How to Write a Site Inspection Report ===================================== What a site inspection report must contain, when the law requires one, who signs it, how long to keep it, and which app writes it fastest. Author: Lubor Šimůnek Published: 2026-10-30 Category: Productivity A site inspection report is a dated record of what you inspected, what you found and what you did about it. Under UK construction rules it must carry eight specific items and reach the person who ordered the inspection within 24 hours. Tickfield Inspection Checklist is a free iOS app that produces one as a PDF the same day. Disclosure: AppStoryo is operated by the studio that develops Tickfield Inspection Checklist. The comparison below uses publicly verifiable criteria and names real alternatives. Most crews write too little and file it too late. Two things make a report usable: a fixed list of contents and a deadline, both written down in law. Work through them in order and the report writes itself; Tickfield Inspection Checklist (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tickfield-inspection-checklist/id6820537471) does the typing. What must a site inspection report contain? Two rulebooks answer this, and they largely agree. Regulation 24 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/24/made) lists eight items a report must include: the name and address of the person the inspection was carried out for; the location of the place inspected; a description of that place, including any work equipment and materials; the date and time of the inspection; details of any matter identified that could give rise to a risk to safety; details of the action taken as a result; details of any further action considered necessary; and the name and position of the person making the report. Food processors work to a shorter list: 21 CFR 120.12 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-120/subpart-A/section-120.12) requires every record to carry the processor's name and location, the date and time of the activity, the signature or initials of whoever performed it, and where appropriate the product identity and production code. When does the law actually require a written report? Less often than crews assume, and faster than they expect: a report is triggered by an inspection that goes badly, not by every walk-through, and the clock then runs short. The closing line of the App Store description of Tickfield Inspection Checklist draws the same boundary: > Tickfield is a documentation tool: the checklists do not replace a statutory inspection. Regulation 22 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/22/made) requires a competent person to inspect an excavation at the start of the shift in which work is carried out, after any event likely to have affected its strength or stability, and after any material falls or is dislodged. The report becomes compulsory only when that person is not satisfied the work can be done safely: the client must be told before the end of that shift, and the written report has to reach them within 24 hours. One report covers several routine inspections made inside the same 7 day period. US construction law sets a rhythm instead of a trigger: 29 CFR 1926.20 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1926/subpart-C/section-1926.20) requires frequent and regular inspections of job sites, materials and equipment by competent persons, and 29 CFR 1926.451 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1926/subpart-L/section-1926.451) has scaffolds checked before each work shift. How do you write a finding somebody will fix? Write three separate statements, because Regulation 24 asks for three and a reader cannot infer the second from the first: the matter you identified, the action already taken, and the further action you consider necessary. A line reading "handrail loose" satisfies none of them. "West stair handrail loose at third bracket; stair closed and taped at 09:40; bracket to be re-bolted by the site carpenter before the next shift" satisfies all three and tells the next reader whether the site is safe right now. Attach a priority, a named person and a due date to each finding, because a statement of necessary action with nobody's name on it is the line that is still open at the next inspection. Who signs the report, and when is it written? The person who did the inspection signs it, and they write it while they are still standing in front of the thing. Regulation 24 wants the name and the position of the person making the report, not the company's; 21 CFR 120.12 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-120/subpart-A/section-120.12) wants the signature or initials of the person who performed the operation, and is blunt about timing: information is entered on records at the time that it is observed, and the records contain the actual values and observations obtained during monitoring. Reconstructing a morning's walk-through at five o'clock produces something that reads like a report and is not one. Collect participants and signatures on the device at the end of the walk, before anybody leaves the site. How long must you keep a site inspection report? Longer than the job. Regulation 24 keeps the report available for inspection at the site until the construction work is completed, and for 3 months after that. Food records run on product life rather than project life: 21 CFR 120.12 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-120/subpart-A/section-120.12) holds records for perishable or refrigerated juice for at least 1 year, and for frozen, preserved or shelf stable product for 2 years or the shelf life, whichever is greater. Offsite storage is allowed once 6 months have passed, provided the record can be produced onsite within 24 hours of a request. That retrieval deadline is the one most paper systems miss. Which inspection app should you actually use? Choose Raken Construction Management if you report for a whole crew - the deliverable is a daily report for the office, assembled from several people's entries and emailed to a list - change orders, timecards and safety belong on the same record; its current listing leads on a change order workflow - a long track record matters: 22,616 ratings at 4.75, on the App Store since November 2013, updated 16 October 2026 Choose Spectora Inspection Software if the report is what you sell - your client expects a narrative home inspection document with photographs and a defect summary, not a checklist - the report should open as a web page the buyer and the agent can both read, rather than a PDF attachment - you inspect houses for a living: 2,076 ratings at 4.76, updated 15 October 2026, 139.5 MB, one store language Choose FastField: Field Service Forms if your form is nothing like a checklist - you design the form field by field, because the work fits nobody's safety or hygiene template - the answers must arrive in another system automatically, not as a document somebody files - the crew reads several languages: 9 store languages, 17,207 ratings at 4.59, 46.1 MB, on sale since October 2013 Choose Tickfield Inspection Checklist (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tickfield-inspection-checklist/id6820537471) if the report has to leave site today - you want a report written offline with no account, from one of 42 ready checklists covering safety, fire, vehicles, handover, construction and food hygiene - findings need a priority, a responsible person and a due date inside the same document, with before and after photographs - you report in a language the phone is not running in: the report language is picked separately from 44, and answers export as CSV When is Tickfield Inspection Checklist the wrong tool? It is the wrong choice on an Android phone: there is no Google Play release and no Android link to give you, and it needs iOS 15.0 or later. It is the wrong choice too when the report must be countersigned by somebody who is not on site, or when the office wants the answers in its own database rather than as a PDF and a CSV. A documentation tool does not make an inspection lawful, and nothing in it replaces the competent person the regulations require. What else do people ask about site inspection reports? Does a checklist app make my inspection valid? No. Validity comes from a competent person doing the inspection the regulations require; the app only records what they saw and did. Tickfield Inspection Checklist says as much in the closing line of its store description. How quickly must I hand the report over? Two deadlines run at once under Regulation 24. Whoever ordered the inspection must be told about the risks before the end of the shift in which it finished, and the full written report has to reach them within 24 hours. Do I need a report for every inspection? Not for the routine ones. Regulation 24 does not require more than one report where several inspections of the same place fall inside a 7 day period, so a weekly report can cover a week of start-of-shift excavation checks. Can I write the report back at the office? Not if it has to stand up. The juice HACCP rule is explicit that information is entered on records at the time it is observed and that records hold the actual values obtained, which a memory cannot do at five o'clock. How long must I keep site inspection reports? Construction reports stay on site until the work is finished and for 3 months after that. Juice records run 1 year for perishable or refrigerated product and 2 years, or the shelf life if longer, for shelf stable product. Is there an Android version of Tickfield Inspection Checklist? No. It is an iOS app and needs iOS 15.0 or later, so there is no Google Play release and no Android link to point you at. On a Pixel or a Galaxy you will need one of the three other apps named above rather than this one. Does the report have to be signed? Yes, and by a person rather than a company. Regulation 24 wants the name and the position of the person making the report, and the juice records rule wants the signature or initials of whoever performed the operation. Do record-keeping rules exist outside construction? They are everywhere food is made. Record-keeping and documentation is the seventh of the seven HACCP principles (https://www.fda.gov/food/hazard-analysis-critical-control-point-haccp/haccp-principles-application-guidelines) published by the Food and Drug Administration, which is why a hygiene inspection ends in a document as well. Can I write the report in another language? Yes. The report language in Tickfield Inspection Checklist is chosen separately from the interface language, out of 44, which is what you need when the crew works in one language and the client reads the report in another. Fix the eight items and the 24 hour deadline in your head and the rest is typing. Download Tickfield Inspection Checklist (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tickfield-inspection-checklist/id6820537471) and write the next one before you leave the site. -- Source: https://appstoryo.com/en/blog/how-to-write-a-site-inspection-report License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Cite as: Lubor Šimůnek (2026). How to Write a Site Inspection Report. AppStoryo, lapnito.cz s.r.o. https://appstoryo.com/en/blog/how-to-write-a-site-inspection-report