When someone else has the record you are looking at open, their name appears as a small badge in the bar at the top of the screen, next to the record’s title. It gives you a moment to check with them before you both change the same thing, or both dispatch the same stock.
There is nothing to set up. The badges appear on their own, show only other people in your own company, and disappear when those people leave the record.
Reading the Badges
- One badge per person, showing their first name. If two people share a first name, their surname initial is added (“Mark H.”, “Mark T.”).
- A solid badge means they are looking at the record now.
- A faded badge means they still have it open, but in a tab or window they are not looking at. They may come back to it.
- Point at a badge to see their full name and how long they have had it open, for example “Mark Hughes is viewing this (for 4 minutes)”.
The badges update every few seconds while you have the screen in front of you. When someone closes the record or moves to another screen their badge goes; if their browser simply stops (a closed laptop, a lost connection) it goes within a couple of minutes.
You never see a badge for yourself, even if you have the same record open in two tabs.
Where You See Them
| Screen | Where the badges sit |
|---|---|
| Project | In the title bar, after the project name. |
| Quote | In the title bar, before Branch. |
| Invoice | In the title bar, before the invoice number. |
| Dispatch | In the title bar, before Branch. |
| Picking slip | In the title bar, before Branch. |
| Purchase order | In the title bar, beside the Purchase ID. |
| Requisition | Beside the Save button; in the title when the requisition can no longer be changed. |
A new record that has not been saved yet has no one else on it, so no badges show until it has been saved once.
What It Does Not Do
- It does not lock the record. Both of you can still make changes and save. Use the badge as a prompt to talk to them first.
- It does not show what they are changing, only that they have the record open.
- It does not keep you logged in. Leaving a record open does not stop Evolution logging you out after your usual idle time.
Dispatching is the exception where Evolution does step in: two saves that would send the same project’s stock take turns, and the quantities are checked again. See When Two People Dispatch at Once.