ramdino Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 I am looking for new reporting software. Presently I use report host online. what I need is software that I can create boilerplate. It would be nice if it came with boilerplate I could change to suit me. What I really need is software that will cut down on the length of the stuff in the summary. Reporthost creates a summary that is verbatim what I have put in the report without the pics. The bad part is that buyers look at the summary first and see all the words and length and panic. Then they can't seem to get out of the panic mode. I want them to know everything I know but not panic and walk away from a house that would have been a good house for them. Suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 The host of this site has an excellent MS Word based system. Download and see what you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kogel Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 You can customize any of the major programs. I use Home Inspector Pro, which has a good summary creator. You can throw comments from your list into a choice of two blocks. The upper block comments go into the body, the lower block comments go into both the body and the summary. The only scary thing is the summary comments are in red. People will read the red parts, at least. Works for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolan Kienitz Posted March 2, 2013 Report Share Posted March 2, 2013 Whisper Reporter Highly customizable to do whatever you want/need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottpat Posted March 2, 2013 Report Share Posted March 2, 2013 You can customize any of the major programs. I use Home Inspector Pro, which has a good summary creator. You can throw comments from your list into a choice of two blocks. The upper block comments go into the body, the lower block comments go into both the body and the summary. The only scary thing is the summary comments are in red. People will read the red parts, at least. Works for me. You can change the summary color in HIP to whatever you want. Give Dominic a shout or look at the tutorial on the HIP site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kogel Posted March 2, 2013 Report Share Posted March 2, 2013 You can customize any of the major programs. I use Home Inspector Pro, which has a good summary creator. You can throw comments from your list into a choice of two blocks. The upper block comments go into the body, the lower block comments go into both the body and the summary. The only scary thing is the summary comments are in red. People will read the red parts, at least. Works for me. You can change the summary color in HIP to whatever you want. Give Dominic a shout or look at the tutorial on the HIP site. Thanks, Scott. In general. I don't mind the red text for the safety items and big costly defects. Some houses, I would like to tone it down a bit. "Trim your shrubs" doesn't need to be in red. But the summary can double as a to do list, such as when the client asks me to list all the maintenance stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlord Posted March 3, 2013 Report Share Posted March 3, 2013 After 14 years of InspectIts Report Plus/Pro it was time to make a change. One, they no longer make it or support it and two, i've gone 100% Apple iOS. Decided on Carson Dunlop's Horizon system that works in the Cloud. After looking at all the available systems I figured I just needed to make a choice and go with it. I use my iPad (no internet connection needed) to collect all the info in the field. Take a pic with the iPad and its inserted automatically in the right spot. Like every other system it requires editing to suit your style but after several months I really like it. Their customer support has been very good as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erby Posted March 3, 2013 Report Share Posted March 3, 2013 They'll all need modification to fit your style. I use HomeGauge.com. Love it. Easy to adapt to exactly what I want. Best to download trials of all of them and try them for your style. Then pick one that suits your style best and move on without looking back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtblum Posted March 3, 2013 Report Share Posted March 3, 2013 They'll all need modification to fit your style. I use HomeGauge.com. Love it. Easy to adapt to exactly what I want. Best to download trials of all of them and try them for your style. Then pick one that suits your style best and move on without looking back. I'll second that. Try it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlparham Posted March 3, 2013 Report Share Posted March 3, 2013 After 14 years of InspectIts Report Plus/Pro it was time to make a change. One, they no longer make it or support it and two, i've gone 100% Apple iOS. Decided on Carson Dunlop's Horizon system that works in the Cloud. After looking at all the available systems I figured I just needed to make a choice and go with it. I use my iPad (no internet connection needed) to collect all the info in the field. Take a pic with the iPad and its inserted automatically in the right spot. Like every other system it requires editing to suit your style but after several months I really like it. Their customer support has been very good as well. Do you drag an iPad into a crawl space? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlord Posted March 3, 2013 Report Share Posted March 3, 2013 No iPad in the attic or crawl. Just upload the attic and crawl pics using a slick photo uploader built into the software. It took me a little while to get used to using the iPad camera but it takes really good pics and speeds up the reporting process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent Tarter Posted March 22, 2013 Report Share Posted March 22, 2013 I started out using ReportHost as well. It's an easy to use program, their boiler plate is very thorough but the comments are way to wordy. Using this type of wordy pre-written content will kill your business and make you look like you are solely realying on someone else's pre-written comments. Report writing is a craft in it self, try to keep comments short and to the point. I have been using HomeGauge since 2008, it's one of the best business decisions I have made. They have many different report formats and print styles. The software is pretty easy to learn, they have a great support and an active members forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles46 Posted March 22, 2013 Report Share Posted March 22, 2013 They'll all need modification to fit your style. I use HomeGauge.com. Love it. Easy to adapt to exactly what I want. Best to download trials of all of them and try them for your style. Then pick one that suits your style best and move on without looking back. I was in your situation this time last year. Downloaded trial versions of the ones everyone is mentioning. Spent time taking them all for a test drive. They all had their good points. Once I made my choice (HomeGauge), I haven't looked back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patmanb13 Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 InterNACHI just had a webinar tonight on three different reporting software. You might want to check that out on there website, or youtube in about a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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