How Toronto-based Tap Report is transforming workplace inspections

Written by: Eric Emin Wood

Published: April 6th, 2018

Tap Report co-founder and CEO Paul Amendola had been managing fire and life safety inspections in Toronto’s financial district for six years when he started looking for digital solutions that would help him navigate the multiple inspection reports, maintenance orders, and asset approvals that kept coming across his desk – and found little.

The closest he remembers finding was a few barcode-based systems that were “very difficult to use – and very expensive.”

Tap Report co-founder and CEO Paul Amendola knew firsthand the frustration felt by workplace inspection teams and wanted to help them.

“It was very difficult to stay on top of everything,” he says. “Staff would sign off on what they thought was the kitchen in the north east corner, but unfortunately it would turn out to be the south east corner, which we wouldn’t find out until the tenant started complaining – and that happened a lot. People were making mistakes, signing off on paperwork that said they were there when they weren’t, and unless I went to every single asset and looked at the tag on it to see if it was signed I wouldn’t know if it had happened or not.”

“And if you don’t fix something and an emergency happens, you’re in serious trouble.”

Tap Report simplifies the process by placing NFC microchips on workplace assets such as fire extinguishers and first aid kits.

Instead of tracking their work on a clipboard, the inspector taps the microchip with their mobile device and Tap Report will facilitate the workflow to generate a report for managers like Amendola’s past self who need to verify that it was done.

“Now the manager knows that the inspector’s in front of the exact asset they’re supposed to inspect because they actually have to tap the microchip,” Amendola says.

Managers can also use the app to provide inspectors with specific instructions unique to each asset – a fire extinguisher, for example, will have different safety criteria from a boiler room or a generator.

“And if there are any problems, it’s easy for the inspector to say, ‘There’s a problem,'” Amendola says. “They can pick it from a dropdown menu. They can take a photo. And whatever they do is attached to that specific asset so there’s no longer any danger of inspections falling through the cracks.”

Since the app was first used by its first client, a downtown Toronto medical facility, in November 2014, Tap Report has been used to conduct more than 9 million inspections, Amendola says, in industries as varied as manufacturing, property management, and health and safety.

And in case you’re wondering, it’s available on both iOS and Android.

About Tap Report

Tap Report is a Canadian software company that provides a digital solution for managing workplace inspections, safety compliance, and operational reporting. It replaces manual processes, such as paper checklists and spreadsheets, with a mobile and web-based system that allows teams to complete inspections, capture data, and generate compliant reports.

Through an easy-to-use interface and automated workflows, Tap Report helps ensure that inspections are completed, deficiencies are categorized and tracked, and issues are escalated efficiently to the right people. It also offers analytics, customizable reporting, and integrations that helps organizations improve safety, compliance, and operational performance.

For more information, visit www.tapreport.io or contact us at customerservice@tapreport.io.