Inspections in Pistonlog are customisable checklists that attach to a jobcard. Garage admins design the form once as a template; technicians then fill in a submission every time they inspect a vehicle.
There are five inspection statuses that a technician can set on any item: Acceptable, Advisory, Rectified, Failure, and Not Applicable — each with its own colour and icon so the report reads at a glance.
Two halves of the system
Templates (admin-side)
Designed once and reused. Drag fields onto a canvas in the form builder — 17 field types from simple text to signature pads and inspection matrices. Templates are scoped per garage.
Submissions (technician-side)
A live fill of a template on a specific jobcard. Submissions snapshot the template's schema at the time of creation, so editing a template later doesn't change what was previously recorded.
What's in the field palette
- Automotive — inspection (status + notes + images), inspection matrix
- Inputs — text, textarea, number, percentage, measurement, phone, masked input
- Selection — select, multiselect, radio, checkbox
- Date — date picker
- Media — signature pad, image upload
- Layout — table matrix
Rectified → update parts
When a technician taps Rectified on a live jobcard inspection, Pistonlog asks Update parts? Tap Yes and the inspection item is marked Rectified, and a parts dialog opens so you can mark the relevant part fitted. Tap No and Rectified still applies — without the parts dialog. Dismiss the popover and Rectified doesn't apply at all. See Rectified + update parts.
Related
In this section
Templates vs submissions
Templates are the blueprint, submissions are the actual fills. Edits to a template don't change past submissions.
Building an inspection template
The drag-and-drop form builder — 17 field types, multi-column rows, configuration per field, and auto-save
Bundled inspection templates
Pistonlog ships with several pre-built inspection templates — use as-is or duplicate and edit
Starting an inspection
How to open a new inspection submission on a live jobcard
Filling in an inspection
How a technician works through a submission — the five statuses, notes, photos, and partial saves
Rectified + use a part
When a technician marks an item Rectified, Pistonlog asks 'use a part?' and links the inspection into the parts list
Linking inspections to jobs
Tie an inspection finding to a specific job on the same jobcard so the work and the assessment travel together
Completing an inspection
When every item is filled, mark complete — it locks the form, joins vehicle history, and becomes printable
Previous inspections panel
The Inspector Panel surfaces previous submissions for the current vehicle, with a 13-month cutoff
The Inspector Panel
View jobcard details, vehicle history, and customer info without leaving the page