Sensors, waste, training and maintenance

Switching the tools on

Open Modules. Each tool has its own switch there, and on its Operations tools tab, and stays off, and out of the menu, until you turn it on. Sensors and Maintenance then appear as tabs of Checklists, Waste as a tab of Inventory, and Training under Team. Some tools need a plan that includes them; the page says so when yours does not.

Sensors

Add a sensor on the Sensors page: its name, what it measures, the branch and its safe range. Two settings keep it calm:

• Minutes out of range before an alert: one warm reading while the door is open does not count. Ten minutes suits most fridges.
• Margin to clear an alert: a reading must come back this far inside the range before the alert ends, so a fridge sitting on its limit does not keep starting and stopping alerts.

Each sensor has an address, a key and a secret on its page. Set the device to send its readings there, with the secret as a bearer token or as a signature. A hub or a vendor cloud that sends for many devices uses the gateway key instead, and names each device by the device id you set on the sensor.

When an alert starts, whoever is on shift at that branch gets a push and a text. If nobody acknowledges it, it goes to the managers, then to the owners. You choose how many minutes each step waits on the Operations tools tab of Modules. Acknowledging asks what you did; your answer goes into the food-safety log under your name, next to the alert itself.

Waste

On the Waste page, pick a dish or an ingredient, enter the weight or the count and the reason. With a scale connected as a sensor, Read scale fills in the weight. The cost comes from the recipe or the ingredient's average cost, and the stock comes off your inventory. The weekly report shows the total, the reasons and what you throw away most.

Training

The Training page holds your courses. A course has lessons, written like a short document with pictures, and a quiz with a pass mark. Three starter courses are added when you switch training on: hygiene basics, allergens and the till. Edit them to match how you work.

Assign a course to a role or a position. Your team finds it under My training, in the menu under their name, and takes it on a phone. Passing a course can issue a certificate with an expiry date. You can also record certificates from outside, such as a food hygiene certificate.

Mark a certificate type as required for a position. The rota then refuses to put someone on a shift once theirs has expired or if they never had it. A manager can still save the shift; the override is kept in the activity log. Reminders go out before a certificate lapses.

Maintenance

The Maintenance page lists your equipment with its supplier, warranty end and service interval. Anyone on the team can report a problem with photos. A ticket goes from open to in progress to fixed, and records what the repair cost. When a machine's service is due, a reminder goes out and a service ticket is opened for it.