The checklist of a template or a report consists has items that are used to record the actual inspection observations. Each item has a name that is displayed while recording observations as well as displayed in the customer facing report.

There are several types of items that are available to use in Tap Inspect to make recording observations simpler and easier.  The best item type to use will usually depend on the type of information you are recording.

Multiple Choice Item

The multiple choice item type is the most common item type you will use. It lets you select one or more options from a defined list. It also provides the flexibility to add another option on a report by report basis if an option is not in the list.

Some inspection observations like which direction the from door faces or the type of material used for the exterior trim work extremely well as multiple choice items. There is a limited list of them most common options. In those cases where an option is not present, you can always add it.

Allow Multiple Selections

A huge benefit of multiple choice items is that you can tell Tap Inspect to allow multiple selections for the item or not.

For inspection observations like the type of material used for the exterior trim you will often need to select more than one option. Just tap on each option to select it.

When recording other inspection observations like which direction the from door faces there can be only one answer. In that case you only want one option selected at a time. If you selected a different option the previous is unselected.

Prohibit Condition Ratings

Multiple choice items are the only Tap Inspect item types that let you record the condition of the item. When condition ratings are enable for a template or report every multiple choice item has your defined conditions displayed.

Recording the condition for inspection observations like the type of material used for the exterior trim makes perfect sense but that isn't the case for every multiple choice item. Other multiple choice items like the direction the from door faces don't have a condition.

In that case you only want to Prohibit Condition Ratings for that item.

Photo Item

One or more photos can be incredibly quick and handy to record an inspection observation. The photo item type prompts you to add photos of a specific thing. Examples of this would be recording elevation photos of the structure, overviews of a crawlspace, or the data plates of equipment.

The photo item type allows you to have a checklist item that prompts you to add one or more photos to describe the item. These photos are added to a photo collection. Each photo in the collection and can be marked up, rearranged, or deleted from the collection and the report.

The important thing to know is that a photo item type requires you to add at least one photo before the item is considered complete in a report. 

Text Item

The text item type is the best way to record inspection observations that can vary widely or are just some type of text.

Some inspection observations like approximate ages, temperatures, and even BTU ratings can be recorded as multiple choice or a text.

If you want to record ranges or approximations like '15 to 20 years' for the age of the roof covering or 'hot' to describe the outdoor temperature a multiple choice item would work.

If you want to be more precise, manually entering the exact values as a text item are best.

Other Item Types

There are a few more item types that you can use in Tap Inspect. These are all variations of the text item type with special formatting, keyboards and controls to make entry of information simpler.

These item types are:

• Date and Time
• Currency
• Email
• Name & Organization
• Phone Number
• Website URL

It is unusual to see these in the checklist used to record observation. The three most common item types will typically work better.

For example, if you wanted to record the electrical inspection date it would be simper to type the date in a text item than to use the date picker of a Date and Time item type to go back several years. Not to mention the Electrical Inspection would not have a time.