happen if you create an invoice in the app? You can save it as a draft before leaving the app and then your line items are still there and active. This may be a really good workaround for you if you are interested, unless you need to use the open tickets feature for a specific reason. 

 

Regardless, I'm more than happy to pass this feedback over to our Product teams because I see how important this is. Helen is right, it is meant to be a security measure, but we can definitely surface this feedback right away.

AshleyK
Community Moderator, Square
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Hi i have a small Auto electrical business  and use this for mobile jobs, same goes for me  id add items to the list as i complete the job and after the job is finished talk to the customer for half hour or so then go to complete the sale and it had timed out and lost all my information and items somtimes its half an  hour to find all the part numbers and enter it all back in ? 

 

very  annoying  for the customer and me on my limited time schedule .is there a way to stop the items being lost and logging out  ?

 

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Alumni

You can set the screen to never time out with Passcodes enabled using Team Management (Settings > Security > Passcodes > set Timeout to Never). If you don't want to go that route:

 

  • Save the sale using Open Tickets and come back to it later.
  • If using Invoices, save the invoice as a draft as AshleyK explained in this thread.
  • Complete the sale in the moment. 

@Harrison0777

Justin
Community Moderator, Square
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