Overview
When a Checklist question is about to raise an Assignment, Mobaro checks whether open Assignments already exist for that question. If they do, the User is asked whether to link to one of those instead of creating another. Choosing an existing Assignment references it — the Result points at that Assignment rather than raising a duplicate, the Assignment shows a Referenced badge on the Result, and the link is recorded in the Assignment's Activities feed.
Why this matters: The same fault gets found by the same check day after day. Without referencing, each inspection raises another Assignment for a problem that's already tracked, and the real history scatters across near-identical records. Referencing keeps one Assignment with one thread of activity — and puts the judgement call with the person standing in front of the issue, who knows whether it's the same fault or a new one.
How an Assignment gets referenced
The choice is made in the Mobile App, at the moment the Assignment would be raised. It appears in two situations:
The User adds an Assignment to a question that already has Assignments attached to it.
The answer the User chooses fires an Assignment trigger on that question.
In either case, if open Assignments already exist for the question, the app asks whether to use one of them instead of creating a new one.
1. Review the existing Assignments
Each Assignment in the list shows its title and the Location it belongs to, so you can tell whether it covers the issue in front of you.
2. Choose an existing Assignment, or create a new one
Select the Assignment that matches the issue to reference it. If none of them do, select Create new instead.
3. Continue
Tap Continue to confirm. Referencing links this Result to the existing Assignment; Create new raises a fresh one as normal.
Best practice: Brief your Users on the difference. If it's the same fault someone already reported, reference the existing Assignment so all the activity stays on one record. If it's genuinely a separate problem — a different hand hold, a new crack — create a new one, so the two can be tracked and closed independently.
Where the badge appears
The Referenced badge appears in the Results view, on both resumable and completed Results. It sits on the Assignment shown beneath the question that triggered it.
Note: The Assignment itself displays as it always does — title, Assignee, priority, Deadline, and Categories. The badge is the only thing distinguishing a referenced Assignment from one this Result created.
Reading a referenced Assignment
Treat the badge as an answer to the question "did this check create this work, or attach to something already open?"
No badge — a new Assignment was created for this Result.
Referenced— the Assignment already existed, and the User chose to link to it.
Best practice: When auditing a series of Results for a recurring check, use the badge to separate genuinely new findings from repeat encounters with an issue that's already tracked. A run of referenced Assignments points at one unresolved problem, not several.
How references are recorded on the Assignment
The link is visible from the Assignment as well as from the Result. Each time an Assignment is referenced, an entry is added to its Activities feed naming the Checklist the reference came from, the User who made it, and the date and time.
Because the feed also records when the Assignment was created, you can see at a glance that a referenced Assignment predates the Result that references it.
Note: An Assignment can be referenced more than once. Every reference adds its own entry to the Activities feed — the Assignment is never duplicated, so the feed accumulates a full history of which Checklists have pointed at it.
Best practice: Open the Activities feed when you need evidence that an issue is persisting. A long run of reference entries shows the same problem being met by inspection after inspection without being resolved — which is exactly the case you want to make when escalating it.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Why is the app asking me to choose an existing assignment?
A: Because one or more open Assignments already exist for that question. Rather than raising a near-duplicate, Mobaro gives you the option to link to what's already there.
Q: What if none of the listed Assignments match what I've found?
A: Select Create new. Reference an existing Assignment only when it genuinely covers the same issue.
Q: What does the Referenced badge mean?
A: The Assignment shown on the Result already existed, and was linked to rather than recreated.
Q: Does a referenced Assignment mean there are two Assignments?
A: No — that's the point of the reference. There's a single Assignment record, and the reference is logged against it in its Activities feed.
Q: How do I see which Checklists have referenced an Assignment?
A: Open the Assignment and look at its Activities feed. Every reference is listed with the source Checklist, the User who referenced it, and a timestamp.
Q: What happens if the same Assignment is referenced repeatedly?
A: Each reference adds a separate entry to the Activities feed. Nothing is duplicated — you simply get a running history of every Checklist that has linked to it.
Q: How do Assignment triggers work in the first place?
A: See Assignment triggers in Checklists for setting the condition, pre-filling the details, and choosing who the Assignment goes to.