Daily field workflow

TerraSitu structures your field day into a consistent protocol: pre-start safety check, record conditions, collect data, check in regularly, and sync everything at the end of the day. This ensures safety compliance, data quality, and nothing gets lost.

Morning: Pre-start checklist

When you open the mobile app at the start of the day, a banner prompts you to complete the Daily Pre-Start Checklist if one has been configured for your trip's project.

1. Tap Complete Now on the banner
2. Work through each checklist item (PPE check, equipment, communications test, hazard briefing)
3. Submit the checklist

The checklist is soft-enforced — you can skip it and collect data, but any observations recorded before completion are flagged for QA review. Your trip lead can see who has and hasn't completed their pre-start on the web portal.

Recording field conditions

When you start work on a survey for the first time each day (by creating an observation, starting a GPS track, or beginning a sampling unit), the app prompts you to record environmental conditions:

• Temperature (Celsius)
• Wind speed and direction
• Cloud cover and precipitation
• Visibility
• Ground conditions (free text — e.g. "dry, firm soil" or "muddy after overnight rain")
• Surveyability notes (optional — e.g. "too windy for bird count")

You can skip this prompt, but recording conditions is important for regulatory compliance. Many environmental assessments require documented survey effort and conditions.

Conditions can also be recorded again later in the day if weather changes significantly — just open the survey menu and tap Record Conditions.

During fieldwork: Check-ins

If your trip has a check-in schedule configured (typically every 2 hours), the app will prompt you to confirm you are safe:

• A notification appears when a check-in is due
• Tap I'm OK — one tap, takes under 2 seconds
• If you need help, tap Need Help to alert your trip lead
• Your GPS position is captured automatically with each check-in

For more details on how check-ins work, see Field check-ins.

Auto effort tracking

When you start work on a sampling unit, TerraSitu automatically tracks your active time. The timer pauses when you switch away and resumes when you return. When the unit is marked complete, the actual duration is calculated and synced to the server for effort reporting.

End of day: Sync all data

At the end of each field day, use the End Day flow to upload everything:

1. Open the Today screen and tap End Day (or go to More > End Day)
2. Review your day's work summary (observations, photos, GPS tracks)
3. Tap Start Full Sync
4. Wait for all data to upload and verify

The sync runs in priority order: safety data first, then observations, then media files. After upload, the server verifies receipt of all items. You will see a confirmation screen showing the verified counts.

For troubleshooting sync issues, see End-of-day sync.

Trip lead visibility

On the web portal, trip leads can monitor their team's daily compliance:

• Pre-start status — who has completed the daily checklist
• Check-in status — last check-in time and location for each team member, with overdue alerts
• Sync dashboard — who has completed their end-of-day sync, with verified observation and media counts

This information is available on the trip detail page and the dedicated sync dashboard.