VICOBA: working offline

1. What it is and who it is for

If the network drops during a meeting or at the market, you do not need to stop. You record on your phone, and the work is sent by itself when the network returns.

Menu names in the app are in Kiswahili. This guide shows each one in bold with the English meaning in brackets.

New loans, loan approvals and reports are done online only.

Checklist before the meeting

• You are signed in on the phone you will use at the meeting.
• You opened Kazi bila mtandao (Work without a network) and the member list has downloaded.
• You tested airplane mode (see Setup).
• The queue from the last meeting has been sent.
• The phone is charged.

2. Setup (do this while you have a network)

1. Sign in on the phone you will use at the meeting.
2. Open the menu, then Kazi bila mtandao.
3. Wait for the list of members, contribution types, loans and meetings to download to the phone. This happens as soon as the page opens.
4. Optional but helpful: add VisaMi to your home screen.
5. Test it once: put the phone in airplane mode and open that page again. If it opens and the list is there, you are ready.
6. Turn the network back on.

Do the setup the day before the meeting, not a few minutes before, so you have time to fix any problem.

3. Recording without a network

1. Open Kazi bila mtandao and choose a tab: contribution, repayment or attendance.
2. Fill in the form as usual: member, amount, payment method and date.
3. Save. The work goes into the Foleni ya kutuma (Send queue) on your phone.

• Contribution: the treasurer records a member's contribution.
• Repayment: the treasurer records a loan payment.
• Attendance: the chairperson or secretary marks who attended; the fine for missing a meeting is added automatically, only once per meeting date.

What is in the queue is only a temporary record. It is not in the group's books until it is sent.

4. When the network returns

• If you are signed in, the work is sent by itself. You can also press Tuma sasa (Send now).
• Each item is sent only once, even if you press twice or use two pages.
• The official receipt and its number are issued by the server when sending. Give the member the official receipt after it is sent.
• Items already sent can be cleared with Ondoa zilizotumwa (Remove sent).

5. Limits and safety

• Work older than 3 days asks for your confirmation before it is sent, and work older than 30 days is not accepted.
• When you press Toka (Sign out), the offline data on the phone is erased. There is also a Futa data ya kifaa hiki (Erase this device's data) button.
• Send your work early. On an iPhone the system may delete the data of a site that has not been used for a long time, so do not leave a queue for weeks.

If you have work in the queue, do not erase the device's data until it shows as sent. Do not press Toka before sending.

6. Common problems