How to Contact Support
A complete training guide for Stafferin guards: file a support ticket on the mobile app, attach a file (≤10 MB), SAVE DRAFT or SUBMIT, and track your tickets via My Submissions. Read it once, you'll never miss a field.
Before you start
Contact Support is the guard's escape hatch for help. It's not for emergencies — for those, use SOS. Treat Contact Support as a structured way to send a question, a bug, or an admin request to your support team. It works whether you're online or saving a draft for later.
Drafts are your friend. If you're typing on the run, tap SAVE DRAFT at any point. The form needs your name and email filled to save (other fields can be empty). You can come back later via the folder icon at the top right.
Don't use Contact Support for emergencies. If a real-time incident is in progress (alarm, intruder, medical, fire), use the SOS button or your site's emergency number. Contact Support is non-urgent — typical reply time is 1–2 business days.
Open Contact Support
From the Stafferin home menu, tap Contact Support. You land on a page titled "Contact Support" with an indigo app bar — the indigo color is shared with anything in the app related to asking for help.
A first look at the Contact Support form (top of the page).
What you'll see
- The page title "Contact Support" in the indigo AppBar.
- A back arrow on the left.
- Two icons on the right: a folder icon (the "My Submissions" tooltip) for past tickets & drafts, and the standard logout icon.
- A scrollable form card with: Name, Email (read-only and pre-filled), Phone, Category, Subject, Message, Preferred Contact, Callback Date, and an Upload File section.
- Two footer buttons: SAVE DRAFT (outlined, indigo) and SUBMIT (filled, indigo).
The page does not show any tickets you've already submitted on the main form. You only see those by tapping the folder icon at top right — it slides up a bottom sheet titled "My Submissions".
How it works at a glance
Six high-level steps from opening the page to a confirmation toast. Each one maps to a discrete tap or scroll in the app — no surprises.
Decision: Submit now, or Save Draft?
You don't have to submit on the spot. Use this rule:
A draft only needs Name and Email to save. A submission needs all required fields valid. So if you have a clear subject and message but no callback date yet, save a draft — fill in the rest later.
Watch the full flow
Six animated frames following one ticket end-to-end: from opening the page, to filling the form, attaching a file, submitting, and seeing it appear in My Submissions. Tap any step on the right to jump to that frame.
Steps
Tap a step to jump to it. The walkthrough plays automatically.
- Open Contact Support
- Fill Name, Subject, Message
- Pick Category, Preferred Contact, Callback
- Attach a file (optional)
- Tap SUBMIT
- See the success toast
Filling out a support ticket
Every field, what to type, what limits and validation apply, and what happens if you skip it. Validation fires one error at a time — fix it, tap Submit again, see the next one. Plan to fill the whole form before tapping Submit.
The fields, in order
-
Name (required)
Up to 100 characters. Validators:
"Please enter your name"if empty on the form, or"Please enter your name before saving"when you tap Save Draft / Submit. Over the limit:"Name must be under 100 characters".Use your full name as it appears on payroll. Support uses this to confirm your identity if they call back.
-
Email (required, read-only, pre-filled)
Comes from your sign-in. You can't edit it on this screen. Validators:
"Please enter your email"if empty on the form, or"Please enter your email before saving"on Save/Submit. Invalid format:"Please enter a valid email".If your account email is wrong, you can't fix it from this page. Talk to your supervisor — the master record is on the manager dashboard.
-
Phone (required)
Up to 20 characters. Must be 10–20 digits (the validator strips spaces, dashes, and parentheses). Plus signs are allowed for international dialing.
Validators:
"Please enter your phone number"if empty,"Please enter a valid phone number"if it doesn't match the pattern.Even if your contact preference is Email, the form requires a phone number — leave it as your normal mobile.
-
Category (required)
Five options: Technical, Billing, General, Hiring, Request Demo. Pick the closest match.
Validator:
"Please select a category".(See the next subsection for what each one means.)
-
Subject (required)
Up to 200 characters. Two text lines on screen but you can type long titles.
Validators:
"Please enter a subject"if empty,"Subject must be under 200 characters"if too long.Be specific. "QR scan fails at gate 3" beats "App broken".
-
Message (required)
Up to 3,000 characters. Five-line text area, expands as you type.
Validators:
"Please enter your message"if empty,"Message must be under 3000 characters"if too long.Cover: what happened, when, what you expected, what you tried. Include a screenshot via the Upload File section if it helps.
-
Preferred Contact (required)
Two options: Email or Phone. Pick how you want support to get back to you.
Validator:
"Please select a preferred contact method"on Submit. -
Callback Date (required)
The date you'd like support to reach out. Cannot be in the past.
Validators:
"Please choose a callback date"if empty,"Callback date cannot be in the past"if you pick yesterday or earlier.Heads-up: Currently, callback date is required even if you picked Email as preferred contact. If you don't actually need a callback, just pick today's date.
-
Upload File (optional)
Tap CHOOSE FILE. Allowed extensions:
pdf,jpg,jpeg,png,doc,docx. Maximum size: 10 MB.Once picked, the file appears as a chip with the file name and an X button to remove it. Images are compressed automatically before upload.
Errors:
"File size exceeds maximum allowed size of 10MB"(file too big) or"Failed to pick file"(picker error — usually permissions).
Category options — what to pick
Technical
TechnicalAnything with the app misbehaving — crashes, login problems, QR scan failures, status not updating, missing buttons, slow loading. Most guard tickets land here.
Billing
BillingPay stub questions, deductions, missing hours, payment delays. Note: most billing questions go to your supervisor first — only use this if your supervisor can't resolve it.
General
GeneralAnything that doesn't fit elsewhere — feedback, account changes, training questions, time-off process queries.
Hiring
HiringRecruitment / onboarding-related queries (typically not used by deployed guards). If you're already on payroll, you probably want General.
Request Demo
Request DemoSales-team category — for prospective customers. As a guard you should never need this; it lives here because the same form serves multiple audiences.
Validation rules summary
| Field | Required | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | 1–100 chars | Plain text. Trimmed. |
| Yes | Email format | Read-only, pre-filled from your account. | |
| Phone | Yes | 10–20 digits | Plus, spaces, dashes, parentheses allowed but stripped. |
| Category | Yes | 1 of 5 options | Technical / Billing / General / Hiring / Request Demo. |
| Subject | Yes | 1–200 chars | Two-line text field. |
| Message | Yes | 1–3,000 chars | Five-line text area. |
| Preferred Contact | Yes | Email / Phone | How support replies. |
| Callback Date | Yes | Today or future | Currently required even if Contact = Email. |
| Upload File | No | ≤10 MB, allowed types only | Optional. pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, doc, docx. |
SAVE DRAFT vs SUBMIT
Two buttons sit at the bottom of the form. They look very different — one is outlined, one is filled. They behave very differently too:
| Action | Validation | Result | Toast |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAVE DRAFT (outlined) | Only Name + Email required. | Saves a row in DRAFT status. Form clears. |
"Saved as draft" |
| SUBMIT (filled) | All required fields valid + future callback date. | Saves a row in REQUESTED status. Notifications fire to support. Form clears. |
"Your support request has been successfully received. Our team will review it and respond to you shortly." |
While the API call is in flight, the SUBMIT button changes label to "Working..." and shows a spinner. Don't tap a second time — wait for the toast.
Quick contact options
The Stafferin Contact Support page is the structured way to reach support. For everything else, use the channels below — pick the right escape hatch for your situation.
Don't use Contact Support to vent. Tickets are read by humans on a schedule. If you have an urgent operational issue, escalate via your supervisor or dispatch. Tickets are for things that need a paper trail or a fix from engineering.
Tracking your tickets
Every ticket you save (draft or submitted) appears in My Submissions — accessible via the folder icon at the top right of the Contact Support page. Tap it to slide up a bottom sheet listing all your tickets.
My Submissions bottom sheet — your draft and pending tickets.
What you can do here
- See every ticket you've saved or submitted (drafts and pending).
- Drag the sheet up or down to expand / collapse it.
- Tap any row to edit it — fields pre-fill and an edit-mode banner appears.
- Pull-to-refresh by tapping the folder icon again.
- If empty: "No drafts or submissions yet".
Status badges
| Badge | Status | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | DRAFT |
You saved it as a draft. Not yet sent. Tap to keep working on it. Editable. |
| Pending | REQUESTED |
Submitted to support. Awaiting their reply. Editable until they respond. |
| Resolved | APPROVED / RESOLVED |
Support handled it. Read-only. (Currently shows in some org rollouts.) |
| Closed | REJECTED |
Support marked it not actionable. Read-only. |
Editing a ticket
Tap a row in My Submissions. The form scrolls back to the top with all fields pre-filled. A coloured banner shows you which mode you're in.
Submitting a draft: When you tap SUBMIT from an existing draft, the API sends ?finalize=true. The row flips to REQUESTED and notifications go out. Toast: "Draft submitted successfully".
Errors and what to do
Every error string the form can show, organized by where it comes from. The validation messages fire one at a time — fix one, tap Submit again, see the next one.
Validation errors (form fields)
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Please enter your name" | Fill in the Name field. |
| "Please enter your name before saving" | Fill in Name then re-tap Save Draft / Submit. |
| "Name must be under 100 characters" | Shorten your name. |
| "Please enter your email" | Email is pre-filled — talk to your supervisor if it's empty. |
| "Please enter your email before saving" | Email is pre-filled — talk to your supervisor if it's empty. |
| "Please enter a valid email" | Account email is malformed — supervisor needs to update your record. |
| "Please enter your phone number" | Fill in the Phone field. |
| "Please enter a valid phone number" | 10–20 digits, e.g., +1 555 123 4567. |
| "Please select a category" | Pick from the Category dropdown (one of 5). |
| "Please enter a subject" | Fill in the Subject field. |
| "Subject must be under 200 characters" | Shorten the subject. |
| "Please enter your message" | Fill in the Message field. |
| "Message must be under 3000 characters" | Shorten the message. |
| "Please select a contact method" | Pick Email or Phone in Preferred Contact. |
| "Please select a preferred contact method" | (Submit-time variant.) Pick Email or Phone. |
| "Please choose a callback date" | Pick a Callback Date — required even if you picked Email. |
| "Callback date cannot be in the past" | Pick today or a future date. |
| "Please fill in all required fields correctly" | Generic catch-all. Scroll up — at least one field has a red error message under it. |
File upload errors
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "File size exceeds maximum allowed size of 10MB" | Compress the file (Photos app has a "Reduce size" option) or pick a smaller one. ZIP a long PDF. |
| "Failed to pick file" | Usually a permissions issue. Go to your phone Settings → Stafferin → Files / Photos → Allow. Try again. Allowed types: pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, doc, docx. |
Server / network errors (Submit-time)
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Your session has expired. Please log in again." | Tap the logout icon, sign back in, then re-open Contact Support. (The form is auto-cleared on logout — write down your message first if it was long.) |
| "Server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." | Wait a minute and tap Submit again. If it persists more than ten minutes, escalate to your supervisor. |
| "Network error. Please check your connection and try again." | Check Wi-Fi / mobile data. Note: the app does not auto-retry — you have to tap Submit again. Save a draft first if you're flaky on signal. |
| "Invalid request. Please check your input and try again." | Server-side validation rejected your input. Look at the message details — usually it'll quote which field is wrong. |
| "We encountered an error while processing your request. Please try again later." | Generic server error. Try again. If it persists, escalate. |
| "An error occurred: ..." | Catch-all from the app. Screenshot the message and send it to your supervisor — this leaks raw exception text and is being fixed (see bug doc). |
FAQ
How long until I get a response?
Typical: 1–2 business days. Depends on your category (Technical may be faster than Billing) and your org's SLA. If you marked "urgent" in the message body, it may move up. Use SOS or your supervisor for genuine emergencies.
Why is my email greyed out?
It's read-only by design. The app pre-fills your sign-in email so we always know who's submitting. If your email's wrong, your supervisor needs to update your account record on the manager dashboard.
Can I attach multiple files?
Currently one file per ticket. If you need to send two screenshots, combine them into a single PDF or ZIP (under 10 MB) and attach that.
What file types are allowed?
Six types: pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, doc, docx. Anything else (HEIC iPhone photos, video, ZIP, TXT, CSV) shows "Failed to pick file" with no explanation. iPhone users: in your camera Settings, switch HEIC to JPEG.
Can I update a submitted ticket?
Yes. Tap the folder icon → tap the ticket in My Submissions. The form pre-fills and the indigo "Editing submitted request" banner appears. Make changes, tap UPDATE. Toast: "Support request updated".
Can I delete a draft?
Not directly from the app today. Open the draft, leave only Name and Email, save it again — it stays as a near-empty draft. Or contact your supervisor to clean it up server-side.
What if my issue is urgent?
Use the SOS button for emergencies (life-safety). Use your supervisor or dispatch number for urgent operational issues. Contact Support is non-urgent — typical SLA is 1–2 business days.
The Submit button says "Working..." — is it stuck?
"Working..." with a spinner means the request is in flight to the server. Don't tap again — it'll usually finish within 10 seconds. If it stays "Working..." for a minute or more, your network probably dropped — close and re-open the app, your draft will reload.
Why is the AppBar indigo?
Indigo is Stafferin's "asking for help" color. Anything you'd associate with help / support / forms uses it. Other modules use blue (operational), red (alarm), green (success).
Why do I have to enter a phone number if I picked Email as preferred contact?
Phone is required for the form to validate, regardless of preferred contact. This is a known UX limitation — see the bug doc. For now, just enter your normal mobile number.
Why do I need a callback date if my preferred contact is Email?
Same reason — the validator demands a callback date even when you picked Email. If you don't actually want a phone callback, just pick today's date and the app will accept it.
I lost signal during Submit — what now?
You'll see "Network error. Please check your connection and try again." The form does not auto-retry. Best practice: tap SAVE DRAFT first when you're on a flaky connection, then SUBMIT once you're back on Wi-Fi.
Why does my form clear after I tap SUBMIT?
That's by design. After a successful submit, the form resets to a clean state so you can file another ticket. Your submission is in My Submissions if you want to look at it.
Where do my drafts live? Are they on the server or my phone?
On the server. Saving a draft makes a real API call (POST /contact-support?isDraft=true). That's why Save Draft requires Name and Email — it's saving a row, not just stashing local text. If you log in on another device, your drafts appear there too.
What does the orange "Editing draft" banner mean?
You opened a draft (DRAFT status) and you're editing it. Two buttons: SAVE DRAFT (re-saves it, stays a draft) or SUBMIT (finalizes — converts the draft to a submitted ticket). The Cancel Editing link returns you to a fresh form.
What does the indigo "Editing submitted request" banner mean?
You opened a submitted ticket (REQUESTED status) and you're editing it. One button: UPDATE. You cannot demote a submitted ticket back to a draft — only support can close or resolve it.
If I attach a 9 MB screenshot, will it upload fast?
Big attachments take time, especially on mobile data. Image files are compressed automatically before upload, so a 9 MB PNG often shrinks to 1–2 MB on the wire. PDFs are sent as-is.
What if my name has special characters or accents?
Unicode is supported. Your name can be anything that fits in 100 characters. Validators only check length and emptiness, not character set.
Can I get push notifications when support replies?
Yes, if your phone allows Stafferin notifications. The reply also appears in My Submissions when you re-open Contact Support — a status change from Pending to Resolved is the visual cue.
What's the difference between Save Draft validation and Submit validation?
Save Draft: requires only Name and Email (so the row can satisfy database NOT-NULL constraints). Everything else is optional. Submit: requires every required field to validate, plus a future callback date. Use Save Draft when you have partial info.
Quick reference card
Print this section and keep it for the first few tickets. After three or four submissions you'll know it cold.
pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, doc, docx.Contact Support is for non-urgent issues. Reply window is 1–2 business days. For emergencies, use SOS. For shift / payroll / site issues, talk to your supervisor first — that's faster than support.