Thanks for the heads up. I just found one I could do exactly what you described. I’m a bit disappointed Spectora hasn’t communicated this issue. Will be turning off my sample report for now.
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Bingo!
That’s a client data breach and that should’ve been communicated immediately when
they were made aware of it a couple weeks ago. Had I known that they were going to be silent, I may have posted much earlier.
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We’ll have to add it the list of disappointments apparently…
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Spectora: We don’t sell your customer’s information. We give it away for free!
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HAHA, LOL!!
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I put it up on the unofficial FB page. Not even going to try and put it on the official page.
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Well, our posts are official being posted here now, aren’t they! I hope for Spectora’s sake that they have someone scouring the Internet for feedback on these types of important issues.
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I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t immediately take down everyone’s sample reports upon finding this out. And then send out a communication. I suppose they were trying to find a fix before making a big deal, but that’s no excuse. We don’t compromise client’s data, even if it is just exposed to other users. Not to mention, the potential loss of confidential business info, like pricing, for those of us that protect that info from competitors.
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Wow! You all are great! way more than I was expecting. Kuddos!
All kinda of great information. Still haven’t come to a decision on what to do. I have a feeling I’m going to end up like a lot of you and staying with homegauge desktop. But I just hired and may have some free time to explore the Spectora side - I’m worried they are going to phase out the HG platform over time, now that they’ve bought it. I love the way HG presents to the customer and hate the Spectora look (I know it’s modern and web friendly). So I will keep you all updated on the progress (if any).
I like the idea of 3D and the others that you buy. But then do you need to use ISN or some other scheduling platform, or do those have the capabilities.
Speaking of ISN - Thoughts?
Again I am using Homegauge and HomeGuage Payments (which they just raised their processing fee). I use Homegauge to schedule, follow up emails (changing the templates to a more personalized version), agreements, etc. basically using homegauge for everything and it works, I like it, I really have no complaints.
I do see some benefits with ISN and Spectora’s “Office” capabilities, but cost?! is it worth it?
Again, I am Not a big inspection company but we are growing.
Thanks for the tip. I’m going to scour all my local Spectora inspectors websites… 
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You have to be a Spectora user to get access. Send me your competitor sites and I’ll send you my Paypal. 
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Its a pay-to-play setup 
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I honestly can’t imagine operating without back-office capabilities. As a very busy one-man op, paying for some back office automation is way cheaper than hiring an employee. The functionality doesn’t do anything I couldn’t do manually myself, but it just saves a ton of time and effort. It’s kinda like having SupraKey and Sentrilock access. Sure, I could spend my time trying to get agents to get me access to the home, but I’d much rather spend a few bucks and be able to save time and know I have access with a few clicks in the app.
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Sounds like you’re about to undercut me. Don’t fall for it @ccurrins. 
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I would never 
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Only you can answer that. For me, NO! I like to have complete control over the product and any communication (including product delivery) with the client, scheduling, and finances (books). Many can’t keep their books which astounds me.
Simple Excel spreadsheet has three tabs at the bollom. First is General Ledger. Both debits and credits are listed here by date in two separate columns (one debit one credit). Second tab is Expense (debit) by date with columns for the separate tax deductible categories. Third tab is income (credit) listed by date in separate columns for the service performed.
This is called double entry accounting. Required for an LLC. At the end of the year the totals from each “book” must match. Simple if you enter each item as it occurs.
Excel can do much more but I don’t really need it. Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS).
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3D Inspection System Premier includes all of the back-office functions that I need.
I schedule all inspections using the software, do reports and send invoices with it. The only thing I don’t use it for is inspection agreements, I use InterNACHI’s Agreement system for that, it’s free to all members.
I used it for many years. For a number of years, I had ACC answering my phones and booking all inspections, their system would transfer all the info into ISN, I would use ISN to send out emails and then transfer all the inspection & client information from ISN into my 3D software, it worked great.
Then COVID hit and I decided it was time to slow it down to one a day, so I fired ACC and started answering my own phones, I still used ISN for scheduling and emails, but shortly thereafter, ISN got bought out by Porch and the price went from $4.00 per inspection to $6.00 per inspection, I went with that for a while but was planning on eventually just using 3D for scheduling and emails. When I left ISN they were raising the price again to $7.00 per inspection (they offer a better price if you did more than 50 inspections in a month).
So now that $7.00 per inspection fee goes into my bank account, and not Porch’s.
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Quick update. If you want to get your sample report(s) back up, just create a dummy inspection using your own address or whatever, set the fee to $0, delete the agreement. Then go to the report you want to use as a sample and copy it to your new dummy inspection. You will have to re-upload the cover photo as the system will delete/change the cover photo because the address is different for your dummy inspection than it is for the report you are copying. Publish the report in your dummy inspection and then set it as your sample. I set up the dummy inspection date back a few years so as not to mess up my current metrics. Let me know if you have any questions or need any clarification!
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I hope this is not the solution from Spectora.
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It’s the solution I came up with. All it is is detaching your sample report from the original inspection. Pretty basic and something we should do anyway I suppose.
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