Defects on a Job, and a Client's Defect Report
For admins and office staff · Updated 11 Nov 2026
A defect is something found wrong that the job doesn't fix on the day: a trim missing, a label not fitted, a drain not insulated. Each one has a description, a severity and a status, and can carry photos. Defects live on the job's Defects & Opportunities tab, and a technician records them on site with Record a Defect.
Recording a Defect
On Defects & Opportunities, describe it, add photos with Photo / Video, pick a severity and choose Add Defect. Each defect's row shows when it was raised, where, and its photos. Its status is set on the row: Open or Quoted; Rectified is a close-out, below. The card's head counts them: "14 of 70 rectified".
Bringing In a Client's Defect Report
A customer or head contractor often walks the site with their own inspection app and sends the result as a PDF: numbered items, each for a location or asset group, each with a list of things to fix and the photos that go with them. Rather than key them in, import the report onto the job.
- On Defects & Opportunities, choose Import a Defect Report….
- Choose the PDF the client sent, exactly as they exported it, photos included, then Read the Report. Deployr uploads the file, reads its items and pulls the photos out of the PDF, all at once. A long report takes about a minute.
- Check what was found: the report's number, site and date, each item with where it was, how many lines it has and how many photos.
- Choose how the lines come across. One defect per line makes each line of an item its own defect, so they can be closed one at a time, and puts the item's photos on its first line. One defect per item keeps the client's grouping: one defect per item with all of its lines and photos.
- Set the Severity every imported defect starts with, and choose Import the Defects.
Each imported defect carries the client's own reference (their document number and item number), where it was, the date of the inspection and who conducted it. The PDF itself is kept on the job's Attachments as the client's document, and the job's history records the import.
On the tab, imported defects sit under the client's items, as their report groups them: a strip per item with its location, their reference and how many of its defects are rectified. The groups start folded so a long list reads item by item; tap a strip to open it, or Expand All to open every group and Fold All to close them. Defects raised on site sit under Raised on Site at the end.
- Each photo is captioned with the client's photo number, so a photo can be matched back to their report. A photo the report names but the file didn't give is said at the review, never invented.
- A line the client wrote twice in the same item is kept once. A heading line such as "General:" is carried onto the lines under it.
- If the photos can't be read from the file, the defects still come across, without them, and the review says so.
Reading the report uses the AI assistant, which sees the whole PDF. It costs a dollar or two for a long report, and nothing is saved until you choose Import the Defects.
Closing a Defect Out
As the work is done, close each defect out rather than just marking it: choose Close Out… on its row (or pick Rectified, which opens the same step). Set Rectified On (today unless you change it), say What Was Done, and add the photos of the finished work under After Photos, then Close Out Defect. The defect reads "Rectified 12 Nov 2026 · 2 after photos", and its photos now sit apart: the photos of the fault under Before, the finished work under After. More can be added to either.
A technician does the same on site: on the field job's Notes step, each open defect has Close Out This Defect, with a note and the camera for the after photos, then Save the Close-Out. It is dated the day they save it; the office can change the day on the job.
Moving a rectified defect back to Open or Quoted on its row reopens it: the rectified day and note are cleared. Its after photos stay until someone takes them off.
Sending Back a Report
To send the client a report in Deployr's format, open Documents, choose Generate a Document, set the Document Type to the defect report and pick the job. The report prints each defect with its status, where it was, the client's reference, its rectification (the day and the note) and its photos, Before and After, on your own letterhead. The summary and the band count the rectified against the raised. When the job's defects came from a client's report, they print under the client's own items, each headed by its location with the client's reference, and anything your technicians raised themselves under Raised on Site.
A defect report template installed before this reads an imported defect's photos and status but not where it was, the client's reference, or the rectification and after photos. Documents → Templates offers it the new design.
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