Trouble spots

A trouble spot is a GPS-pinned report of something in the field that needs attention. A diseased vine, a broken dripper, a fallen post, a missed irrigation — anything worth coming back to. Trouble spots are short-lived: you report them, you work on them, you mark them complete, and they go away.

📷 Screenshot: Mobile Maps tab over blocks, with several trouble spot markers and the flag FAB visible in the bottom-right corner.

The lifecycle

1. Reported — someone in the field opens the report sheet on the Maps tab (tap the flag button in the bottom-right, or long-press the map), picks a category and a type (for example, "Trellis & Structure → Broken Post"), then taps the row at their current position. There's no pin to drag — the spot is logged where you are.
2. Pending — the spot sits on the list, waiting for someone to do something about it.
3. Completed — whoever does the work marks it complete. The pin is archived (you can still see it in the history).

Categories and types

Trouble spots use a two-level taxonomy: a category (for example, "Trellis & Structure") and a type within that category (for example, "Broken Post"). The built-in categories are Trellis & Structure, Plant, Irrigation, Soil & Ground, Access, and General. The list is partly managed at the platform level and partly by your organisation — so you might see those standard entries plus any types your team has added.

Each type carries a single-letter short code (Broken Post is "P", Dead Vine is "D", Leak is "L", and so on) that appears on the map marker. Frequently used types can be flagged for quick access so they show up as one-tap chips at the top of the report sheet.

How trouble spots look on the map

Each category has its own marker shape and colour outline, so you can tell what kind of issue a spot is at a glance:

• Trellis & Structure — diamond
• Plant — circle
• Irrigation — hexagon
• Soil & Ground — shield
• Access — square
• General — circle

Inside each marker is the type's single-letter short code. When you zoom out, the letters drop away and nearby spots cluster into a single count so the map stays readable. Completed spots are dimmed to grey.

📷 Screenshot: Close-up of the map showing a few trouble spot markers of different shapes and colours, each with its short-code letter.

Photos

You can attach photos to a trouble spot — either when you first report it or later by opening the spot and choosing Edit. The number of photos a spot can hold depends on your organisation's plan; if you reach the limit, the camera button stops you with a short message.

Where trouble spots are reported and worked

• Reporting happens in the field, from the mobile app. There's a work mode for when you're walking a row and logging many spots of the same type in quick succession: from the report sheet, pick a category and type, then tap Pin. A "Work mode active" banner appears and the chosen type stays pinned, so the map shows quick-log row buttons above the flag button. Each tap logs a spot of that type at your current position and bumps the "N logged" counter — no need to reopen the sheet each time. See Reporting a trouble spot.
• Viewing and triaging happens on both the mobile app and the portal. Field staff use the mobile map to find and work the closest spots; office staff use the portal to see everything across all sites.
• Completing is done on both mobile and portal. In the field, mobile users open a spot and press and hold "Hold to complete". In the office, portal users select pending spots and use Approve Selected.

Coordinating a team — work orders

When you need more structure than "someone finds a thing, someone fixes it" — grouping spots into a batch, assigning them to specific people, setting a deadline, and watching progress — use a work order. Work orders are created in the portal from a filtered list of pending trouble spots and consumed by field users on mobile.

Pages in this section

• Reporting a trouble spot — mobile
• Viewing trouble spots — mobile and portal
• Completing trouble spots — mobile and portal
• Managing trouble spot work — coordinating a team using work orders