How to build an inspection template

An inspection template is the shape every inspection takes: the areas you walk through, and the things you check in each one. Building one well means your reports come out consistent no matter who on your team runs the inspection.

Most people keep one template per type of inspection they run, for example Move-in, Routine and Final.

A quick overview

Starting a template

Open "Inspection templates" from the menu.
Press "+ New template".
Choose where to start. "Start from scratch" gives you an empty template. The template library gives you a ready-made one for your country or for a standard, like HUD's NSPIRE checklist, and your own templates can be duplicated. Press "View" on any of them to see every area before you commit.
Starting from a template gives you your own copy to edit. The original stays as it is.

Name and description autosave as you type, so there is no Save button on the template screen. The description is what your team sees in the app when they pick which inspection to run.

Adding areas

An area is one section of the inspection: a room, or a task like a keys handover. Each area has a name, optional instructions, and an optional checklist.

There are two ways to add one:

"Add area" builds a new one from scratch.
"Add from" copies an area you have already written in one of your other templates, so you only write "Keys handover" once.

Avoid duplicates. You don't need a row for every room. When using a template you can pick the same area as many times as you need. They number themselves as you go: pick "Bedroom" twice and you get "Bedroom 1" and "Bedroom 2". Only add a second one to the template when an area genuinely needs its own instructions or checklist.

Each area opens on its own page. A new one asks for its name first, then shows the rest. Press "Save" and you're taken back to the template, right where that area sits.

Instructions are optional, and worth using for anything you need to know on site. Press "+ Instructions" to add them. They appear when the inspector opens that area, so they suit tasks like "Photograph all keys and note the count", or information you'd like to keep handy.

To reorder your areas, drag them by the handle on the left of each row. The new order saves itself.

Checklists

Every area starts with one general condition: the inspector marks the whole area "No issues" or "Requires attention". Press "Add check" under it to break the area into points the inspector answers one by one instead, like "Walls free of damage". Press Enter at the end of a check to start the next, and drag checks by their handle to reorder them.

Only the check you're editing is open. The rest fold into a preview of how inspectors see them, so click any check to change it.

Each check has a type, so you choose how it's answered:

Condition. "No issues" or "Requires attention", with a note, photo, or video against it. Most checks are this.
Pick one. One option from a list you write, like "Electric", "Gas", or "Heat pump".
Pick many. Every option from your list that applies, like the rooms where a smoke alarm was tested.
Text. A written answer, like a meter reading or a serial number.

For Pick one and Pick many, type each option and press Enter for the next. A check marked "Requires attention" sets the whole area to "Requires attention". Pick and Text answers appear on the report once they're filled in, and a check left blank stays off it.

Checklists are optional. Remove every check and the area goes back to one general condition.

Keep it flexible

The app guides you through your areas in order. If the property doesn't have the specific area, that's fine, you can choose to not add it, and anything you don't inspect stays off the report. You can add areas as you go too, either another copy of one already in the template or something new the property threw at you.

Marking an area "Required" is what takes that choice away:

Left off, the area can be passed over on any inspection where it doesn't apply, and it stays off that report.
Turned on, the inspection can't be completed until the area has been added and inspected, so it reaches every report.

This is what lets one template cover properties that aren't identical. Put the garage, the second bathroom and the heat pump in the same template, and pass over whatever a given property doesn't have. No half-empty report at the end, and no separate template per property.

So save Required for the things you can't afford to miss, like photographing exchanged keys or testing the smoke alarms. The most effective templates err on the side of flexible, so one template covers more properties.

When you add a new area, it starts as Required if the last area you edited was, so building a run of required areas doesn't mean picking the same option over and over.

Required, but sometimes N/A

Some areas have to be on every report even where they don't apply. Say you run one compliance template across all your properties: you need to show the pool fence was considered, even at a property without a pool.

Open "Flexibility" under the area's name and pick "Required, can be marked N/A". Inspectors can then mark the area N/A instead of inspecting it. That counts as done, the area appears on the report as N/A, and they can still add photos and notes to it.

Keep in mind

Editing a template does not change inspections that have already been run. An inspection keeps its own copy of the areas from the moment it started.
Duplicating an area numbers the pair for you, so "Bedroom" becomes "Bedroom 1" and "Bedroom 2".
Feel free to explore our template library to get started quickly with inspection templates.
If you want an inspector to start with a specific template at a property, you can pin that template to the property.