Getting Started with Factory Captures

Factory Captures is a production logging feature built into AskBiz POS. It gives floor staff a fast, photo-first way to record production events — without paper forms or separate software.

Every capture is:

• Timestamped and attributed to the submitting staff member
• Attached to a mandatory photo
• Queued for supervisor approval before being formally recorded

The result is a tamper-proof production log that reflects what actually happened on your floor, not what someone remembered later.

Factory Captures comes with the Manufacturer business type — pick it at signup and you're set up for it from the start, no separate settings toggle to find. If you're already signed up as a Manufacturer, the sector is already live for your account.

AskBiz Factory Captures has five event types, each covering a distinct production stage:

• Intake — log incoming raw materials or components. Staff photograph the batch on arrival.
• Output — record finished goods coming off the production line. Photo verifies quantity and condition.
• Packaging — record bulk output being packed into sized units, like 20L jerry cans or 1kg bags. See Packaging Captures.
• Wastage — document damaged, spoiled, or rejected materials. Every wastage event builds your loss rate record.
• Dispatch — log finished goods leaving the facility. Closes the loop between production and fulfilment. Checks any open holds on the product first — see Not-Yet-Releasable Holds.

Each type has its own permission flag (camera.intake, camera.output, camera.packaging, camera.wastage, camera.dispatch) so you can assign exactly the right access to each staff member.

You can also record your factory type — the specific kind of production you run, from 12 built-in categories (cooking oil pressing, packaged water, maize milling, cassava processing, rice milling, dairy processing, bakery, soap making, concrete blocks, poultry processing, coffee processing, and fish smoking), plus an Other option. You're asked to pick one during onboarding, right after Business Sector, and can change it any time from Settings → Localisation → Factory Settings. It's optional and skippable. Picking a type now genuinely changes what AskBiz does with your production data — see Choosing Your Factory Type.

Factory Captures is the entry point, but the Factory sector also includes several more floor-level tools, all reachable from the Factory hub at pos.askbiz.co/factory:

• Batch Tracking — scan a batch reference through checkpoints (intake, in progress, QC pass, QC fail, dispatch) with a photo at each one, building a traceability trail for that batch.
• Quality Checks — log a defect against a product with a defect type and severity, separate from a general wastage capture.
• Downtime Logging — report when a machine stops, with a start photo, and close it out later with an end photo. AskBiz records how long it was down.
• Production Shifts — start and end a named production shift with a photo at each end, optionally set a target output, and track live output against it.
• Waybills — log a full dispatch record with a destination, references, and a scheduled time, and see whether the dispatch was on time.
• Production Runs — optionally tie a group of intake and output captures together to see accurate per-run yield. See Production Runs and Intermediates.

Unlike the five capture types above, none of these go through the pending-approval queue described in Approving and Rejecting Captures — they save directly to your production record, with every action written to your audit trail.