Delivery drivers often lose mobile signal on the road or at a customer's premises. The Breww app now works offline for deliveries, so you can keep completing your delivery run even with no internet connection. Any actions you take while offline are saved on your device and automatically sent to Breww as soon as you're back online.
You don't need to turn anything on — this works automatically whenever your device loses its connection.
What you can do offline
While offline, you can continue with the key steps of a delivery:
- Complete a delivery — capture the recipient's signature and name, or complete without a signature.
- Record a payment against the order (for example, cash or card taken on the doorstep).
- Take proof of delivery (POD) photos and add them to the delivery.
- Delete a POD photo you've added.
Each of these is saved on your device and queued to sync. You'll see the delivery update straight away, and the change will be sent to Breww automatically once a connection is available.
Taking proof of delivery photos requires Breww's Advanced Deliveries addon. Find out more or subscribe here.
What still needs an internet connection
Some actions rely on live data from Breww's servers and can't be done offline. If you try to use one of these while offline, you'll see an "Internet connection required" message. These include:
- Assigning stock to a delivery by scanning containers (barcode scanning).
- Viewing the delivery on the web, or opening the delivery note or invoice/order PDF.
For these, reconnect to the internet and try again.
A delivery must already be marked as dispatched before it can be completed offline. If a delivery hasn't been dispatched yet and you try to complete it offline, the app will ask you to connect to the internet first. See Dispatching orders for more on dispatching.
Seeing what's waiting to sync (the "Pending syncs" screen)
Whenever you have actions waiting to be sent to Breww, an outbox icon appears in the top corner of the deliveries screens, with a badge showing how many items are pending.
- An orange badge means items are queued and waiting to sync.
- A red badge with a warning icon means one or more items failed to sync and need your attention.
Tap the icon to open the Pending syncs screen. Here you'll see every queued action, plus any delivery completions that failed, including:
- The type of action (for example, Delivery Completion, Payment or POD Photo).
- Which delivery or order it relates to.
- Its status — Pending or Failed — along with an error message if something went wrong.
Tapping an item takes you to the related delivery so you can review it.
Retrying and discarding items
- For any failed item, tap Retry to try sending it again, or Discard to remove it (a discarded change is not sent to Breww).
- Tap Retry all at the top to attempt to sync everything at once.
- Pull down on the list to refresh and trigger a sync.
When you're offline, the screen shows "Offline - changes will sync when connected". When you're online, it shows a countdown to the next automatic sync.
Once everything has synced successfully, you'll see a confirmation message and the outbox icon will disappear.
Proof of delivery photos while offline
When you add POD photos offline, each photo shows its current state so you know what's happening:
- Pending — the photo is queued and waiting to upload.
- Uploading — the photo is currently being sent to Breww.
- Failed — the upload didn't succeed; you can retry it from the Pending syncs screen.
If a photo was added on a different device and hasn't downloaded to yours yet, you'll see "No offline version available" until you're back online.
How and when syncing happens
The Breww app syncs your queued actions automatically:
- A few times per hour while the app is open.
- As soon as you reconnect to the internet after being offline.
- When you reopen the app after it's been in the background.
You can also sync manually at any time using Retry all, or by pulling down to refresh on the Pending syncs screen.
Syncing only happens while the Breww app is open and in the foreground. After completing deliveries offline, keep the app open once you're back in signal until the outbox icon disappears, so all your changes are safely sent to Breww.
Tips for working offline
- Before heading somewhere with poor signal, open the app while you still have a connection so your delivery data is up to date on the device.
- Complete your deliveries as normal — signatures, payments and photos are all saved on the device.
- When you're back in signal, keep the app open and check the Pending syncs screen to confirm everything has synced. Investigate any items marked Failed.
