Mobile app

The Spensa phone app is built for people on their feet: staff at a location and managers on the move. Ordering, counting inventory, tasks, team messages, and checking your shifts all work well from a pocket. Office work like invoices, menu costing, and billing stays on the web app. The app is made to keep working even when the internet in your walk-in or basement does not.

What the phone app is for

• Sign in with the same details as on the web: email for team members, username for staff.
• Create and send orders, even without internet.
• Review orders that wait for your approval and read supplier replies.
• Count inventory and record waste.
• See and finish your tasks.
• Read announcements and chat with your team.
• See your shifts, set your availability, request time off, and claim open shifts (staff members).
• Look up recipes, always without prices.
• Ask the assistant (team members).
• Get notifications on your phone that take you straight to the right place.

Where to get it

The app is on the App Store for iPhone; search for "Spensa". An Android version is coming. On the web app, the Offline orders page in settings also links to the download; see Settings and billing.

Access and permissions

Everyone with a Spensa login can use the app. Staff members are the main audience, but team members use it too. What you see inside depends on your role and on what is switched on for your company. Home and the assistant are only for team members. Schedule is only for staff members. Everything else follows the same permissions as the web.

Signing in

1. Open the app.
2. Enter your email address (team members) or your username (staff members), plus your password.
3. Tap sign in.

You can also create a brand new account from the app. You confirm your email address by tapping the link Spensa sends you, and the link brings you back into the app. Creating accounts is covered in Getting started.

You stay signed in for a week at a time, and using the app keeps extending that, so in practice you rarely sign in again.

Forgot your password?

Team members tap the forgot-password link and get a reset email. Staff members do not have an email address in Spensa, so an admin or manager sets a new password for them; see Team and permissions.

Picking your company

After signing in, team members who belong to several companies see a list and pick one. The app remembers your last choice and takes you straight there next time. To switch, open the menu and tap the company card at the top.

Staff members skip this step and go straight into their company. Staff who work at several locations pick their location on a separate screen with a search field; this works even without internet. The app may say "establishment" in some places; that means a location.

The menu

Open the menu from the top left. Which entries you see depends on what you may use and what is switched on for your company:

• Home - team members only. A quick overview of your business.
• Orders - always there. A black number shows orders waiting for your review; a blue dot means unread supplier messages.
• Tasks - if you may view tasks. The number shows open tasks assigned to you.
• Team - if staff communications is enabled for your organization and you may view it. The number shows unread announcements and chats.
• Schedule - staff members only, if shift planning is enabled for your organization.
• Inventory - if inventory is enabled and you may use it.
• Recipes - team members who may view menu costs, and staff members who were given recipe access.
• Assistant - team members only.
• Settings - always there.

At the bottom sits Sign Out. The app asks you to confirm, then removes all saved Spensa data from the phone.

What works without internet

The app is made for kitchens and cellars with bad reception. It keeps a copy of your templates, products, suppliers, and storages on the phone and refreshes it in the background. Without internet you can:

• Create and send orders. Sent orders wait in a queue on the phone and go out on their own as soon as you are back online. If one cannot be sent, you get a notification and find it on a failed orders screen, where you can try again.
• Count inventory in your storages.
• Record waste.
• Read tasks the app has already loaded.

What needs internet

• The assistant.
• Recipes.
• The schedule.
• Sending and receiving messages, both chats and announcements.

If you are offline, these parts simply wait until you are connected again. Nothing is lost.

App settings

Open Settings from the menu. You will find:

• Your account information: your email address (team members) or username (staff members).
• App language: use your phone's language, or switch to English or German. The web app offers more languages; see Settings and billing.
• An App update card for keeping the app current.
• Notifications: a toggle that turns notifications for this phone on or off.
• Password: change your password by entering the current one and a new one of at least 8 characters. You are signed out on all other devices afterwards. Team members can also send themselves a reset email from here.
• At the bottom, team members can delete their account, and admins can delete the whole company by typing DELETE. Staff members see a note to contact their admin instead, because staff accounts are managed by the company.

Notifications on your phone

The first time you sign in, the app asks whether it may send you notifications. Say yes, and Spensa notifies you when something needs you:

• An order waits for your review.
• An order you sent while offline could not go out.
• A task is assigned to you or changes.
• A supplier replies to one of your orders.
• Your schedule changes.

Tapping a notification takes you straight to the right place: the order, the failed orders screen, your tasks, or the conversation. You can turn notifications off any time with the toggle in the app settings.

A quick tour of each tab

Orders

Orders is the heart of the app: create orders from templates, send them or hand them in for review, track what was ordered, and read supplier replies. More in Orders and Supplier conversations.

Inventory

Inventory is for counting your storages and recording waste, both fine without internet. More in Inventory.

Other tabs

• Home shows team members a quick overview of the business. More in Analytics and Home.
• Tasks shows the tasks at your location, with your own on top. Check them off as you go. More in Tasks.
• Team holds announcements from management and your chats, including group chats. More in Staff communications.
• Schedule is staff self-service: see your shifts, set when you can work, request time off, and claim open shifts. Managers plan the schedule on the web. More in Scheduling.
• Recipes shows how dishes are made: ingredients, steps, and photos, never prices or costs. More in Recipes.
• Assistant is the same helper as on the web; ask questions or get things done in chat. More in Assistant.

How this connects to other parts of Spensa

• Team and permissions - staff accounts and their permissions are created on the web and decide what appears in the app menu.
• Orders - orders made on the phone show up on the web instantly, and review requests flow both ways.
• Order templates - templates built on the web are the starting point for phone orders and are saved on the phone for offline use.
• Inventory - counts and waste recorded on the phone land in the same place as counts done on the web.
• Scheduling - managers plan on the web; staff see and manage their side in the app.
• Staff communications - announcements and chats reach staff mainly through the app.
• Recipes - the app shows the cost-free recipe view for staff.
• Notifications - phone notifications are one part of how Spensa keeps you informed.
• Settings and billing - the web settings include an Offline orders page about this app.

Good to know

• The app is currently for iPhone. Android is coming.
• Signing out removes all saved Spensa data from the phone. On a shared device, sign out when you hand the phone over.
• Staff members can also sign in on the web. They get a smaller sidebar there with Orders, Tasks, Team, Conversations, My Schedule, Inventory, and Recipes.
• Orders queued while offline go out on their own; you do not need to reopen the order. If something goes wrong, the app tells you.
• Recipes in the app never show prices, costs, or suppliers. Pricing lives in Menu Costs on the web.
• Links from Spensa emails, like email confirmation and password reset, open the app directly when you tap them on your phone.