Pre-inspection form
A pre-inspection is a short walk-through before you clean. You ask the customer a few questions, look at each room or piece, note what's already there, test, take photos, and have them sign. Owners and admins turn it on in Settings → Pre-Inspection on the office website. It's off until you turn it on, and optional on each job unless you require it.
Why it matters
- No surprises. The customer hears before the job that traffic lanes, color loss, urine stains or burns may not come out — not after.
- No "you did that" calls. Worn spots, open seams, loose buttons and rust marks are written down and photographed before you start.
- You really get to know the carpet. For solo operators it's the difference customers remember.
- It trains techs. Every field has a short What to look for tip, so a new tech learns what to check and why.
How techs use it
- On the job sheet (or the estimate), tap Pre-inspection. Areas come from the job — rooms, stairs, upholstery — and you can add more.
- Customer interview: age, last cleaning, spotting they tried, protector, pets, kids, how the space is used, and what they expect.
- Each area: fiber and construction (pick Don't know if you aren't sure), the condition checklist, spots and stains, a UV check for urine, and the tests you did — colorfastness, pH, burn test, and on upholstery shrink and the ferrous button magnet check.
- The checklist starts with the standard conditions: heavy traffic lanes, pet spots / urine, wicking risk, permanent stains likely, furniture marks / rust, fading / sun damage, matting, seams and ripples, and old DIY cleaning residue. Check a box and the company's standard response drops into the note ("Heavy traffic lanes: soil and wear… may not fully match…"). Edit it to fit the room. It prints on the PDF the customer signs.
- Owners and admins edit the wording, turn conditions off and add their own in Settings → Pre-Inspection on the office website.
- Photos: take them from each area. They're also saved with the customer's photos.
- Summary: what may not improve, what to expect, and the method you recommend.
- Declined / Plan B: for each service the customer turns down, add it with its Plan B price range — see Plan B and reservices.
Everything saves as you go. No signal? It's kept on the phone and sent when you're back online.
Closing it
- Review with customer: a clean summary, then they type their name, confirm they reviewed the conditions, and sign with a finger.
- Someone else signs: a property manager, tenant or office staff — add their name and who they are.
- Customer isn't here: pick why (not home, after hours, key or lockbox, tenant-occupied, or other), confirm you documented the conditions with photos before starting, and close it. The customer is emailed the PDF and a link to review it. They can Acknowledge it or ask a question (the question is emailed to your notification list). If they never answer, it simply stays closed — nothing waits on them.
The review screen and the review link both show the Plan B list and, when it's turned on, your reservice policy. The customer's signature — or their online acknowledgement — covers the Plan B prices too. If your company turned on waivers, the customer also ticks a waiver for each declined service you asked one for.
The signed PDF is emailed to the customer when they have an email on file.
Require it before done
With Require it before a job is marked done on, a cleaning can't be marked done until its pre-inspection is signed or closed. The office can Reopen an inspection to change it; it then has to be closed again.
On the office website
The customer page has a Pre-Inspections folder, and each estimate shows its inspection with a status — Draft, Signed, Signed by other, Closed — not present, or Acknowledged online — plus View PDF. The office can start or fill one there too.