Help centre

1 · Create your organisation & the setup wizard

Sign in to the portal with email/password, Google, Apple, or your organisation's SSO. First person from your organisation? Choose Create organisation: pick landlord (housing association) or contractor and you're on the free Solo plan instantly — full evidence engine, one surveyor seat, no card.

The setup wizard opens automatically and walks you through everything (every step skippable, progress saved — resume from the Dashboard): ① organisation profile & capture policy (require GPS? photo per hazard? quality check?) → ② property import (CSV) → ③ team invites (each person with their own role) → ④ contractors (your supply chain) → ⑤ integrations quick-connect → ⑥ field-app linking (store links + calendar feed).

2 · Import formats (with sample files)

Every import documents its expected layout inline and validates row-by-row, citing the layout on any error ("row 3: postcode missing"). Columns match by header name in any order; parsers tolerate BOM, CRLF and quoted fields; required fields are strict. Prepare your data before you even sign in:

Properties — properties-example.csv: uprn, addressLine1, addressLine2, postcode, localAuthority, tenureType, archetype. The UPRN keys the property's tamper-evident evidence chain; rows without one import flagged for review and match via OS Places at first capture.

Team — team-invites-example.csv: email, name, role (surveyor / manager / org-admin — mix roles freely, one row per person).

Contractors — contractors-example.csv: company details, trades, regions, insurance and accreditation expiry dates.

3 · Invite users & manage seats

Portal → Members & seats. Each row is one person with their own role: surveyors capture evidence in the app and use licensed seats; managers dispatch work orders, track compliance and view evidence; org-admins also control billing, integrations and the team. Managers and admins are free on every plan — pricing is per surveyor. Paste a whole list of emails into any row to fan it out, or import the CSV.

Seats are platform-enforced: activating a surveyor beyond your licence prompts a self-serve upgrade (prorated by Stripe). Only org-admins can grant the org-admin role, and the platform guarantees at least one org-admin always remains.

4 · Contractors (your supply chain)

Portal → Contractors: rich records — trading name, Companies House number, contacts, trades, regions, insurance and accreditations (PCA, CHAS, Gas Safe…) with expiry dates that drive automatic warnings: amber six weeks out, red when lapsed, flagged again when you dispatch a work order.

Contractor not on HousingSurvey Pro yet? Adding them generates an invite code (e.g. HSP-4F2A9C1B). They create their own free contractor organisation, redeem the code under Integrations → "Join a landlord", and your work orders start flowing to their team — their captured evidence lands in your chains, and they never see your internal notes or rates.

5 · Work orders & Awaab's Law timelines

Create work orders in the portal (search your property register — the job links to the property and its evidence chain) or push them from your CMS. Set when the hazard was reported and its severity, and the statutory clock computes server-side, in working days: significant hazards → investigate within 10 working days → written summary +3 → works begin +5; emergency hazards → 24 hours.

You're alerted in the portal (and by webhook, and in subscribed calendars) before every deadline, and every alert is written to the append-only audit log — if you're ever challenged, you can prove you were warned and when you acted. Completed evidence carries the full timeline in its court-ready bundle.

6 · The mobile app (works fully offline)

Install HousingSurvey Pro free from the App Store or Google Play — no in-app purchases. Sign in as in the portal. Surveyors see their dispatched jobs with property details already attached.

Capture works completely offline (basements, voids, tower blocks): rooms with readings (dew point derived live), photos SHA-256-fingerprinted at capture, voice dictation on every field, ventilation checks with live Part F assessment, an HHSRS-aware hazard record, a floor-plan sketch with damp/mould pins, and a signature sign-off. Everything syncs when signal returns.

Finalize seals the record permanently — server-side, hash-chained to the property, re-verified nightly. Nothing and no one (including us) can edit a finalized record.

7 · Evidence, verification & bundles

Portal → Evidence lists every record with chain status; open one for readings, photos, ventilation, floor plan, sign-off and the record hash. Properties shows each address's full timeline — work orders and sealed evidence in one place, two clicks from any red deadline to the underlying proof.

Evidence bundle downloads a signed ZIP: canonical record JSON, chain proof (re-verified at export), statutory timeline, original photos named by capture hash, and a SHA-256 manifest — built for ombudsman and legal use.

8 · Single sign-on — Microsoft, Okta, Google (Enterprise)

Fully self-serve federation: Portal → Integrations → Single sign-on. Microsoft Entra ID: create an app registration (Web platform, redirect URI https://housingsurvey-pro.firebaseapp.com/__/auth/handler) and paste its client ID + issuer. Okta or any SAML IdP: upload your metadata.xml. Google Workspace: just register your domain.

From then on your users simply enter their work email at sign-in and are routed to your identity provider automatically — no codes, nothing to remember. Email/password remains available for organisations without SSO.

9 · SCIM provisioning (Enterprise)

Portal → Integrations → SCIM → generate your per-org endpoint + bearer token (shown once). In Entra ID: Enterprise applications → Provisioning → paste both. Joiners arrive as surveyors (seats enforced), deactivations disable access instantly — and deprovisioning never deletes evidence.

10 · AI assistance — your keys, your tenant

AI is optional, advisory-only, and runs exclusively on your organisation's own API key — Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, your Azure OpenAI tenant, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Survey data is never sent to a shared or platform-owned AI account, which eliminates cross-tenant exposure. AI suggestions never enter the sealed evidence record, and AI is refused entirely on finalized records.

Setup (org-admin, two minutes): Portal → Integrations → AI → pick your provider → the panel deep-links to that provider's key page (Gemini keys are free at Google AI Studio) → paste the key → Test connection. Models default to Auto — always the latest fast model for your provider; override any time.

11 · Connect your case-management system

Work orders in, evidence out — REST API, HMAC-signed webhooks, nightly EDI flat files, SCIM, calendar feeds, and a Power Automate connector. Configuration is self-serve under Integrations (Platform plan and above); everything technical — endpoint reference, signature verification code, file layouts, sample files — lives in the Developers section.

12 · Viewing & downloading your data

Evidence bundles per record, EDI CSV exports over any date range, full API access — your data is yours on every plan, including free, including after cancellation.

13 · Billing & plans

Portal → Billing: Solo (free) / Team £29 / Platform £59 / Enterprise £99 per surveyor per month, annual = two months free. Card checkout via Stripe with VAT invoices; change seats or plan any time, prorated. Cancel any time — you drop to free Solo and keep every record. Locked features stay visible in the portal with a lock icon and the plan they need, so you always know what an upgrade buys.

14 · GDPR — export & deletion, fully self-serve

Export everything: org-admins download a complete ZIP of the organisation's data. Delete your account: self-serve, immediate redaction of your personal data (sealed evidence is retained under UK GDPR Art. 17(3) legal-claims grounds, with your identifiers redacted). Delete the organisation: org-admins request it with a typed confirmation; a 90-day window lets you cancel, then everything is purged. No emails to send, no humans to wait for.

15 · Troubleshooting

"No seats available" — you're activating a surveyor beyond your licence: add seats on Billing, or invite them as a (free) manager. Can't see your organisation after being invited? — sign in with the exact email that was invited, then "Refresh access". App won't sync? — it will queue safely offline indefinitely; check the device has signal and the record list shows the sync badge. Invite code not recognised? — codes are single-use; ask the landlord to check the contractor card for the current one. Anything else: [email protected].