Your first session, step by step

A guided first session, about 25 minutes. You start on the marketing site with no account, and finish with a saved day of duty status, an exported PDF, and a working backup. Every step names the screen and the control you press.

You need: a phone, tablet, or desktop browser; a connection for the first two steps; and a Google account or an email address for the logbook account.

Before you start: SynOdos HOS is approved by MTO/CVOR for use in lieu of paper logs. The app is still being extended, so items marked planned on the product page are not available to try yet.

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Step 1 — Land on the site and check it fits (3 min)

1. Open https://synodos.app.
2. Read the hero: the tag above the headline reads MTO/CVOR approved — in lieu of paper, the headline reads Run a stronger fleet operation., and the paragraph under it says the suite starts with Hours of Service compliance. Below the buttons, Sign up for early access jumps to the request form and Explore SynOdos HOS opens the product page.
3. Scroll to Features and Roadmap. The roadmap separates what ships first from what is planned — do not read a planned item as available.
4. Open synodos.app/hos and read the Sample day and Compliance sections. That is the logbook you are about to use: a 24-hour grid, a 15-Day Record, and a PDF.

If your operation needs a public site as well as the logbook, synodos.app/request-website is a separate request — see the getting started guide. It is not part of this walkthrough.

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Step 2 — Request early access (2 min)

You need the invite before the app will let you past its sign-in screen.

1. Press Sign up for early access in the site header — on a narrow phone screen the same button reads Early access — or the button of that name in the hero.
2. Fill the card: Name, Work email, then optionally Company, Phone, You are (Owner / operator, Fleet manager, Driver, Something else), and Fleet size (1–5, 6–20, 21–50, More than 50).
3. Tick the consent line and press Request early access.
4. Wait for "You're on the list" with your email address in it. That is the confirmation — there is no automated email receipt; a person writes back from [email protected].

While you wait, you can still complete steps 3–4: the logbook account is separate and you can create it yourself. Your early-access details are what the invite is scoped to.

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Step 3 — Open the logbook and sign in (2 min)

1. Open https://hos.synodos.app. You get a full-screen sign-in card: SynOdos HOS, Sign in to sync your log book, then Continue with Google and an or with email divider.
2. Use Continue with Google, or New here? Create an account, then an email, a password of at least six characters, and Create Account. If a confirmation email is requested, follow its link before signing in.
3. After the app opens, look at the account button: it shows the offline window counting down, e.g. "7 days offline left".

If both buttons are dimmed, the card also says "You're offline. Reconnect to sign in — logs already on this device are safe." Reconnect and carry on; nothing is lost.

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Step 4 — Install the app (2 min)

1. Open the browser menu and choose Install app / Add to Home Screen.
2. Launch it from the home screen — full screen, no address bar.

The app also shows an install banner, and System Settings → Installation repeats these instructions. Installing first keeps the log book in its own storage, so routine browser cleanup does not take your records with it.

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Step 5 — Set up your profile and unit (2 min)

1. Tap the account button, then Profile.
2. Fill in your name and certification dates, and pick your occupation.
3. Add a vehicle: the plate, plus any trucking fields you use.
4. Press Save Preferences.

The plate saved here is what the CMV Plate field matches later, and it is where odometer carry-forward comes from.

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Step 6 — Open today (1 min)

From the menu (☰, top right) choose Daily Logger.

• The header shows today's date between ‹ and ›.
• Weekly record / Log details is the metadata panel — leave it closed for now.

A new week is created the first time you open it: seven days, every quarter-hour set to off-duty.

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Step 7 — Log your day (5 min)

Work down the day in order. This is the part that becomes muscle memory.

1. Tap an hour header at the start of a long stretch to set all four quarter-hours of that hour at once. Each tap moves the whole hour to the next status, so one tap on an empty hour blocks in driving.
2. Tap individual 15-minute cells to correct the edges of a block — the start of a pre-trip, the end of a load.
3. Watch the bar along the bottom: off-duty / driving / on-duty / distance update on every tap.

A realistic morning looks like this:

Tapping a cell replaces its status rather than layering a new one, so a wrong tap is fixed by tapping the right column for that quarter.

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Step 8 — Fill in the day details (2 min)

Expand Weekly record / Log details.

1. Remarks — anything an officer or dispatcher should know.
2. CMV Plate — start typing the plate you saved; it matches the vehicle.
3. Start / End Odometer — distance is calculated from the pair.
4. Add another vehicle if the day covered more than one unit.

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Step 9 — Save (1 min)

Press Save Progress in the menu. Or turn on autosave in System Settings and forget about it — it writes two seconds after your last change.

Now try editing a past day: the app asks for a reason and records it in the audit trail. That is the compliance guard working, not an error.

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Step 10 — Save a preset (1 min, optional)

1. With today's header values filled in, press Save Preset.
2. Tomorrow, press Apply Preset and the driver, operator, terminal address, plate, and cycle come back in one move.

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Step 11 — Check the roadside view (1 min)

From the menu choose Inspection.

1. 15-Day Record lists today and the previous 14 days.
2. Expand today: a read-only graph, cut off at the current quarter, with a red current-time marker and a cycle chip (C1 for Cycle 1, C2 for Cycle 2).
3. Press Handoff for a QR code that opens the same record on the officer's phone. The link needs a connection and stops working after 7 days.

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Step 12 — Export the PDF (1 min)

Menu → Export Log (PDF).

You get an A4 portrait document: driver and log metadata, one block per day with a 24-hour graph, totals, remarks, operator information, and signature lines. The Inspection screen offers a roadside variant covering the last 15 days.

Open the downloaded file once to confirm it rendered — it saves silently, so a failure otherwise looks like nothing happened.

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Step 13 — Test it offline (1 min)

1. Turn on airplane mode.
2. Relaunch the app from the home screen.
3. Open the Daily Logger and change a cell.

It works. Changes queue on the device and flush when the connection returns; the sync badge tells you which state you are in.

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Step 14 — Back it up (2 min, do this once)

1. Profile → connect Google.
2. Choose a PIN and confirm it.
3. Backup Now.

The encrypted file goes to your private Drive app folder. The PIN is not recoverable — SynOdos cannot decrypt the file without it, so store it somewhere you trust.

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Step 15 — Read the rest when you need it (2 min)

You have now completed a full loop. Bookmark the two references:

• synodos.app/docs/getting-started — the site routes and both request forms.
• synodos.app/docs/user-guide — every screen in the logbook, by task.

Both are in the Guide item of the site header, and both pages carry their own table of contents.

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The daily loop, once you are set up

1. Open the app → today is already there.
2. Tap hour headers and cells as the day happens.
3. Fix remarks or odometers at the end of the shift.
4. Finish Day.
5. Weekly: check the Dashboard card for driving and cycle hours.

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Troubleshooting

Requests and sign-up on the site

Getting into the logbook

Using the logbook

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Reference: the user guide covers every screen in detail, and getting started covers the site itself.