Writing a report

A report is written in the editor: a form made from one of your templates, filled in section by section and saved as you type. It stays a draft, changeable by its examiner and by owners and admins, until it is signed. This topic covers starting a report and filling it in. Issuing a report covers the checks, the signatures and what happens after.

Where a report starts

Technicians start reports. A report can be started from six places, and each fills in what it knows:

• A project's page. Start a report opens the starting dialog with nothing filled in but the project.
• A line of an asset's scope of work. On the asset's page, and on the project's Scope of work tab, every line still owed has Start report. The report begins with the welds marked inspected on that line (the button says how many), or with every weld still owed when nothing is marked, together with the inspection stage, the procedure and the acceptance criteria the line names. See the scope of work.
• A weld's page. Each inspection the weld still owes has its own Start report. A weld that a report in the works already lists gets no second button.
• A request's page. Start report begins with what the request states: its welds and their welders, the sizes, the stage, the procedure and the acceptance criteria, and every other fact the template has a field for. See inspection requests.
• A job or one of its work items, while the Operations module is on. Start a report there links the report to the job, fills in the job's equipment and takes up the requests the job answers. See operations.
• The dashboard, which leads to the reports waiting for review and to the open requests, and from there to the places above.

Someone without the Technician role sees no button; the page says which role starts a report, and an owner or admin gives it on the Team page.

The starting dialog

• Template for a new report. Your default template for the method comes first, marked "(your default)". Only published templates are offered.
• Asset. The vessel, tank or line the report is for, or The whole project (no single asset). A report started from a request or a scope line is for that asset already.
• For an inspection request. The open request the report answers, or None. A report started from a request's page has it filled in.

If your company gives the number as soon as a report is started (Settings, Reports), the report is numbered here. Otherwise it carries a draft reference until it leaves draft. See how reports are numbered.

The editor

The editor has three parts:

• Sections, on the left: the outline of the template. Each section reads Not started, In progress or Complete. A table row counts as complete only once its required cells are filled. Previous section and Next section move through the outline.
• The form of the active section, in the middle.
• The side panel on the right, with the cards described below. On screens up to 1440 pixels wide the panel sits under the form, so wide tables fit.

The Report card

• Number: "Given when the report leaves draft" until then.
• Draft reference: the report's name until it is numbered.
• Template, with its version. A report keeps the version it was started on, so a template changed later never changes it.
• Project, Asset and Client.
• Examiner: the person who started the report. The examiner signs it.
• Inspection date: typed here. The certificate and calibration checks read it.
• Inspection stage: when in the fabrication the inspection was made. Printed on the report.
• Answers the scope of work: the lines the report answers, where it was started from one.
• Review: the review policy that applies in this project.
• Report languages, with the Authoritative language marked.

The other cards

• Request: the request the report answers, and what will be printed from it. See below.
• Change report languages: one to four languages in order; the PDF layout, One PDF with the languages together for one or two languages or One PDF per language; and the Number format.
• Machine drafts: AI drafts of free text in the other languages, where AI is on for your company.
• Sign-off: the signatures and the checks. The report's way on (Sign and issue, Sign and send for review or Approve and issue) is also the orange button at the top of the page, with a count of what the checks found beside it. See issuing a report.
• Print preview: the PDF as it would print from what is saved now, marked as a draft, one per edition, each opening in a new tab; or the report as a web page.
• Scan plan: fills the scan setup section from a plan among the project's files. See files and sharing.
• Documents used: the procedure, technique sheet or validation from the library the report is made to.
• Linked files: the scan data, photos and sketches behind the report, and Photo from your phone.

Once the report is issued, the panel also shows its PDF editions, its Share links, Activity and conversation with the client, its Revisions and Welds and TMLs in this report.

Saving as you go

Every change is saved by itself. The foot of the form reads Saving…, then All changes saved or "Saved at" a time; Unsaved changes while you type.

• If someone else saved the report first, in another tab or on another computer, your save is refused: "Not saved: this report was changed in another tab or by someone else." Press Reload to see the latest version, then make your change again.
• A value that does not fit its field (not a number, too many decimals, not one of the choices) is marked in the form, and that save waits until it is put right.
• Without a connection, what you type is kept on this device and sent when the connection is back. See offline and phone.

Only the examiner, owners and admins change a draft. Anyone else on staff opens it read-only.

Filling in the form

• Fields marked Required must be filled in before the report can be signed. The outline shows which sections are not complete yet.
• A number carries the unit the template fixes, so nothing is typed twice and nothing is converted. Choices come from your code lists, in your language.
• Free text (remarks, descriptions, recommendations) is written in the authoritative language. See below.
• While you type a weld's or a TML's identifier, the project's tracker offers the ones it knows, by kind.

Tables of welds, indications and readings

A table grows one row at a time. Three kinds of table feed the rest of NDT Intact:

• Weld results: one row per weld, with its result (accept or reject) and the welders. At issue each row writes the weld's history in the tracker.
• Indications: what was found, with its type, size and position. Your own acceptance limits are checked against it before issue.
• Thickness readings: one row per TML and position. At issue each row becomes a reading for thickness trending.

A weld or TML in a row is matched to the tracker by its identifier when the report is issued: case, spacing and the punctuation between its parts aside. "LS-3" in the report is "LS 3" in the tracker, and "ls_3" too; "LS3" is another weld. An identifier the tracker does not know yet is added then. See the tracker.

Free text in several languages

A report has one to four languages. The first is the authoritative one, and the PDF says that its text prevails where the versions differ.

• Free text is written once, in the authoritative language. The card In the other languages shows each text in each further language as Written by a person, a Machine draft, or Confirmed.
• Type the other languages yourself, or, where AI is on for your company, press Draft the missing … text on the Machine drafts card. The draft is made with the glossary, so NDT terms come out right. See AI.
• Every machine draft must be confirmed by a person, with Confirm as it stands, or edited. A report with a draft left cannot be issued, and a text missing in one of its languages blocks issue too.

Labels, headings and choices need no translation: they are stored as codes and printed from the glossary in each language.

Equipment and people from the registers

Sections for equipment and personnel take their values from the registers: an instrument by its serial, a person with their certificates. While the report is a draft they are read from the register, so a calibration entered later shows at once. At issue they are frozen into the report. The checks before issue read the calibration due dates and the certificate dates against the inspection date. See equipment and personnel.

The request a report answers

The Request card shows the request's reference, the client's own number and its status. A fact the request states goes into the template's field of the same meaning where there is one. Everything else is printed on the report in a request block, as the request states it, and the card lists what that will be. A field you fill in is printed instead of the same fact from the request.

"Something wrong here?" leads to Correct the request: a slip is put right once, at the request, and every report still in the works follows. Once the report is issued the block is frozen with it.

Files, photos and documents

• Linked files: Link a file from the project's files and say What it is: scan data, scan plan, photo, sketch or other. Linked files are listed on the PDF and frozen at issue. Unlink takes one off a draft.
• Photo from your phone shows a QR code. Your phone, signed in as you in this company, takes the picture, and it lands in the project's files, linked to the report. See offline and phone.
• Documents used: Link a document from the library. The revision in effect is linked, printed on the report and frozen at issue. Use as the procedure puts it in the report's procedure field. See the document library.

Starting a report like this one

For the next inspection of the same kind, Start a report like this one in the report's "⋯" menu starts a new draft on the same template, for the same project and asset, in the same languages, with this report's setup copied: the component, the technique, the equipment, the people, the standing text in every language, the procedures it was made to. The results tables, the indications, the inspection date and whatever this report answered (a request, a line of the scope, a job) are left for the new inspection to fill in. The copy is numbered, counted and recorded like any report, with a note of what it was copied from. Anyone who may start a report in the project may do this, from a draft or an issued report alike.

Deleting or voiding a draft

• A draft with no number yet can be deleted by whoever may change it. Delete this draft removes it for good.
• A draft that already has a number is never deleted. The examiner, an owner or an admin presses Void this report and gives a reason. The report stays in the report register as void, and its number is never used again.