Be it for machinery check-up, workplace safety, or home surveying, inspection applications have one thing in common: capturing as much information as possible about the item or stage being evaluated.
Let’s take a home inspection tool as an example. A home inspection process involves recording all details about the property, taking lots of pictures, and then compiling this information in a way that surveyors or other involved parties can access. Every detail is important as the condition of the structure and amenities are used in estimating future expenses and valuation of the property.
The traditional method of creating inspection forms like this is by writing them on a piece of paper, using a proprietary software, or a more common software - like Excel. As you can imagine, these methods are not only creating separate data stores for each inspection, they can also be costly, or hard to share with your colleagues. Let us show how this process can be simplified substantially by using a web application instead. Here, we have a home inspection tool that was created in Excel.
This workbook was built to capture detailed information about the home’s interior, exterior, and amenities over the span of multiple sections for each category. Now, let’s see how this spreadsheet can work as a web application created with SpreadsheetWEB’s designer interface.
The first thing that catches the eye is a much better look-and-feel, which doesn’t really resemble Excel. The controls for some of the inputs are also different, aiming to give the end users a more streamlined data entry experience.
The input styles vary from dropdowns for selecting from a number of options like for flooring materials, to attachment fields for uploading documents or pictures of the unit. For example, the number of bedrooms is selected through a counter, and this number determines the available slots in the bedroom grid where you can enter the details for each room.
The dynamic grid on the Bedrooms page allows up to three entries as this grid is tied to the “Number of Bedrooms” option from the Main page.
Dropdown style inputs also simplify the data entry process throughout the application, especially for selections like the cooktop type. All you need to do is create these lists in Excel, and let SpreadsheetWEB carry over this information. Instead of typing in the detailed specifications of the appliance, users can select from a set of options easily.
Web applications created with the designer are responsive and can be easily accessed from any device - mobile or desktop. This means that when walking through a home (or any environment really), you can take out your mobile device, start taking pictures, and upload them on the spot right into your application.
Once you press the save button, all information will be stored in the application’s database, and be accessible to any system user. This capability essentially removes the need for passing along your notes from one team member to the other. Furthermore, it is also possible to integrate an entire workflow around this concept. Do you need to verify your report before sending the results to the underwriters? You can do so easily by assigning your record a status, and even notify the responsible parties via automated emails. They can then login with their accounts and review your record. This approach can eliminate a tedious back-and-forth communication, and help you easily organize your data.
