FAQs

1. How do I continue to use EFFORT after my free trial?

Thank you for downloading EFFORT. We hope you have tried out our feature rich product and wish to continue using it. When you sign up for 7 days’ free trial, our support team will contact you through E-mail for the feedback. If you are willing to continue with our product, you can talk to our sales team for the demonstration /any kind of queries or contact our sales team at sales@Spoors.in

2. Is this service free?

No, this is a paid service. EFFORT is a pay-as-you-go service with monthly billing or subscription plans. We charge you only for what you use based on factors such as volume of workforce and service level agreements.

3. Can I track my mobile also?

Yes, you can track your mobile. EFFORT application is integrated with GPS technology to track and plot the map of cellular location with pinpoint accuracy. It tracks the employee’s movement on the field, device updates.

4. Can multiple people operate the application at the same time without any problem?

EFFORT is a highly responsive and dynamic application from a user’s perspective. It can serve tens of hundreds of users at the same time without any of the application operational problems such as low performance/hanging/fail and, so on.

5. Does EFFORT provide security to my business data?

Yes, EFFORT provides elevated security to your business data, where the entire communication between the EFFORT mobile application and cloud uses 256-bit AES encryption, which is a highly secure system. EFFORT runs with restricted access and role based access controls.

6. What happens if my work force moves to an area with no GSM/GPRS coverage?

EFFORT stores high volumes of data for offline usage that enables your workforce to perform their activities in no/low GSM/GPRS coverage areas without any interruption. Bi directional data syncing is done when the device moves to GSM/GPRS coverage. The application auto syncs the data.

7. What are the web services integrated with EFFORT?

EFFORT is product solution built on effectiveself serving portals with automated provisioning capability. EFFORT ensures one solution to all the field business challenges without integration with external web services such as CRM or ERP.

8. How is chat option useful?

EFFORT enabless online chat communication with our technical support team. The support team helps you to understand your technical requirements and provide a quick fix solution to your queries on application operation, functionalities, guidelines, and so on.

9. Can I customize every operational requirement of my field service business?

EFFORT is highly configurable platform across all verticals, which enables you to define any operational requirements of your field service business in no time. With thehelp of user define templates it can be customized to satisfy every business needs.

10. Do I have to give my Credit Card details during subscription?

No, we do not ask for credit card details during subscription because we do not provide credit card option to pay. We only support debit card, net banking, and mobile banking options for payment.

11. Is EFFORT useful only for field workforce?

EFFORT is designed to render its services focused towards field workforce business operations. It is also intended for different levels of resources such as managers, service providers, back office staff etc. for achieving productive business management activities.

12. Why do I have to follow route map?

EFFORT’s efficient route maps provide optimized route guideline to your customized destination location, so that you can save detours. This helps you to save costs and time with geo-tagged route planning.

13. What are the platforms that support EFFORT application?

EFFORT provides seamless operations anywhere anytime with the support for all mobile platforms and all languages. EFFORT currently supports the following handsets:

1. All smartphones with unmodified Android.
2. All tablets with unmodified Android.

For a list of handsets that are compatible please write to us at sales@spoors.io

14. Where can I get technical support when my workforce has problems operating EFFORT?

You can contact our support teams at any time on+91-84484-44692 or by sending an email to support@spoors.io or you can chat online with our technical support team. Our support team ensures the solution for all the queries. We believe your queries are our concerns.

15. How does EFFORT enhance my service business revenue?

EFFORT enables centralized visibility of your overall business processes and resources. It helps to coordinate and monitor your work force activities across your organization, which improves resource optimization and effective resource utilization. Cost benefits and time saving will ensure higher revenue.

16. Activate the Effort Plus App in the Device?

Note : Please install the EFFORT Plus App from Play Store before you proceed for Sign In!

IMEI Number :

1. Dial *#06# to get the IMEI no.
2. Go to the EFFORT web panel, in the employee tab, add the employee IMEI number in the EFFORT ID field.
3. Go to the EFFORT Plus App, close and open the app to successfully log in with the IMEI Number.

Email ID :

1. Go to the EFFORT web panel, in the employee tab, add employee valid email ID. Click on save.
2. In the right hand side, click on the three dots vertical sign. In the drop down, click on the create web user to generate the credential for the EFFORT Plus App login.
3. One email will be triggered to employee email ID with the password to log into the EFFORT Plus App.
4. Go to the EFFORT Plus Mobile App, click on the sign in via email id and password.
5. Type in the Email ID & password you got from Spoors in the email.
6. You will be successfully logged in to the EFFORT Plus App.

Phone Number :

1. Go to the EFFORT web panel, in the employee tab, add employee's valid phone number. Click on save.
2. One SMS will be sent to the employee's phone number with the activation code.
3. Go to the EFFORT Plus Mobile App, click on the sign in via phone number and activation code. Click on that.
4. Type in the Phone number with 91 and the activation code that you have received from Spoors.
5. You will be successfully logged in to the EFFORT Plus App.

Below are the Steps for the Employee to log into EFFORT Web panel :

1. Root Employee/Manager logs onto the EFFORT web panel, in the employee tab, add valid employee email ID. Click on save.
2. In the right hand side, click on the three dots vertical sign. In the drop down, click on the create web user to generate the credential for the EFFORT Web Login.
3. One email will be triggered to employee email ID with the password which will be used to log onto the EFFORT web panel. Go to the EFFORT Web panel, sign in with the email ID and password.

You will be successfully logged in to the EFFORT Web Panel.

17. What does the ‘You should be within X meters to perform the Activities’ mean?

Description : When the Employee tries to perform an Activity against a Customer, sometimes there will be a prompt that says that the Employee should be within X meters to perform any Activities.

Why : This is due to a setting in the system that defines the range within which the Employee should be present near the coordinates defined for the Customer to perform the Activities. This setting is present on both Employee Level as well as Universal (Company) Level.

Employee Level: Edit the Employee → Within the App Settings Section, there will be an option that says ‘Location Proximity To perform Activities.’ If you check that setting, you can set the distance in meters that defines the range for the Employee to be present near the Customer co - ordinates to perform the Activities.

Company (Universal) Level: Go to Admin and Click on Mobile Configuration; In there the same setting ‘Location Proximity to perform Activities’. If you check this setting, this will be applicable to all the Employees in the Company.

18. Reminders in the Application?

Description : Notifications in the taskbar that reminds to switch on the Internet connection or Location Services when they are turned off. There will also be notifications about Stop Work, Start Work or even the delayed Jobs or Works. They will repeat themselves until the required service is switched on or done.

How : The relevant settings will be in the Mobile Configuration in the Admin Panel or for individual Employees as well. The titles will be

1. ‘Turn on/off internet notification’ - For internet connectivity notifications.
2. ‘Job/ Work Reminder’ - Notifications for any new Job or Work.
3. ‘Delayed Job / Work Notification’ - Prompt for Jobs or Works that are delayed.
4. ‘Location Service Notification’. - Reminders for the Location services to be switched on.

19. How to change the Hierarchy of an Organizational Chart?

Description : An Organizational Chart represents the hierarchy of the Company and the flow of the command from the top to the bottom, and can be viewed in the Admin section as the ‘Organizational Chart’ with the icon.

This depends on the ‘Reporting Manager’ we can see in the Employee details.

Before that, we have to define a Manager for the Employee to report to. For that, check the ‘Manager’ box in the Employee details and provide a valid email id for that Manager as a Manager will have the web portal access.

Then Edit the Employee and in the setting against the ‘Reporting Manager’, you can see the list of all the Managers defined in the organization and you can set the Managers as per the requirement.

20. How can I define the ‘Working Hours’ or Holidays of the Organization?

Description : Effort Plus tries to simulate the environment of an office by following a set Calendar that defines the Working Hours as well as the Holidays and Special Days of the Organization.

How : In the Admin Module, Spoors will accommodate all these options under the Calendars where you can see the Default Calendar.

You can create your own Calendar based on your Organization with the ‘Create Calendar’. You can define the Working Hours for each day of the week under the icon for the Working Hours. And you can create the Special Days and Holidays with the icon for the laid back days.

21. Can I use Effort to apply / view Leaves?

Description : Leaves are an integral part of an Organization. Effort recognizes this and the Leaves section provides all the answers to this requirement. An Organization can define the different types of Leaves and even the count of each type of Leaves that are deemed legit by that Organization for the Employees.

An Employee could apply for a Leave directly from the Effort and submit to his Manager for Approval. He has to select the Leave Type from the defined types, select the time span of the Leave and enter a Remark for the Leave. He can then Submit for Approval.

Once a Leave is approved, Effort stops the tracking of that Employee for the time span of the Leave in relation to the Organization type environment it was built to mimic.

22. Commonly faced Sync Issues?

One of the most commonly faced Sync Errors is an Sync Failure Error due to a Network Error. This error will be the result of no internet connections or unstable internet connectivity.

23. Special Characters in Spoors?

The Spoors system will support almost all the special characters except for some like the ‘ “(Double Quotes) ‘ or the ‘/’. Even if you can enter them in the system, the presence of these characters will cause some problems to arise in the system.

24. Can I filter my master data using another parameter? e.g. Cities filter based on selected State?

Yes, User can filter master data based on another parameter.

For example :

1. Create a list with name as Brand.
2. Field label as Brand and field type as text.
3. Create another list with name as Product.
4. Field label as Product, field type as text
5. Field label as Brand, field type as list, pick Brand list.
6. Now in form template add a field with name brand, field type as list and pick Brand list.
7. Create another field with field name as product, field type as list and pick Product list.
8. For Product list, click on Advance Settings.
9. Under “filter based on values in other fields” click on add criteria.
10. Select Brand (List Field) equal to Brand (Form Field) and click on Ok.

Add a form to the template and select Brand. In the Product List, only the Products related to the selected Brand are displayed in Products when clicked on.

25. Can I limit the number of characters/digits in a field?

Yes, for text field we can restrict number of characters by using advance setting Validations, Minimum length and Maximum length. And for Number field, we can restrict the number by using Advance Setting Validations Minimum value and Maximum value.

26. Is there support for calculations so that I get total price after discount shown somewhere? How do I configure this?

Yes, by using setting computed/default support for calculations is provided.

For example : Take three fields with field type as number. In the third field, selected Computed under Computed/Default and click on the text box provided below. There you can select the Fields and perform the required mathematical calculations whose result will be automatically displayed in the Third Field based on the entries of the previous Fields.

27. What is ‘Enable user input for items generation’ in section settings?

If this option is selected for a Section in a Form Template, when the Employee clicks on ‘+’ button in Section data while filling the Form, a pop up displays and asks for input entries, which is the number of instances that the Section has to be repeated. User can also define the Minimum and Maximum Range that the Section can be repeated.

28. Can I filter Form Report based on some values?

Yes. Through Advance Form Report Builder, User can filter Form Fields by selecting only required fields and applying filter conditions on them like(equals, contains, does not contain, starts with, end with) and can generate report for those fields.

29. What are the Optimum settings for Effort to Track an Employee without any hassle?

Settings in the Device Location Settings. Select all the Location Sources (Wireless Networks and GPS Satellites) or change the Mode to 'High Accuracy' depending on the version of the Android Operating System of the Device to capture the Location.

30. What is meant by GPS and Cell in the Spoors system?

Effort uses the Signals from the GPS Satellites as well as the different Mobile Networks to calculate the Location of the Employee. GPS Satellites are the Locations that are captured from the Satellites and the Wireless Networks will be ranging from the basic Network Signals you get in the Mobile to the Wifi Networks.

31. What is the Error range of the GPS and the GPRS Location capturing?

GPS Signals have the error range of 16 – 25 meters.

1. If the Employee is inside a Closed Environment like a building, GPS.
2. Signals can only be traced when you are out in the open under the open sky.
3. If the environment is blocking the signals like cloudy skies or on rainy days. This will be just like the DTH Services that would be interrupted when it is raining. Inconsistencies of atmospheric conditions affect the speed of the GPS signals and correcting these errors are a significant challenge.

GPRS Location Mismatch:-

GPRS Signals have the error range of 80 meters to 1.5 Kilometers depending on the location where the device is present.

1. Locations from the Cell Signals, are captured like the GPS Signals with the triangulation from the Cell Towers. And the Cell Tower selection will depend on the bandwidth of the Signal Tower as well as the capacity of the Tower.
2. Like the case where you are in a city then the mismatch will be less because you will have the many Towers in a single area to fetch from which will be near by. Even if the Signal keeps bouncing from one Tower to another, there will not be that much of a difference in the Location captured.

But if you are in the outskirts or in a village then the number of Towers are limited and will also be located at a longer distance from each other. By which your distance deviation will be more.

32. What settings are there to let mobile have all master data offline?

Navigation : Admin Forms List.By using a List Template Action"Click to get all List in Sync", Master data can be synced to offline.

33. Can a manager/back office staff send messages to field users? How does he do that?

Yes, and Navigation : Menu Overflow Menu Send Messages Click on Send Message

1. Enter Subject.
2. Enter Body Text.
3. Select Employees.
4. Click on Send.

34. How can one monitor the status of delivery of these messages?

Navigation : Menu Overflow menu Send messages. Delivered messages and their statuses are displayed in this screen.

35. Does EFFORT have a chat feature to instantly communicate with managers and other field staff?

Yes, Navigation : Admin Employees Chat Groups

36. How do I configure chat in Effort?

Navigation : Admin Employees Chat Groups Click on "Add Employee Group"

1. Enter Group Name
2. Select Employees
3. Click on Save
4. Select Admin for Chat Group and click on Save.

Note : As of now Chat is supported for Android only.

37. What type of notifications do we have?

Event based, Time based.

38. How do I configure notifications?

Navigation : Admin My account & invoice Notifications Click on "Schedule New Notifications".

39. What data can be sent in each notification based on type?

Sync & Web Notifications

1. Forms - Form title is captured
2. Jobs - Job id and forms used in jobs are captured and displayed in feeds and notifications module in mobile application.

Email

1. Configured subject is sent as E-mail

SMS

1. Configured subject is sent as SMS

40. How are these delivered to the mobile app?

User can check these notifications in Messages modules in mobile app.

41. How do I get notified of a new notification at the top of the screen?

Whenever a new notifications arrives notification count is displayed on top of notification icon.

42. Which page are we taken to when clicked on different types of notifications?

User is not navigated to any page.

43. How do I share articles or folders?

Sharing folder - User cannot share folder but can share files in a folder

1. Click on folder title
2. Click on share icon against file
3. Select employee group
4. Click on share article button.

Sharing file

1. Click on a article title
2. Select employee group
3. Click on share article button

44. What document types do we support?

Word file, pdf, image, audio, video, PPT are supported.

45. What security features do we have for attachments?

Make this article as secure feature is available to make articles as secure, if this option is enabled to view file content every time user have to download file.

46. How does one apply for a new claim?

Navigation : Menubar>> Overflowmenu>> claims click on submit claims

1. Select employee
2. Enter date range
3. Click on view
4. Enter claimed distance
5. Select mode of transport
6. click on save

47. How do I configure different modes of transport?

Admin claims settings click on "Add Transport Mode"

1. Enter mode of transport Rate
2. Click on save

48. How do I approve a claim? Once approved, what are limitations in terms of modifying or re-applying a claim?

Navigation : Menubar overflow menu My Approvals

1. Select employee
2. Select date range
3. Click on view
4. Click on either approve or reject
5. Once approved or rejected no further action can be performed

49. What image size and what formats do we allow for logos?

All image formats are supported, image of any size can be used. but prefered format is 100x25.

50. What happens if there is no image?

Default effort logo will appear.

Settings screen in mobile application

51. Show other employee job reminders?

Yes : show a as notification

No : No notifications for the other jobs which are not assigned to you

52. Show form Preview?(Yes/No)

Yes, while taking the print of submitted form.

53. Create Calender events?(Yes/No)

The jobs are works assigned to you will directly sync to your mobile calendar.

54. Delay sync and track upload frequency?(Yes/No)

If the mobile Charging is 15% or below than the above check will be functioned. If it is yes that the upload frequency set from backend for the user will increase automatically and till his mobile is charged.

55. Show more job info in agenda/job screen?(Yes/No)

If it is yes that the more fields related to job will be displayed other than default fields.

56. Collapse on add section instance?(Yes/No)

If yes than when we are going to add a next section in the same form that the prevision section will be collapsed, it means the section will be closed.

57. Section orientation?

Only for the view of section vertical or horizontal.

58. Sync Frequency:

Under this you can find the sync time set to you from back end in working and non working hours

59. Tracking :

under this you can find the information related to tracking set from back end.

60. Location Settings :

By clicking on this button it will navigate you to the device locations screen

61. Last Known Location :

It shows you your last track location by the system.

62. About :

Under it you will find the details of the application like current version and the effort Id

63. How Capture Reason for Check-in used ?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Customer Settings select Capture reason for check-in Whenever the user want to check-in it is mandatory to capture the reason. In this we can select text or List. If the text is selected user has to enter the reason manually, if the list is selected some predefined templates will appeared, we need to select one of them.

64. How to set the Comment location Timeout?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Location Settings select Comment location Timeout (in minutes). This setting is used to the duration, in minutes the app waits for getting a lock on location for an activity (job complete, form filled, media captured e.t.c). If app is Unable to get the location it will ask for force check-in.

65. What’s the use of Location Waiting progress required ?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Location Settings select Location Waiting progress required. when it is enabled user has to wait till location is captured while saving forms.

66. How to set location service optional or mandatory to perform Activities?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Location Settings select Location strictness for Activities. There we are able to select Location Service Optional or location Service mandatory. If Location service mandatory is selected then the GPS must on during the Activity.

67. Where we can Enable/Disable Picking media from gallery?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Media Settings, Enable/Disable ‘can Pick Media From gallery’. Affects all areas including forms and jobs.

68. Where we can Enable/Disable ‘Snap Front camera photo when capturing signature’?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Media Settings, Enable/Disable ‘Snap Front camera photo when capturing signature’. On devices having front camera check to snap a photo when saving the signature.

69. How to get version update notification?

Go to Admin Mobile Configuration in Update/Reminders/Limits, there we can enable the ‘send version update’. If it is enabled, Notifies the mobiles on application updates. Strongly recommend updating to the latest version when available as it will bring more features, be more stable and have optimizations.

70. Application showing the notification regarding the stop work?

After Specified duration this option Reminds users to click on stop work. User can Mention the duration in this option so that user will get reminder after mentioned time to stop work. Navigation: Go to Admin Mobile Configuration Update/Reminders/Limits Stop Work reminder after.

71. How to set Default App Screen in Mobile ?

Navigation: Go to Admin Mobile Configuration App Settings Default App Screen. Whatever option you selected in this field will displayed in the mobile application home screen.

72. How to Show/Hide Completed jobs on the mobile app?

Navigation: Go to Admin Mobile Configuration App Settings Show Completed jobs. If it is enabled it shows the all completed jobs in Mobile application.

73. How to turn on/off internet notifications?

Navigation: Go to Admin Mobile Configuration App Settings Turn on/off internet notifications. Disabling this will stop internet notifications. If it is enabled then we have three option are available they are Always, During working hours, During start/stop work. We can select any one of them.

74. How to enable Location Service Notifications ?

Navigation: Go to Admin Mobile Configuration App Settings Show Location Service Notifications. Enabling this will provide Location Services Notifications.

75. How can we resolve Leave Cancellation issues ?

Go to Admin Settings Leave Cancel Range. In that place we can select leave range, for example we can set -1 in that scenario leave will be cancelled one day before they leave.

76. Leave is applied but in dashboard it shows in leave today the number count is increased ?

Go to Admin Settings On Leave Today In dashboard On Leave today increased once you check Whether the On Leave Today is approved or applied. Once your manager is approved your leave then only count will be decreased

77. How to apply leave for the Past days ?

Go to Admin Settings Allow application leave for past dates. Whenever this option is enabled, below another field will display in that we can enter the number of days. That Field is “How many days back can the Employee apply for Leave”

78. How to change Employee distance travelled Kms to Miles?

Go to Admin Settings Employee Distance Travelled. In this location we can change Distance Parameters from Kms to Miles or Miles to Kms.

79. How to set Default Time Zone?

Go to Admin Settings Default Time Zone. Select the default time zone for the employees.

80. How to set the range for soft and Hard threshold for Manager to view forms ?

Go to Admin Settings Soft and Hard Threshold For Manager to view Forms. If the submitted forms are viewed by the manager within the Threshold range then it will appear in Green Color. After the threshold range if the manager see the form then it will appear in another color.