Batch reading schedule rules

Batch reading schedule rules decide, for each filled vessel, which batch reading form to use, how often readings are due and how many are needed each time. Because they are worked out vessel by vessel, a fermenter in active fermentation and a cask that has been conditioning for months can be on completely different schedules.

You'll find them at Settings -> Production -> Batch reading forms -> Batch reading schedule rules. You'll need the Settings permission to open the editor.

How the rules work

These rules are built in Breww's rules editor, the same flowchart-style canvas used for delivery rules and best before rules. If you haven't used it before, read Using the rules editor first, which covers adding blocks, joining them together and reading the canvas.

Batch reading schedule rules are made from three kinds of block:

• Start - where Breww begins. There is always exactly one.
• Condition - a yes or no question about a vessel, with a green check mark output for "yes" and a red cross for "no".
• Reading schedule - the outcome at the end of a path. It says which batch reading form to use, how often readings are due and how many are needed each time.

Breww follows the rules separately for every vessel that is filled with a batch in progress, and works the answer out fresh each time rather than storing it. A vessel therefore moves onto a different schedule on its own as its status changes, as the batch ages, or as the week goes on.

Your starting rules

Every Breww account starts with a single Reading schedule block called Daily readings, joined straight to Start, which asks for readings every day using the Daily readings batch reading form. Add conditions above it to split your vessels onto different schedules, and keep that original block at the end of the canvas as your catch-all.

What you can ask about a vessel

A Condition can check any of the following:

• Vessel type - fermenter, brite tank, cask and so on.
• Vessel group
• Vessel status - your own statuses, such as "Dry hopping" or "Cold crashing". See How to create and set your own vessel status icons.
• Site
• Days since vessel was filled
• Days since batch started - for a batch with no start date, this counts from when the vessel was filled.
• The drink, its style and its tags. These are named after your own drink title, so a brewery sees Beer, Beer style and Beer tag.
• Day of week

As in every rules editor, a single condition can combine several checks with AND or OR, and Add group lets you bracket them together.

Setting up a reading schedule

Drag a Reading schedule block onto the canvas to open its form. The optional Label is only there to help you recognise the block on the canvas and has no effect on your rules.

How often readings are due

Frequency has four options:

• Every X days - Every how many days is counted from the day the vessel was filled. Enter 1 for every day, 2 for every other day, and so on.
• Weekly on chosen days - select the Days of the week readings are due on. Choosing Monday and Thursday gives you twice a week.
• Monthly on a day of the month - enter a Day of the month from 1 to 31. In a shorter month, a day past the end of the month uses the last day instead, so 31 means 30 April and 28 February.
• Monthly on a weekday (e.g. first Monday) - choose a Week of the month and a Day of the week. Last means the final one in the month, whether that is the fourth or the fifth.

What to record

Batch reading form is the form that opens when someone records a reading for a vessel that reaches this point. See Batch reading forms for how to build these.

Readings needed each time is how many readings the vessel needs on each occasion readings are due. Enter 2 if you want a morning and an afternoon reading.

Turning readings off for some vessels

Enable No readings required to switch batch readings off entirely for vessels that reach this point. The rest of the form is hidden, and those vessels show as Off on the production dashboard instead of asking for readings.

What counts as a completed reading

A vessel's due reading is complete once every reading the scheduled form marks as Required has been recorded inside the current due window, either in that vessel or against the whole batch.

The required readings don't have to be saved together. If one person records CO₂ in the morning and someone else records dissolved oxygen in the afternoon, the two entries combine to complete the reading. Until the last one is recorded, the vessel shows as In progress and lists what is still needed.

A few details are worth knowing:

• Required readings saved using a different batch reading form count as well. What matters is which readings were recorded, not which form they were entered on.
• Only readings entered by your team combine across entries. A reading that arrives from a fermentation monitor or through the API counts only when a single entry has a value for every required reading. A temperature-only reading from a monitor does not complete a schedule whose form requires gravity, and it can't stand in for part of a manual check either.
• When Readings needed each time is more than 1, each one is counted the same way. The second is complete once every required reading has been recorded a second time.
• If a form has no required readings at all, any reading entry counts.

Reading statuses

Vessels are listed in this order, so the ones that need attention come first. A vessel whose earlier readings were only partly recorded stays Overdue, and still lists the readings it needs.

If you see No rules, open the rules editor. When any path from Start has a dead end or leads back to an earlier block, every vessel shows No rules, and a red alert above the canvas reads These rules won't work as expected. Press Show me to go to each problem, then fix it. See Using the rules editor for what each marker means.

Where your schedules show up

The Batch readings tab on the production dashboard shows a tile per filled vessel at the current site, with its status, its schedule, a mark for each reading done, in progress or outstanding, and a Record reading button that opens the scheduled form. A vessel with some of its required readings recorded also shows a Still needed line naming the rest.

A batch's Analysis tab also has a Reading schedules card covering just that batch's vessels.

If your brewery uses production tasks, each filled vessel on a schedule also has a Batch readings task, due when its current reading window opens. While only some of the required readings have been recorded, the task shows as In progress, including when the readings are overdue. Recording the rest completes it, and the same task reopens for the vessel's next window, keeping the same owner. Its button opens the vessel's reading form straight from the production day. Batch reading tasks can't be closed, so a vessel's reminders carry on for the rest of the batch. Use assignment rules to give readings to whoever does the rounds.

Related guides

• Batch reading forms
• Using the rules editor
• Navigating the Production dashboard
• Recording batch readings in the Analysis tab