Starting a Planned Job

If your team runs pre-planned transport work, your day's runs are waiting for you at the top of the app before you've done anything.

Overview

Some teams — typically patient transport service (PTS) teams — plan their day's runs in advance rather than creating jobs on the fly. If your team works this way, you'll see a Planned section pinned above your ordinary jobs list, listing every run your coordinator has laid out for today.

Starting a planned run is a single tap. Once you tap Start, it becomes a normal job — the same job screen you already use for anything else. There's nothing new to learn after that point.

Before You Start

• This section only appears if your team has Job Planning enabled and your coordinator has switched Job planning on for the event your crew is working. If neither applies, you won't see any of this — your app looks exactly as it always has.
• You need a crew set up before you can start a planned job. See Setting Up Your Crew if you haven't done this yet.
• You can only start planned jobs for events your crew is actually assigned to.

Finding the Planned Section

Open the app and look above your regular jobs list. You'll see a pinned header with a pink Planned pill and a count, for example Planned · 6.

Tap the header to expand or collapse the list. It stays collapsed or expanded as you left it.

If Nothing Is Planned Yet

If your team has Job Planning switched on but no runs have been planned for today, you'll see a friendly empty state instead of an empty list:

"Nothing planned — your live jobs are below."

Reading a Planned Job Card

Once expanded, each run appears as its own card, timed runs first, then any runs with no fixed time grouped under an Anytime label.

Every card shows, top to bottom:

• When — the pickup time, or Anytime in grey if no time was set
• Planned times — a small line showing whichever of Appt, Return, and Finish your coordinator set, if any
• Where — the journey, with the pickup shown in bold and each further stop joined by an arrow
• What — the job type, and a priority badge if one is set
• Who — the patient's name if one was entered, or "No patient details"
• A Start button, always on the right

Starting a Job

When you're ready to begin a run, tap Start on its card.

While the request is going through, the button briefly shows Starting….

The card then disappears from your Planned list, and the job opens as an ordinary live job — the same screen you use for any job. From here on, treat it exactly as normal: see Adding a Job and Filling In the Patient Record for how the job screen itself works.

The four planned times you saw on the card don't carry over onto the live job — they're a planning aid for before the run starts. Once you tap Start, you record your own times on the Crews panel as the run actually happens. If your team runs transport work, see Crew Time Points for the nine points you'll be recording instead of the usual five.

Starting a Job While Offline

IndieBase is offline-first, and starting a planned job works the same way. If you tap Start with no connection, the button changes to Queued and a note appears underneath:

"Starting when online"

The card stays in your Planned list until your device reconnects and syncs. You don't need to do anything else — as soon as sync succeeds, the run starts automatically and moves into your live jobs the same way it would online.

If Another Crew Already Started It

Two crews can occasionally tap Start on the same run before either device has synced. If someone else got there first, IndieBase never creates a duplicate job. Instead, you'll see a brief message:

"Already started — opening it"

and the app takes you straight into the job that's already running, so you can carry on from there.

Tips & Best Practices

• Check Planned before creating a job manually. If your team plans ahead, the run you're about to attend may already be sitting in your Planned list — starting it there keeps the pickup, destination, type, and any patient details your coordinator already entered.
• Runs with no time aren't a problem. "Anytime" runs are completely normal for PTS work — start them whenever you're ready to go.
• Don't worry about connectivity. If you're heading into an area with poor signal, tapping Start before you lose connection is fine — it queues and completes automatically.

Troubleshooting

I don't see a Planned section at all. Either your team doesn't have Job Planning enabled, the event your crew is on doesn't have its Job planning toggle switched on, or you're in Emergency Access Mode, which hides it. If your team does use planned jobs and you still can't see the section, check with your coordinator or team admin — they can switch it on for the event from the event's edit form.

The Start button doesn't seem to do anything. Make sure you've set up a crew first — see Setting Up Your Crew. You can also only start planned jobs for events your crew is assigned to.

A planned job vanished from my list but nothing opened. If you were offline, it's likely queued — check for a "Queued" card, or refresh once you're back online. If you were online, another crew may have started it first; check your live jobs list for it.

A run I was expecting isn't in the Planned list any more. Planned jobs that are never started are automatically removed after 14 days. Ask your coordinator to re-add it if it's still needed.

"Couldn't load planned jobs" is showing instead of my list. This means the app couldn't reach the server and doesn't have a cached copy to fall back on. Check your connection and tap Retry.

Related Features

• Planning Jobs in Advance — how your coordinator adds planned jobs in the Control Room
• Setting Up Your Crew — required before you can start any job, planned or otherwise
• Adding a Job — creating a job directly, without a planned run
• Marking a Job as Done — closing out a job once you've started it
• Crew Time Points — the time points you'll record once a PTS run has started