There is absolutely no excuse for not resulting an inspection in real time. We’ve moved well beyond the days of carbon paper, clipboards, and soggy jobsite notes scribbled under a truck visor. If your permitting software is cloud-based and mobile-ready, the inspection should be resulted before you even leave the site—or at worst, once you’re back in the vehicle. That’s not an opinion. That’s an operational standard.
Our department uses a web-based permitting system that allows inspectors to result inspections directly from the field using an iPad. Photos are uploaded instantly through the app or browser. The result gets saved, and a copy of the inspection report is immediately emailed to the contractor. No guesswork. No waiting. No excuses.
I’ve done this long enough to remember what happens when you don’t result in real time. Papers go missing. Rain hits the seat before you get back in the truck. You result the wrong job. Or worse, you forget to result it at all until the next morning, and now the contractor is on the phone screaming because they can’t schedule a reinspection or pay their reinspection fee. The old way is not only inefficient—it’s risky.
When inspections are resulted right away, the office staff knows the outcome, contractors get their results, and the schedule keeps moving. If an inspection fails, the contractor can pay the fee and get back on the calendar without delay. That only happens if the inspection is closed out in the system, and it only gets closed out when the inspector takes that extra 30 seconds and finishes the job, all of it.
Our system also gives inspectors full control. They can set the order of their route, make changes on the fly, and the schedule updates live on our public-facing website. Contractors can see who their inspector is, where they are in line, and how to reach them. When the inspector finishes one inspection and is ready to head to the next, they hit the notify button. That triggers a computer-generated phone call to the contractor letting them know the inspector is on the way, and exactly which inspection they’re arriving for. No more sitting around guessing when someone will show up. No more calls to the office asking for an ETA. It’s all built into the system.
This isn’t “the future of inspections.” This is happening now. It’s been the standard in our office for years. Anything less than this level of real-time transparency and efficiency just isn’t justifiable. It doesn’t serve the contractors, it doesn’t help the office, and it certainly doesn’t make the inspector’s job easier in the long run.
The job is not done until the inspection is resulted. That final step is just as critical as taking the photo, checking the smoke detector, or writing the correction. Skip it, and you’re putting the entire system at risk. The tools exist. The technology works. All it takes is the discipline to use them the way they were intended.
Real-time inspections are the standard. Everything else is just making excuses.
Our department uses a web-based permitting system that allows inspectors to result inspections directly from the field using an iPad. Photos are uploaded instantly through the app or browser. The result gets saved, and a copy of the inspection report is immediately emailed to the contractor. No guesswork. No waiting. No excuses.
I’ve done this long enough to remember what happens when you don’t result in real time. Papers go missing. Rain hits the seat before you get back in the truck. You result the wrong job. Or worse, you forget to result it at all until the next morning, and now the contractor is on the phone screaming because they can’t schedule a reinspection or pay their reinspection fee. The old way is not only inefficient—it’s risky.
When inspections are resulted right away, the office staff knows the outcome, contractors get their results, and the schedule keeps moving. If an inspection fails, the contractor can pay the fee and get back on the calendar without delay. That only happens if the inspection is closed out in the system, and it only gets closed out when the inspector takes that extra 30 seconds and finishes the job, all of it.
Our system also gives inspectors full control. They can set the order of their route, make changes on the fly, and the schedule updates live on our public-facing website. Contractors can see who their inspector is, where they are in line, and how to reach them. When the inspector finishes one inspection and is ready to head to the next, they hit the notify button. That triggers a computer-generated phone call to the contractor letting them know the inspector is on the way, and exactly which inspection they’re arriving for. No more sitting around guessing when someone will show up. No more calls to the office asking for an ETA. It’s all built into the system.
This isn’t “the future of inspections.” This is happening now. It’s been the standard in our office for years. Anything less than this level of real-time transparency and efficiency just isn’t justifiable. It doesn’t serve the contractors, it doesn’t help the office, and it certainly doesn’t make the inspector’s job easier in the long run.
The job is not done until the inspection is resulted. That final step is just as critical as taking the photo, checking the smoke detector, or writing the correction. Skip it, and you’re putting the entire system at risk. The tools exist. The technology works. All it takes is the discipline to use them the way they were intended.
Real-time inspections are the standard. Everything else is just making excuses.
