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, 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.

Instructions are worth using for anything you need to know on site. They appear when you open that area, so they suit things like "Photograph all keys and note the count".

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

Checklists

A checklist turns an area into specific points to assess, like "Walls free of damage". You mark each one "No issues" or "Requires attention", and can add a note, photo or video against it.

Checklists are optional. Leave one empty and you simply assess the area as "General condition" instead, with the same two options.

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, its Required toggle starts wherever you left the last one, so building a run of required areas doesn't mean setting the same switch over and over.

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".