Property Inspect makes it easy to store and manage Contact details for Landlords, Tenants, and other third parties involved in an inspection. This ensures that the right people are notified, receive reports, and can sign documents digitally.
Adding contacts to your property or inspection system helps you stay organized. By including people like owners, tenants, contractors, and inspectors, you make sure everyone gets the right information.
This guide will walk you through managing your Contacts in Property Inspect, helping you organise people linked to your inspections and properties, keep communication streamlined, and ensure the right stakeholders receive the right information.
We’ve broken it down into sections:
Difference between Contacts and Clients
Contacts | Clients |
Contacts are additional individuals involved in a specific inspection, such as tenants, landlords, agents or third parties. | Clients are key stakeholders—such as agencies, landlords, or property owners—that you manage properties for. |
Their details are added on a per-inspection basis. | Clients are added at the account level and are integrated into your ongoing workflow. |
Use Contacts to send specific notifications, reports, or documents related to an individual inspection. | Clients can be granted access to their own Client Portal to self-manage inspections, view reports, and track activity. |
Contacts typically only require limited access or communication. | Clients have broader access and visibility, reducing administrative work and improving collaboration. |
Customising Contact Types
The system is preloaded with a range of commonly used contact types.
You also have the option to customise the contact types according to your business specs.
1. Navigate to your Settings tab at the top of your online dashboard, and click on the Dictionary tab.
2. Click on the Contact types tab. Thereafter, type out the new contact type in the second column and click on Add:
3. To edit or delete a custom contact type, click on the contact, and it will appear in the third column.
Then, click on the three dots next to the contact type to access options for editing or deleting it.
4. Once added, you will see the new contact type appear within your list:
Adding or Editing Contacts
Adding contacts to your property or inspection helps you stay organized! Keeping all contacts in one place makes it faster to find who you need. This helps you handle tasks like inspections, repairs, and tenant concerns more easily.
💡 We recommend adding your contacts as soon as you have their details. This means when you're creating your property or adding an inspection, you should include the contact information right away.
1. Once you create your property, you'll be taken to the Info tab of that property.
From there, go to the Contacts section in the right panel of the Info page and click the pencil icon:
2. When creating an inspection, you can add Contact details right away.
2. Or, go to the Inspection Info page and click the blue 'Manage' link next to the Contacts section to update contact details.
3. Fill in the fields with the relevant information:
Field | Information | Notes |
Name | Name of the contact you are adding. | We encourage you to provide the full name of the contact to ensure accurate identification and avoid any confusion. |
Type | The type of contact, i.e., Landlord, Tenant, Agent, etc. | The types of contacts can also be customised under the Dictionary tab under your account settings. |
Full email address of the contact. | The system can only send the final web report if this email address is valid. | |
Phone | Choose the country code, and add the full phone number of the contact. | A valid phone number is required to use the SMS feature. |
Signee | Pre-fill their details for the signature section to capture a digital signature. | The system will send out a web report to this contact to capture signature when the inspection is marked as Complete. |
Notify | Send them an email when reports are booked or rescheduled. |
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SMS | Send a reminder SMS text before conduct date. | A valid phone number is required to use the SMS feature. |
Deliver | Send the final report to them when the inspection is marked complete. |
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💡 The system will only send the web report to the contact if their email address is valid and if you have checked the Deliver box.
Collecting a Contact's Signature
The system only allows you to capture a signature once the report is marked as Complete.
This ensures the report is finalized before getting signatures, confirming that all necessary information is included and the report is ready for approval. It helps prevent signatures from being collected on incomplete or draft reports.
1. If you need to obtain the contact's signature, make sure to check the 'Signee' box when adding their details.
2. After adding contacts, you'll see helpful indicators in the Inspection Info tab that show whether expected signees have signed or not.
If a contact hasn't signed yet, their status will be marked as Pending. This makes it easy to track the progress of signatures.
3. Once the report is marked as Complete, all contacts with the Deliver and/or Signee box ticked will automatically receive an email with their own unique link to the web version of the inspection report.
💡 While the inspection is Complete, you can add new contacts and modify contacts who have not signed the report.
4. You can track the status of these emails in the Share History tab, including when they were sent and opened. This provides a complete audit trail in case you need it later.
5. When you mark the report as Complete using the Property Inspect app on-site, any contacts who need to sign will automatically appear on the Signatures page, as long as they are present at the property.
Signature Reminders to Contacts
You can choose to send automatic signature reminders to contacts marked as Signee, ensuring they are promptly reminded to sign the report. This helps speed up the process and ensures that all necessary signatures are collected on time.
1. Start off by navigating to the Settings tab at the top of your online dashboard.
2. Under General Settings, scroll down to Send Signee Reminder.
3. From the dropdown menu, select the desired time(s) for the reminder to be sent.
You can now choose the interval of days for the reminder, and it will be sent automatically after the selected period. This ensures timely follow-ups without having to manually send reminders.
If one email reminder is selected, the email will be titled "Reminder." | If two or more reminders are selected, the last email in the sequence will be titled "Final Reminder," making it clear that it's the last follow-up. |
Importing Contacts from a Property
The option to import contacts from a property to an existing inspection streamlines the process, saving time and reducing manual data entry. This feature ensures that all relevant contacts are quickly added, improving efficiency and accuracy in communication.
1. Start off by navigating to the inspection info page on your web dashboard > click on the blue Manage next to Contacts.
2. At the bottom of the Contacts box, click on Import from Property > all the contacts listed for the property will now import to this inspection.
3. You will see a green box at the bottom of the left corner of your screen once this is successful.
ℹ️ If you'd like contacts to automatically pull through from the property to the inspection while retaining all previous preferences, you can enable the Retain Contact Preferences under the General Settings tab in your account.
This saves you time, reduces manual entry, and ensures consistent communication with the right people every time.
Automatic Removal of Inspection / Property Contacts
With Property Inspect, you can set up your account to automatically remove inspection contacts either after a specified period or when a specific event occurs, such as when an inspection is closed.
1. Navigate to the Settings tab at the top of your online dashboard.
2. Under the General tab, scroll down to the Data Management section, you will two settings that you customise:
Remove contacts after a set period of time once an inspection is closed.
Remove contacts after a specific event, such as when an inspection is closed.
3. You can also choose which contact types you would like to removed.
Displaying Contacts on the Front Cover
Prominently showcase your contact information on inspection report cover pages. This enhances professionalism, improves communication by making it easier for recipients to find contact details, and adds a personal touch to reports.
❗When this setting is enabled, only the contact's name will appear on the report's front cover, without any additional details (email, phone number, etc.).
How to display the contact(s) name for all reports:
1. Go to Settings tab at the top of your dashboard, click on Reports, then select the Layout and Cover Page option.
2. You can tick the box of which contact you'd like to display on the front cover of all reports.
3. Open your report and click on Preview/View Report; the Contact(s) names will now appear on the front cover:
Displaying the contact(s) names on selected reports:
1. On your dashboard, go to the Inspections tab, find the inspection you want to work on, then navigate to its info page and click on the inspection's Settings:
2. You can tick the box of which contact you'd like to display on the front cover of that specific report.
3. Open your report and click on Preview/View Report; the Contact(s) names will now appear on the front cover.
