About Recording Inspection Observations

We built Tap Inspect to help you efficiently and quickly build and deliver professional inspection reports. A big part of that is recording your inspection observations in the checklist items and the comments added to the report.

This article covers how that is done and the tools available to make it simple and easy to do.

Things to Know

Here are some key things to know about recording your inspection observations in Tap Inspect.

• The report checklist helps you stay on track and record the same information on every inspection you do.
• Comments let you describe what is unusual about this specific property and to guide your client what you recommend to do next.
• The report summary is built from the deficiency comments that have been added to the report. 

Completing the Report Checklist

The report checklist prompts you to identify and describe the listed items on every inspection you perform. The checklist helps you make sure you record the same information on every inspection you do.

It can keep a new inspector on track on what to inspect. Long and very detailed checklists can get in the way for an experienced inspector.

The checklist is made up of items that are organized in sections and subsections. Each item provides a place to identify and describe your observations about that item. As you complete each item by recording selecting or recording options the indicators in the mobile app will reflect that completeness.

Each report checklist is based on the template used to create the report. The template can have a minimal checklist that requires you to identify and describe a limited number of items. Other templates can have an extremely long checklist with over a hundred different items that you will be required to identify and describe.

Adding Comments

Comments are where you communicate with the reader of your reports. While the checklist is a great way to record specific bits of information. Comments let you put your observations into context.

A Comment is added to your report by tapping Add Comment in the area you want the comment recorded and displayed in your final report. That can be in a section like Exterior or in an item like Exterior Covering. 

As a best practice each comment should include the following parts. 

• What you observed.
• Why it is important.
• What you recommend to do next.
• A photo or two to help clarify your statements.

Following this best practice will make sure each comment can stand on its own and tell a full story to the reader.

Building the Report Summary

The Report Summary is a special section of a report that is built from the deficiency comments you have added to your report. It is not visible as a summary in the reporting app but it can be seen when reviewing the final report.