threadcount-community/docs/manual/apps/counter-app.md

title, section, order, summary, screen, role, keywords

title	section	order	summary	screen	role	keywords
The counter app	apps	1	The linen room's phone app, on Android and in a phone browser. Choosing a server, signing in, the screens, and what it keeps on the phone.	/m	Admin or Issuer	counter app, android, phone, mobile, play store, install, sign in, server, self-hosted, community, offline, camera, stocktake, count, issue

The counter app is the coordinator's side of ThreadCount on a phone. You sign in with the same Admin or Issuer account as the portal at /app and see the same records, served at /m.

Two ways to open it

• In a phone browser. Go to https://threadcount.tech/m, or https://your-host/m on your own server. You don't need to install anything.
• The Android app. It is called ThreadCount on Google Play. It shows the same /m screens inside the app and adds the phone's own barcode scanner (see Scanning and browsers).

There is no iOS app. On an iPhone or iPad, open /m in the browser.

The first screen and choosing a server

The first time you open the Android app, the welcome screen shows Sign in, Sign up and a line reading Server: threadcount.tech · Change.

Most rooms use the hosted service and leave that line alone. A room running the Community edition on its own server changes it, once, on each phone:

1. Tap Server: threadcount.tech · Change. The Which server? screen opens.
2. Choose Self-hosted and type the server's address, for example uniforms.example.com.
3. Tap Check and use this server. The app checks the server's /api/app-info to confirm it is a ThreadCount server.

The app refuses an address that doesn't answer over https within 8 seconds, or that answers but isn't a ThreadCount server. Once the check passes, the app saves the address on that phone and opens that server from then on. Choosing ThreadCount hosted puts the phone back on threadcount.tech.

Once you have tapped Sign in or Sign up on that phone, the app skips the welcome screen and goes straight to /m.

Signing in and signing up

Sign in asks for your work email and password. If your account has two-factor turned on, it then asks for the six-digit code from your authenticator app. A recovery code also works. Forgot password emails a reset link that works once and expires after an hour. See Two-factor.

Sign up creates a new facility. It doesn't add you to an existing one. The person who signs up becomes the new facility's first Admin. To add someone to an existing facility, an Admin adds them with Add user in Settings › People & sign-in in the portal: see Users.

The screens

The bar at the bottom has four tabs.

Tab	What it does
Home	Today's issued and returned counts, lines below par, days since the last count, recent activity
Count	Pick a shelf and count it by scanning; gaps go to a variance screen before the count is filed
Stock	On hand against par, worst first, with a reorder draft
Search	People and stock in one box, or scan a garment to find it

Home also has Issue to someone, and Deliveries, pickups, rounds and more opens More:

• Receive a delivery
• Pickup call list
• Delivery round, with a signature on the phone
• Reprint a label
• Variance over time
• Catalogue, where an Admin can add and edit garments
• Settings

Open a person's record from Search or Issue to issue to them, take a return or swap a size. Issue a garment and Exchanges and returns say what each of those writes.

More › Settings holds only what the phone controls:

• Beep and buzz on a scan, which applies to this device only
• Reason required at, the count gap that needs a reason. An Admin can change it; an Issuer can only see it.
• links to the privacy policy, the terms and account deletion
• Sign out

People, Orders, Reports and the facility's settings are in the portal at /app. On a phone, the portal's More sheet has a Counter app link that opens /m.

What it keeps on the phone

The app keeps only these on the phone:

• your session
• any shelf count you have started but not filed. It is kept under your own account, so the next person on a shared phone never sees it. Filing the count deletes it, and signing out deletes all your open counts.
• the beep setting, the chosen server, and whether the welcome screen has been seen

Issues, returns, stock, the staff register and every other record stay on the server.

Permissions and connection

The Android app asks for one permission, the camera, and uses it only to read barcodes. No picture from scanning is stored or sent.

The app works online only. With no connection it shows No connection. and a Try again button, and it won't let you issue or count anything. Nothing is queued to send later. A count you hadn't filed stays on the phone until you're back online.

Careful Signing out deletes any shelf count you haven't filed. File it first, or you'll have to count that shelf again.