General
What kinds of forms or reports can I use this for?
Field Reports can be used with any forms, including but not limited to: Daily Reports, Safety & Pre-Task Checklists, QA/QC Checklists, Job Hazard Analyses, Time sheets, Hot Work Permits, and much more.
Is Wi-Fi required to use PlanGrid Field Reports?
No. Field Reports can be filled out directly from PlanGrid’s iOS and Android app in the field—even when you are offline. As soon as you are online, everything will sync back to the PlanGrid cloud. If you are co-editing a report with other contributors, all updates will sync once you are back online and only the last update to save/sync will be visible as the response.
Are Field Reports available in other languages?
Yes, Field Reports can be used in all of PlanGrid’s supported languages, as outlined in our help article; as new languages are released, Field Reports will support them as well.
Can signatures be removed or edited in my custom form?
Yes, signatures can be removed and edited while the form is in draft. You will not be able to make edits to a form’s signature once it has been submitted.
When I make a copy of a submitted report, will the signatures be included?
No, signatures will be removed from copies of submitted reports and those reports will need to be signed again as new reports. If a report draft is edited, however, the signatures will not be removed.
Do I have to sign a report that has a signature section?
If the signature section is marked with a red asterisk, the signature has been made required by the field report manager and the report cannot be submitted without a signature. There is no “decline to sign” option.
Reports that do not have the red asterisk next to the signature section can be submitted without being signed.
Forms & Templates
Can I use my own forms?
Yes, PlanGrid Field Reports was built to be flexible so you can use the forms you're familiar with. The co-editing feature is only available on custom forms created within PlanGrid, however, so if you would like to access that feature you would have to build a form with our custom form creator tool.
Can I turn the "multiple contributors in sequence" or “multiple users in parallel” option on/off once a template has been created?
No, at this time that field cannot be edited. If you enable it on the template, you will not be able to disable it. If you need to turn it on after creating the report, you would need to build the template again and be sure to check that option.
What file types are supported for report templates?
PDF -- for your forms that are currently Word or Excel files, first convert them to PDF and then upload them to PlanGrid.
How do I create fillable PDF forms?
You can create fillable PDFs with a variety of software applications before you upload to PlanGrid. For more information on optimizing your forms, please check out our help article.
If we want to use our own report template, do we have to create a "fillable" pdf to be able to input information?
No, a fillable PDF is not required. Annotation and text tools can be used to mark-up a flat PDF template; however, we do recommend using fillable PDFs for ease of use in the field.
Is there a limit to the file size of an uploaded template?
No, there's no limit, but we encourage you to use templates that are reasonably sized, to make syncing as fast as possible.
Can pages be added to or removed from the report template while it is being filled out on the mobile app?
No. To add or remove pages you would need to update your template and then re-upload to our website.
Once you create a report type, does it apply only to that project or is that report type accessible from any project?
Today it only applies to that project, however we plan on building features to make the field report set-up process easier.
Will other team members be able to view/edit my drafts?
Yes, if "allow reviewers to view drafts" has been selected for the template, all reviewers can see the unpublished drafts. This is a setting you can change as a field report manager on the web in Field Reports > Template > choose template > edit.
To access parallel or sequential editing of a draft, your report template needs to be set up with specific criteria at the time it is created and cannot be edited later. You can see more information on setting this up here.
What happens if I try to edit/submit a report that I was co-editing with others but it has already been submitted by someone else?
If you try to edit a report after it has been submitted, you will see a message saying that the report has already been submitted. You will not be able to make any changes to the report. All contributors can submit a report that they are co-editing together, so it is a good idea to either have one person designated as the one who should submit or to check in with your team before submitting to make sure everybody is finished updating.
Can I change the ID number assigned to my field reports?
No, the field reports are given sequential ID numbers when a draft is created and those numbers cannot be changed or customized. The ID numbers cannot be reused if a field report is deleted or archived, as well. Field report drafts that are created via mobile while not connected to an internet connection will be assigned a sequential number when the device is connected to the internet again.
Features & Roadmap
Can you add photos to a field report?
Yes, you can attach photo references.
Can I delete a report?
Although you cannot permanently delete a submitted report, you can archive those reports. Archived reports will be removed from the main reports log and can be restored later, if needed.
Can I edit a report after it has been submitted?
While you cannot directly edit a submitted report, you can make a copy, revise, and re-submit. Then, you can archive the original report.
For more details, please see our help article.
Can I make a copy of a previous report?
Yes, you may make a copy of any previously submitted report.
For more details, please check out our how-to help articles on iOS and Android.
Can I hyperlink a field report to a sheet?
Not at this time, but that is on our list of feature requests that we’re considering.
Can the weather be auto-filled based on geolocation?
Yes, weather can be auto populated on a report based on your project address (lat/long).
For more details, please check out our help article.
Will we be able to pull information from reports to run items like total hours worked for a trade or view running totals?
Yes, you can export an XLSX spreadsheet with all extracted data from your reports and aggregate the hours worked.
For more details, please check out our help article.
Can I share field report with someone who doesn't have access to PlanGrid?
Yes, you can export and email field reports to folks outside of PlanGrid from your mobile device on iOS, Android and from the web.
Can the photos be annotated to include comments that are attached to the reports?
Yes, you can add comments/notes to a photo by editing the photo title and those will be displayed inside the exported report.
How far back does the Activity Log pull data?
The Activity Log will collect all data from Dec 4, 2020 onward; data for your specific report will show from that date forward for reports that exist in a project prior to the feature's release and from the time the report draft is created for new reports created after the feature's release.
Can I export the Activity Log?
At this time, the activity log is view-only within PlanGrid on the web; it cannot be exported or saved.
I just made a change to my report and don’t see it in the activity log! Why is it missing?
For new changes, you will need to refresh the report page or back out and open the draft again to view those updates on the Activity Log.