TOPIC: Multi Unit Template

Does anyone have a template for a multi unit building?

What is your approach for handling 7 units in one building with respect to HIP?

Anyway we can copy sections of templates to another template?


Pat in Chicago

Hi Patrick, Glad to see you posting on the site!

The only thing you can currently copy from one template to another is comments. You can do this by opening two copies of the program side by side and selecting the comments you want to move (or use ctrl-a for all) then copy/paste like usual.

The most efficient way of handling multiple units is shown in the sample reports section. There's a real report from a 300 unit apartment complex a college was looking at purchasing, and 3 inspectors looked it over. Basically you stick with your normal template but add unit numbers at the end of the comments. For example: "Smoke detectors were missing in the kitchen in unit #1, 3 & 5" , or "Mold was found under the kitchen sink in unit #5". This keeps the report size down. If you imagine even having one page per unit in the 300 complex would have been a 300 page report.

Another thing to consider when doing large inspections is to check the option under Report Options that only includes sections that actually are commented on. This reduces the size of the report as well. But remember that you might end up with questions like 'was there a fireplace?' if that section isn't printed on the report.

The new version of the program allows you to easily copy areas of the template, so if you do need to create duplicate section you can do so pretty quickly.

By the way, are you going the Chicago NACHI meeting next month? Bob Elliot is doing a software demo on HIP and it would be good if there was other HIP users there too!

Hi Dominic,

I have a job with a twist coming up with respect to multi-units and the client wants more detail but pay less $$ so I have to find a happy medium..  In essence a report for each unit like it would be a full inspection (with individual reports) so my challenge is not spending three days on the report(s).

Your a life saver Dominic, I have cut down my report building time down yet I still need to find
the best template configuration for the smoothest work flow.

Is there any easy way I can print an "blank" report with the check boxes or comments so I can just use that  as my field work sheet?  I just end up with "blank" report pages unless I go to every tab and mark the comment.

Plus:

One area in the report that would save me stress is the text (comment) box size and spell checking.  Is there anyway you could make those boxes expand and or have a spell check option.
The small comment box is great to have but trying to see my text requires me to move the cursor through the text to see if I made any grammar or "spelzzing" errors...


Thanks Dominic

Pat

P.S.  I won't be able to attend the NACHI Chicago meeting Feb 21t!!  Won't be in town!  DANG!!... I am going to have to gag Bob for revealing my software advantage....  There goes my secret!!!  LOL

Hi Patrick,

Turns out there will be another HIP user at the meeting too, Joe Tribuzio. Too bad you're out of town though! Bob said the same thing. He opened his mouth about the program and a bunch of people in Chicago bought it. Now you just need to customize your templates to make them unique

I'll definitely work up something to make that add comment box larger. I've been thinking about it for awhile, but it's time to actually do it. The spell checker is still in the works. The last time I added one in slowed the program down too much.

You can print the report with an outline of all the sections with a space to write in comments like you mentioned. The problem with printing out the report with ALL the comments is that there are so many comments, it would probably take 100 pages to print. What I've seen inspectors do that don't use a tablet, is to go through each section and pick the 5-10 most common problems. Then save that as a client inspection (i.e. field inspection report). Then they print that up and it will have the top comments so they can just check it off in the field.

If you want a really short report for each unit, check out the Texas Inspection template. It's really a system by system report (so it can be used outside Texas, just change a few areas). That way you'd only have a 5 page report per unit rather than a 30 if you don't want to use the method I mentioned below.

Charley Bottger customized a system by system for himself. If you email him he's happy to share it with others. It's also based off the Texas template.

Dominic