Grange OS user guide

Version 1.2. Grange OS keeps your farm records on your own Windows PC: animals, crops, land, chores, money and reports, all in one place.

Contents

1. Installing
2. First start
3. Trial and license
4. Finding your way around
5. The pages
6. Settings
7. Backups and moving to a new PC
8. Phone sync (Android)
9. Troubleshooting

1. Installing

1. Download GrangeOS-Setup-1.2.0.exe and open it from your Downloads folder.
   • If your browser says the file "isn't commonly downloaded", choose Keep.
2. If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway. Windows shows this for new apps it doesn't know yet.
3. Click Install.
   • Grange OS installs in your own user folder, so no administrator password is needed.

Requirements: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), and about 500 MB of disk space. An internet connection is only needed for the map, the weather forecast, license activation and update checks.

2. First start

The setup wizard runs the first time you open Grange OS, and takes about a minute.

1. Farm: your farm's name. You can leave it blank and add it later.
2. Location: type your nearest town and click Find, then pick the right match.
   • To narrow the search, add a comma and the state or country, for example Springfield, Illinois.
   • You can also type the latitude and longitude, or skip this step.
   • The location is used for the weather forecast and to centre the map. The town search works offline.
3. Units: currency, acres or hectares, and date format. These are suggested from your location, and you can change them.
4. Theme: pick a look. You can change it at any time in Settings.
5. Start: begin with an empty farm, or load the demo farm to explore with example records first.
   • When you're ready for your own records, use Settings → Your Data → Clear all data…

3. Trial and license

• Free trial: every feature is unlocked for 14 days. No card is needed.
• To activate: open Settings → License → Enter license key… and paste the key from your purchase email.
• Your key covers up to 3 PCs. To move to a new PC, choose Settings → License → Deactivate on this PC on the old one, then activate on the new PC.
• If activation says the key has reached its limit (for example after several reinstalls), email solutions@xenithdevgroup.com and we'll send you a replacement key.
• License checks: the license is checked online now and then, and Grange OS keeps working for up to 30 days without internet.
• If the trial ends before you activate: you can still export all your data from the activation window.

4. Finding your way around

The sidebar groups the pages: Overview, Daily Work, Livestock, Land & Crops, Resources, Money and Records. Click the arrow at the top of the sidebar, or press Ctrl+B, to collapse it.

The quickest way to get anywhere is Ctrl+K. Type part of a page name or a record (an animal's name or tag, a chore, a contact), then press Enter.

Most pages work the same way:

• a list (table) of records, with a search box and filters above it;
• a + button to add a record;
• double-click a row to open or edit it.

Keyboard shortcuts

5. The pages

Overview

• Dashboard: what needs doing today and how the farm is tracking. Overdue chores and reminders, counts, money this month, project progress and expense charts.
• Calendar: everything with a date (chores, reminders, services, health treatments, due dates) on one calendar.
• Reminders: dated alerts for payments, visits and anything else you mustn't forget.

Daily work

• Chores: daily, weekly and seasonal jobs. Recurring chores come back automatically when you complete them.
• Work Logs: labour hours, tasks and pay.
• Projects: farm projects with budgets, tasks and progress.

Livestock

• Animals: every animal, with tag, breed, sex, dates, photo, and purchase and sale prices. Open an animal to see its tabs:
  • health treatments and vaccinations;
  • weights, with a growth chart;
  • breeding;
  • feed;
  • offspring (sire and dam are linked).
• Breeding: breeding records, with expected birth dates.
• Feed: feed given, costs and stock.

Land and crops

• Land: draw your fields and paddocks on the map.
  1. Click the shape tools on the map to draw a parcel.
  2. Give it a name, use type and status.
  3. Switch between Satellite, Satellite + labels and Topo map with the layers button.
  4. Type a town in the search box on the map to jump there, for example Fargo, North Dakota.

     The map pictures cover the United States. Elsewhere you can still draw and keep parcels, on a blank background.

     Parcels work offline. The map pictures need internet.

• Crops: plantings and harvests, as a table or a timeline.
• Yields: compare yields across parcels and seasons.
• Rainfall: rain gauge readings and soil moisture.
• Water: water sources and irrigation.
• Weather: current conditions and a 7-day forecast, with frost warnings.
  • The forecast is for your saved location, or for the centre of your land parcels.
  • To change the location, open Location on the Weather page.

Resources

• Inventory: stock levels and supplies, with low-stock warnings.
• Equipment: vehicles, implements and their service history.
• Workers: staff, roles and pay rates.
• Contacts: vendors, suppliers, vets, buyers and others.

Money

• Finance: the money side of the farm, in four tabs:
  • Overview: income against expenses, and net profit.
  • Expenses and Income: your records.
  • Budgets: budget against actual for each category.
• Reports: choose a period, then pick a tab:
  • Overview
  • Profit & Loss
  • Enterprises (profit and loss per enterprise)
  • Expenses
  • Work Hours
  • Projects
  • Tax Year (with a custom start month), which you can export for your accountant

Records

• Photos: a photo journal, linked to parcels, animals and places.
• Documents: deeds, contracts, permits and receipts.
• Notes: notes and observations.

6. Settings

Importing from a spreadsheet:

1. Save your spreadsheet as CSV (in Excel: File → Save As → CSV).
2. Choose Settings → Your Data → Import from spreadsheet (CSV)…
3. Match the columns, check the preview, then import.

Importing the same file twice adds the rows twice, so import each file once.

Deleted something by mistake? Press Ctrl+Z straight away, or open Settings → Your Data → Trash… to restore it.

7. Backups and moving to a new PC

Your records, photos and documents are stored on your PC in %LOCALAPPDATA%\GrangeOS. Uninstalling Grange OS never deletes them.

• Make a backup: choose Settings → Backup & Restore → Export Backup…. This saves one .zip file. Keep a copy on a USB stick or in cloud storage.
• Automatic backups: set Automatic backup to On exit or Weekly. Use Automatic backups… to see them and restore one with a click.
• Move to a new PC:
  1. Export a backup on the old PC.
  2. Deactivate the license there (Settings → License → Deactivate on this PC).
  3. Install Grange OS on the new PC and activate it.
  4. Choose Settings → Backup & Restore → Import Backup… and pick your .zip file.

8. Phone sync (Android)

Log chores, animal notes and photos on your phone, and they appear on your PC.

Install the phone app (Android 8 or newer). It comes with your purchase as GrangeOS-Phone.apk, not from Google Play.

1. On your phone, open your purchase email and download the APK file. If Chrome warns that this type of file can harm your device, tap Download anyway.
2. Tap Open when it finishes, or find it in Files → Downloads.
3. If your phone says it isn't allowed to install unknown apps from this source, tap Settings, turn on Allow from this source, then go back.
4. Tap Install. If Google Play Protect asks, tap More details → Install anyway, or let it scan the app.

Pair it with your PC:

1. On the PC, open Settings → Phone sync, tick Let paired phones sync with this PC, and click Pair a phone…
2. In the Grange OS phone app, scan the code on the screen. If you can't scan it, choose Enter code in the app and type the PC address and pairing code shown.
3. The first time, Windows may ask whether Grange OS can use the network. Allow it on private networks.

Notes on how sync works:

• The phone and PC sync over your own Wi-Fi, with no cloud account. They need to be on the same network to sync. You can keep logging on the phone away from Wi-Fi, and it catches up next time.
• Only use phone sync on a network you trust, such as your home or farm Wi-Fi.
• To remove a phone, use Remove next to it in Settings → Phone sync.

9. Troubleshooting

Support: solutions@xenithdevgroup.com. Please include your Grange OS version (shown in Settings → About) and what you were doing when the problem happened.