Beacon saves when you press Save. Build that into the habit and nothing gets lost.
Three habits that cover everything
Save before you move on.
Finish what you are entering, press Save, then navigate. Treat Save as the last step of the task rather than something to come back to.
Save before you close.
Before closing a tab, refreshing, or shutting the laptop, press Save. Beacon cannot reach you once the browser is closing, so this one is entirely on the habit.
Read the message, not the position.
If Beacon asks about unsaved changes, read the button text before clicking. The wording tells you exactly what will happen.
How saving works
There are two kinds of screen in Beacon, plus controls that apply immediately. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you what to expect.
Full pages
Editing a customer, a device, a transfer, an event. These have a Save button, usually at the top of the page. Press it when you are done. If you click through to another part of Beacon with unsaved changes, you will often be asked what to do first.
Pop-up windows
Creating something new, or working through a step-by-step task. These have a Save or Create button at the bottom. While the window is open the rest of Beacon is out of reach, so finish the task or close the window using the X in the corner. On most of these, the X will check with you first.
Switches, checkboxes and setting dropdowns
These take effect the moment you touch them, with no Save button involved. You will usually see a brief confirmation. They appear throughout the product, and most heavily in Settings. Most can be switched back if you change your mind, so a wrong click is usually easy to correct. Where one cannot be reversed, Beacon asks you to confirm before it applies.
The rule that tells you which is which
You do not need to memorise a list of screens. One rule covers the whole product.
If you typed it, press Save. If you flipped it, it is already done.
Anything you type, choose from a date picker, or fill into a field is held on your screen until you press Save. Switches, checkboxes and setting dropdowns are different: they apply the moment you touch them, with no Save step.
This matters most in Settings > Organization, where both kinds sit on the same page. The company details you type need Save. The switches down the page take effect as soon as you flip them, and leaving the page will not undo them.
Switches are reversible, so a wrong flip is usually a quick fix. Where one cannot be reversed, Beacon asks you to confirm first.
The one that cannot be undone: Training complete
On Users > User detail, marking a user's training complete unlocks their access to Beacon. Unlike other switches, this one cannot be switched back, and the control becomes read-only once it is set.
Beacon asks you to confirm first, and the message says so:
You are about to mark this user's training status COMPLETE, giving the user access to the system. This action cannot be undone. Do you want to continue?
Read that one before clicking Yes.
If Beacon asks about unsaved changes
You may see one of these. Each one tells you what will happen. Read the buttons rather than clicking by position, because the safe choice is not always in the same place.
Leaving a page
Unsaved changes
You are leaving a page and have unsaved changes.
Save & Leave saves your work and moves on.
Discard changes moves on and keeps nothing. The X in the corner keeps you on the page with your work still there.
Leaving a page, something still needs attention
Unsaved changes
You are leaving a page and have unsaved changes. Please note: some values are INVALID. No changes will be saved.
This appears when a required field is empty or an entry is not valid, which means Beacon cannot save yet. Continue editing takes you back to finish. Discard changes leaves and keeps nothing. If you want to keep the work, choose Continue editing, complete the field, then press Save.
Closing a pop-up window
Close the window?
You are going to close the modal window. All changes will not be saved. Do you want to continue?
Yes closes the window and keeps nothing. No returns you to the window with your entries still there.
Good to know
Beacon does not save as you type. Nothing you type is stored until you press Save. If you step away mid-entry, the work is still only on your screen.
The browser's own Back button skips Beacon's questions. Use the links and menus inside Beacon to move around, and press Save first.
Not every screen will stop you. The questions above are a helpful backup, not a guarantee on every screen. The habit of pressing Save is what actually protects the work.
Some screens have more than one Save. A page can hold panels or tabs with their own Save buttons. Save each section you have touched before moving on.
Discarding changes does not undo a switch. Choosing Discard changes on the way out of a page only drops what you typed. Anything you flipped was applied at the moment you flipped it.
For administrators and trainers
When you build Beacon into an internal procedure, write "press Save" into the step itself rather than relying on the prompts. The prompts are a backup and their coverage varies by screen. A procedure that ends each data-entry step with an explicit Save works everywhere in the product, including on the screens that ask nothing.
Switches apply immediately across the product, and there are more of them than most people expect. Settings > Organization alone holds seventeen, covering event reopening, signature retention, automatic emails and transfer permissions. Anyone with access to that page is changing organization-wide behavior with a single click and no Save step. That is worth covering in admin onboarding specifically.
Those switches are reversible, so the risk is a period of wrong configuration rather than permanent damage. Training complete is the exception worth naming explicitly, because it is one-way and it grants system access.
Questions about anything here, or something behaving differently than described? Contact your ConnectSx representative.