Most surveying practices write reports in one of three ways. A Word or Pages template that has grown over years and that only one person dares to edit. A single-trade inspection app that is excellent at one kind of report and useless for the others. Or a general report builder that promises to cover everything.
This is a buying checklist, written by the people who make Report Kit 360, so it is not neutral, but every question below is one you should put to us as well as to anyone else, and we have tried to answer honestly where our product falls short.
1. Does it match the structure your reports have to follow?
A home survey at level 2 has a section order and a rating scheme the client’s solicitor expects. A PV inspection in the IEC 62446 pattern has three parts. A structural inspection needs a defect register and a monitoring table. If the software makes you rebuild those structures by hand, you will spend the time you saved on typing re-creating the shape.
Ask: which templates ship with it, who wrote them, and whether they follow the structure in the vendor’s own wording or borrow material they should not. Ask whether the template includes checks that stop an incomplete report going out, or whether completeness is still down to the last read-through.
Report Kit 360 ships 15 system templates. Eleven are on the Basic plan (RICS-style levels 1 to 3, building survey TDD, schedule of condition, dilapidations schedule, access audit, snagging, roof and facade RAG, drone survey, generic technical) and four are Pro (solar PV, thermographic, structural, volumetric). They are standards-aligned in structure and written in our own words; we are not affiliated with or endorsed by RICS, the IEC, ISO or any other body. If your report type is not on that list, the generic technical template plus Save as template is the honest answer, and we say so rather than pretend.
2. How does it handle photographs?
For most surveyors the report is photographs with words around them:
- Can you upload a large batch reliably on a poor connection?
- Can you mark up a photo with a numbered marker, a rating and a note, and have the number appear in the schedule and the index without retyping?
- Does the numbering survive when you insert or reorder pages?
- Can you measure on the photo, pair a thermal image with its visible twin, or place findings on a map, if your work needs it?
In our case: chunked uploads with retries; markers with rating, fault type, tags and a Defect / Risk / Recommendation note; automatic fault numbering across photo, table and index. Measurement markers, thermal pairs and the map block are Pro.
3. What is the output, exactly?
A report that leaves the practice as an editable file can be changed by anyone who receives it. A report that leaves as a PDF with a fixed version number and a checksum cannot. Ask whether the software distinguishes between exporting (producing a file) and issuing (freezing a version), and whether a client can verify that the PDF they hold is the one you issued.
Ask also about the formats you need beyond PDF: DOCX for clients who insist on it, CSV or XLSX for findings that go into someone else’s system, JSON if you integrate. In Report Kit 360, PDF export and issuing with a checksum and a Verify link are on every plan; DOCX, CSV, XLSX and JSON are Pro, and the DOCX is a simplified rendering rather than a page-faithful copy.
4. How does the client receive it, and what do you learn?
A share link opens in any browser, can carry a password and an expiry, can be revoked, and tells you when it was opened. Ask what the analytics record, for how long and how viewers are identified; a tool that logs raw IP addresses against named clients is a data protection question you did not need.
Ours: 32-character secret links with password, expiry and view limit on every plan; one active link per report and 30 days of analytics on Basic; unlimited links, a download toggle, a name-and-email viewer gate and two years of analytics on Pro. Viewers are identified by a hashed fingerprint and country, never a raw IP address.
5. Who owns the reports, and can you leave?
You should own the reports, the photographs and the client data. You should be able to export everything in a usable format, and there should be a stated period after cancellation in which you can do so. Ask what happens to Pro-only content if you downgrade, and whether anything is deleted.
In our terms the reports are yours. PDF export is on every plan, a full JSON-plus-media export is self-serve on Pro and by request on Basic, and you keep 30 days to export after a subscription ends. On downgrade nothing is deleted; Pro-only blocks are shown as a placeholder until you upgrade again.
6. What does it actually cost, per report?
Pricing models hide costs in three places: per-report fees, per-user fees and storage. Price each candidate on your monthly volume, the number of people who write and the storage a year of reports needs.
Report Kit 360 Basic is £14.99 a month for one member and 10 new reports a month, with a top-up of 5 reports for £4.99 up to twice a month, and 5 GB of storage. Pro is £49 a month for unlimited reports and 100 GB, with extra seats at £19 a month each. Annual plans are £149 and £470. There is no per-report fee on Pro.
7. If it has AI, whose is it and who decides?
AI features in report software raise two questions. Where do your photographs and text go, and who is the professional? A tool that sends your images to a provider you did not choose and applies the result without review is a risk to your professional indemnity as much as to your clients’ privacy.
Our answer is that the AI features are Pro, use your own API key for Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, send data only when you ask, show every suggestion in a review panel before anything is applied, and list AI-touched blocks in the report’s provenance. We do not supply AI credit and we have no partnership with any provider.
8. What are the security controls, specifically?
Do not accept “secure” as an answer. Ask for the list: password rules, two-factor authentication, session management, how API and AI keys are stored, what is logged, where data is hosted and for how long it is retained.
Our list is on the security page. The short version: passwords of at least 10 characters, two-factor authentication with recovery codes, a sessions list with sign-out-everywhere, keys stored encrypted and shown once, an audit log (30 days on Basic, two years on Pro), card details handled by Stripe and never stored by us, and stated retention periods. The hosting location will be stated once confirmed, and not before.
9. Will the team adopt it?
The best software is the one people use. Ask for a plan that lets one surveyor try the tool on real jobs for a month before the practice commits.
We do not offer a free trial at present. Basic at £14.99 a month is the trial, and every Pro feature is visible on Basic, greyed with a note on what it does.
The short list
Before you sign anything, ask:
- Which templates, written by whom, with what checks?
- How are photographs uploaded, marked up and numbered?
- Export or issue? Which formats?
- How does the client receive it, and what is recorded about them?
- Who owns the data, and how do you leave?
- What is the real monthly cost at your volume?
- Whose AI, and who decides?
- What are the security controls, listed?
- Can one person try it on real jobs first?
Put those questions to every vendor, including us. The answers tell you more than the feature list.
Report Kit 360 is a trading name of [Digital Depth Studio Ltd]. Prices in GBP; see the pricing page for the current plan details.
