FieldproxyAI-native field service softwareInspection reports
How do I produce field inspection reports in my own format, with an engineer review before they go to the client?
Rebuild your existing Word or PDF report as a template once, with the letterhead, firm number and page footer fixed in the template and every field, photo and table mapped to what the inspector captures on site. When the inspector submits, the report goes to a review queue, not the client; the reviewing engineer edits, approves and applies their own stamp and signature, and only that approval generates the final PDF and sends it to the client contact on the job. Keep internal notes in fields the template never prints, and lock the PDF once it is issued.
- The template is your report, not the software's default layout. Bring your best recent report as the spec.
- Firm name and number, page X of Y and report ID belong in the template footer, so they appear on every page without anyone typing them.
- The stamp is applied by the engineer who approves, from their own login. No one stamps on their behalf.
- Inspector submit, engineer review, approve, then generate and send. The client never sees a draft.
- Internal-only fields stay on the record and out of the PDF.
This page covers producing and approving the report. It does not replace your engineering judgment or the sealing rules of your licensing board; check those for your state or province.
Facts checked as of November 2026. Sources at the end of the page.
Step by step
How it works, step by step
Most firms already have a report clients accept. The work is turning that document into a template, then putting a gate between the inspector and the client.
1. Start from your current report
Take two or three recent reports you are proud of. Mark every part that changes per job (address, client, dates, findings, photos, readings) and every part that never changes (letterhead, firm number, disclaimers, standard notes). The fixed parts go into the template; the changing parts become fields on the inspector's form.
2. Build the field form to match the report, not the other way round
Each section of the report becomes a section of the form, in the same order. Repeating items (anchors, posts, trees, antennas) become a repeating group or grid, so 100 load-test lines are one table, not 100 questions. Make the fields the report cannot go out without required, so the inspector cannot submit with them blank.
3. Capture photos against the item they prove
Attach each photo to its line (anchor 14, column B3, tree T7) with a caption, time and GPS. Hundreds of photos then sort themselves into the report in the right order, with the right caption, instead of a dump at the back.
4. Put the fixed parts in the template header and footer
Letterhead on page one or every page, firm name and registration number, report number, revision and page X of Y in the footer. In Texas, engineering documents from a registered firm must show the firm name and registration number in the format F-xxxxx; the board says it can be typed at the bottom of a report.
5. Submit to a review queue
When the inspector submits, the record moves to a status such as Awaiting review and is assigned to the right engineer by flag, trade, client or region. The engineer sees the form, the photos and a draft PDF marked as a draft. They can edit wording, send it back to the inspector with comments, or approve.
6. Approve, stamp and issue
Approval is the step that applies the engineer's seal and signature image and the date, generates the final PDF and locks it. Ontario's guideline says reports should be sealed on the cover or on a separate approval sheet, and that documents cannot be signed by a proxy. Texas requires the seal and signature on the title sheet of bound reports, with the date on the final version, and reasonable steps to make documents unalterable.
7. Send to the right contact and keep it findable
The final PDF goes to the report contact on the job (often not the person who booked it), and is stored on the site and client record. A client portal lets them find a report from two years ago by address without emailing you.
Where it breaks
Why it goes wrong
These are the problems inspection firms described on our sales calls, from engineering and fall protection to arborists and tower maintenance.
The letterhead the software cannot produce
A structural inspection firm with field inspectors and reviewing engineers said finding a platform that creates the report the way they need it had been the challenge, and that the letterhead formatting had tripped up other vendors. Their forms tool collected data well; the final deliverable was still assembled in Word.
Reports that take weeks
A fall protection inspection company with about 20 technicians said clients got reports in weeks, sometimes months. Techs saved photos, downloaded and resized them to get under a 1 MB upload limit, renamed them and uploaded again, then wrote reports in a hotel room after a long day.
Grids that a checklist cannot hold
The same company load-tests up to a hundred anchors per job. A checklist with one question per anchor is unusable; the report needs a grid with a row per anchor and pass or fail per test.
Missing fields and handwriting
A pump service company wanted its existing service report kept as it looks, but said phone numbers and dates were often missing and the handwriting was hard to read. Required fields fix the first problem; a typed form fixes the second.
Review by email, under an SLA
A telecom tower maintenance provider reviews photo reports of about 300 pages against a 24 to 48 hour SLA, and the client's rejections come back by email with comments. Without a queue, nobody can see which reports are waiting, rejected or late.
Reports for a regulator, not just a client
An arborist needed tree reports that a council could approve. In New South Wales, councils such as Byron Shire want an AQF Level 5 arborist, the report prepared under AS 4970 and AS 4373, and the arborist's qualifications and business details in the report.
The options
Ways to do it
| Approach | How the report is made | Weak spot | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word template by hand | The inspector sends notes and photos; someone pastes them into the firm's Word file and emails it for review | Hours per report, photos out of order, review lives in email | A few reports a week |
| Forms app with your own Word or PDF template (FastField, Device Magic) | FastField maps form fields to your custom PDF and Word templates, one or more per form, with your logo and fonts. Device Magic lets you upload your own Word or PDF template so the output matches your form | Neither page describes an engineer review and approval step; scheduling and invoicing sit elsewhere | Firms that already have the template and handle review outside the tool |
| Inspection app with a report layout (Mitti, formerly SafetyCulture) | Report layouts set logo, cover page, page size, image size and quality, a footer with page numbers and up to 100 characters of extra text, and what to show or omit | A layout of the app's report, not your own document; cover page and image size need Premium or Enterprise | Checklist-style audits where the standard layout is acceptable |
| Inspection platform with a report builder (Fulcrum) | Basic builder on all plans shows or hides cover page, header and footer and picks fields; the Advanced builder takes HTML, JavaScript and CSS templates | Matching a complex letterhead means writing an HTML template | Teams with someone who can write HTML |
| Configurable FSM with your template and an approval step (Fieldproxy) | Your report rebuilt as a PDF template; inspector submits, engineer reviews and approves, the final PDF is issued to the client contact and the portal | Your template is built with you during setup, so bring the real report | Best for processes that don't fit a template, set up for you: firms that also schedule, quote and invoice the inspections |
As of November 2026, from each vendor's documentation (sources below). Check the current plan limits before relying on any one feature.
Worked example
A worked example: one foundation inspection letter
Say an inspection firm has 6 inspectors and 2 reviewing engineers, and issues a 9-page letter with 40 photos for a post-tension slab inspection. Made-up numbers to show who does what.
| Step | Who | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| On site | Inspector | Fills the form in report order; 40 photos taken against their checklist items; flags one cut tendon sheathing as a finding |
| Submit | Inspector | Required fields checked (address, permit number, pour date); record moves to Awaiting review, assigned to the engineer for that builder |
| Review | Engineer | Reads the draft PDF watermarked DRAFT; rewords the finding; adds an internal note on the builder's history that never prints |
| Approve | Engineer | Applies own seal and signature with the date; final PDF generated with F-xxxxx and page X of 9 on every page, then locked |
| Send | System | Emailed to the builder's report contact; stored on the site; visible in the builder's portal by address |
| Revise | Engineer | A correction creates Revision 1 as a new approved PDF; Revision 0 stays on file |
The inspector never touches Word, the engineer never chases photos, and the client never sees a draft.
Before you buy
What to check before you buy
Good signs
- The vendor rebuilds your actual report, letterhead included, before you sign
- Header and footer fields repeat on every page: firm number, report ID, revision, page X of Y
- Repeating grids for items like anchors, posts or trees, with photos per row
- Required fields that block submit, set per report type
- A review status with assignment by flag, client or region, and send-back with comments
- Seal and signature applied only by the approving engineer's own login, with the date
- Internal fields that are never printed, and a final PDF that is locked once issued
- A client portal that finds past reports by address or site
Red flags
- A demo on the vendor's sample report, not yours
- Only a logo and colors can change
- Photos shrunk until they are unreadable, or capped at a few per item
- Anyone with an admin login can apply an engineer's stamp
- Approval by email, with no record of who approved which version
- Reports that can be edited after they are sent
In Fieldproxy
Setting it up in Fieldproxy
Fieldproxy is set up around your process, so the forms, statuses and rules below are configured with you. Names marked e.g. are examples.
Your report as the template
Send your current report. Fieldproxy builds the PDF from your own template: letterhead, firm number and page footer fixed, every field, grid and photo placed where your report has it. Inspection checklists (/solutions/job-checklists) follow the report's order, with grids for repeating items.
The field app
Inspectors use the Android or iOS app (/solutions/mobile-app), offline, with photos, signatures and GPS. The Voice agent (/agents/voice-agent) turns spoken notes into fields, and the Vision agent (/agents/vision-agent) reads a nameplate or tag photo into the record.
The review gate
Submitting moves the job to a review status (e.g. awaiting_engineer_review) and Approval workflows (/solutions/approval-workflows) route it to the right engineer by flag, client or region. The engineer approves or sends it back with comments. The Watcher agent (/agents/watcher-agent) flags reports sitting in review close to the client's deadline.
Stamp, send and store
The approval step is set up to apply the engineer's uploaded stamp and signature, generate the final PDF from your template and email it to the job's report contact. Clients find past reports in a customer portal (/solutions/customer-portals).
Internal-only fields
Fields such as e.g. internal_notes or reviewer_comments stay on the record and are left out of the template, the same way pricing can be hidden from subcontractors.
One price per company
Inspectors, engineers and office staff all work in the same system. Fieldproxy is one price per company with unlimited users. See /pricing.
Regional notes
Seals and report rules by region
United States: rules are set by each state board. Texas requires the firm name and registration number on engineering documents from a registered firm, including preliminary ones, and the seal, signature and date on the title sheet of bound reports. Preliminary documents carry a release statement instead of a seal.
Canada: in Ontario, the March 2022 guideline says electronic seals are allowed, a scanned or drawn seal has the same status as a physical one, the practitioner must keep control of it, and electronic documents should be protected so they are not altered once signed. Other provinces have their own rules.
Australia: tree reports for council approval in New South Wales usually need an AQF Level 5 consulting arborist, and councils set their own minimum contents. Check the council's fact sheet before you build the template.
How switching works
How switching to Fieldproxy works
We move your data over and set the system up to the way you already work. Fieldproxy replaces the old tool; it does not run alongside it.
Send us your report
Two or three real reports, the letterhead file, and the stamp and signature images. Tell us which fields are internal only.We build the form and the template
The inspector's form follows the report order; the PDF is generated from your template. You compare it page by page with your own.Agree the review route
Who reviews which reports, what sends a report back, and who receives the final PDF for each client.Run real jobs through it
Inspectors file a week of real jobs; engineers approve in the queue before anything reaches a client.
FAQ
Questions people ask
- Can inspection software produce the report in our own Word format?
- Some forms tools fill your own Word template directly, such as FastField and Device Magic. Others, including Fieldproxy, rebuild your Word layout as a PDF template. Ask to see your own report generated, not a sample.
- Can the firm number appear on every page?
- Yes, if it sits in the template footer. Texas lets the firm number be typed at the bottom of a report, in the format F-xxxxx.
- Can engineers upload a stamp and signature image for approval?
- Yes. The safe setup applies it only when that engineer approves from their own login, with the date. Ontario's guideline says the practitioner must keep control of an electronic seal and that documents cannot be signed by a proxy.
- Can reports be routed to different reviewers based on a flag?
- Yes. A field the inspector sets (a structural concern, a client, a region) decides which engineer's queue the report lands in.
- Can a report hold hundreds of photos?
- It should. Attach each photo to its item so it prints with its caption, and check how the tool sizes and compresses images in the PDF before you commit.
- Can clients find old reports themselves?
- With a client portal, yes. Older PDFs can be uploaded as they are and attached to the site, so you do not have to regenerate them.
- Can AI check the photos before the engineer reviews?
- It can flag what to look at, such as a missing photo or one that does not match the item. The engineer still makes the call.
Sources
Competitor details on this page come from the vendors' own pages and documentation, checked as of November 2026. Plans and prices change, so check the vendor's current page before you decide.
- Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors: firm name and number FAQ: https://pels.texas.gov/firmseal_faq.htm
- 22 Tex. Admin. Code § 137.33: sealing procedures: https://law.cornell.edu/regulations/texas/22-Tex-Admin-Code-SS-137-33
- Professional Engineers Ontario: Use of the Professional Engineer's Seal (March 2022): https://peo.on.ca/sites/default/files/2022-03/PEOUseOfSeal2022.pdf
- Byron Shire Council: dead or dangerous tree removal exemption: https://www.byron.nsw.gov.au/Residential-Services/My-Property/Trees/Dead-or-Dangerous-Tree-Removal-Exemption
- Inner West Council: trees on your property: https://www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/live/information-for-residents/trees/trees-on-your-property-pruning-or-removing
- FastField (Quickbase): report builder: https://www.quickbase.com/fastfield/report-builder
- Device Magic: custom Microsoft Word or PDF reports: https://www.devicemagic.com/blog/how-to-generate-custom-microsoft-word-or-pdf-reports/
- Mitti Help: report layouts: https://help.mitti.com/003025
- Startland News: SafetyCulture rebrands to Mitti: https://startlandnews.com/2026/08/safetyculture-mitti/
- Fulcrum docs: Report Builder introduction: https://docs.fulcrumapp.com/docs/reports-introduction
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