Issuing a report

Issuing turns a draft into the record: the data is locked, a PDF is printed for each edition with its fingerprint and QR code, the client is told, and the tracker and thickness trending learn from it. Before that come the checks, the signatures and, where your company asks for it, a review. This topic follows the Sign-off card of the editor from the first signature to a withdrawal. Writing a report covers everything before it.

What issuing does

In one step, NDT Intact:

1. Runs the checks below and stops on anything that blocks.
2. Gives the report its number if it has none yet. See how reports are numbered.
3. Freezes the data: the values, the equipment with its calibrations, the people with their certificates, the request block, the linked files and documents, as they stand at that moment.
4. Prints a PDF per edition, stores each with its SHA-256 fingerprint, and prints the QR code of the verification page on every edition.
5. Releases the report to the client portal and emails the client's users.
6. Writes the tracker's events for every weld in the weld results table and a thickness reading for every TML in the readings table, and takes the field marks of those welds away.
7. Records the issue in the activity log.

An issued report never changes. A correction is a revision; a report issued in error is withdrawn.

The checks before signing

Pressing Sign and send for review or Sign and issue, at the top of the page or on the Sign-off card, runs the checks. A count appears beside the button at the top ("2 to put right", "1 to look at"), and the Sign-off card, brought into view, shows what they found in two lists: "Put these right first:" for what blocks, and "Look at these. If they are in order, carry on." for warnings, which you acknowledge with They are in order: carry on. Checks flag; they never change a result or a disposition.

What blocks:

• The examiner holds no certificate in the report's method valid on the inspection date.
• The reviewer holds no such certificate valid on the day of the review. This is checked when the review happens.
• A label of your own, or a code of your own lists, has no wording in one of the report's languages.
• A free text is missing in one of the report's languages, or is a machine draft nobody has confirmed.
• A required field is empty. The report is not signed, and the fields are marked in the form.
• The report number cannot be made: it carries the client's code and the client has none yet, or the asset's tag and the report is for no asset.

What warns:

• A piece of equipment was out of calibration on the inspection date, or has no calibration on record by then.
• A weld has a recorded indication but no result.
• A weld is marked accepted, but one of its indications breaks one of your own acceptance limits.
• The asset has a scope of work and the report answers no line of it, or the report's inspection stage is not the stage its line asks for.
• A library document linked to the report was not the revision in effect on the inspection date, or has been withdrawn since it was linked.

Review: none, optional or required

An owner sets Review before issue in Settings, Reports: no review, so a report is issued on the examiner's signature; review optional, so the examiner decides per report; or review required. A project may ask for a stricter review than the company does, never for a looser one. The Report card of the editor shows which applies.

One person may examine and review the same report is off unless an owner switches it on. Off, the reviewer must be someone other than the examiner.

Signing and sending for review

Only the examiner signs as examiner. A signature records your name, your role, the certificates you hold in the report's method that are valid on the date that counts, the time and the address you signed from. It is your name put to the record; no picture of a signature is drawn or uploaded.

• With no review: Sign and issue. The report is issued at once.
• With review required: Sign and send for review. The report gets its number now, moves to In review, and nobody can change it unless the reviewer returns it.
• With review optional: both buttons are offered, and which you chose is recorded.

A report waiting for a reviewer reads "Waiting for a reviewer." and appears under Reports awaiting review on every reviewer's dashboard.

The reviewer's turn

A reviewer opens the report read-only, with the same Sign-off card:

• Approve and issue runs the checks again, the reviewer's certificates now against the day of review, signs as reviewer and issues the report.
• Return to the examiner, with Comments for the examiner, sends it back to draft. The editor then shows "Returned by …" with the comments. The examiner changes what is needed and signs again.

"Returned" is not a status: a returned report is a draft, and can be voided like any draft. Every review is kept in the report's activity with the reviewer's name, the decision and the comments.

Statuses

• Draft: being written. Changed by the examiner, owners and admins.
• In review: signed by the examiner, waiting for a reviewer. Nobody changes it.
• Issued: the current record. Never changed.
• Superseded: a newer revision of the same number has been issued.
• Withdrawn: issued in error and retracted, with a reason.
• Void: a numbered report cancelled before it was issued, with a reason.

See also what the statuses mean.

PDF editions

A report in one or two languages prints as one PDF, unless it is set to one PDF per language. A report in three or four languages always prints as several PDFs from the same signed record: one per language, or each further language beside the authoritative one (en+ru, en+kk), as Each edition holds says in Settings, Reports. An issued report keeps the editions it was printed with.

The PDF editions card lists each edition with Download: … once it is prepared, and Open the verification page. The editions are printed right after the issue. If one is still waiting, Prepare the waiting editions again asks for it once more. Each edition has its own fingerprint, listed on the verification page. See verification.

Revisions

A revision corrects the record of the same inspection and keeps the report number.

• Start a revision on the issued report. It is for the examiner, or for an owner or admin, holding the Technician role, and only while no other revision of the report is open. A copy opens as a draft with the revision number raised by one; correct it and sign it as usual.
• The issued revision stays valid until the new one is issued. Then it becomes Superseded, and the tracker's events and thickness readings it wrote no longer count: the new revision's take their place.
• The verification page of a superseded revision says so and leads to the current one.

A re-inspection after a repair is a new report with a new number, never a revision. That is what keeps the repair rates right.

Withdrawing a report

A report issued in error is withdrawn by an owner or admin with Withdraw this report, after Why is this report withdrawn? and, where another report takes its place, Replaced by (optional).

• Withdrawal covers the whole number: every revision is withdrawn, an open revision is voided, and the number is never used again.
• The PDFs stay as they are. The verification page says withdrawn for every revision, the client is emailed, and the portal says the report no longer stands.
• The tracker's events and thickness readings of the report no longer count.

If only the latest revision is wrong, start a revision instead.

Voiding a numbered report

A report that has a number but was never issued is voided, not deleted: the examiner voids their own draft, an owner or admin any draft or report in review. Void this report asks for a reason. The report stays in the report register as Void, so every number is accounted for. A draft with no number is deleted instead.

What the client sees

Client users see nothing of a draft or a report in review. At issue the report appears in their portal with its PDF editions, the files you share with it, its revisions and its activity, and they are emailed. They can comment, and formally accept the current revision with their name and the time, which then shows on the verification page. A revision appears beside the one it supersedes. A withdrawal says the report no longer stands and names the replacement, if there is one. See the client portal.