Going to try the HG Companion today....

Wish me luck. As i'm getting more busy and having multiple inspections in a day i'm getting tired of spending 2 hours per report when I get home, if I can cut that to 45 minutes it would be awesome. Going to try using it today and putting short hand notes in there where they belong instead of writing it on a notepad. At least then when I get home everything is there and I can just go through and make the statements I need to make which shouldn't take more than 15 - 30 mins and then inserting my pictures from my camera usually only takes about 20 to 30 mins, so hoping I can really cut down on time without adding any time on site. I prefer to take my pics with my camera and not the phone/tablet, plus it will serve as a backup in case I forget to jot something down. Hopefully I can join the ranks of you guys that don't spend all night writing reports! Any tips are much appreciated if you have any!

Ok, this morning was a success! May have even been a little quicker on site not fiddling with a pen and notebook and spent about 45 to 50 mins on computer and got the report out before the next inspection. This was a nice house though, curious to see if it slows me down on a bad one.

Great to hear. I know some gave HG a hard time a bit last week, good to hear the kudos as well.

Nathan wrote:Great to hear. I know some gave HG a hard time a bit last week, good to hear the kudos as well.

I've always loved the software and I've had the companion program since I bought the software, just been reluctant to try it for fear of slowing down on site and haven't been busy enough to really need to try it out. Now that I'm getting busier I need to find a better way and figured it couldn't hurt to try it.

DBJ Home Inspections wrote:Ok, this morning was a success! May have even been a little quicker on site not fiddling with a pen and notebook and spent about 45 to 50 mins on computer and got the report out before the next inspection. This was a nice house though, curious to see if it slows me down on a bad one.

I can answer that, yes. The more items you need to enter into it the slower the process. Same for every software. I use a Note 3 for HG. Carry a camera in my pocket for attics and flues, then another for crawlspaces.
You need to use the template onsite, will feel frustrated as you search for things initially, but you will modify it as you use it.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 08/05/2015 02:49 PM EDT

scotbaker wrote:

DBJ Home Inspections wrote:Ok, this morning was a success! May have even been a little quicker on site not fiddling with a pen and notebook and spent about 45 to 50 mins on computer and got the report out before the next inspection. This was a nice house though, curious to see if it slows me down on a bad one.

I can answer that, yes. The more items you need to enter into it the slower the process. Same for every software. I use a Note 3 for HG. Carry a camera in my pocket for attics and flues, then another for crawlspaces.
You need to use the template onsite, will feel frustrated as you search for things initially, but you will modify it as you use it.

Gotcha. What I did also not to waste too much time, I put shorthand notes instead of trying to type out a comment and then when I transferred it to the pc after I just went through and typed in the comment and deleted the note. Seemed to keep things moving along nicely. I took all of my pics on the camera, I just prefer to use it and it's acts as a backup in case I forget anything because I always take the pic first.

You are not using the auto comments?

scotbaker wrote:You are not using the auto comments?

For some things I do, can't use an auto comment for everything.

Having your own working auto comments is the key to getting your template to work on site.

My templates are in constant flux.

The stuff I can do autocomments on I made them, everything else I type up.

My suggestion. Every time you see a need to add a comment, take a screenshot. When you get back to the office add it to the template. Because of doing this my report completion time is 15 minutes or less. I even alphabetized my comments.

homespectors wrote:My suggestion. Every time you see a need to add a comment, take a screenshot. When you get back to the office add it to the template. Because of doing this my report completion time is 15 minutes or less. I even alphabetized my comments.

That's pretty awesome!

I will go one better for you. At the top of my comments I labeled a comment "Inspection Pictures". If I need to keep moving and do not have the time to input a new comment, I hit that, take a photo, and leave a voice recording. Quick input method to keep moving.
Or, voice to text and take a picture.
All in Companion.

scotbaker wrote:I will go one better for you. At the top of my comments I labeled a comment "Inspection Pictures". If I need to keep moving and do not have the time to input a new comment, I hit that, take a photo, and leave a voice recording. Quick input method to keep moving.
Or, voice to text and take a picture.
All in Companion.

All good ideas, thanks guys!