Role guide: field sales representative

This guide is for the rep who works a beat: your xMatix day happens on the mobile app, where you check in, open the day's visit plan, work each outlet's tasks, take orders or sell from the van, and let the app sync whenever the network allows. A planner or supervisor builds your beats and plans on the web beforehand, and the orders you take continue in the office the same way as any other order.

Overview

The rep's job in xMatix is one loop, repeated every day:

Everything in this loop works without a network. What you save waits on the phone and is sent when coverage returns.

Where you work

On the phone, the first Field Sales item is the Visit Plans hub. It shows your plans as Current, Upcoming and Past, with today's plan on a large card with Continue. Home, Route Planner and the van-run list are web only.

Your path

Read these in order. Each one is the full procedure; this guide does not repeat them.

1. Signing in to xMatix: your first sign-in from the invitation email.
2. Using xMatix on mobile: install the app and finish the first sync.
3. How the mobile app is organized: tabs, the app drawer, lists and records.
4. Mobile attendance: checking in and out, and why a check-in can be refused.
5. xMatix Field Sales: beats, plans, visits and tasks, and how they fit together.
6. Visit plans: your day as a record, and how it starts, pauses and ends.
7. Complete a visit on mobile: the core procedure, step by step.
8. Checklists, tasks and visit activities: the work each outlet asks of you, including Take Order and Payment Collection.
9. Create a sales order: what happens to the order after you take it.
10. Van sales: if you carry stock, the load, sell and unload loop.
11. Prospecting: finding and onboarding new outlets near you.
12. Working offline: sync status and recovery: reading the outbox and fixing a change the server refused.
13. Availability requests: asking for an attendance correction, an outlet transfer or a beat change.

Prerequisites

Before your first day, your administrator must have:

• Invited you and given you a profile that opens the mobile app and the Field Sales app. The shipped Sales Executive profile does both.
• Linked your user to a resource, with a default branch and business hours. Without a resource, you can't check in or be given beats.
• Set up at least one beat for you, or arranged for plans to be created for you.

On your phone, allow the app to use your location. Visit starts, the attendance location check and location tracking all need it.

Procedure

This is a normal day, step by step. Each step links to the page with the full detail.

Step 1 — Check in for the day

In the shipped configuration, the app asks you to check in when you open a visit plan or a visit. Organizations can instead gate the whole app, in which case you see Check in to start your day as soon as the app opens. The screen lists the checks that apply to you, such as Working day, Holiday and Leave, and also Location, Selfie or Working hours if your administrator switched them on. Select Check in.

While you are checked in, the app tells you that your location is recorded roughly every minute, including when the app is in the background, and that recording stops when you check out. See Location tracking.

If a check fails, the app shows "Check-in requirements not met." and marks the failing check. See Mobile attendance.

Step 2 — Open and start today's plan

Open Visit Plans. Today's plan is the large card under Current. Tap it, or tap Continue. Check the date and the list of outlets, then select Start plan. The plan becomes In Progress. Until you start it, every visit shows Start the visit plan to enable this visit.

Only you can start or end a plan assigned to you. If you see Assigned to another resource, ask your supervisor to reassign it.

Step 3 — Work each outlet

At each outlet, open its visit and tap Start Visit. If you are further from the outlet than its check-in zone, the button reads Start Visit anyway: you can still start, and the visit is recorded as started off-site. Then:

1. Work the task cards on the Visit Tasks tab: checklists, photos, signatures, stock checks and payment collection, as your task template asks.
2. Open Take Order, add the items, check quantities, price and total with the customer, and confirm.
3. Tap End Visit and pick Productive, Non-productive or Cancelled. The last two need a reason, such as Store closed or Owner away. Productive stays unavailable while a mandatory activity is pending.

Whatever outcome you pick, the visit's status becomes Completed, and the outcome is kept in the reason fields. See Complete a visit on mobile.

Step 4 — Sell from the van (van-sales days only)

On a van-sales day, your plan is of type Van Sales and shows a Van Run card. While the dispatcher has not released the load, it reads "Van load · awaiting dispatch". If your organization uses two-step loading, the card shows Take in stock: enter what actually arrived on each line and select Confirm take-in once. Then invoice at each outlet as usual. The dispatcher releases and unloads the van; those buttons are not on your profile. See Van sales.

Step 5 — Add an outlet you pass

If you find an outlet that is not on your beat, open the Nearby to onboard feed on your plan. Onboard creates the outlet as an account; adding an existing customer to your beat proposes it as a stop. A planner approves proposed stops before they appear on future plans. See Prospecting.

Step 6 — Close the day

Select End plan. The plan becomes Completed, and any visit that is not completed, cancelled or rescheduled is cancelled. For an outlet you could not reach, the plan's day-end screen offers Carry to tomorrow.

Then check the outbox: open the app drawer, tap Preferences, and under Data & Sync tap Sync status. Anything under Needs attention was refused by the server and needs your fix; see Working offline. Finally, open the side menu and select Check out.

Example

A rep covering a market area has six outlets on today's beat:

1. At 08:50 the rep opens Visit Plans and taps the plan. The app asks for a check-in; the working day, holiday and leave checks pass, and the rep selects Check in.
2. The rep selects Continue, then Start plan. The plan becomes In Progress.
3. At the first outlet, the rep taps Start Visit, completes the stock checklist and the shelf photo, opens Take Order, adds 24 cases of the fast-moving item and 6 of a new launch, and confirms. The rep ends the visit as Productive.
4. The third outlet is shut. The rep starts the visit, ends it as Non-productive with Store closed, and moves on.
5. Between the fourth and fifth outlets there is no signal. Two orders sit in the outbox as Pending and are sent on their own when the van reaches the main road.
6. The sixth outlet runs out of time. At 18:10 the rep selects End plan: five visits are Completed and the sixth is cancelled. The rep checks Sync status, finds nothing under Needs attention, and checks out.

The supervisor sees the same plan on the web that evening, with each visit's times, outcome and order.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox where your user is linked to a resource and holds the Sales Executive profile, ask an administrator or planner to create a visit plan for you for today with two outlets. Then, on the mobile app:

1. Open Visit Plans, check in when asked, and select Start plan.
2. Start the first visit, take an order for one item, and end the visit as Productive.
3. Switch on airplane mode, start the second visit and end it as Non-productive with Owner away.
4. Open Sync status, then switch airplane mode off and watch the change leave the outbox.
5. Select End plan and check out.

Expected result: the plan is Completed, both visits are Completed (one with a non-productive reason), the order appears in the Sales app on the web, and the outbox is empty.

Quick reference

• Check in first; the app asks when you open a plan or visit.
• Start plan before any visit; only the assignee can start it.
• A visit runs Start Visit → tasks → Take Order → End Visit.
• Far from the outlet? Start Visit anyway still works.
• Productive needs every mandatory activity done.
• Every outcome sets the visit to Completed.
• Offline is normal: saves wait in the outbox and send themselves.
• Needs attention in Sync status means a fix is needed from you.
• End plan cancels the unfinished visits.
• Check out at the end of the day; tracking stops when you do.

Permissions

The shipped Sales Executive profile is the one meant for this role. It is assigned to the mobile app with check-in required, and it can open the Field Sales app, the mobile Visit Plans hub and the Route Planner page. It has full access to beats, visit plans, visits, orders, invoices, payments and van runs, so New, Edit and Delete work on all of them.

Buttons that run server actions need their own grant. Compared with the Sales Manager, Standard User and System Admin profiles, Sales Executive does not have:

It does have Create Visit Plan on a van run, Get Nearby To Onboard on visits, and Cancel Order on orders. The mobile Confirm take-in doesn't need the Take In grant: it edits the run and its lines directly.

Which plans you see also follows record security: a user linked to a resource sees their own plans, their team's plans and unassigned ones. See Visit plans and Security profiles.

Configuration

This section is for the administrator setting up a rep.

Set up a new rep

1. Invite the user and give them the Sales Executive profile, or your own profile cloned from it (see Role-based guides).
2. Create or open the person's resource, link it to the user, and give it a default branch and business hours. The attendance working-day and working-hours checks, and the local date of each attendance day, come from those business hours.
3. Put the rep on a beat: set them as the beat's executive, or give them the beat's position. See Beats and routes.
4. Make sure the rep's profile is on the mobile app's Profiles tab with check-in set as you want it (Setup → Design Studio → Apps → Mobile Apps). Sales Executive and System Admin are there out of the box, both with check-in required.

Settings that shape the rep's day

Details for each are on Mobile attendance, Visit plans and Checklists, tasks and visit activities.

Common problems

"Your user is not linked to a resource — contact your administrator."

Your user has no active resource. The administrator links one in Step 2 of Set up a new rep.

There is no plan for today

Plans appear on their own only after an administrator turns on automatic plan creation, and only for beats that run on that day and have approved stops. Otherwise a supervisor creates the plan by hand or in the Route Planner. Ask your supervisor. See Visit plans.

"Start the visit plan to enable this visit."

You haven't started the plan, or it is paused. Open the plan and select Start plan, or resume it. Visits on an ended plan can't be started.

"Assigned to another resource"

The plan belongs to someone else. Ask your supervisor to change Assigned To Resource to you.

The office can't see my order

It is still in the outbox. Open Sync status and check the Changes card: Pending and Retrying send themselves once you are online; Rejected needs you to tap Fix, correct the value and save. See Working offline.

My plan turned to Lapsed

It was left open more than 72 hours (by default) after its end date, so the cleanup closed it and cancelled its open visits. Select End plan at the end of each day.

I can't see Release Load or Unload

Those are dispatcher actions and are not on the Sales Executive profile. Ask your dispatcher, or your administrator if you are meant to run them.

Common questions

Can I work with no signal?

Yes. Your plan, visits, task templates, catalogue and prices are on the phone, so starting and ending visits, filling checklists, taking photos and taking orders all work offline. Each save goes into the outbox and is sent when coverage returns. Do not redo a visit or order because it hasn't reached the office yet: check Sync status instead. How offline-first mobile works explains the model.

Is attendance check-in the same as starting a visit?

No. Attendance check-in starts your working day and is recorded on your attendance day. Starting a visit happens at each outlet and records the visit's start time and your position. Attendance can be refused by a gate, such as a holiday or approved leave. A visit start is never refused for distance: the app only warns you and records the visit as started off-site.

Where do my photos and readings go?

Onto the activity and visit you captured them on, then up to the server on the next sync. An order taken on a visit is linked to that visit and to the outlet. Capture data in the field covers photos, signatures and locations.

Can I visit outlets in a different order?

Yes. The agenda's order is guidance, and you can open any visit on the plan. If your organization switched on drag to reorder, you can also change the order on the agenda. The app learns the order you actually follow and offers it back as the Mostly Followed sequence.

Who sees my location?

Your location is recorded only while you are checked in, and recording stops when you check out. Starting a visit also records where you were at that moment. See Location tracking for what is captured and who can see it.

Related topics

• Beats and routes: how the beat you drive was planned.
• Visits and the field day: the visit record and its fields.
• Planograms and shelf audits: if your visits include shelf checks.
• Expense claims: claiming travel and other costs.
• Troubleshooting the mobile app: frozen lists, stuck sync and missing screens.
• Sense on mobile: asking the built-in assistant for help in the field.
• Role guide: sales manager: the person reviewing your orders.
• Role-based guides: every role and the shipped security profiles.
• Field Sales — entity reference