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Create an Observation from an Inspection

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Objective

To create an observation from an inspection.

Background

You may want to create an observation from an inspection if a task is deficient or requires follow up work to be completed by the inspection's point of contact. If enabled, you might be prompted to create an observation automatically after marking an inspection item as Failed. See Configure Advanced Settings: Project Level Inspections.

Things to Consider

  • Required User Permissions: 
    • 'Standard' or 'Admin' level permissions on the Project level Inspections tool.
      AND
    • 'Standard' or 'Admin' level permissions on the project's Observations tool.
  • Additional Information:
    • When you create an observation from an inspection, there will be a field called Origin that will provide a link to the inspection from which the observation was created.
    • You can also Create an Observation from the Observations tool.
    • If you create an Observation from an Inspection, the item will not send automatically. If you have an observation that is waiting to be sent, you will see an 'Action Required' banner at the top of the Observations tool page. You can send the item directly from the banner. 

Prerequisites

  • To see the Create Observation button, you must add the Observations tool to your project. Contact your Procore point of contact to request to add Observations to your company's Procore account.
  • The inspection must have an 'Open' status.
    Note: A 'Closed' or 'In-Review' status will not show the option to create an observation. 

Steps

  1. Navigate to the Project level Inspections tool.
  2. Click View next to the inspection you want to create an observation from.
  3. Scroll to the relevant inspection task and click icon-info3.png Activity.
  4. Click the plus icon-plus.png icon and select Create Observation.
    Note: You may be prompted to create an observation automatically when you mark an inspection item as Failed. See Configure Advanced Settings: Project Level Inspections.
  5. Create your observation by filling in the information in the window.
    • Type: Choose the type that best categorizes the observation. The type will help you filter and report based on the type of observation. It will not have any effect on which fields will appear when creating an observation. See What are the default Observation types used for?
    • ​Status: Set the status of the observation.
      • Initiated: When you create the observation, it will be set to "initiated." This means that the observation has been established in Procore and is awaiting the assignee to respond.
      • Ready for Review: Once the assignee has acted upon the observation (whether by fixing the deficiency, by addressing the safety issue, etc.), they will respond to the observation by changing the status to "Ready for Review." This notifies the creator via email that the observation is ready for the creator to review.
      • Not Accepted: Once the creator has reviewed the work, they might mark it as "Not Accepted." This means that the creator has deemed the work as not resolved. The observation is put back into the assignee's court. 
      • Closed: Once the creator has reviewed the work, they might mark it as "Closed." This means that the creator has deemed the work as resolved and approved, and has closed out the item.
    • Title: Title the observation to announce the general topic. This will be automatically populated with the inspection task name.
      Important: The title of the observation cannot be longer than 255 characters.
    • Priority: Select the priority of this item. This will not change how or where the observation will display. It will, however, tell the responsible party how urgent the item is.
    • Number: The number of the observation will automatically populate with the next number based on the number of observations you and your team has created in Procore. You may edit this as needed.
    • Trade: Select the relevant trade for this observation. It signifies which trade is involved in resolving the observation. Trades are set at the company level admin tab under trade configuration. See Add or Delete Trades.
    • Location: Select the location the observation is found in. This will be automatically populated with the location from the inspection. How do I add a multi-tiered location to an item?
    • Spec Section: Select the spec section associated with this observation. If the inspection has a spec section associated with it, this will be automatically populated in the observation.
    • Assignee: Select the user who will complete the work required from the observation. This will be automatically be populated with the inspection's "point of contact."
      Note: If the person assigned as the Point of Contact on the inspection has 'Standard' level permission or higher, that person's name will be pre-filled as the Assignee field in the new observation. If the person assigned as the Point of Contact on the inspection has 'Read-only' permissions or lower, the Assignee field will be blank on the new observation.
    • Distribution: Add people to the distribution list who you would like to receive update emails when the observation's status changes or when someone leaves a comment.
      Note: If there are people who you would like to always be on the distribution list for observations, you can add them to the default distribution list in the configuration settings.
    • Due Date: Select a date from the calendar for the observation to be due.
      Note: The 'Due Date' field is automatically populated based on the default number of days specified on the Observations tool's Configure Settings page. See Configure Advanced Settings: Observations. The due date also respects which days are set as 'working days' for the project. See Set Project Working Days.
    • Private: Mark the checkbox if you would like this observation to be viewable by Observation Admin users, the assignee, and the people on the distribution list.
    • Description: Add a description for the observation detailing relevant information needed to report on or complete the work.
    • Attachments: Attach relevant information like a photo or a warranty document by clicking Attach File(s) to select a file from Procore or your local computer, or by dragging and dropping into the gray box.
    • Hazard: Select a hazard associated with the observation. 
    • Contributing Condition: Select a contributing condition associated with the observation. 
    • Contributing Behavior: Select a contributing behavior associated with the observation. 
  6. Click Create.
  7. The observation will now appear in the activity feed of the inspection task and the observation log of the Observations tool. See View the Activity Feed of Items in an Inspection.
    Note: A link to the inspection which the observation was created from will appear in the Origin field of the observation.