Inspection software is sold by system, and the reason is not marketing. A fire door inspection is a list of physical conditions against a door assembly. A backflow test is a set of gauge readings against a device with a serial number, usually submitted to a water authority on their form. A sprinkler inspection is a set of pressures against a system. Each produces a different record and, in the backflow case, a different recipient, so a product built for one will feel wrong for another even though all three are called inspections.
Fire door inspection: a condition list against an assembly
A fire door is a rated assembly, not a door: leaf, frame, hinges, closer, latch, seals, glazing and the gap around it all form the rating, and any one of them can defeat it. The inspection is a walk of specific conditions per opening, and the record has to be per opening rather than per building, because a building with two hundred doors and one summary sheet cannot tell anybody which door was wedged. Software for it is a structured checklist with photographs and an opening register.
Backflow: readings, serial numbers and somebody else's form
A backflow assembly protects the water supply, and its test is a set of differential readings taken in a fixed order with a calibrated gauge. Two things make it its own category: the device has a serial number and a test history that follows it, and the completed test usually has to reach the water purveyor on their form, to their deadline. Software here earns its keep at the submission end, tracking which authority wants what and when.
What every one of them has to do, whatever the system
Work offline, because risers, plant rooms and door lobbies are where signal is not. Record against the asset rather than the visit, so the history is readable a year later. Keep deficiencies open until a later visit clears them. Produce the document on site. And hold the interval, so the next date is derived rather than remembered. Those five are the reason a general work-order product feels thin here, and they are the same five whether the asset is a door, a backflow assembly or a sprinkler riser.
Why the federal floor sets the shape and the standard sets the detail
29 CFR 1910 subpart L gives the intervals that apply everywhere in a US workplace, and they are sparse: a monthly extinguisher visual, an annual maintenance check with a recorded date, an annual main drain flow test, an inspector's test valve at least every two years, hose systems at least annually, fixed system containers at least semi-annually. Everything more specific comes from the standard the AHJ adopted. Software should therefore hold the interval as data rather than assume one, because the same system in two counties can be on two schedules.
Fire door inspection, item by item
The adopted door standard lists the conditions an annual inspection of a fire door assembly checks, and a software checklist that does not carry them per opening is a photograph album. Labels present and legible on the door and the frame; no open holes or breaks in the surfaces; glazing, vision light frames and glazing beads intact and secure; the door, frame, hinges, hardware and threshold secure, aligned and in working order with no visible damage; no missing or broken parts; the clearances at the edges and under the door within the limits; the self-closing device closing the door fully from the open position; the coordinator sequencing a pair; latching hardware engaging when the door closes; no auxiliary hardware that interferes with the door's operation; no field modifications that void the label; gasketing and edge seals present and intact where required. One record per opening, a photograph per finding, and the finding open until the door company's invoice says it was fixed and a later walk confirms it.
The backflow test, reading by reading
A reduced pressure assembly is tested by isolating it and reading, in order, the differential across the first check, the relief valve opening point, and the second check's tightness, with the gauge's calibration date on the record; a double check assembly gives two readings; a pressure vacuum breaker gives an air inlet opening point and a check differential. The device's serial number, its size, its make and model, its location and the hazard it isolates travel with the readings, because the purveyor's form asks for all of them and because the next tester will want to see last year's numbers before deciding whether a check that reads low has failed or has always been marginal. Software for this is the readings, the calibration, the serials and, above all, the submission: which water authority, which form, which deadline, and the receipt.
What the paid record on this site holds, and what it refuses to
Hydrantly Pro keeps the building, every system in it, the interval each is held to and where that came from, every visit with its results against the system, every deficiency until a later visit clears it, and the report produced on site. It works offline. It does not decide whether a system complies, it does not carry a hard-coded schedule, and it does not submit to a water purveyor on your behalf; the interval is yours to enter from the adopted edition, and a backflow submission remains a form that goes to the authority that asked for it. Those refusals are deliberate. The free fire inspection and life and safety inspection sheets on this site size the round; the record is what the round writes to. What is the first thing to check on a demo? Turn off the wifi and try to record an inspection. Offline capture is the feature that decides whether technicians use the product or go back to paper, and it is the one most likely to be described as supported and to work poorly.
Questions people ask about fire inspector software
Should I buy one product per system type?
Most contractors end up with one that covers their main line of work and accept a second for a speciality like backflow submissions. The question worth asking is which system carries most of your revenue and which produces most of your admin, because they are frequently not the same.
What makes fire door inspection software different?
It is per opening, not per building, and it is photographic. The record of a door inspection is mostly a series of specific physical conditions and pictures of them, and it needs to survive as an opening register that the next inspection walks against.
Why is backflow separate from everything else?
Because the customer for the record is the water authority, not the building owner, and every authority has its own form, its own deadline and increasingly its own portal. That submission workflow is the actual product.
Does it need to hold the standard as well as the interval?
It should hold both, or at least the adopted edition per jurisdiction, because that is what decides the interval and the method. A product that hard-codes one schedule will be wrong for some of your buildings and you will not find out from the software.