hi everyone: i am going through my 40 hour outside inspection and will have to write up my reports for each inspection. at this point i am not sure which software to purchase for my reports as they sem to be very expensive. i was advised there is software avaiable on line where you can write your reports, print them or save them in a pdf format for my clients to retrieve. can anyone tell me which of these is the best and most professional looking where i can clip and paste my pictures and in general have a very professional looking report. i was told the cost is something like $5/report but really am not sure about any of this. or perhaps there is something caomperable to portavalley or 3d software that is no so expensive.
Report writing is something that should have been covered in the school and if they did not I would ask for my $$ back - about 50% of our time is spent doing the report and if we do a great inspection and the report is bad - we loose.
I my opinion one should be able to do a report without the SW esp since this is a $$ thing that coming out of school you might not need to spend.
I used some of the sample reports from the web and some of the demo SW that I could hack until I found what I wanted – Just did not like to spend $$ on something that I might not need if I got out of the profession in 90 days
I purchased the Inspectavue software through Allied Schools. It took a while to set up and was a bit pricey, but it comes through with a completely professional report including pictures, etc. You can change the components and narratives and all in all I am very satisfied with it. Like I said, it took a while to get used to but once you get it, it really isn’t bad. I can usually pop out a beautiful report within one hour.
XL pro VI will store files in a pdf format. I personally dont like the format of the software itself. Although that is just because I am in Texas and the format doesnt fit the texas reporting style. www.bestinspectors.com will give you a free download. You pay a one time purchase and it is yours.
We (BestInspectors.Net) have reports ranging in price from $24.95 - $895. Any of them will create a report in PDF format which can be easily e-mailed. The $24.95 report is in PDF format. The others will create a PDF report using the third party PDF print drivers that are on all our CD’s.
Our XL Pro 5 and XL Pro 6 Series reports also come with a CD that enable you to create an auto running, menu based, CD of your inspection report. You can give the Cd to your client and they can e-mail or copy the report as many times as they want.
We have special pricing for NACHI members. There is a NACHI Store within our online store. If you see a price advertised elsewhere by us or one of our authorized distributors, we will honor the price plus give you an additional discount.
Thanks for mentioning XL Pro 6. Are you aware that we have three Texas reports? XL Pro 6 version 20 was just released within the last two weeks. It now includes the TREC pages. We also have a Texas version of XL Pro 5 2666 Edition and a Texas Version of Legacy 5. The Legacy 5 and XL Pro 5 demos are not available through our demo request on the web site but we do send them to NACHI members. The XL Pro 6 demo can be requested through the demo request on the web site.
[quote=rwitt]
XL pro VI will store files in a pdf format. I personally dont like the format of the software itself. Although that is just because I am in Texas and the format doesnt fit the texas reporting style.
Andy,
I’d say you’d be a good match for Report Host largely because you can have that professional report, include all your pictures, and I think they bump it up to the first 15 reports are free if you are a Nachi member. But even after that, you still pay only for what you need when you need it. Best of all, if you later switch to other reporting format, you won’t be kicking yourself for the big bucks you wasted in the trash can.
just my two cents, hope it helps