Offline-capable iOS/Android inspection app with photo-tagged defect reporting, GPS stamping, automated punch list generation, and two-way sync with the project management platform — replacing paper entirely and closing punch lists 70% faster.
Vanguard's site inspectors completed 14-page paper inspection forms twice daily per site — a 2-hour process consuming 40% of each inspector's productive time. Reports were physically delivered to the site office, typed up by admin, and emailed to the project team 2–3 days after the inspection. By the time a defect was visible to a project manager, the defective work had often been covered up by subsequent trades.
We built SiteInspect in 12 weeks: an offline-capable React Native app with configurable inspection checklists by trade, camera-integrated defect capture with GPS stamping and annotations, offline SQLite storage with conflict-resolved sync, automated punch list generation, and digitally signed inspection certificates — eliminating paper from every site inspection Vanguard conducts.
14-page paper inspection forms with handwritten defect descriptions, hand-drawn location sketches, and stapled photographs. An experienced inspector spent 2 hours per inspection on paperwork alone — time not spent inspecting.
Paper reports went from site to office to admin to email — a 2–3 day chain. Defects identified in a Monday morning inspection weren't visible to the project manager until Wednesday afternoon. Subcontractors had often completed further work over the defect by then.
Inspectors took photos on personal mobile phones, emailed them separately, and hand-labelled them to correlate with defect numbers in paper reports. Matching photos to defects was manual and error-prone — photos were regularly lost or mislabelled.
Vanguard's most remote construction sites had no reliable 4G or 5G coverage. Any app requiring constant connectivity would be unusable on a substantial portion of their active sites.
Open defects were tracked in an Excel spreadsheet updated weekly by a QA coordinator. The spreadsheet was emailed to subcontractors for response. Chasing responses was manual. It was common for defects to be marked closed without physical re-inspection.
The National Home Builders Registration Council required formal, timestamped, photographic evidence for all structural and waterproofing inspections. Paper documentation was generating audit risk on every NHBRC quality review.
Role and trade-specific inspection checklists built in the admin portal — structural, waterproofing, electrical, plumbing, finishes, fire safety — with required fields, photo evidence mandates, and pass/fail criteria pre-defined. Inspectors follow a structured digital flow rather than a blank paper form.
In-app camera capture attaches photos directly to the defect record at the moment of capture — no manual correlation. GPS coordinates and timestamp are embedded in the photo metadata. Inspectors can annotate photos (circle, arrow, text) to mark the exact defect location.
Full app functionality offline using SQLite local storage. Inspections, defect records, and photos are stored locally and synced to PostgreSQL via WebSocket when connectivity is available. Conflict resolution handles the edge case of simultaneous edits to the same record by different users.
On inspection completion, the app generates a punch list from all open defects — grouped by trade, priority, and responsible subcontractor — with due dates auto-assigned based on programme schedule. Subcontractors receive their items via push notification and can mark completion with photo evidence.
Completed inspections generate a PDF inspection certificate with GPS coordinates, timestamps, inspector digital signature, and photo evidence embedded. Certificates are automatically archived in AWS S3 and are admissible for NHBRC audits without additional documentation.
SiteInspect integrates bidirectionally with BuildTrack (and via API with other PM platforms) — defects raised in SiteInspect appear automatically in the project defect register, and programme milestones pull into SiteInspect for due-date auto-assignment on punch list items.
100% of Vanguard inspectors on the app. Paper forms eliminated across all sites. Inspection completion time from 2 hours to 38 minutes. Project managers seeing defects in real time for the first time — within minutes of the inspector raising them on site.
500+ daily inspection reports being generated. Punch list closure time reduced 70%. Defect re-inspection rate down 45% — subcontractors knowing their completion is photo-evidenced are fixing defects properly first time. NHBRC audit passed with highest documentation grade.
Zero paper inspection forms across all Vanguard sites. NHBRC and ISO 9001 audits completed with highest documentation grade — digital evidence trail described as best-practice by auditors. Vanguard expanded SiteInspect to 2 joint venture site services partners.
"SiteInspect eliminated paper from our inspection process in 3 months. Our inspectors went from 2-hour paper forms to 38-minute digital inspections, and project managers see defects in real time instead of 3 days later. The offline sync works perfectly on our most remote sites. The NHBRC audit team called our documentation the best they'd seen — that came from a 12-week app build."
Ready to modernise, scale, or build from scratch? Let's talk about your project.