See this article in video form here.


There is a lot of important info in this article, so please read carefully!


As your microgreens business grows, your record keeping will likely need to improve in order to make your records more audit ready (i.e., making them more accurate and verifiable). Such records are also useful for effectively reviewing and understanding historical crop production and yields.


When you start using SeedLeaf, you begin with a Simple Workflow. This means your crop production, packaging, and harvest records are theoretical - they are based on your "Tasks". These records are generated automatically and you can download them at any time from the Reports page. SeedLeaf doesn't care whether or not you complete your Tasks, but it does assume that you do complete them - and generates a report that says as much. This is a simple system, but is subject to inaccuracies.


When you choose the Advanced Workflow you are choosing to "validate" or "complete" each of your Tasks. This process takes your Tasks from being theoretical Tasks (to be completed) to actual Tasks (have been completed) and allows you to add notes and other data including Seed Lots, actual Task completion date, and who the Task was completed by.


There are currently two reports that are affected by your choice of Workflow:

  • Crop Production 

  • Packaging



So, what separates the Simple Workflow from the Advanced Workflow? 


In short: checkboxes and pop-up boxes for your Tasks! Let's dig into this bit more...




A Review of "Tasks"


SeedLeaf generates five to six Crop Production and Product Packaging Tasks for each affected Crop when you create an Order:

  1. Soak Seed (optional)

  2. Sow Seed

  3. Move to Blackout

  4. Uncover to Light

  5. Harvest

  6. Package


Each of these Tasks represents the transition of a Crop from one growth or packing state to another (e.g., from Germination into Light, or from Harvest to Packing). Each of these Tasks have some things in common:

  • They all have an expected date to be completed on 

  • They all have an expected number of trays or packages they will apply to

  • They all need to be completed by someone in the real world

  • They could all be subject to circumstances that are worthy of being recorded to better understand the progress of a Crop's growth or a Product's packaging 


**The Task list that SeedLeaf generates is theoretical. By using the Advanced Workflow, you can turn those "theoretical" Tasks into "real" Tasks (i.e., completed and verified) and add additional information about that Task. Let's start with looking at the Advanced Workflow.**



Advanced Workflow

When you choose the Advanced Workflow in SeedLeaf, three things important happen:

  1. You activate the Seed Lots feature, which allows you to assign a Seed Lot to a Sowing (or Soaking, if applicable) Task.

  2. Clicking on Task checkboxes (to "Complete" a Task) will result in a Pop-up box where you can confirm, supplement, and edit Task details.

  3. Not completing Task details in the Pop-up box will result in missing data in your report.


In other words, by choosing the Advanced Workflow, you are choosing to validate each of your production and packaging Tasks and you must do so in order for their data to show up in your Advanced Reports. 


So why would you choose the Advanced Workflow? Here are several reasons:

  1. You want more accurate records.

    • Reporting with the Advanced Workflow gives you both expected and actual data. Expected data is the data drawn from your Task list and Actual data is the data you enter or confirm when you complete each Task.

  2. You want to record Seed Lots. 

    • When you complete a sowing task you can enter one or more Seed Lots to help you better track seed use and prepare you for a recall if needed. 

  3. You can record who is doing each Task

    • This is useful if you want to track who is doing certain Tasks or who to go to if you suspect there have been challenges arising from how one of the Tasks was completed.

  4. You can update Task data as needed. 

    • For example,

      • If you drop a tray when uncovering, you can adjust your tray count from 10 to 9 when you complete the Task.

        • Currently, this tray count does not carry over to the next Task, so you would need to update this with each subsequent Task.

      • If you complete a Task on a different day than expected you can update the 'Actual" Task date.

  5. You can add Notes to each of your Tasks.

    1. This better conveys information about each stage in a crop cycle which is great for troubleshooting crop issues.

  6. You can perform audits. 

    1.  Advanced Reports allow to you to trace Products back to Seed Lots and Seed Lots to Products


How to Complete an Advanced Workflow Task


Completing a Task in Advanced Workflow mode is easy, but does require a few steps:

  1. Click the checkbox next to the Task you want to complete - this will cause a dialog box to appear. 

  2. Fill in the relevant data fields in the box

    • All the fields are optional, but if you do not fill out a field, those data will be missing from your report.

  3. Save the Task


Here's what that pop-up box might look like once it has been filled out:



How to Edit an Advanced Workflow Task


Once you complete a Task, a "pencil" icon appear to the right of the checkbox. You can click on this icon to edit the Task while retaining your original data.




Advanced Crop Production Reporting


The payoff for clicking on all those Task checkboxes and filling out pop-up box fields is you get a very detailed report which precisely documents each Crop's production cycle. Here's what is included in the Advanced Crop Production Report:

  • Seed Name, Variety, and Notes (drawn from the Seeds page)

  • Crop Name, Notes, Sowing Rate per tray, Expected Yield per tray, (drawn from the Crops page)

  • Seed lot(s) used, Seed Lot supplier

  • For each Task:

    • Expected and Actual completion date

    • Expected and Actual Tray count

    • Task completed by

    • Task Notes

  • For Harvest Task:

    • Expected and Actual Harvest date

    • Expected and Actual Tray count

    • Expected total Harvest weight

  • Associated Orders

  • Associated Products



Using Advanced Workflow Task Notes


The Task Notes field is useful for recording any observations or issues that arise when completing a Task. This could include:

  • Allocating Lot number tray counts

    • When you confirm your Soak or Sow Task you have the opportunity to enter one or more seed lot numbers and a total Tray count. Currently SeedLeaf does not split the Tray count between the two seed lots, so you would need to make note of this in the Notes section.

    • For example:

      • You sow 25 trays of sunflower seed using two seed lots: SF1 and SFBK

      • When completing the Task, you enter each of the seed lots in individual fields

      • Then you enter the total tray count as 25

      • In the Notes field you record:

        • "20 trays of SF1 and 5 trays of SFBK"

  • Noting any differences in completing a Task or a crop's growth when Task was completed

    • "Uncovered in morning instead of evening as usual"

    •  "Crop is more ahead/behind than usual"

  • Noting any trays lost to disease or being dropped

    • "Lost one tray to disease"

    • Note: If you reduce the tray count from 10 to 9 in the uncover Task, the expected tray for the next Task will still come up as 10 so you need to enter this each time.



Advanced Report Generation and Export


You can generate a Crop Production Report for on-screen display or for export to CSV. The on-screen display will show just a portion of the report and the whole report can be shown by clicking on "Columns" at the top of the data table and choosing "Show All" (in bottom right).


When you export the report to CSV you can now perform a more detailed data analysis. For paid users, we provide a template to help you use these data more effectively. This template can help you:

  • Identify crop cycles where a specific seed lot was used

  • Calculate actual yield per tray for a harvest

  • Correlate a Sales/Orders export to Crop Production and Packaging exports for traceability 



Simple Workflow - Crop Production Report


By default, SeedLeaf starts you off with the "Simple" Workflow.


With the Simple Workflow you are not required to use the checkboxes to validate and generate report data. You can still use the checkboxes to indicate you have competed a Task, but it is not required. The Simple Workflow takes the data from your Tasks to generate a simple Crop Production Report which contains the following fields:

  • Sowing Date

  • Crop

  • Sowing Rate per Tray

  • Trays Sowed

  • Expected Yield per Tray

  • Total Seed weight for sowing

  • For Harvest on




Changing Crops and Products Mid-Cycle


The number of conversations we've had about how to handle changes to Crops and Products and how they should apply to Crop production already in progress is epic!


In short, if you make a change to a Crop or Product while a Crop is in production it could affect your Tasks for a crop already in progress. For example, once you have sowed a crop, you change its Days to Maturity from 9 to 8. Thus, the Task for that Crop will now appear on your Task list the day after you sowed it, 





Changing Systems


At any time, you can choose to switch between the Simple and Advanced Workflow. However, we do not recommend doing this more than once. Basically once you go to Advanced Workflow it is best not to return to Simple Workflow if you want to maintain accurate records.




So, we hope this helps you determine which Workflow system you want to use!