Scope of survey and Smart Build

The scope of survey is the one field every surveyor reads before starting work. Smart Build turns it from a blank box into a guided pick-list, and an optional AI draft gives you a starting point once the job already exists.

What it is

Build from presets opens Smart Build: a set of category chips tailored to the job’s hazard type. Damp & mould uses one long-standing option set; every other hazard type has its own dedicated set of purpose, standards-and-references and known-limitations chips, written with no damp-and-mould vocabulary carried over. Ticking chips assembles plain-English wording into a live preview, which you then hand-edit before using it — nothing is locked once it lands in the field. The result becomes the job’s scope of survey text, which prints on the report and shows in the capture app as the surveyor’s brief.

Once a job already exists, you can also ask AI to draft a short scope from what’s already on file — the reported description, resident-intake context, property type and required-room count — rather than starting from Smart Build. This is only offered from the job’s own drawer afterwards, not on the New survey form, because there’s nothing on file yet at creation time to draft from.

Before you start

Raising or editing a survey needs workOrders permission at Edit level or above.

How to do it

1. On New survey, expand Add report details and click Build from presets next to Scope of survey.
2. Tick the categories and options that apply — the preview box updates live as you go.
3. Click Use text to commit the generated wording to the field, editing it directly first if you want to adjust it.
4. Where an AI-polish option is offered inside the builder, use it to tidy the wording without changing what it says.
5. List any Required rooms the surveyor must check, one per line. The field app tracks these positionally and asks for a recorded reason before sealing if any are missed.
6. From an existing job’s drawer, use the AI-draft option instead if you’d rather start from a machine-drafted paragraph built only from facts already recorded on the case.

How it integrates

The generated or drafted text becomes the work order’s scope-of-survey field: the capture app shows it to the surveyor as a read-only briefing the first time they open the job, and it prints in the report’s scope section — see Running a survey, hazard by hazard. AI drafting is advisory only — it writes solely from facts already on the case and is instructed never to invent a room, defect or property fact; nothing it produces is saved automatically, and it never restates specific required-room names, only that some exist. Required rooms feed the field app’s requirements check at finalise time, not a hard block at the point you raise the job.

Common problems

• The chip options look wrong for this job. Confirm the hazard type is set correctly first — Smart Build’s option set is chosen by hazard type.
• AI drafting isn’t offered. It only appears once the job already exists, from its own drawer, not on the New survey form.
• A required room the surveyor missed isn’t blocking anything at my end. It’s enforced in the field app at finalise time, with a recorded reason if genuinely inaccessible, not at the point you raise the job.