LaneAward Console

Operations Console User Guide

This guide explains how to use the LaneAward Operations Console as it works today. It focuses on the features that are visible and usable for the signed-in role, without exposing internal permission logic or hidden fields.

What This Console Is For

The Operations Console is not the place where contributors assign live work to themselves. At this stage, only manufacturing contributors add their own live tasks in Time On Tasks. The console can help prepare reusable task descriptions for contributors, but it does not replace the contributor workflow.

Summary

Sign In

PIN-Only Access

Enter your assigned PIN on the sign-in screen. If your role is allowed into the console, the page opens directly to your visible tools and account workspaces.

Accounts

Tabbed Account Workspaces

The console now centers around the Accounts tab and a second workspace tab that is used for Add User or the selected account.

Role Aware

Filtered Views

The console automatically limits what each signed-in person can see. Some roles will only see a smaller subset of users or a read-only view.

Shared Data

Connected To The Apps

The console uses the same shared database as the contributor app. User changes here affect real sign-in and account availability in the connected environment.

Quick Start

  1. Open the Operations Console and enter your PIN.
  2. Check the signed-in identity card in the header so you know which role is active.
  3. Use the Accounts tab to review the current account list.
  4. Click Add User to move tab 2 into create-user mode, or click an account row to open that account in tab 2.
  5. If you are creating a manufacturing contributor, add one or more reusable contributor tasks before saving the new user.
  6. When a selected account is open in tab 2, use Edit, Reset PIN, Deactivate, or Save as needed for that account.
  7. If your role includes report visibility, use the Reports tab for a read-only contributor activity summary with drill-down details. For the Order Profitability report, use the printer icon in the toolbar to print or save the current data as a PDF.
  8. Use the remaining bottom tabs such as User Guide, Topology, Runbook, and Reference when those documents are visible for your role.

Detailed Features And Functions

1. Sign-In Screen

The console uses PIN-only sign-in. There is no username selection screen. Enter a valid console PIN and use Enter Console to continue.

If the PIN belongs to a role that is not allowed into the console, sign-in will fail and the page will stay on the sign-in screen.

2. Header And Signed-In Identity

After sign-in, the header shows the current signed-in name and role. This helps confirm exactly which account is in use before anyone creates, resets, or deactivates users.

Use Sign Out in the header when you want to leave the console or hand the workstation to another authorized person.

3. Accounts Tab

The Accounts tab is now the main review surface. It shows the visible account list in a spreadsheet-style format with sortable columns such as:

  • Display Name
  • Role
  • Email
  • Pay Type and Amount for contributor-tracked roles
  • Tasks with a View button for team leads and manufacturing contributors

Clicking a row opens that account in tab 2, where the account can be reviewed or edited.

4. Add User Workspace

Selecting Add User opens tab 2 in create-user mode. Required fields are:

  • Display Name
  • Role
  • PIN

Optional fields are:

  • Email Address
  • Notes (currently held for future use)

If required information is missing, the form highlights the field and shows a clear error message instead of saving an incomplete account.

5. Contributor Task Templates

When the selected role is Manufacturing Contributor or Foreman, the console reveals the Add Contributor Tasks panel. This allows the console operator to add reusable task descriptions for that new contributor during account setup.

These task templates help the contributor later in Time On Tasks, where task descriptions can be found more quickly through fuzzy search inside Workload Setup.

This is different from assigning live work. Contributors still add their own live tasks for themselves in the contributor app.

6. Selected Account Workspace

When an account row is selected from Accounts, tab 2 changes to that user’s name and opens a dedicated account workspace. In the current draft, that workspace can show:

When no account is selected and Add User is not active, that second tab stays hidden so the visible tab rail collapses left without empty placeholders.

  • Identity details
  • Compensation only when the selected account uses those fields and the signed-in console role is allowed to view compensation data
  • Teams for visible team memberships plus team-manager and team-lead assignments where the signed-in role is allowed to manage them
  • View Tasks as a header action that opens the reusable task list modal for contributor-style accounts
  • Time Corrections for recent contributor or team-lead work sessions

Use Edit to switch this workspace into editable mode. Use Save to keep the changes, or Cancel to abandon them. When the signed-in role allows it, this same workspace also provides Reset PIN and Deactivate for the selected account.

The Time Corrections area is the approved way to fix a forgotten start, pause, or stop. Each correction requires a reason and preserves an audit row so the original recorded session can still be reconstructed later.

7. Task List Editing

The View button in the Accounts sheet, and the View Tasks button in the selected-account header, both open the reusable task list for that contributor-style role.

This task-list editor is only active for Team Lead, Foreman, and Manufacturing Contributor accounts.

8. Teams — Currently Disabled

The Teams feature is currently turned off in the Operations Console (2026-06-03). The Teams tab and the Teams card in the Account Editor are both hidden, and team membership has no effect on any report, filter, or management tool. Existing team memberships in the database are preserved but inactive — they can be restored at any time by re-enabling the feature.

Conceptually, a team is a crew assignment — a management decision about who works well together on a given type of order. That decision belongs entirely to management and has nothing to do with the labor tracking system. Teams do not own orders, drive task assignment, or affect how labor is recorded. All time tracking and task work happens at the individual contributor level regardless of any past or present team association.

Profitability reports, contributor activity reviews, Time Corrections, and Order Number Corrections all show data based on what individual contributors actually did, with no team filter applied.

9. Teams Tab — Currently Hidden

The Teams tab is not visible in the Operations Console at this time. With the Teams feature disabled (see section 8), no role sees the tab in the top navigation, and the Teams card in the selected-account workspace is also hidden for all roles.

If the Teams feature is re-enabled in the future, the tab and its associated controls — Create Team, Rename Team, Delete Team, and the team membership and leadership assignment widgets in the Account Editor — will reappear for the roles previously permitted to use them.

10. End-Of-Shift Policy

All contributors are required to leave their workstation in one of these states before the end of every shift:

  • Active task → Paused. Any task still in progress must be paused before the contributor leaves the floor. The contributor will be prompted to enter a brief reason. Paused tasks may be resumed the next day — each work session between pause and resume is tracked separately, so time is never mixed across days.
  • Finished task → Stopped. Any task that is fully done must be stopped and completed before leaving.
  • Unwanted task → Canceled. Any task added by mistake or no longer needed must be canceled before leaving.

Tasks must never be left actively running overnight. A session that runs unattended through midnight accumulates time under the wrong calendar day and requires a manager time correction to fix. If a contributor reports a task was left running, use the Time Corrections workflow immediately.

Paused tasks that will never be continued should not sit indefinitely. Managers should review open paused tasks periodically and follow up with contributors to close out anything that is no longer active work.

11. Time Correction Steps

Use this workflow when a contributor or team lead forgot to start on time, forgot to pause, or forgot to stop a task at the correct time — including when a task was left running overnight.

  1. Open the affected account from the Accounts tab.
  2. In the selected-account workspace, find the Time Corrections section.
  3. Review the recent session list and click Correct Time on the affected entry.
  4. Enter the corrected Start and Stop time.
  5. Confirm the recalculated duration preview looks correct.
  6. Enter a clear reason explaining why the correction is being made.
  7. Click Save.

If the session was still active because the contributor forgot to stop it, saving the correction will close that session as a paused entry at the corrected stop time.

12. Repeat Multiplier Corrections

When a contributor completes a repeat task, the session card in Time Corrections shows a Repeat Multiplier section below the start and stop time fields. This section is only visible for sessions that were completed as repeat tasks.

Use this section when the contributor timed the iteration incorrectly or entered the wrong quantity.

  1. Open the affected account from the Accounts tab.
  2. In the Time Corrections section, find the repeat task session and click Correct Time.
  3. The correction modal opens. The Repeat Multiplier section appears at the bottom with the current values pre-filled: Action?, Qty?, and Iteration time in min.
  4. Edit whichever fields need correction. Qty? must be 2 or more. Iteration time is the duration in minutes for a single run.
  5. The Total min field recalculates automatically as quantity and iteration time are changed. It cannot be typed into directly.
  6. If you are only correcting the repeat data and the start and stop times are already correct, you do not need to enter a correction reason. Skip the reason field and click Save.
  7. If you are correcting both the time and the repeat data in the same session, enter a reason for the time correction and then save. Both corrections are applied together.

The session card in the account view updates immediately after saving to reflect the corrected repeat summary.

13. Compensation Fields (Manager And Above)

Pay Type and the compensation amount field are intentionally limited to Manufacturing Contributor, Foreman, and Team Lead accounts, but those fields are not visible to every signed-in console role. When Pay Type is set to Salary, the amount field is labeled Annual Salary and accepts the worker's full annual salary (e.g. 52000). When set to Hourly, the field is labeled Hourly Rate.

In the current draft, Team Lead and Foreman users do not see compensation columns in the Accounts tab and do not see the compensation card in the selected-account workspace. Higher management roles and technical admin roles keep that visibility.

This keeps the console focused on contributor-cost estimation rather than broader payroll processing.

14. Read-Only Access

Some signed-in roles can open the console and review what is visible to them, but they will not see the full user-management form. When that happens, the console shows a read-only notice instead of management controls.

15. Reports Tab

The Reports tab now includes a Report selector so leadership and technical roles can switch between the read-only Contributor Task Activity view and the new read-only Order Profitability view without leaving the same workspace.

  • Use Report to switch between the contributor-focused operational view and the order-level profitability view.
  • Use Period to switch between Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. The default is Daily.
  • Use Date Range with the side-by-side From and To calendars to set the exact task timeline you want in the report.
  • The report message line now reads Totals for the Period once the selected window loads.
  • Contributor Task Activity keeps the clean summary cards for Active Workers, Queued Tasks, Paused Tasks, Running Tasks, Total Time, and Total Cost.
  • Order Profitability summarizes invoice-backed orders and labor-backed orders in the selected period, then shows invoice number, taxes collected, shipping collected, total cost, retail price, and margin percentage.
  • The state-aware summary cards use the same blue, amber, green, indigo, and slate side-tab accents already established in the Time On Tasks contributor app.
  • The contributor activity table keeps the summary view compact for contributor name, task mix, tracked time, and latest activity.
  • The order profitability table keeps one row per customer order and lets the user drill into contributor costs, task state, invoice context, and recent sessions for that order.
  • The table uses simple alternating row shading — every other row gets a light background to help readers keep their place across wide rows. Since the table is sorted by Customer#, repeated orders for the same customer appear together naturally and are easy to spot without any special highlighting.
  • The customer number, order number, and invoice number stay compact in the table row. Hover or tap those identifiers to reveal the richer customer, order, or invoice detail without crowding the report grid.
  • Tapping a contributor or order row opens the centered detail popup with the deeper breakdown for that report.
  • Each row now uses one plain Open Task Mix dropdown instead of a full row of colored state bubbles.
  • Inside that dropdown, use the Pauses line to jump directly into pause reasons for that contributor.
  • Labor cost is calculated for both hourly and salary contributors. Hourly workers use their configured hourly rate. Salary workers use their annual salary divided by 2,080 (the U.S. standard working hours per year) to derive an effective hourly rate, which is then applied to tracked session minutes. Both appear together in the same labor cost columns.
  • The new order profitability view uses the current billed total as Retail Price, keeps Admin Costs as a placeholder column for later, and calculates margin from the currently known cost data only.
  • Retail price currently comes from the ProfitMaker invoice amount first, with a fallback to the order line-total summary when an invoiced order carries a zero invoice amount.
  • Orders can show a Retail Price and Margin % even when no formal invoice has been posted. This is expected behavior. The retail price is sourced from the billed_total field on the ProfitMaker order record, which reflects the order value from the time the order is created — before an AR invoice is formally posted in the accounting system. Margin is calculated from that order-level value: (Retail Price − Labor Cost) ÷ Retail Price. If the billed amount is revised before final invoicing, the margin will update automatically on the next ProfitMaker reference refresh.
  • Changing Period or either Date Range calendar now refreshes both reports automatically. The Refresh button remains available as a manual retry and verification control.

Windows / Edge users: The date fields show a small calendar icon on the right side of each input. Click that icon to open the date picker. If you click the date text itself and nothing happens, move your cursor to the right edge of the field where the icon is visible and click there.

16. Printing The Order Profitability Report

The Order Profitability report can be printed or saved as a PDF directly from the console. The print icon sits between the To date field and the Refresh button in the report toolbar.

Print flow:

  1. Select a date range using the From and To fields, then click Refresh to load the data.
  2. Click the printer icon. A panel opens confirming the selected date range and the number of orders that will be printed.
  3. Click Print Preview to see a paginated mockup of the printed pages before committing. Use the arrow buttons to step through pages.
  4. Click Print from either the info screen or the preview screen. Your browser's standard print dialog opens.
  5. To cancel at any point, click Go Back to step back, or click outside the panel to close it entirely.

What the printed output includes:

  • Full report title: Order Profitability Report — Time & Materials, Shipping, and Margin % — CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
  • The selected date range
  • All order rows currently loaded in the report, in the current sort order
  • A CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY footer on the final page

Format and orientation:

  • The output is a plain spreadsheet-style table — no app colors, backgrounds, or decorative styles.
  • The console requests landscape orientation from the browser automatically. If your printer dialog shows portrait, switch it to landscape manually for the best results.
  • When saving as PDF, the default filename is Order Profitability Report.
  • Page breaks are handled naturally by the browser. Rows are never split mid-row across pages.
  • Column headers repeat on every page automatically in Chrome and Edge.

The print icon is only active when the Order Profitability report is loaded with data. Clicking it before selecting a date range will show a brief message prompting you to select a date range first.

17. Reference Tabs

Documentation tabs now follow role permissions and always collapse left in the same order when they are available.

In the current draft:

  • All console roles can see User Guide.
  • Reports is available to Owner, Developer, Senior Management, and Manager.
  • Topology is limited to Owner and Developer.
  • Runbook is limited to Owner and Developer.
  • Reference is available to Owner, Developer, Senior Management, and Manager.
  • Team Lead sees only User Guide.
  • Foreman also sees only User Guide.

Hidden tabs do not leave empty slots in the tab rail.

18. About Tab — App Version And Updates (Operations Console)

The About tab is the last tab in the console and is visible to all roles. It shows the app name, current version number, and update status.

  • When the app is up to date, the status reads Up to date and no action is required.
  • When an update is available, the status reads Update available or Reinstall required and a button appears. Tap Refresh Now to apply a standard update, or Install Update for a full reinstall if prompted.
  • The app checks for updates automatically each time the page loads and each time you return to the browser tab.
  • A standard refresh preserves all local data. A full reinstall clears the app cache and requires you to re-add the icon to your home screen — follow the on-screen instructions if that prompt appears.

18b. About Section — App Version And Updates (Time On Tasks)

In Time On Tasks, the About section is at the bottom of the hamburger menu (the three-line icon in the top-left corner). It shows the app name, current version, update status, and copyright notice.

  • An orange ! badge appears on the hamburger icon when an update is waiting — you do not need to open the menu to notice it.
  • Open the menu and scroll to the bottom to see the update status and tap Refresh Now or Install Update as prompted.
  • Update checks happen automatically on load and on tab focus return.

20. Role-Based Capability Guide

  • Developer: full console access, full user-management access, can see all document tabs.
  • Owner: can manage users, has a cleaner view that hides inactive users and the deactivate button, and can see all document tabs plus Reports.
  • Senior Management: can enter the console, manage the visible user levels available to that role, correct tracked time on eligible accounts, and see User Guide, Reports, and Reference.
  • Manager: can enter the console, manage the visible user levels available to that role, correct tracked time on eligible accounts, and see User Guide, Reports, and Reference.
  • Team Lead: can enter the console, manage manufacturing contributors where allowed, correct tracked time on eligible contributor-style accounts within that scope, and see only the User Guide tab.
  • Foreman: inherits Team Lead-level console permissions, can manage manufacturing contributors where allowed, correct tracked time on eligible contributor-style accounts within that scope, and see only the User Guide tab.
  • Manufacturing Contributor: does not use this console for live work creation; contributors work in Time On Tasks.
Time On Tasks — Management View: When a Senior Management, Manager, Team Lead, or Foreman role signs in to the Time On Tasks app, the dashboard displays the full team's task activity for the day — all queued, active, paused, and completed tasks across all contributors. This is a read-only overview. Management roles cannot start timers, add tasks, or log time. The task counts shown belong to contributors, not to the signed-in manager. This behavior is intentional and is how management checks in on daily progress without using the Operations Console.

How Changes Reach The Console

Operations Console updates do not appear automatically. The codebase is maintained by the development team and is tracked locally with Git, a tool that takes named snapshots of the project at meaningful save points so changes can be reviewed, rolled back, or moved between environments cleanly. Git lives entirely on the development Mac — nothing about the source code leaves the machine, and there is no third-party service in the loop.

Most changes are validated in the staging environment first (staging.console.laneaward.com) before being promoted to production (console.laneaward.com). If you see a behavior in staging that has not yet appeared in production, that is expected — it is sitting on a development branch that has not yet been approved for production deploy. The reverse — a production behavior that staging no longer has — usually means staging is one step ahead of production while a change is under review.

For the technical details of how source changes are tracked and how branches keep work-in-progress separate from the deployed production code, see the Version Control And Source Management section of the Project Reference document.

Trouble Shooting

The PIN does not work

Make sure you are entering the active PIN exactly as assigned. If the account is inactive, or if the role does not have console access, sign-in will fail even if the PIN used to work before.

I signed in but I cannot add users

That means the current role has console access but not user-management access. Check the identity card in the header to confirm which account and role are currently signed in.

I clicked a row but tab 2 did not open the way I expected

Select the account row itself, not the sort header or a button inside the row. The selected account should move focus to tab 2 and place the user name in the tab title. A small indicator appears after the name to show that the tab has a dropdown menu with additional sections.

I do not see compensation fields

That is expected unless the selected account uses compensation fields and the signed-in console role is allowed to view them. For example, Team Lead and Foreman users do not see compensation data in the current draft.

I created a contributor but forgot to add tasks

The contributor can still add live work for themselves in Time On Tasks. The reusable task template list is helpful, but it does not block contributor sign-in or live task creation.

The print icon does nothing when clicked

Make sure a date range is selected and the Order Profitability report has been loaded first by clicking Refresh. The print icon only opens the print panel when there is data loaded. If no data is present, a message will appear prompting you to select a date range.

The printed report comes out in portrait instead of landscape

The console requests landscape orientation automatically, but some browsers give the user final control in the print dialog. If the output appears in portrait, open the print dialog's page setup options and switch the orientation to Landscape before printing. This is especially common in Safari.

The calendar date picker does not open when I click the date field

On Windows using Microsoft Edge, clicking the displayed date text may not open the calendar. Look for the small calendar icon on the right side of the date field and click it directly. The icon highlights when you hover over it.

The PDF saved from print has the wrong filename

The default PDF filename is set to Order Profitability Report when printing from the Order Profitability report. If you see a different name such as LaneAward Operations Console, your browser may have cached the page title. Try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) and print again.

The guide or quick link does not update right away

Refresh the console page and open the guide again. During staging work, browsers can briefly hold an older copy of a static HTML file.

A contributor's session ran overnight and the time looks wrong

Open the affected account in Time Corrections, locate the session, and use Correct Time to set the stop time to when the contributor actually stopped working. Enter a reason such as Task left running at end of shift — corrected to actual stop time. The recalculated duration will reflect the correct hours for that day.

A contributor has paused tasks that are weeks old

Follow up with the contributor directly. Tasks that are genuinely finished should be stopped. Tasks that were added in error should be canceled. The console does not automatically close stale paused tasks — a manager or team lead must work with the contributor to resolve them through the contributor app.

The Repeat Multiplier section is not showing in Time Corrections

That section only appears for sessions that were completed as repeat tasks. If the contributor did not configure a repeat before stopping the task, the section will not be present and the correction cannot add one retroactively. Contact a Manager or Owner if a repeat configuration needs to be applied after the fact.

The repeat total is not updating as I change the fields

The Total min field recalculates automatically whenever Qty? or Iteration time changes. If you do not see it update, confirm both fields contain valid numbers — quantity must be 2 or more and iteration time must be greater than zero.

The app still shows the old version after tapping Refresh Now

The browser may be serving a cached copy. On Android or Samsung tablet, open the browser menu, go to Settings → Privacy → Clear browsing data, clear cached files, and reload the page. On desktop, use Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows) for a hard refresh.

The About section says "Update available" but Refresh Now did not clear it

If a standard refresh did not clear the update notice, a full reinstall may be needed. Tap Install Update in the About section and follow the on-screen steps. You will need to remove the app icon from your home screen and re-add it from the browser after the reinstall completes.

Save is asking for a reason but I only changed the repeat fields

A correction reason is only required when the start or stop time is also being changed. If the start and stop times are unchanged, leave the reason field empty and save. The repeat correction will still be applied.

A user's PIN shows as "Hidden" in the console — is something wrong?

No. As of 2026-04-30, all user PINs are protected using Argon2id cryptographic hashing. Once a user signs in for the first time after this update, their PIN is permanently converted to a secure hash and can no longer be displayed in plaintext — this is intentional and correct security behavior. To assign a new PIN to a user, use the Reset PIN function in User Accounts. The system will generate a new secure PIN that the manager can then communicate to the user directly.

How secure are user PINs?

PINs are protected by two layers of security on the server. First, each PIN is stored using Argon2id — a memory-intensive cryptographic hash that makes bulk offline attacks impractical even if the database were ever accessed directly. Second, a fast-lookup token is stored alongside the hash so the server can identify the correct user account in under one millisecond, then run exactly one Argon2id verification (~230 ms total) rather than checking every user in sequence. Both layers are transparent to users — sign-in is fast and secure with no change to the normal PIN workflow. Failed PIN attempts trigger progressive lockouts (60 seconds, then 5 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 1 hour) per device to block brute-force attempts.

Can I set a specific PIN when resetting a user's account?

Yes. When resetting a single user's PIN, the console allows you to enter a custom 6-digit PIN or leave the field blank to have the system generate one automatically. In both cases the PIN is stored as a secure hash immediately — it will not be visible after saving. Write it down before confirming if you need to hand it to the user.