Sign-off and finalising

Sign-off is the last step before sealing: your own signature, the resident’s where your organisation captures one, and a final check that nothing required was missed.

What it is

Your sign-off shows your name and accreditations read-only from your organisation profile, alongside your organisation’s own attestation wording, which you sign but don’t edit. You can draw a signature or upload an image, and save it to your profile as a default for next time.

Tenant sign-off, where your organisation has it enabled, opens a separate full-screen signing surface so the resident can sign without being able to see any of your findings. If they’re not present or decline, you record that with a short reason instead — this is never a reason a survey can’t be sealed; it’s simply recorded honestly.

If any required room wasn’t captured, a requirements check asks for a reason before you can proceed — the same check the office would otherwise chase you for later.

Your organisation can also list required sections that every survey must have filled in before it can be finalised. Each one is marked Required on the survey dashboard, amber while it’s empty and green once it’s filled in. If you tap Generate Report with a required section still empty, the app names the sections that need filling in and the survey stays a draft. Unlike a missed required room, there’s no reason you can record instead: fill the section in, then try again.

How to do it

1. Open Sign-off, review your organisation’s attestation, and add your signature.
2. Where tenant sign-off applies, hand the device to the resident (or explain why you’re marking it declined or unavailable, with a short reason).
3. If prompted by the requirements check, add a reason for each required room you didn’t get to, then continue.
4. Tap Finalise. This needs a live connection — it’s a server action, not something that queues offline.

How it integrates

Finalising checks, on the server, that the survey has a GPS fix, no photos still stuck mid-upload, your organisation’s hazard-photo policy satisfied, every required section filled in, and a recorded reason for any missed required room — then it seals the record: it computes and stores a hash chained to the property’s previous sealed record, and the survey can no longer be edited directly. This is what makes a record tamper-evident — any later alteration would break the chain and be detected, not something the platform claims is impossible to attempt. Finalising also starts or updates the property’s statutory clock where the job has one, and notifies your organisation’s integrations (webhooks, if configured) that a new record exists. A finalised record can later be revised into a fresh, clearly linked correction if something genuinely needs fixing — see The evidence register — but the original stays exactly as it was sealed.

Common problems

• Finalise doesn’t seem to do anything. Check your connection — it needs one. Nothing you’ve entered is affected either way, and your work stays safely on the device until you can finalise.
• I’m told a required section is empty, but it isn’t on my dashboard. Your organisation changed its list after you opened this survey. Close the survey and open it again to see the Required marks.
• The resident declined to sign and I’m worried that’ll block sealing. It won’t — a recorded decline with a reason is a valid, honest outcome, not a blocker.
• I’m asked for a reason for a room I genuinely couldn’t access. Give the real reason (for example, “tenant refused access”) and continue — this is the intended path for a room you couldn’t reach, not a dead end.