Managing trouble-spot types (enterprise)
Configure the trouble-spot categories and types your team reports in the field — shapes, colours, short codes, and quick-access — from the portal. An enterprise capability for Admin and Manager users.
Platform: Portal
Every trouble spot your team logs is filed under a category (for example Disease, Pest, Infrastructure) and a type within that category (for example Powdery Mildew). The set of categories and types — the taxonomy — is what field staff see in the mobile Report sheet, and it drives the shapes and colours of the markers on the map.
This page covers how to tailor that taxonomy for your organisation: renaming and hiding the built-in categories and types, adding your own, and choosing how each one looks and behaves in the field.
Who can do this
Customising the trouble-spot taxonomy is an enterprise capability. The editor is only available to Admin and Manager users on organisations whose company is on the Enterprise plan. If your organisation is not entitled, the link described below does not appear, and opening the page directly returns you to Settings.
Opening the editor
The editor lives at /settings/troublespot-types and is reached from the Trouble Spots page.
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In the portal, open the Trouble Spots page from the navigation.
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In the toolbar at the top-right, select Edit trouble spot types (the pencil icon, next to Export). The tooltip reads "Manage the categories and types reported in the field".
📷 Screenshot: Trouble Spots page toolbar with the "Edit trouble spot types", "New work order", and "Export" buttons.
If you don't see this button, your account either doesn't have permission or your organisation isn't on an entitled plan.
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The Trouble Spot Types editor opens, listing every category. Each row shows the category's marker shape and colour, its name, and a count of how many visible types it contains.
📷 Screenshot: Trouble Spot Types editor showing the list of categories, each with its marker shape, name, and type count.
What you can configure
The editor merges the built-in taxonomy with your organisation's customisations, so you start from a sensible default and adjust from there.
Categories
Expand a category with the chevron to see the types inside it. Using the category's menu (the three-dots button) you can:
- Hide category / Show category — hidden categories (and all their types) are marked Hidden and no longer appear in the field. This is the safe way to remove a built-in category you don't use, without losing it.
- Delete category — only available for Custom categories you've added.
To create your own category, select Add Category at the bottom of the list and set:
- Display Name — for example Wildlife.
- Marker Shape — one of Circle, Diamond, Hexagon, Shield, or Square.
- Stroke Colour — picked from the colour swatch or entered as a hex value.
The shape and colour you choose are how every type in that category appears on the map.
📷 Screenshot: Add Category dialog with Display Name, Marker Shape, and Stroke Colour fields.
For a custom category, you can adjust its shape and colour later from the inline Shape and Colour controls shown when the category is expanded.
Types
Each category contains the types your team actually picks in the field. Within an expanded category you can:
- Add Type — opens a dialog where you set the Display Name (for example Broken Anchor) and a Short Code. The short code is a single letter shown inside the map marker and on the type chip, so keep it distinct within the category.
- Hide type / Show type — from the type's three-dots menu; hidden types are marked Hidden and don't appear in the field.
- Delete type — only available for Custom types you've added.
📷 Screenshot: Add Type dialog with Display Name and Short Code (single letter) fields.
Built-in categories and types can be renamed and hidden but not deleted; only items you add yourself can be deleted. Custom items carry a Custom badge.
Quick-access types
Each type has a star button. Starring a type marks it as quick-access, which surfaces it at the very top of the mobile Report sheet under a QUICK heading so field staff can log the most common issues in one tap. Star sparingly — a handful of genuinely frequent types keeps the quick row useful.
Saving
Changes aren't live until you save. As soon as you make an edit, an unsaved changes bar appears at the top with a Save Changes button. Select it to publish your taxonomy to the field; a confirmation message appears when it succeeds.
📷 Screenshot: The "You have unsaved changes" bar with the Save Changes button.
How this drives the field experience
Your taxonomy flows straight through to the mobile app once it's saved.
In the Report sheet (see Reporting a trouble spot):
- The CATEGORIES list shows your visible categories, each with its shape and colour and a count of types.
- Starred types appear as QUICK chips at the top, jumping straight past the category step.
- Selecting a category shows its visible types as chips, each labelled with its short code and display name.
On the map:
- Each trouble-spot marker takes the shape and colour of its category and shows the type's short-code letter in the centre — so a glance at the map tells you what kind of issue is where.
Because the field experience is driven entirely by this taxonomy, a good setup pays off every time someone reports: clear category names, specific types, distinct short codes, and a tight quick-access list make reporting faster and the resulting data more useful.