Working with recommendations in FarmQA

Recommendation functionality within FarmQA is an important part of our digital agronomic tools. This article will walk you through how to setup your account to write recommendations, as well as how to write, complete, edit, and view your recommendations. The links in the table of contents will to the section of this article that discusses each listed functionality. 

Table of Contents

Creating and Importing Products

Creating Tank Mixes (Optional)

Writing Recommendations

Marking recommendations as complete

Viewing Recommendations

Editing recommendations

Creating and Importing Products

Available from the: Web App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist

Before you start writing recommendations, you'll need a list of products that will be used in a given growing season, like dicamba and 2-4,D. Products can be added via an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) look up tool, imported through a spreadsheet, or manually added within FarmQA.  If you want a more detailed look into the ways you can add products to FarmQA, refer to this article.

• Click on the Advice  icon on the left-hand side of the screen.
• Navigate to the Products tab at the top of the screen.
• In the center panel, there is a blue drop-down menu (pictured below). The menu gives you the following three options for adding products to your account: 
  • New Product: Manually enter all of the information about a product.
  • Import from the EPA: Search for a product in our EPA database. Products can be searched for by product name or by the name of active chemicals in the product. 
  • Import from spreadsheet: see instructions here.

Creating Tank Mixes (optional)

Available from the: Web App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist

After products are added, they can be combined into common tank mixes and saved by crop. This makes it easier to write recommendations in-season while using the app. 

• Click on the Advice  icon, then navigate to the Mixes tab.
• From this screen you can search, sort, and filter existing mixes along with editing them.
• Additionally, you can create new mixes by clicking the New mix button in the top right-hand corner of the screen (see below).

• Start creating your new mix by giving it a name. This is open ended, but examples could include "Post emergence weed mix" or "Peas - white mold suppression".
• Next, include the instructions for product application. These will be used to populate the Recommendation note section in the final step. 
• Click Add products option at the top of the screen. This will bring up a list of products that can be searched and filtered down. Multi-select and click Select within the product list after finding the products to combine, and click Add to add these products to your mix (pictured below).

• Note the mix order is the order the products are shown in the list. They can be re-ordered using drag and drop.
• Finally, the product details can be edited in the right-hand pane. For example, adjust the rate and then click Save . 

Writing Recommendations

Available from the: Mobile App and Web App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist

The final step in the process is to actually write the recommendation. Recommendations can be written either in FarmQA Controller or FarmQA Scouting. Refer to the instructions below to learn how to write recommendations in each tool.

FarmQA mobile app

• Recommendations can either be started from the field list view, the Action button on the map tab, or the Action  button on the advice tab.
• Click the Create a recommendation  button (pictured below).

• After entering the create recommendation screen, you can perform the following actions:
  • Field: by default the field you selected from the map or list will be associated to the recommendation. You can also select other fields to group into the recommendation. 

• • Products: you can choose a mix to apply to the recommendation or add products individually. After selecting a mix, you can adjust the rates and notes per product. Click Done to add your mix and/or products to your recommendation.

• • Timing: you can set a time range and a priority level per recommendation using the built in calendar picker.
  • Notes: Add notes that will apply to the recommendation.

• When completed, click Save draft or Submit to save your recommendation. Selecting Save draft will save your changes and allow you to come back later and complete the recommendation, while selecting Submit will send your recommendation to your FarmQA account where members of your enterprise can actively view it. 

FarmQA web app

• Click on the Advice  icon.
• Under the Recommendations tab, click on the New recommendation  button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen (pictured below). 

• The steps for adding a recommendation in the web app are the same as adding one in mobile app. Follow those steps to complete your recommendation.

Creating a spray record from a recommendation

Available from the: Mobile App and Web App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist, Grower, Standard, Crop Scout, Driver

FarmQA web app

• Click on the Advice tab.
• In the Recommendations tab, locate and click on the recommendation you want to create a spray record for. 
• Click on either of the Create spray record  button (pictured below). 

• Complete the following steps in the Spray details page (pictured below):
  1. Choose whether this spray record is for the entire field or a part of it.
  2. Select the start and stop date and times for this spray record.
  3. Review the products that were applied to this field. You can edit products/rate and add products as needed.
  4. Use the Applicator dropdown to select an applicator to associate with this task.
  5. Use the Application method dropdown to select the application method used for this spray event.
  6. Set the Wind speed recorded during the time of spraying.

• Click the Save button to save your spray record. 

FarmQA mobile app

• Click on the Advice icon.
• In the RECOMMENDATIONS page, scroll down to the table of your recommendations and click on the Select button (pictured below). 

• Check the box next to the recommendation you want to create a spray record for, then click the    Complete button (pictured below). 

• Complete the following steps in the Spray record page (pictured below):
  1. Choose the field(s) you want to add to your spray record.
  2. Review and edit the product(s) in your spray record.
  3. Edit pertinent spray record information like water volume, preharvest interval, and rainfast hours. 
  4. Use the Applicator dropdown to select the applicator who applied these products.
  5. Use the Application method dropdown to select the method that was used when applying these products.
• When you're done putting this information in, click the Submit button.

Viewing Recommendations

Available from the: Mobile App and Web App

User Permissions: All Users

FarmQA mobile app

• In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, click on the Advice  tab.
  • Recommendations will either be displayed as Recommendations in progress or Past recommendation depending if they are drafts or not.
• Click on a past report Recommendation, choose the PDF layout of your preference, and then click Open PDF. The PDF will include product totals based on the known acreage of fields.

• Selecting Open PDF will open a PDF copy of your recommendation in a web browser window on your mobile device.  

FarmQA web app

• Click on the Advice  icon.
• In the Recommendations tab, select the recommendation(s) you wish to export.
• Click the Download  icon, then select how you want to export your recommendations.
  • Selecting the Export  option will download a PDF or Excel file of your selected recommendations.
  • Selecting the Share  option will allow you to email the PDF report to a desired recipient.

• Note that recommendations can also be multi-selected and exported in bulk from the list view shown above. This allows for a weeks worth of recommendations to be sent in one PDF file.
• Find below an example of what exported PDF and Excel files will look like.

Editing recommendations

Available from the: Web App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist, Grower, Standard, Crop Scout, Driver

• Click on the Advice  icon, then search for the recommendation you want to edit in the Recommendations tab.
  • HINT: use either the sort options or the Search tab in the upper right-hand side of the screen to help you find the recommendation you want to edit.
• Click on the completed recommendation, then click the Edit  icon above the recommendation (pictured below). 

• Make the desired edits to your recommendation in the New recommendation window.
• Click the Save button at the bottom of the window to save your changes (pictured below).

Deleting Recommendations

Available from the: Mobile App and Web App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist, Grower, Standard, Crop Scout, Driver

FarmQA mobile app

• Click on the Advice  icon, and make sure that you're on the RECOMMENDATIONS tab. 
• Locate the recommendation you want to delete, the click and swipe the recommendation to the left (pictured below). 

• Click on the red Delete button next to the recommendation, then click on the Delete button at the bottom of the screen (pictured below). 

FarmQA web app

• Click on the Advice icon, then click on the Recommendations tab. 
• Click on the recommendation you want to delete, then click on the Delete (pictured below).

• In the Delete recommendation page, click on the Delete icon to finish deleting your recommendation.