Surveyors & expert witnesses
TodayThe report is 80 per cent finished. The remaining 20 per cent are text blocks from three old jobs.
A report is rarely written in one go. Between the enquiry and the dispatch there is a site visit, photos, documents from third parties, follow-up questions and a draft that gets revised several times. The specialist part is your work. Everything around it can be put in order.
Also for building surveyors, structural and ground experts, geologists, and vehicle and traffic assessors.
Does this sound familiar?
- Report_Sample_final_v4.docxNobody is quite sure which version the client last received.
- IMG_4821.HEICThe pictures from the site visit are on the phone, not on the case.
- Text block from 2022The wording was good. It is in a different report.
- A date you promisedIt is in the job. Nobody is reminded of it.
- Hours breakdownThe effort is reconstructed from the calendar and from memory.
The effort rarely sits in the specialist content. It sits in the details from the enquiry travelling into the job, then onto the cover sheet, then into the invoice. And in the photos from the site visit sitting on a phone, the documents in a mailbox, and the current draft in a file whose name only you can reliably interpret.
On top of that come people who do not belong to your own office: clients, owners, authorities and, depending on the job, others. Each wants to know something different, and each follows up when they hear nothing for a while.
What the workflow could look like
Not every company needs every stage. But each one gets easier when the previous one has prepared it.
01 Enquiry
It arrives in one place
Whether by form, email or phone: object, client and occasion are captured straight away rather than filed as free text.
02 Job
The enquiry becomes a case
With a case number, a contact and the agreed date. Everything else hangs off it.
03 People involved
Who belongs to the case
Clients, owners, authorities and others – recorded once, with their role and how to reach them.
04 Site visit
Photos and notes land on the case
From the phone straight into the file, with date and assignment, instead of being sorted later.
05 Documents
Incoming material stays traceable
Plans, invoices, earlier reports: who sent what and when is settled.
06 Report
It fills itself from what is there
Cover sheet, object data and parties come from the case. You write the specialist part.
07 Dispatch
What went out is recorded
Which version went to whom and when is settled. The invoicing draws on the same case.
What we build or connect for it
- One case file per report: case number, dates, parties, documents, photos and versions in one place
- Capture at the site visit from the phone, including without reception
- Cover sheet and object data fill themselves from the case – the specialist part stays where you write it today
- A searchable collection of your text blocks instead of scattered finds in old reports
- Dates and follow-ups that hang off the case
- Everything relevant to invoicing on the case – whether you bill a fixed fee or by time spent
What changes day to day
- One case holding the job, documents, photos and versions together instead of spread out.
- Details recorded once are available again on the cover sheet and at invoicing.
- The state of a report can be looked up instead of asked for.
- A stand-in can take over a case, because everything needed hangs off it.
From applications we have built
What follows are excerpts from applications we have actually built. No mocked-up interfaces and no invented figures.
The parts most often needed here
- 01
Documents
Documents are built from the data you already have — and end up where people look for them.
View: Documents & information - 02
Projects & cases
Projects, people, tasks, documents and open items in one place — instead of spread across mailboxes and folders.
View: Projects & cases - 03
Customers & data
Record companies, contacts and objects once — and find the same details everywhere afterwards.
View: Customers & data - 04
Automation
The steps someone otherwise has to remember every time now run by fixed rules.
View: Automation
Questions from the industry
Will we have to write our reports in different software from now on?
No. In most cases the specialist part stays in Word. We only make sure that everything which is not specialist text ends up in the right place by itself.
Does capture at the site visit work without reception?
Yes, that is a precondition. Recordings and notes are stored locally and transfer as soon as there is a connection again.
There are two of us. Is it worth it at all?
Often precisely then, because there is no stand-in. The first step is usually small: the case file and the cover sheet. Everything after that is your decision.
What happens to the old reports?
They stay where they are and are made searchable. A migration is rarely necessary and rarely sensible.
Also searched assurveying practice · expert witness office · building surveyor · building survey report · ground investigation report · vehicle assessor · writing reports