QA Flow

QA Flow: inspection forms, ITPs and hold points

3 min read · Checked against the product 3 October 2026

Build a form template once, apply it room by room, run it on site with readings, photos and failures that raise NCRs, and get hold and witness points signed by the main contractor from an email link.

QA Flow is the quality side of VariationFlow: part of the VariationFlow + QA Flow plan, or an add-on to the VariationFlow plan and older plans, though not to Builder. Open it with the product switch in the header or the QA Flow card in the app. At its core is the inspection and test plan run as a form: your checks for one activity, applied to each room, completed as the work is done and signed off at the points that matter.

Set up the project

1. In QA Flow, open Projects and pick the project. Under Levels & rooms, add the levels and then the rooms on each. A range such as “Room 1-6” adds six rooms at once, and a CSV with one Level,Room line per room builds the whole structure.
2. Under Forms, open Form Templates and build a template, or choose “Start from library” to copy a starter template for your trade and edit it to match how you work. Library templates are generic starting points, not compliance advice.
3. Back on the project, choose “Apply form to rooms”, pick the template and tick rooms, or a whole level. One form is created per room, and rooms that already have it are skipped.

What a step can be

• A check: passed, failed or marked N/A, with optional acceptance criteria.
• A reading with a unit and an acceptance range. A reading outside the range cannot be passed. A target, if set, is shown for information only.
• A photo step that cannot pass without a timestamped photo.
• A hold point, signed internally or by the main contractor, that pauses the form until it is signed.
• A witness point, where the main contractor gets notice, 48 hours unless the step says otherwise, and work carries on while it runs.

Run the form on site

Steps run in order, on the web or in the app, and the app works offline. Each completed step records who did it and when. When a reading fails, choose “Record failure + raise NCR” to open an NCR pre-filled from the step, or record the failure only. Once the rework is done, reopen the step and record the new result; the failure stays in the history.

Sign-off by the main contractor

At a main contractor hold point, enter the engineer’s email and choose “Submit for sign-off”. They get a link that needs no account, showing everything completed since the last hold point with its readings and photos. They enter their name and approve or reject, and the decision is recorded. At a witness point, “Serve notice & continue” sends the same link as a notice. If the notice period runs out with no response, the point releases automatically and is marked “Released (unwitnessed)”, never as a witnessed pass. Unanswered sign-off requests at hold points are chased automatically at 3, 7 and 14 days.

What good looks like

• An internal hold point before every main contractor hold point, so nothing reaches them unchecked.
• Hold points only where the contract stops you proceeding, and witness points where the main contractor may attend but the programme cannot wait.
• One template per activity, improved when the inspector keeps asking for the same extra photo.

Common mistakes

• One giant template for the whole job instead of one per activity.
• Taking photos on a personal phone and uploading them days later. Take them on the step so they are timestamped against it.
• Correcting a failed reading by retyping it. Record the failure, do the rework, then reopen the step.