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Quick Entry

Module: ChemIQ

Getting your chemical inventory into Tellus should not slow you down. Quick Entry gives your team fast ways to capture inventory in the field — photographing a product label on a shelf or scanning a barcode on the warehouse floor. Anyone on your team can help capture data, and supervisors handle quality control through a review queue before anything reaches your live inventory.

Quick Entry lives in the Add group of the ChemIQ sidebar. (You may see the route /chemiq/quick-import in your browser — that is the same screen; only the name on screen and in the menu is "Quick Entry.")

Looking to migrate a whole spreadsheet, invoice, ERP export, or a batch of SDS files? That is a separate screen. See Bulk Import, reachable from the Bulk Import item in the same Add group.

How It Works​

Quick Entry uses a two-step workflow that separates data capture from quality control:

  1. Capture — Field workers quickly add items using photo capture or barcode scanning
  2. Review & Approve — A supervisor reviews, corrects, and approves items before they enter your live inventory

This separation means anyone can help capture inventory without worrying about perfect data entry. Your supervisor handles verification, and approved items are automatically promoted to your live inventory.

The Quick Entry hub shows a simple three-step reminder — Capture → Review → Inventory — along with the capture lanes and quick links to the Review Queue and My Submissions.

Capture Lanes​

The Quick Entry hub offers three ways to capture an item.

Photo Capture​

Walk the floor and take photos of product labels. Tellus uses AI and OCR to extract product information automatically.

  1. Select your site and location (stays set for your entire session so you can move through a room quickly)
  2. Take 1 to 5 photos of the product label
  3. Enter the quantity and unit
  4. Add optional notes (for example, "container leaking" or "label faded")
  5. Tap Submit to send it to the review queue
  6. Keep going without leaving the capture screen

Tellus processes your photos in the background — extracting text, reading any visible barcodes, and matching to known products in your catalog. Match results appear during the review step.

Best practices for photo capture:

  • Photograph the product label straight-on with good lighting
  • Include the product name and manufacturer in the frame
  • If the label wraps around a container, take multiple photos
  • Add notes for anything unusual — damaged labels, partially empty containers, and so on

Scan Barcode (Barcode / Manual Entry)​

For products with readable barcodes, scanning is the fastest method. This lane is titled Barcode / Manual Entry because you can either scan or key the barcode in by hand.

  1. Select your site and location
  2. Point your camera at the product barcode, or type the barcode value manually
  3. Enter the quantity
  4. Tap Submit and move to the next product

Tellus matches the barcode to your product catalog in the background, and the results appear during the review step. Scanning works with common retail barcode formats (UPC, EAN, and Code 128).

Quick Manual​

Prefer to type it all in? The Quick Manual tile opens the standard Add Chemical page, where you can enter product details by hand. Unlike photo and barcode capture, an item entered this way goes straight into your workflow on the Add Chemical page rather than through the review queue.

Review Queue​

Photo and barcode captures land in the Review Queue for supervisor approval before going into your live inventory. The Review Queue is also a top-level item in the Review group of the ChemIQ sidebar, and a badge shows how many items are waiting.

At the top of the queue you will see live counts for Pending Review, Needs Attention, Approved Today, and Total Captures. From there you can:

  • Filter by status — Needs Attention, Pending Review, All, Processing, Approved, or Rejected
  • Filter by capture method — Photo or Barcode
  • Filter automatically to your current site
  • Open any item for a full detail view before deciding
  • Approve or Reject an item individually (with an optional rejection reason)
  • Select multiple items and use batch approve or batch reject to move quickly

What Happens During Review​

Tellus automatically tries to match each captured item to your existing product catalog and SDS library. Items that match cleanly are ready to approve; items that need a human decision are flagged as Needs Attention.

Match TypeHow It WorksConfidence
Barcode matchExact barcode match to a known productHighest
Name matchFuzzy name matching against your catalogMedium
OCR matchText extracted from photos matched to SDS documentsMedium
No matchMarked as a new product for manual entry—

Items can be approved without an SDS attached. They will be flagged in your inventory so you can attach an SDS later.

Approval to Inventory​

When you approve an item, Tellus automatically promotes it to your live inventory:

  • A product catalog entry is created or matched
  • An inventory record is created at the specified site and location
  • The chemical appears immediately in your inventory list
  • SDS data, hazard classifications, and regulatory flags are linked automatically if an SDS match was found

My Submissions​

The My Submissions screen lets anyone who captures items track what happened to them. Open it from the My Submissions button on the Quick Entry hub.

  • Filter by status — Processing, Pending Review, Needs Attention, Approved, or Rejected
  • Filter by capture method — Photo or Barcode
  • Open any submission to see its detail and the matched product information once review is complete

This is especially useful for field workers who want to confirm their captures were processed successfully.

Copy from Another Site​

Setting up a new site with chemicals you already stock elsewhere? Copy from Another Site lets you copy an existing site's inventory into the review queue for a different site, so you do not have to re-capture familiar products.

  1. Pick a source site — Tellus loads its active inventory
  2. Select the items you want to copy (or Select all)
  3. Pick a target site
  4. Click Copy to review queue

The selected items are pre-matched to the same catalog products and sent to the target site's Review Queue. A reviewer then assigns target-site locations and quantities and approves them, at which point Tellus creates the copies. Because it moves a batch of items at once, this lane is reached through Bulk Import.

Who Uses This​

RoleWhat You Can Do
AdminCapture items using any method; review and approve all submissions
ManagerCapture items; review and approve submissions for sites you manage
Program CoordinatorCapture items; review submissions
EmployeeCapture items using Photo Capture or Barcode Scan (with quick_import permission); view your own submissions in My Submissions

Reviewing and approving submissions requires the staging review permission, so capture-only team members will not see the Review Queue.

Availability​

All Quick Entry features listed above are included on every Tellus EHS account ($99/month).

Common Tasks​

  • Chemical Inventory — Where approved captures end up
  • Bulk Import — Migrate spreadsheets, invoices, ERP exports, or SDS batches, and copy inventory between sites
  • Product Catalog — The catalog that captures match against
  • SDS Library — SDS documents that captured items link to