In the field

You have your Flow app installed, surveys ready too and now it is time to go to the field and capture data. In this guide we will share some useful tips on what to do before you go, when you are in the field capturing data, and once you come back.

Before you go

Here are some handy questions to cross check before you head off into the field:

• Is your batter charged? Do you need an extra battery?
• Do you have enough storage available on your device? Is your SD card properly installed?
• Do you have a GPS calibration app installed to ensure your location data is as accurate as possible?
• Is the time and date well set on your device?
• Are you going to monitor data points? Yes. Do you have the data points synced to your device?

When in the field capturing data

Once you arrive in location, calibrate your GPS. Every time you relocate to another location, we advise you run your GPS calibration app again.

Now it is time to open your Flow app, ensure you have selected the right survey and start capturing the data. If you are collecting data online, submitted data will sync to Flow right away. You will know that your submission is fully synced by the green status icon in the data point list. If you are capturing data offline, once you submit a form it will be in the queue waiting for you to reconnect. This is indicated by the orange connectivity icon.

Once you come back

Welcome back. We hope you enjoyed your data collection exercise today.

If you were capturing data online and all your submissions are successfully synced to Flow, there is nothing more you need to do, besides charging your phone if needed.

If you were capturing data offline:

1. Connect your device to a network.
2. Reopen the Flow app. If you have the app open in the background of your device, make sure you fully close the app and reopen it again.
3. Check that all your submissions are now fully synced.
4. You can always use Flow's bulk upload feature to get the data out of your device and into Flow.

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