FAQs

Please click here and take 9 minutes to watch a complete overview of Report Builder (you will need sound). Taking the time to watch this video may just be one of the most important research activities you have undertaken for your business.

You can also download a demo version of Report builder.

The demo version of Report Builder is a fully functional version of the program except for the following limitations:

1. The demo version has a 14 day trial peiod. 
2. The demo version does not contain all of the comments and values that are provided in the retail version, but you can add as many new ones as you like.
3. The demo version comes preloaded with the Building and Pest report specifications. With the retail version, you are able to choose which report specifications you would like to load into Report Builder.
4. Sample Report Templates contained in the demo version only have partial content shown and many of the words are masked in alternative languages. A significant value-add of this program is all the content that is embedded in your copy when you purchase.
5. Data merged into generated documents will be slightly jumbled.

Should you require additional support, we provide ongoing support plans as well as one-on-one training blocks. For more information on these support options, please refer to our Support page.

Current customers will receive patches and minor releases free of charge. Major releases, will be offered to current customers at a discounted rate.

The beauty of Report Builder is that you control your Master Template. When you purchase a copy of the program you are provided with pages and pages of detailed formatting, items, areas, comments and observations that you can use for an inspection.

To comply with your insurer's individual requirements, you would simply go in to your Master Template and make any text changes to the content that are required. Save them once, and they will forever more appear in your report until you choose to update it again. This flexibility allows you to update the template as "standards" (or your requirements) change without purchasing an "updated" version of the program.

Report Builder is shipped worldwide and our detailed templates suit building and pest inspections the world over. We have written these templates in consideration of the current Australian Standard AS 4349.1 – 2007 Inspection of buildings (Property Inspections-Residential buildings) and or Australian Standard AS 4349.3 – 1988 Inspection of buildings Part 3: Timber Pest Inspections). You can update templates at any time as the standards or requirements change for your industry as your Master Template is saved in Word and is fully customisable by you whenever you wish.

Report Builder is not designed to be used on Palm Pilots, iPhones or similar small devices. You simply cannot get the level of detail and use all the functionality of this system on such a small screen.

Instead, we recommend the use of a Tablet PC. A Tablet PC is a portable computer with a large touchscreen that you are able to operate with a stylus (or digital pen). They are perfect to take with you on an inspection to electronically record your data directly into Report Builder.

Please refer to our section on Using Report Builder with a Tablet PC

Report Builder has been designed specifically to be used in the field on a Tablet PC which is a portable computer with a large touch screen that you are able to operate with a stylus (or digital pen). They are perfect to take with you on an inspection to electronically record your data directly into the program. Please refer to our section on Using Report Builder with a Tablet PC

However, many inspectors take their laptop on site and use it to collect data using Report Builder. Your Slave copy of Report Builder is what will be used in the field, while the Master copy of the program will sit on your desktop PC back at the office so admin staff can manage all the new jobs that are coming in while you are out inspecting. Smaller businesses might use the Master version for everything; in this case the Master will sit on your Tablet or Laptop.

If you are yet to move to an electronic device out in the field, Report Builder also generates worksheets in Excel so you can print them off and use paper, then return to the office to generate quality reports in the program.

The tablet you purchase will need to run Windows XP (service pack 2 or 3) or Windows Vista and have a screen resolution of at least 1024x768.

As far as other hardware requirements, we recommend a minimum of 1GB of memory, and a 20GB hard drive (HDD), but Report Builder will still run if you only have 512KB of memory. Essentially, if it can run Windows XP, it can run Report Builder.

You will also need Microsoft Word 2000 or higher in order to generate reports. However, to make full use of all of the features in Report Builder, we do suggest you have Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook as well. These are all available in the Microsoft Office Basic and Microsoft Office Standard suites.

The best way to copy and paste text into and out of Report Builder is by using the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts. The following are the most useful, especially for data entry: 

• Ctrl+X   (cut)
• Ctrl+C   (copy)
• Ctrl+V   (paste)

Our research shows there is NOTHING on the market as sophisticated as Report Builder. We ask you to review your current program asking the following questions:

1. Can you COMPLETELY customise every aspect of the content and presentation of your reports?
2. Will your current program manage all your contacts into unlimited categories?
3. Can you generate tax invoices, letters, emails, job and sales statistics, information on your turnover and business performance, allocate an inspector to a job and review all past reports from your current software?
4. Do you pay any annual or ongoing fees?

We would like to offer a case study to answer this question:

(2007) Lindsay was conducting 2–3 Building, Compliance and Pest Inspections per day. He would collect data on paper and head back by about 3pm to start writing reports up from previous day's work. Reports were normally released 2–3 days from the date of inspection.

Generally Lindsay finished his work day anywhere from 7–9pm and often he was inspecting or writing both Saturdays and Sundays.

Fast forward to February 2008 — Lindsay now inspects up to 4 properties a day and uses Report Builder, on a Tablet PC, on site. He collects significantly more data than ever before and completely finishes the report on location. He emails the report back to his office, and they are usually released in the same day. Lindsay is now finished every night by 6pm, enjoying significantly greater turnover and new business as a result of quality reports . . . all because of the implementation of Report Builder!

NO! Report Builder manages all your contacts, allows you to plan your schedule, manage every detail of each job, generate tax invoices, letters, emails, provides reports on turnover and business performance. One system completely overhauls both large and small inspections operations, allowing you to dramatically reduce administration costs.

There are countless savings provided by this software.

1. You will generate more detailed reports faster than ever before if you are using Report Builder on an electronic device such as a Tablet PC or laptop on site
2. You log all your job data in one place and never re-enter information for invoices, letters, inspector sheets etc again. There is NO double handling of data
3. You can customise the program as regularly as you need to, updating content and presentation as industry standards change – the software has no limitations and will not become outdated
4. Refer back to any aspect of a job, all your information is stored in the one Master copy for instant reference to your work – there is no need to sift through files to review an old job
5. You have access to hundreds (even thousands) of comments and values to add to your report for every aspect of the property you inspect. Report Builder ships with detailed templates that you can upgrade to include as many unique comments as you wish, the amount of time taken to generate a report with this level of detail would be significant without Report Builder

YES. Report Builder boasts 5 powerful summary tools that help the inspector to maintain total control over the information they are collecting.

1. On the Inpsection Details screen, when the item or area you are working on has all of its required fields filled in (as predefined by YOU), a large "tick" icon will be displayed. The inspector can continue working without getting a "tick", but it remains as a visual reminder that that item or area may need further attention.
2. Also on the Inpsection Details screen, small "ticks" are shown on the list of items (and areas) so that the inspector can see at a glance which items are remaining to be inspected. Again, this summary is defined by you as you decide what is "required" for the area to be finished.
3. Another feature on the Inpsection Details screen is in the dropdowm box where you select a new area to add to your inspection. In this dropdown list, numbers are shown before each area to indicate how many of that area are already included in your inspection.
4. The Inspection Report Summary can be clicked any time while the inspector is working for an overall summary of what areas have and have not been reported on.
5. And finally a copy of the entire detailed report (without all your fancy formatting) can be generated as many times as you wish on site so you can see exactly what detail has been entered (this report will generally be several pages in length). If you keep a hard copy report on file at your office, this is an excellent version to store as it will use less pages and ink than your Master Report Template version which would be released to the client.

If you create a job on-the-fly on a Slave, you must ensure the job has been created in the Master and that the job number on the Slave is the same as the job number in the Master BEFORE you can transfer your inspection data.

Slaves are not allowed to create jobs on the Master — they can only add inspection data to existing jobs. So if you create a job on-the-fly on your Slave, you won’t be able to import it into the Master until that job exists in the Master. This is done so that the Master maintains control over the job numbers. This is critical when there is more than one Slave being used.

No problem. Just reimport the job.

If you exported the inspection data to an XML file, you can simply reimport it back into your Slave. But if the inspection data has already been imported into the Master, the best option is to reimport the job from the Master just in case there were any subsequent changes made to the data.

Remember: when a Slave imports a job, it gets the job details PLUS any inspections that have been done for that job.

Job numbers are automatically incrementing numbers. But what you can do is use something like the following in your report templates wherever you print the job number:

[[InspectionDate @ yy]]/[[JobNumber]]

This will result in a value like 08/1211. Of course the Job Number in Report Builder will still be 1211. The 08/1211 format will only appear in your generated reports.

Note: If you're just trying to marry up your accounting package with Report Builder, the Company Reports in Report Builder are filterable by date. This means that you can choose to only list jobs for a specified date range.

The following is a basic example of how you can list all of the Cracking items recorded for all areas in the inspection:

CRACKING: The following is a list of all cracks found during our inspection.
[[StartArea]]
[[StartItem:Cracking]]

• [[AreaName]]
  • [[ItemValue]]
  • [[ItemComment]]

YES!!!

The latest version of Report Builder now supports images.  You can upload an unlimited number of images per inspection and assign those images to individual areas and items.

Report Builder is also very flexible when it comes to placing those images into your reports.  You can choose to display the images next to their related areas and items, or you can choose to group them together in an image gallery.

Download the new demo and test it out for yourself.

Report Builder is simply downloaded from our website. Once payment has been confirmed, Avonthor will assign you client privileges on our website where you will have exclusive access to our downloadable programs and other handy applications for your reports OR we can ship you an installation package the following business day after your payment has been processed. You will receive a confirmation email to verify that the program has been dispatched to you.

Report Builder is shipped to you with the following items included in your program folder:

• Report Builder installation CD
• Introduction letter with your activation codes
• "Quick Tips" – quick reference guide
• Report Builder Complete User Manual
• Tax Invoice

Postage is included in the purchase price of the program. There are no extra charges associated with Report Builder.

YES! Report Builder has been designed, and is being used by building inspectors worldwide. The product is completely customizable for any inspector working under any Building Code.

NO. Report Builder is purchased by you outright. You receive 3 months online support (and can access extra support after this time if required). The one-time fee shown in our pricing matrix is the final total including GST and postage.

However, we do offer maintenance and support options to help you keep up-to-date with the latest program releases and to provide ongoing support if you require it.