How to Create a New Building

Overview

Buildings are a core component of Inspect Point. They represent the individual location where inspections and service work orders are performed. A building stores important information such as location and contact details, deficiency history, building notes, inspection/service reports, and historical data related to the customer. 

🏢 Create a New Building

From the Buildings Listing screen, select + New Building in the upper-left corner.

The New Building screen is made up of four sections: 

1. Basic Information
2. Details
3. Advanced
4. Setup

Complete each section with the information applicable to the building. You can return to the building at any time to add or update information, so not everything needs to be entered during initial setup.

📋 Basic Information

Use the Basic Information section to enter the building's name and address, confirm its timezone, and optionally associate it with an account or tags. 

Building Name* — Enter the building name as you want it to appear to technicians in the field and on inspection reports. This field is required.

Address — Enter the building's physical address. The address entered here is also used to determine the building's timezone.

Billing Address — By default, Billing address is the same as physical address is selected. Toggle this option off if the building uses a different billing address.

Timezone — Defaults to your account's global default. 

👉 Understanding Building Timezones

Note: When a new or updated address is saved, Inspect Point will automatically update the timezone if the address falls within a different timezone than the one currently selected.

Account — Select an account to associate the building with an existing customer account. When an account is selected the building inherits the account's billing information, contact roles, and tax rates. 

👉 Overview: Accounts

Tags — Select the + to add tags to the building. Select + next to Tags to add one or more tags to the building.

📝 Details

The Details section contains optional building information used to further organize the building, assign defaults, and configure pricing and other operational details.

Territory  — Select the primary territory associated with the building. Territories can be used to organize and segment buildings, users, and technicians within Inspect Point. If applicable, use Additional Territories to make the building available to users and technicians associated with other territories. 

👉 Feature Overview: Territories

Reference # / Site ID — Optional, user-managed fields that can be used to store identifiers specific to your organization. Both fields are searchable from the Buildings Listing screen.

External ID — Used by certain integrations to identify the building. This field is typically populated through the associated integration and should not be entered manually.

Contract Information — Use Contract Type, Contract Start Date, and Expiration Date to record contract information associated with the building. 

Note: These fields are for informational purposes and are not connected to proposals, inspections, or inspection series within Inspect Point.

Building Details — Additional fields are available for recording general building information: Building #, Number of Floors, Travel Time, Phone Number. These fields are optional and can be completed based on the information your organization tracks.

Price List — By default, the building uses your account's default price list. Select the price list that should apply to the building if different than the default. 

👉 Price Lists

Default Technicians — Configure default technicians for the specific building. When selected, that technician will automatically be assigned to new inspections or work orders created for this building. The assigned technician can still be changed when creating or editing the inspection or work order.

Inspection Prices — Select the + next to Inspection Prices to add building-specific inspection pricing. Select an inspection frequency and enter the corresponding price.

👉 How to Set Up Materials & Services

Note: Inspection pricing is configured by frequency. You cannot set multiple prices for inspections with the same frequency at a single building. For additional preset pricing options, use Price Lists and Materials & Services.

⚙️ Advanced

The Advanced section contains additional building-level settings for visit reminders, reports, invoicing, monitoring information, code years, and inspection reports. These settings are optional and can be configured based on your organization's workflows.

Disable visit reminders — Toggle Disable visit reminders on to prevent visit reminders from being sent for this building. Visit reminders must be enabled in your Settings to disable at the building-level. 

👉 How to Use Visit Reminders

Has Joint Commission — Enable Has Joint Commission if your organization performs Joint Commission inspections at this building. When enabled and used with your report auto-generation settings, a Joint Commission report will be automatically generated instead of the standard inspection report. 

Note: You can generate a joint commission report at any time regardless of this setting — this toggle specifically controls auto-generation.

👉 Generating Reports

Invoicing Overrides — Use Tax Rate and Default Term to override your company's default invoicing settings for this building. The current company default is displayed for reference.

👉 Invoice Settings

Monitoring Information — Use the Monitoring Information fields to record information associated with the building's monitoring entity: Contact Name, Phone, Reference #, Type Transmission. This information appears on applicable inspection reports and can also be added or updated by technicians in the field. 

Code Overrides — Override the default code year for Fire Alarm and/or Sprinkler inspections performed at this building. When no building-specific override is selected, the applicable global default code year is used. 

👉 NFPA 25 Code Year Override / ULC-536/537 - Code Year Override

Display Name Override — The Report Display Name is used to help identify reports throughout the backend, mobile app, and Customer Portal, configured under Settings > Report Settings. Use the Display Name field to override the default for this specific building. 

👉 Report Settings 

➕ Setup

The Setup section is where you add the Primary Inspection Items associated with the building.

Primary Items are the top-level inspection items that live directly on a building record. Some examples include systems, assets, backflows, and groups. 

These are the primary fire protection systems located at a building. Primary Items can be added during building setup, while creating an inspection or inspection series, or directly in the field by technicians using the mobile app.

Note: The options available under Setup depend on the inspection types enabled for your account. You will only see the primary item categories applicable to your organization's configuration.

Adding Primary Items:  

1. Expand the Setup section.
2. Select the + next to the item category you want to add.
3. If a Type field is available, select the applicable type from the dropdown. For example, to add a dry system: System + → System Type = Dry → Name
4. Enter a Name for the item.
5. Repeat these steps for any additional primary items needed at the building.

Each primary item should represent the individual system, asset, or group at the building. For example, if a building has two separate wet sprinkler systems, add each as its own system and give each a unique name.

🚨 Important: A name is required for each primary item you add. If an item is added without a name, you will not be able to create the building.

Once you've entered the building information and added any applicable systems, assets, groups, select Create in the upper-right corner. You can return to the building at any time to add or edit any building details or items added.

💡 Additional Information

Secondary Items 
Secondary items are the individual inspection records associated with a primary system, asset, or group. These may include valves, components, alarm devices, control panels, and other individual inspection items.

Secondary items are not added from the Setup section when initially creating a building. Once the building has been created, secondary items can be added and managed from the Building Detail screen in the backend or by technicians in the mobile app.

Editing or Deactivating a Building 
Buildings can be edited at any time from the Building Detail Screen. You can edit building details, manage inspection items, or deactivate the building as needed. 

Changes made to a building after an inspection has already been started in the field will not be reflected on that in-progress inspection. The technician will continue to see the building and inspection information that was available when the inspection was started.