30+ ArchiSnapper Features to Save You Time and Boost Productivity

ArchiSnapper has more than 30 features that can help you save time and get the most value out of the app. You can choose to adopt any feature you like and ignore the ones you don’t. 

As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or suggestions: support@archisnapper.com. We’re here to help!

Easy field reports and To-Do Lists

1. Checklist based inspections

A set of predetermined checklist items assists you in monitoring the on-site review process without overloading your mental capacity.

For example, checklists are great for quality inspections. You can set up and manage your checklists with the online account and then review them with the ArchiSnapper app on-site.

2. Punch lists with checklists

Some ArchiSnapper users use the checklist functionality for punch list inspections. They set up project-specific punch list checklists, using the categories in the checklist for the different units or areas of the project. Within those categories, they then add the items to review per unit/area.

When working like this, you can easily review the items per room or area and add photos, text, location pointers and more. 

3. Make visually appealing reports with your own branding and layout settings

Choose one of our templates and add your logo, header, titles and footer. Play with font type, font color, labels, picture size and more.

Make a good impression with professional field reports that have all the necessary details. 

4. Manage observations tags

You can manage observation tags in your online account. You can then tag observations with these labels.

For example, you could add a tag ‘urgent’ and color it red. If you then label an observation as urgent, it will show the red tag in the PDF reports.

You can also filter on these tags from the ‘all observations‘ table.

5. To-Do list of observations

If you have completed a site visit and have a list of items for the contractor to address, you can document, manage and share a list of items as To-Do lists.

You can add items, complete with photos, assignees, trades, dates and more. Show contractors exactly where items are located by placing numbered pointers on plans. Filter and share the lists with all parties so everyone can view pending items clearly.

6. Manage units on project level

You can set up different units within a project, e.g., for every room, apartment or building in the project. You can then assign these units (“sections”) to items.

7. Options for sending site reports

Here are some interesting options for distributing a field report or To-Do list:

1. You can choose whether you want to send the full report with all items or if you want to send each assignee only his own items.
2. You can also choose to attach the floor plans with all numbered location pointers on them as a separate attachment.
3. From your layout settings, you can predefine your email template and settings, so you don’t have to write the same email every time you distribute a field report.

8. Auto-assign items

You can set rules to automatically assign items to contacts based on the observation category of the item. For example, automatically assign all items for the category of electricity to Jack, the electrician.

9. Edit reports and To-Do lists from your online account

While it is possible to draft and send field reports with the ArchiSnapper app on-site, a lot of our users stick with short notes, pictures and location pointers on-site and complete the report with more text and details when they are back in the office – using the web platform on their laptop or desktop.

10. Merge reports (and To-Do lists)

Did you know you can merge different field reports into one?

You can also copy items from a project's To-Do list into a field report and vice versa. Some of our users start the punch list process with the To-Do list and then copy all items into a punch list report (with date, signatures, disclaimer) at the end of the project.

ArchiSnapper-hacks on the App

11. Annotate drawings or floor plans

For any observation, you can open a floor plan, zoom in, annotate the plan, and then save a snapshot that will be inserted as a photo. 

12. Add observations directly on a floor plan

When working on a field report or To-Do list with the app, you can open a floor plan and tap on a certain location to add an item with photos, assignees, status and more.

13. Reuse the category and section from the previous item when adding an item on a plan

When adding a new item directly on a floor plan, chances are high that you want to assign it to the same section (e.g., unit 3.5) and category (e.g., electricity) as the previous one. Go to settings in the app to enable this:

14. Translate voice to text

Talking is faster than typing. The voice dictation features embedded in iOS and Android are better than most people think and we see many customers using this feature.

15. Edit, view, sign off or send a field report from the App

From the ArchiSnapper app on your phone or tablet, you can tap on the project name and then go to the field reports for this project. From there, you open, clone, sign or send any report.

16. Clone settings

In the app, there are clone settings. You can select whether or not you want to clone the report status, people present, report pictures and the OK items. About the last clone setting: some users prefer not to copy the OK items from the previous report because they make the report longer and don’t add much value.

17. Take square photos with your camera

Field reports and punch lists look better with square photos.

Although ArchiSnapper has layout settings to show photos as squares, the best option is to take them as squares. This is a camera setting: iOS users select ‘square’ when taking a photo with the camera; for Android, select ratio ‘1:1’. This setting will be remembered automatically for your next photos.

18. Photo settings

Here are three more settings related to working with photos:

1. Photo size: see settings in the ArchiSnapper app on your phone to tablet (cf ‘Photo size’ in the image above). Small photos will result in faster syncs to the online account.
2. Save photos on your camera roll: this will save all photos that you take with the app on your camera roll as a backup. See also the settings in the app on your phone or tablet.
3. Date stamp: this is a setting only administrative users can manage via ‘account settings‘ in the online account. This will automatically add a date stamp to all photos.

Effective collaboration

19. Share observations with non-ArchiSnapper users

Want to share observations with a subcontractor or owner? No problem — you can filter on assignee, item status, creation date, category, or other fields.

Next, you can copy a URL that you can share with third parties (no ArchiSnapper account required), just like you share a Dropbox file with third parties. With this link, they get a real-time overview of the items meeting those filter criteria.

20. Schedule weekly emails to assignees with their pending items

Assignees will get an automated weekly email with their pending items. 

21. Manage users and work in the same account

You can invite new users and assign them to projects if you have admin rights.

You can also define users as standard users or as report creators. Standard users can do everything: managing projects with documents, contacts, observation categories, checklists and report layout. The report creators can only create and edit field reports and To-Do lists; that’s it.

Another related tip: from the ‘account settings‘ page, admin users can choose whether other (standard) users can edit the observation categories, checklists or layout settings.

Other settings on this account settings page include if you want to show date stamps on your photos, the file name of the PDF reports and how to display the assignees in the PDF reports. 

22. Invite assignees to give feedback on pending items

You can invite assignees to give feedback on their pending items.

They’ll get a free ArchiSnapper account in which they’ll see all their pending items. They’ll be able to add pictures or notes to these items and send them for approval when they are fixed. You can check for updates in your activity log and get daily summary emails.

Simplified administrative processes

23. Backup reports and photos to Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP, Sharepoint or CSV

You can connect ArchiSnapper to your Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP server or Sharepoint account. All your PDF reports and pictures will automatically get exported every four hours.

If you have an FTP server, you can even set up ArchiSnapper so reports and pictures are exported into existing project folders on your server. You can set this up in your online account.

If you want to analyze your ArchiSnapper data, you can export to CSV.

24. Request documents from other parties

With ArchiSnapper, you can manage a list of documents to receive from other parties, like technical drawings or as-built plans. They’ll be able to upload the documents directly into your ArchiSnapper account so you can view and approve them.

25. Import contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook

It’s easy to import contacts to ArchiSnapper from a number of sources including Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook.

26. Manage project photos

Many architects, engineers and contractors struggle with organizing their photos. They store all their project photos on their camera roll.  

With the ArchiSnapper app, you can take project photos and assign them to a designated project. You can do this by tapping on the project name and then on ‘project pictures.’

These pictures will be stored by project in your secure online account. You can now easily insert these pictures into site reports. And they will be automatically exported to your server, Dropbox, Google Drive or Sharepoint – so you immediately and automatically have a backup of all your photos in the cloud.

27. Email project contacts and keep track of sent emails

In ArchiSnapper, you typically have all project-related contacts available, together with an email address and other details.

Did you know you can use ArchiSnapper to send your contacts simple emails (without field reports or punch lists)? These sent emails are logged into your online ArchiSnapper account. Need an overview of all emails sent to a certain contact or for a specific project? Go to the email logs, filter on the project and you automatically have them.

28. Project planning (Gantt Chart)

A Gantt chart makes it easy to plan, manage and communicate your construction schedule so everyone’s working toward the same goal and all parties are aware of when they are expected to start and finish their activities.

With ArchiSnapper, you can draft a Gantt chart per project, with the phases, tasks, dependencies, duration, and percentage complete. 

29. Manage document tags

You can tag your docs and plans with custom labels, like HVAC or electricity. This makes it easy to search for floor plans when using the app on-site. 

30. Show projects on a map and schedule site inspections

This might be useful if you need to do frequent site inspections for many projects.

You set up the inspection frequency together with how many inspections you need per project. You can then track the number of inspections done and still to do per project and you can display the projects that need an inspection during the next X days on a map so that you can group them into efficient inspection tours.  

31. Dashboards and reporting

The following reports are available from your online dashboard. 

1. The number of site reports per user, month, and project. Check it out in your reports made and sent overview.
2. Working with checklists and want to see the number of times each checklist item appears as NOT OK during inspections? Then the checklist NOT OK items over time dashboard is what you need.
3. If you’re using ArchiSnapper to request docs from third parties and you want to keep an overview of which document requires attention, then the docs to receive dashboard is for you.

Remember, you can also export your ArchiSnapper data to a CSV for further analysis. Or you can use our API to integrate any software with ArchiSnapper.