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Field notes

Clear thinking for work that has to hold up.

Practical guidance on field evidence, inspection reporting, compliance records, and choosing tools responsibly.

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Inspector photographing a concrete crack with a measurement scale for documented field evidence

Evidence & compliance4 min read

Chain of Custody for Field Evidence: A Practical Guide

Inspection photographs end up in claims, disputes, and occasionally litigation. What makes them hold up has less to do with image quality than with what the system recorded around them.

All field notes

10 published articles

Elevator machine room with traction motor and control cabinets during a compliance inspection

Evidence & compliance4 min read

Elevator Inspection Records: Tracking Deficiencies Across Cars, Controllers, and Years

Elevator inspection produces a long-running record against equipment that outlives contracts, ownership, and software. Organising it around jobs loses the part that matters.

Inspector examining a fire sprinkler head and pipework during a fire safety compliance inspection

Evidence & compliance4 min read

Fire Safety Inspection Compliance: Never Missing a Due Date

Compliance inspection is scheduled work with legal consequences for lateness. The failure is rarely the inspection itself — it is the tracking around it.

Insurance adjuster marking a chalk test square while documenting storm damage on a residential roof

Evidence & compliance4 min read

Insurance Claim Documentation: Building an Evidence Trail That Holds

Claim files are read by people looking for gaps. Photograph coverage, causation language, and scope documentation are where adjusters most often create work for themselves.

A structural wall crack repaired in multiple layers over years and reopening, illustrating a recurring defect across inspections

Evidence & compliance4 min read

Recurring Defects: Why Job-Based Inspection Software Loses the Plot

Most inspection tools organise around the job. The asset outlives the job — and everything valuable about repeat inspection lives in the gap between them.

Home inspector documenting roof shingle condition with a tablet during a residential property inspection

Reporting5 min read

How to Write a Home Inspection Report That Clients Actually Use

Structure, standard-of-practice language, photo discipline, and the sequencing decisions that determine whether a report takes two hours or six.

Gloved hands holding a marked-up inspection report, illustrating traceability of report findings to their source

Reporting4 min read

AI in Inspection Reports: Where It Helps and Where It Becomes a Liability

Generated report language is now common. The distinction that matters is whether the software draws from a reviewed source or composes findings from a model's own knowledge.

Inspector silhouetted at a crawlspace access hatch, illustrating field conditions where mobile signal is unavailable

Field work4 min read

Offline Inspection Apps: What "Works Offline" Should Actually Mean

Most inspection software claims offline support. Far less of it survives a basement, a tower climb, or a rural site with no bars — and the failure modes are worse than an error message.

Inspector writing a report at a home desk after dark, illustrating the reporting workload that follows a site visit

Reporting4 min read

Why the Report Takes Longer Than the Inspection

The site visit is the visible work. The report is the billable deliverable, the bottleneck, and the reason inspection businesses stop scaling.

Field inspection equipment laid out on a workbench, representing tools used in professional inspection work

Choosing software4 min read

How to Choose Inspection Report Software: A Buyer's Checklist

Feature lists converge quickly. The questions that actually separate these products are about architecture, and they are easy to ask if you know which ones matter.