What are Field Reports?
Set up a new report
Importing Field Report Templates
Fill out a report
Viewing Drafts
Set Notifications
Activity Log
What are Field Reports?
Our Field Reports offer your team a way to securely complete, submit, and review any report from within PlanGrid. It is a flexible report management system that allows your team to use your existing forms while streamlining the report completion process to be more convenient, efficient, and manageable.
Set up a report
To start working with Field Reports, you will first need to upload your template PDF form to our website or create a custom form within PlanGrid. Don't have a PDF template? Learn how to convert your files to PDF.
To upload your report template:
1. Click on the clipboard icon in the navigation bar to go to 'Field Reports.'
2. Click on "Templates" followed by "Add New" Note: Only Admins and power collaborators have permission to create new report types. Project collaborators cannot create new report Templates.
3. Choose "Create a New Template" - You also have the option to create a new folder here, if need be. For New Templates, you have the option to build a new form, or upload an existing template of your own. *Note* to utilize the parallel co-editing feature, you must build a new form; this feature is not compatible with PDF forms. The sequential co-editing feature is compatible with both custom built forms and PDFs.
Note: If you would like to use one of our prior sample PDF templates, you can download them from our help article, add a company logo, etc. if desired, then upload as an existing PDF form.
4. Once you've created a new form or uploaded an existing template, you can preview your template, edit the report name and customize additional components (notes, automatic weather reporting, crew).
5. Next, you will determine how your team will work together for the report template. You can also change this later. See Editing Field Report Templates for more information.
6. After you choose how to collaborate, you will be able to add contributors and reviewers to the template. Contributors are those assigned to fill out/collaborate on the report template. Reviewers are those who the report will be submitted to. You may add individuals or quickly add a group of team members by project role (ie: Admins, Power Collaborators and/or Collaborators). Learn More about Field Report Permissions
You can also enable draft visibility in the "add template reviews" screen by checking the box; this feature can be edited later if needed for the template. Once you have finished adding contributors and reviewers, click "Create" to finalize your report template.
Importing Field Report Templates
Field report templates that you create in PlanGrid or upload as a PDF file can be imported from existing projects on the web. From the Field Reports tab, navigate to the Templates section and select “Import.”
From there, you will select the project you want to import a template from then the template itself. Templates can only be imported one at a time currently. Once you have selected the template, you will choose how contributors will collaborate.
User permissions for the imported report are default permissions that you see on a newly created template:
Importer is the only Contributor
Importer + Admins are Reviewers
Importer + Admins are Managers
These permission levels can be changed by editing the template.
Fill out a report
Filling out your reports is easiest in our iOS app. Don't have an iPad or iPhone? Learn how to fill out reports on the web.
1. In Grid View, tap on the filing cabinet icon and select "Field Reports".
2. To start a new draft, tap on the thumbnail of the report template you want to use. When you create the new draft, it will be automatically assigned a sequential report ID number; this ID number cannot be changed and cannot be re-used if your draft is deleted/archived.
If another collaborator has already started a draft of that report, you will see any recent updates listed and be able to choose to co-edit the existing report or begin a new one of your own. If you want to continue to edit a draft you have already started, tap the title of the report in the list to view your drafts, then select the draft you would like to modify. You can also create a new report from the list.
3. Fill out the form. You can tap on a field to interact with it. If you do not have fillable fields in your form, you can tap the pencil icon in the lower right-hand corner to access the annotation toolbar. You can add text, mark up your form with the pen or highlighter tools, etc. Tap "Save" when you are finished. If you are co-editing a report with other collaborators, only the most recent changes that are saved and synced will be visible unless you are adding line items to a table; in that case all rows will appear separately and will keep adding to the list. (example: several people are adding items to the Materials section of a report). As long as you are connected to an internet connection, the report should sync answers every 30 seconds so you can see what has been added. Newly added photos or references will need to be updated with a full project sync but any photos or references that already exist in the project will be visible.
4. On the report details screen you can edit the report date, add a brief description (or title) and attach photos to your report. Tap the "Edit" button to re-open the PDF form at any time. Photos and references added when co-editing a report will not show up with each refresh and you will have to sync the project to see new photos that were added while editing the report. Photos already in the project (added to the report from the gallery) will show up without syncing. If you have completed work for a draft offline that you were co-editing with other collaborators, all updates will start to sync as soon as you connect to the internet again and only the last update to sync will be visible (overriding any existing responses).
5. Tap "Submit" when you are ready to submit your report. Be sure to confirm that others have finished editing the report as well before submitting if you are co-editing a report with other collaborators.
Note: If you need to make any changes after your report is submitted, please check out our help article for editing a submitted report.
Viewing Draft Reports
Reviewers can see field reports in Draft status when the “allow reviewers to view drafts” box has been checked in the field report template. This can be updated in 2 places: when the template is being created and by editing the template.
When viewing the report in draft:
Set Notifications
Currently you are able to receive a Daily Field Report Summary, a Daily Field Report Submission Reminder, and a Submission Email of when a report that you are a reviewer of is submitted. You can set notifications for your team if you are a field report manager by going into the Field Reports tab of the project on a web browser > Templates > Choose the template > Edit > Check the box for Daily Reminders. Individuals in the report can set their own notifications following the steps listed below:
1. To set notifications for your Field Reports, please click on your name at the top right, followed by Account Settings.
2. Scroll down to the Field Reports to select your choice for notifications. Currently you are able to receive a Daily Field Report Summary, a Daily Field Report Submission Reminder, and a Submission Email of when a report that you are a reviewer of is submitted.
Activity Log
The activity log shows a detailed audit trail of all changes made to a field report that provides improved transparency and better accountability. While the log is visible on the web only, it captures data for a report across all platforms. The time logged in the Activity Log for offline changes shows as the time that the changes were synced with the project after connecting to the internet again.
All team members with access to a report (contributors, reviewers, managers) will be able to view the activity log; the log is currently view-only and cannot be exported. The activity log is visible on web only and provides a detailed audit trail of changes. Events captured in the activity log:
- Status change
- Assignee change
- Date change
- Description change
- Note change (PlanGrid created reports only)
- Response change (PlanGrid template builder created reports only)
- Signature change (PlanGrid template builder created reports only)
- Work log change (PlanGrid template builder created reports only)
- Equipment change (PlanGrid template builder created reports only)
- Material change (PlanGrid template builder created reports only)
To access the activity log for a report, open the report from the Field Reports > Report tab on a web browser. In the upper right you will see 3 dots. Click the dots to see Activity. Click Activity to see a pop-out box showing all report updates and changes; you can scroll down to the very beginning that will show when the report was created as a draft.
