Work Queues

Track work through stages — receiving, packing, checks. Load a list of what you expect, scan or move items forward, and see what is late or missing.

A work queue is a pipeline of stages that work moves through. Each unit of work is an item that sits in a stage until someone moves it. Because items stay where you put them, you can always say what is done, what is late, and what never arrived.

Queue cards showing open, overdue and unexpected counts

What you can do

Before you start

  • Who can use it: the Work queues app on the Roles page. Can view shows the board. Can work the queue scans items in and moves them along. Full control also creates and changes queues. A role can be narrowed to individual queues.
  • Work Queues can be switched off in Settings → Apps. It must be on.
  • Without view permission you see "No access to Work Queues".
  • To attach a queue to records, the record type must exist. A queue can also stand alone, with items that are just codes.

Where to find it

Launcher › Automation › Work Queues. The first page shows one card per queue with its name, key, record type (or Standalone), number of stages, and three counts: Open, Overdue and Unexpected. A Paused badge marks a queue that is switched off. Click a card to open the queue's workspace, with Board, Items and Report views.

Key ideas

Term What it means
Queue An ordered list of stages.
Stage One step in the pipeline. It can be a start, a normal step or an end (terminal).
Item One unit of work in a stage. It has a key, such as a barcode, an order number or a SKU.
Key The code you scan or type to find an item.
Batch A name for a group of items, such as one delivery.
Standalone A queue whose items are only codes, with no records behind them.
Manifest The list of keys you expect, loaded into the first stage.
Missing Expected items still sitting in the start stage.
Unexpected Items a scan had to create because they were never listed.
Overdue An item that stayed in a stage longer than the stage's time limit.

In this section

  • Board, items and report — Work a queue on its board, find any item in the Items list, and use the Report to see what is missing, overdue or unexpected.
  • Create a queue and its stages — Set up a queue, define its stages and their rules, and choose what happens when an item arrives.
  • Intake rules — Add records to a queue automatically when they match a condition, and take them out again when they stop matching.
  • Load a manifest and scan items — Paste the list of items you expect, then scan arrivals with a barcode scanner or by typing, and read each result.
  • Queue permissions — Who can see a queue, add work to it, move work along, and change the queue itself, and how to limit a role to specific queues.