Software planning guide ยท English
Planning an offline business app without losing records
Specify exactly which tasks must work offline and how changes reach the shared system later. Offline viewing, offline data entry, local printing, and multi-device synchronization are different requirements and should be demonstrated separately.
Prepared 2026-10-23. General planning guidance; confirm the exact product, provider, and terms for your requirement.
Choose what must be available locally
A cashier may need current products and prices, while a field worker may need assigned jobs and recent notes. Decide what data can be cached, how it is updated, and what happens when a device has stale information. Not every report or administrative action has to work offline. Limit local data to what the role needs, and agree what happens when a staff member loses access.
Plan for retries and conflicting changes
A request that reaches the server but loses its response must not create a second order when retried. Give submissions stable identifiers and show whether they are pending, confirmed, or failed. If two devices change the same stock record, decide who resolves the conflict. Test an interruption during submission, an expired session, and a device that returns after several days.
Include recovery in the demonstration
Ask how data can be exported, backed up, and restored, and which records remain on the device after signing out or uninstalling. Offline operation alone does not establish encryption, reliable synchronization, or backup protection. Confirm the exact product edition, supported devices, and network arrangement in a demonstration before relying on any offline claim.
Questions for your brief
- Which tasks are blocked by lost connectivity today?
- Can two devices change the same record?
- How will staff identify pending or conflicting records?