Inspection Requirements: General FAQ

Background

To address non-conforming inspection line items, it's important to take appropriate follow-up actions to resolve the issue. In Procore, the best practice is to create an observation from the non-conforming line item, allowing it to be assigned to the correct team member for resolution.

Previously, enabling a project level setting called 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' was the recommended best practice. However, this setting applied to all inspection templates and line items, automatically triggering an observation for any deficient response. Since this setting lacked customization, it often overwhelmed inspection performers and created confusion.

The current inspection requirements now provide users with additional granularity, functionality, and flexibility to ensure accountability and increase the overall quality of the inspection process. 

Answer

Below is a list of general FAQS for using inspection requirements on your inspections.

 Note
At the project level, the setting 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' has been removed. This setting is disabled but still visible so you can easily recognize whether it was ON/OFF at the time of the new inspection requirements release. 

What will happen if I enabled the project level 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' feature before the new inspection requirements feature?

If the project level 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' setting was enabled on a project before the new inspection requirements, by default, all line items on all inspection templates in that project that were created or imported before this release will require an observation upon a ‘deficient’ response to honor the previous setting.

Additionally, all 'open' inspections in that project that were created before this release will require an observation upon a ‘deficient’ response on all line items to honor the previous setting.

To ensure standardization across your entire portfolio and to reduce the need to edit the same inspection templates in every project when modifications are necessary, set the requirements on your company level templates by leveraging bulk edits, see Edit a Company Level Inspection Template.

All edits will be reflected in all company managed templates at the project level. If requirements are set on a company level template, you can not further modify them at the project level. The best practice is to create and manage company level inspection templates, but if you must create a new project level template, note that you will need to set inspection requirements on all newly created project level templates, see Edit a Project Level Inspection Template.

What will happen if I did not have the project level 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' feature enabled before the new inspection requirements? 

If the project level setting 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' was not enabled on a project before this release, line item requirements will not be set on any existing inspection templates or inspections. Once an inspection is created, you can not alter its requirements; therefore, if you had any existing inspections that were created before this release, delete the inspection and recreate it from a template that has the desired requirements set.

Review your templates to see where you can take advantage of this new line item requirement granularity. Set the requirements on your company level templates by leveraging bulk edits, see Edit a Company Level Inspection Template. All edits will be reflected in all company-managed templates at the project level. If requirements are set on a company level template, you can not further modify them at the project level.

What will happen if I enabled the project level 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' feature on a project template before the new inspection requirements feature?

If the project level 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' setting was enabled on a project template before the new inspection requirements, by default, all line items on all inspection templates in that project template that were created or imported before this release will require an observation upon a ‘deficient’ response to honor the previous setting.

Moving forward, any new projects created from this project template will automatically inherit any existing inspection templates and inspection requirements defined in the template. The 'Force user to create an Observation on item failure' setting will not impact new projects created from this template, regardless of whether it was enabled or disabled before the introduction of the new inspection requirements feature.

Will my company level requirements sync to the project level?

Yes, company level requirements will automatically sync to the project level and can only be edited from the company level.

Do I need to recreate my inspection schedules?

No, the inspection scheduler will create inspections based on the state of the inspection template at the time of creation. Make sure you make any desired template modifications before the next scheduled creation date.