HWIT Reporting - Building and Managing Templates

A template is the form your technician fills in during a visit. You build it once and use it on as many properties as you like.

Everything in the template editor saves as you go. There is no Save button to remember.

Create a template

1. In the web app, go to Lists → Report Templates.
2. Click Add New Template. (Or copy one you already have — see Duplicating or deleting below.)
3. Give it a clear name, such as Standard Weekly Check or Luxury Condo — Full Report.
4. Add a description if you like, so your team knows when to use it.
5. Click Save.

A new template starts as a Draft. You can’t put it on a schedule until it is published.

Report Settings

Report Settings control how the finished report looks. Open the template and click Edit Settings.

• Report Header Color — the color of the banner at the top of the report and PDF. The preview shows how it looks. The banner text switches between white and dark by itself so it stays readable. Only the banner changes, not every color on the report.
• Technician Name Label — the report says Taken By above the technician’s name. Type other words here, such as Inspector or Completed By.
• Report Logo URL — leave it empty to use your company logo. Enter the web address of a different logo to use that instead (handy for a second brand, or an HOA).
• Require Signature — the report can’t be completed without a signature.
• Start Time on Report — shows the visit’s start time to the client.
• Property Address on Report — shows the property’s address to the client.
• Include Summary — shows the four-tile summary at the top of the report.
• Timestamp Photos — stamps the date and time on every photo, plus your logo in the corner.
• GPS Stamp Photos — stamps the GPS location on every camera photo, plus your logo. A photo picked from the Gallery gets the location where it was first taken, not where the phone is now.
• KeyID instead of Name on Report — shows the customer’s KeyID, not their name, for privacy.
• Allow unanswered questions — see Letting technicians leave questions blank below.
• Show Skipped Questions — a section the technician skipped completely normally disappears. Turn this on and its heading still prints, with Not Applicable under it. A partly skipped section is not affected.
• Show Actions on Report — prints any actions raised during the visit under the question they belong to. Off by default. See Working with Actions.
• Include AI Summary — starts the report with a short summary for the owner, written by AI. See AI Report Summary.

Changes save straight away. Click Close when you are done.

Add sections

Sections group your questions, like pages: Exterior, Kitchen, Security.

1. Click Add Section.
2. Type the section name.
3. Drag sections into the order the technician should walk through them.

Each section has four icons:

• Pencil — rename it.
• Duplicate — copy it, questions and all. Great for Guest Bathroom after Master Bathroom.
• ◆ Diamond — choose when the section shows. See Advanced Template Editing.
• Trash can — delete it.

Tip: Keep section names short. They show as tabs across the top of the phone screen.

Add questions

1. Click a section, then click Add Question. The Edit question panel opens. (To change a question later, click the pencil beside it.)
2. Type the Question text, for example Smoke detector functional or Are all windows locked?
3. In the Answer card, pick a Response type. A Response Set is the list of answers the technician can pick from. See Response Sets.
4. Turn on Required if the technician must answer it before finishing the report.
5. Turn on Photo required if the answer must come with a picture, such as Front door locked.
6. Click the ✕ to close the panel.

To change the order, drag questions up or down in the section.

Which response type?

• Checklist, Yes/No, Pass/Fail — quick, ready-made answers.
• Yes/No (inverted) — for questions where Yes means there is a problem.
• Open Text — the technician types an answer.
• Multiple Choice or Multi-Select — your own list of answers. See Response Sets.
• Display Only — puts text (and optionally a picture) on the report. The technician answers nothing. Use it for a disclaimer or a note to the client. See Display Only questions below.

Letting technicians leave questions blank

Normally the technician must answer or skip every question before Complete Report appears. On a long template that means a lot of skipping.

Turn on Allow unanswered questions in Report Settings to let them finish with questions left blank. Blank questions don’t appear on the client’s report.

A few rules still apply:

• Required questions must always be answered. They can never be skipped or left blank.
• A photo is only needed once the question is answered. A blank or skipped question needs no photo.
• Once a question is started, it must be finished. Adding a photo or a note means it needs an answer. For a comment with no rating, use an Open Text question.

Tip: A red ★ on a section tab means it still has an unanswered Required question.

Display Only questions

A Display Only question shows content on the report. The technician can’t answer it or add a photo.

Add a picture to the report

Use this for a watering chart, a diagram, or a photo showing where a label is.

1. Click the pencil beside the Display Only question.
2. In the Answer card, find Report image and click Add image.
3. Choose the picture from your computer. A preview appears.
4. Use Replace to swap it, or Remove to take it off.

Good to know:

• The text is optional. Leave the question text empty to show just the picture.
• Where it shows: under the question text on the report, at full width. The client can click it to see it full size. It is in the PDF too.
• The technician sees it on the question while they work, but can’t change or delete it.
• Keep images under 3 MB. Bigger files are refused. Every image goes into the client’s PDF, so big ones make it slow to download. A phone photo or screenshot is normally fine.
• Finished reports never change. Changing or removing an image only affects new reports.
• Report image appears only on Display Only questions.

Add a 7-day weather forecast

Clients who are away like to know what weather their home is facing.

1. Add a Display Only question where you want the forecast. The top of the first section works well.

2. Type [[WEATHER]] and then the heading you want, for example:

   [[WEATHER]] 7-Day Forecast for Your Property

3. Click away from the box. That’s it.

When the report is completed, the tag becomes a strip for the next seven days: day, weather icon, high and low, and a short summary like Sunny. Your heading prints above it.

Good to know:

• It is the forecast for the property, using its map location. If the address was never found on the map, the report just prints your heading.
• °F for companies in the United States, °C everywhere else.
• It is a snapshot taken when the report is completed. It never changes afterwards.
• The technician doesn’t see the forecast — only the text you typed.
• One is enough. Several weather questions all show the same forecast.

Tip: Don’t write WEATHER in capitals in any other Display Only text. It will turn into a forecast. Write Weather permitting… in normal case instead.

Add open items or the next 30 days

Two more tags work the same way as the forecast:

• [[ACTIONS]] — the open items you share with the client (Actions with client visibility on). Each shows its summary, status and target date.
• [[SCHEDULE]] — the visits and tasks planned for the next 30 days.

Type the tag in a Display Only question, then your heading, for example [[SCHEDULE]] Coming up at your home.

Good to know:

• Snapshots. Both are taken when the report is completed and never change afterwards.
• Nothing to show? The report says so in one line.
• No staff names are shown on the schedule.
• As with WEATHER, don’t write ACTIONS or SCHEDULE in capitals in other Display Only text.

Put the template on a schedule

A template only appears for technicians once it is on a schedule.

1. Open the property’s schedule on the Schedules screen.
2. Edit it and pick the template in the Report Template box.
3. Save the schedule.

Every visit from that schedule now uses this template.

Duplicating or deleting

• Copy a template: on the Report Templates list, click Duplicate and give the copy a new name. The copy opens as a Draft for you to edit.
• Copy a section: click Duplicate beside it.
• Delete a question: click the trash can beside it, then Delete question.
• Delete a section: click the trash can beside it.

Tips for good templates

• Keep section names short — they are tabs on a small phone screen.
• Follow the walk — order questions the way the technician moves through the home.
• Use Required sparingly — too many required questions frustrate technicians.
• Use color on purpose — green for good, red for problems.
• One template, many homes — let questions show only where they apply (see Want more?).

Want more?

• Show a question only at homes with a pool, or only after a “Yes” answer? Fill in the gate code automatically? See Advanced Template Editing.
• Make your own list of answers, or change one? See Response Sets.