Databases screen

Databases holds the lists everything else is built on: your staff, equipment, comms devices, clients and projects. Open it from Databases in the menu. It shows only your own safety profile's records.

Find a record

Choose a tab: Staff, Equipment, Comms, Clients or Projects. It opens on Staff.
Type in Search..., or choose Filters to narrow by name, type, client, status or, for staff, skills and expiring licences. Reset All clears it. While a filter is in use the Filters button is blue with a dot. A filter chosen on one tab, such as a job title, stays set when you change tab, so if the next list is empty it says "Nothing matches the filters in use"; Reset filters clears them.
Tick the row.

On the Equipment tab an Open defects column beside the name sums each asset's open faults as its Defects panel combines them, with the worst category and its dot: 🔴 3 open · A means three faults, one of them Category A - do not operate; amber for B, blue for C, white for faults not yet rated. A Service column beside it says 🔴 service overdue, 🟠 service due soon, 🔴 extinguisher expired or 🟠 extinguisher due (within 30 days), and is blank when both are in order. The list runs worst category first, then the most urgent service, then the least left to the next service, then the name, so an asset that must not be operated is at the top; the search, the filters and the Attention Required switch narrow it as before. The Fire Extinguisher Expiry column shows the date as the Next Service (Date) column does. See Equipment defects and work orders.

Add, change or remove

New opens a blank record. Edit opens the ticked row, and works only with exactly one row ticked. Each record has its own page: Staff database, Equipment database (whose record carries the Defects panel and work order), Comms database, Clients database, Projects database.
Delete removes the ticked rows, but only if nothing points at them. The app asks "Are you sure you want to delete N record/s?" and the delete is permanent. To retire something without deleting it, change its record instead: set a person's Current to NO, an asset's Active off, or a client's Status to Inactive.

When a delete is refused

If an item is still being tracked in a compliance list, or Mine Record Book entries name it, the app will not delete it. Nothing else is deleted with it, because that would erase compliance history. A box tells you which row, what points at it and what to do instead, for example "<name> can't be deleted: it has 2 staff compliance records and 1 Compliance Register entry, which would be left orphaned." It then says to close or move those first, or to set the person's Current to NO, turn the equipment's or device's Active off, or set the client's Status to Inactive, which keeps the history. For a project the entries are compliance records, Compliance Register entries and Mine Record Book entries; a project has no inactive state, so it stays while they do. If you ticked several rows, the box names the first row held and how many more are held the same way, and the rows that nothing points at are deleted; the message then says how many were kept. Choose Close to close the box, or Open the entries (Entries on a phone) to go to the screen that holds them, with the row already chosen as the filter: a person's, an asset's or a device's compliance records, a project's people, or a client's projects.

The box refusing to delete a test project that Mine Record Book entries point at

Getting changes onto the field forms

Saving a person, a piece of equipment, a device, a client or a project here does not send it to FastField, and the app tells you so after each save (see "After you save" below). The drop-down lists in the field forms are filled from your Databases at two moments:

Overnight, by itself. At 1:00 am Western Australia time, every change saved since the last upload goes across. You do nothing.
Straight away, if you ask. Choose Fastfield in the toolbar, then Sync, on the tab you changed: Staff, Equipment, Comms, Clients or Projects. A box shows how many syncs your organisation has left today. The allowance is eight a day, shared by everyone in your organisation, and it starts again at 1:00 am. The app says "Started Sync Process" and then reports success or failure. It takes a couple of minutes. Sync is greyed when no syncs are left today, and while a sync is running.

After you save. A green note says "Saved. FastField gets this change at the 1:00 am upload, or straight away through Fastfield → Sync". It does not stop you: carry on working. On the tab you saved, the Fastfield button in the toolbar turns blue with a dot, "Fastfield •", until you choose Sync or move to another tab. When your organisation has no syncs left today, the note says the change goes at the 1:00 am upload, with "(no syncs left today)", and the button stays as it is. If a save fails, the app shows what went wrong instead, and no note.

Then sync FastField on the phone. A phone keeps the lists it last downloaded until FastField syncs. After the overnight upload, or after a Sync, open FastField on the phone and sync it, and the new names appear.

Nothing is wrong when a change is not there yet. A change saved after 1:00 am reaches the field forms the next morning, unless someone chooses Sync first.

Good to know

On a phone each tab's list shows its records as cards, the name and a line or two beneath it; tap a card to choose it for Edit or Delete. An equipment card carries a badge at its top right, 🔴 3 open · A in the category's colour or no open defects in grey. The tab row scrolls sideways, Filters opens over the cards, and the buttons the toolbar has no room for, Fastfield among them, are under its "...". On a tablet and a computer the lists keep their columns and fill the window.
Equipment and comms items with "(Rental/Other)" in the name are not listed.
The list refreshes every 15 seconds, but not while a row is ticked or a box is open. Untick to see new records.
The confirmation box says "Asset" whatever you are deleting.

Search words: databases, open defects, worst first, delete refused, can't be deleted, orphaned, staff list, equipment list, add a person, add equipment, add a client, add a project, delete a record, sync, FastField not showing a change, overnight upload, saved note, Fastfield button blue.