A camera roll with three properties in it
Over a day with two inspections, a surveyor takes a large number of photographs: every elevation, the roof from the ground and from a drone or pole camera, chimneys, gutters, the loft, damp readings, cracks, the boiler label, the consumer unit, the drainage covers. The phone's camera roll holds them all, mixed with the photos from yesterday's job.
Writing the report means scrolling, picking, working out which elevation is which, cropping, captioning and dropping each into the right place in the template. The rest need filing against the job in case of a question later. It is fiddly, slow and easy to get wrong, and nobody enjoys it.
Why photos are so time consuming
- Photos are taken in inspection order, not report order.
- Nothing in the photo says which element or elevation it shows.
- Photos from different jobs are mixed in one camera roll.
- Captions are written from memory at the desk.
- Filing the full set against the job is a separate manual step that sometimes gets skipped.
What it costs the practice
Surveyor time spent on image admin. Wrong photos in reports, such as the rear elevation captioned as the front, which undermines confidence. Photos lost when a phone is replaced. And a weaker position if a report is questioned later and the full photo record cannot be found.
| Task | Camera roll method | Tagged capture |
|---|---|---|
| Knowing which job | Scroll and guess | Tagged to the job at capture |
| Knowing which element | Memory | Tagged to the element being inspected |
| Captions | Written at the desk | Suggested from notes, edited by the surveyor |
| Placing in report | Drag and drop one by one | Selected photos placed automatically |
| Keeping the full set | Manual upload, sometimes | Stored with the job automatically |
The photo capture we build
- Photos are taken inside the inspection app, so each is tagged with the job, the element and the time as it is taken.
- Photos from other cameras, such as a pole camera or drone, are uploaded and matched to elements by time and the surveyor's notes, with the surveyor confirming.
- The surveyor marks which photos should appear in the report, and the rest stay in the job's photo record.
- Captions are suggested from the element and the surveyor's notes for that element, for the surveyor to edit.
- Selected photos are placed in the report draft in the right sections, sized for your template.
- The full photo record is stored with the job in your file store, with retention set by your practice's policy.
An image model can flag obvious problems, such as a blurred photo or a photo in the wrong section, for the surveyor to check. It does not interpret defects. What a photo shows is the surveyor's judgement.
Reports with the right pictures
Photos are already sorted and in place when the surveyor opens the draft. Captions need editing rather than writing. The full record is filed without anyone thinking about it. If a buyer or their solicitor asks about something months later, the photo of that element is a search away.
It also helps new surveyors, because the app's structure prompts them to photograph each element consistently.
When a phone is lost or replaced, nothing goes with it, because the photos were uploaded to the job as soon as the device had signal. That removes one of the quieter risks in a residential practice: the photo that would have answered a complaint, sitting on a handset in a drawer.
Are photos slowing your reports?
- Surveyors sort photos from a mixed camera roll.
- Captions are written from memory at the desk.
- Photos have appeared in reports against the wrong element.
- The full photo set is not always kept with the job.
- Drone or pole camera photos are handled separately.