Guide
Inspection evidence that holds up
June 30, 2026 · 9 minute read
The question that decides an audit is never "do you do inspections". It is "show me the one for this room, on this date". Teams that fail that question are almost never teams that skipped the work. They are teams whose evidence is scattered.
Four places evidence goes to die
- A paper form in a filing cabinet nobody can search
- A photo on the personal phone of somebody who has left
- A spreadsheet that records the result but not what was seen
- A work order system that knows about the fix but not the round that found it
What a complete record contains
Strip away the format and every regulator, insurer and owner wants the same five things. If your record has all five, the format rarely matters.
- Who did it, by name, and whether they work for you
- When, to the minute, from something other than their memory
- Where, specifically enough to identify one room or one machine
- What they found, including the things that passed
- What happened next about anything that failed, and the proof it closed
The fifth one is where programmes fail
The first four are a filing exercise. The fifth is a process. A finding that is noticed and never closed is worse than a finding that was never noticed, because it proves you knew.
The fix is to make the follow-up part of the same record rather than a separate system. When a failed check raises tracked work automatically, with the photo and the location already attached, the loop closes because closing it is the path of least resistance.
Proof of presence, without theatre
Location tracking on technicians is a bad idea for morale and usually a bad idea legally. A QR sticker on the door does the same job with none of the problems: scanning it records that this person was at this equipment at this time, and it happens because scanning is also the fastest way to open the job.
Start with the round that scares you
Teams that try to move everything at once move nothing. Pick the round you would least like to be asked about, put that one on a phone, and run it for a month. The second one takes a fraction of the effort, because you will have learned how your team actually works.