Customer reports — progress, site visit and completion

A customer report is a branded PDF you send to the customer about their job. There are three kinds:

You write the opening text (or let the ✨ assistant draft it). The progress charts, tables and photos are added automatically from the job, so they are always up to date and you never have to copy figures by hand. Costs and margins never appear in a customer report.

Before you start

• You need the Project Management permission.
• Your company name, address, phone, e-mail and logo come from Setup → Organization. Check them once; every report uses them.
• To send by e-mail from the system, e-mail must be set up on the server. Without it you can still download or print the PDF and send it yourself.
• Photos must already be attached to the project, a task, a visit or a note (see Files and photos on a job).

Steps: create a report

1. Open the project and click the Reports tab, then New report.
2. Choose the kind. For a progress or completion report you can limit it to one task; for a site visit report choose the task and the visit.
3. Click Create. The composer opens with a title, today's date, sensible sections ticked and recent photos chosen.

Shortcut for a visit: on a task, each supervision visit has a Visit report button that opens the same dialog with the visit already chosen.

Steps: compose it

The left side is what you decide; the right side is the PDF exactly as the customer will receive it.

1. Adjust the Title and Date if you need to.
2. Write Your message to the customer — a short opening: what the report covers, what has happened, what is next. Click ✨ Assist → Draft the … text to have it drafted from the job, then edit it.
3. Under What the report shows, tick the sections you want:
   • Progress at a glance — overall % complete and tasks done, with a progress bar.
   • Billed and received — billed, received and outstanding amounts.
   • Milestones — a progress bar for each milestone (not shown on a one-task report).
   • Work by status — one bar split by task status, with a legend and counts.
   • Site visits — recent visits (or, on a visit report, that visit) with what was found.
   • Materials used — items consumed on the job and quantities.
   • Photos — the pictures you choose below.
4. Under Photos, click pictures to add or remove them. The number on each shows its order in the report.
5. Click Save. The preview on the right is rebuilt.

Steps: send, print or download

• Send to customer — enter one to five e-mail addresses (the customer's e-mail is filled in for you), add a message if you like, and click Send. The PDF is attached.
• Download PDF — saves the file so you can send it any way you like.
• Print — opens the PDF in a new tab; print it from there.
• Mark as sent — use this when you printed it or sent it yourself, so the project records that the customer has it.

When a report is sent (or marked as sent) it is locked and kept exactly as the customer received it, and a note is added to the project's Notes & activity. To make changes, click Duplicate — you get an editable copy dated today.

Tips

• Send a short progress report every week or fortnight on longer jobs. Customers who can see progress chase less and pay faster.
• Do a site visit report straight after each inspection, with the visit's photos; it settles disagreements about what was found and agreed.
• On a completion report, tick Billed and received so the customer sees what is still outstanding.

Common problems

• "E-mail is not set up on this server." → download the PDF and send it yourself, then click Mark as sent.
• "This report has been sent, so it is kept as the customer received it." → click Duplicate and edit the copy.
• A photo I chose is not in the PDF → pictures in HEIC format (from iPhones) cannot go into a PDF. Attach the photo as JPEG instead.
• The logo or address is wrong → correct it in Setup → Organization; the next preview uses it.
• "Choose the visit to write up." → a site visit report needs a visit. Record the visit on the task first.
• The ✨ button says the assistant is switched off → an administrator can turn it on in Setup → Preferences → AI Assistant tab.
• Only an administrator can delete a sent report → a sent report is the record of what the customer received.