How to Use a Checklist

Every inspection, and many jobs, in Civic.ly runs off a checklist: the set of questions your team works through on the phone. You never build one. They are built into the platform and matched to your assets for you. The skill is getting the right checklist onto the right task, and two things trip people up: a checklist is tied to the asset type, and it always rides on a task (an inspection or a job), never on its own.

A checklist is tied to the asset type

When you add an asset, Civic.ly matches it to the checklists for that type of asset. A fire extinguisher offers the Fire Extinguisher Check; a bench does not.

This is the most common reason a checklist "won't appear": the asset is set to the wrong type. Open the asset, check the Asset Type field on the Overview tab, and correct it by re-running AI Classify or setting the type by hand. The Checklist Index shows which checklists apply to which asset type.

Or you may be on the wrong asset altogether

The second reason catches people out because nothing on screen is wrong. A sweep belongs to the space, not to the things inside it. The Park Sweep sits on the park area you drew, not on the swing, bench or bin standing in it, so it will never appear on a piece of play equipment. The same goes for the Cemetery, Allotment, Car Park and Playground Area Sweeps: each lives on the drawn area for that site.

If you are trying to check a whole site in one go, open the area on the map or in the asset list and create the inspection there. For when to inspect a whole site and when to inspect each item, see Choosing How to Inspect.

So when a checklist is missing, ask two questions in order: am I on the right asset, and is that asset the right type?

A building or room can offer two sweeps

Specialised buildings and rooms (a public toilet, washroom, library, sports pavilion, changing room and so on) offer two sweeps in the picker. This is deliberate, not a duplicate. The general Building Sweep or Room Sweep covers the fabric, services, security and safety every building or room needs. The shorter focused sweep covers only that type's own fixtures: the Public Toilet Sweep adds basins, cubicles, hand dryers and accessible fittings.

Pick whichever the visit is for. A common pattern is the focused sweep often (monthly, say) and the general sweep less often for the fabric. The Beach Hut Sweep is the one standalone exception.

A checklist rides on a task, not on its own

You create a task against the asset and pick the checklist on that task. The task type decides which checklists you can pick:

• An Inspection is "look at it, assess its condition, pass or fail". This is where the Checks and Sweeps live, including every compliance checklist: fire alarm, extinguisher, emergency lighting, legionella temperatures, CO alarm, playground.
• A Job is "do something to it and record what was done". Jobs carry the checklists that capture data as the work happens: meter readings, how full a bin was, the grass or litter grade on a round.

The compliance checklists are only available on Inspections. If you set up a weekly fire-alarm check as a Job, there will be no checklist to attach. This bites most often when building a routine of safety checks, so set the task type before you look for the checklist.

Three ways to add a checklist

1. On a standalone inspection (web app)

Create an inspection on the asset (see How to Create an Inspection), open it, and go to the Checklist tab. Choose the checklist with the template picker at the top right and it renders straight away underneath, so you can see exactly what your team will be asked. It is normally completed in the field on the mobile app.

2. In a routine (web app)

A routine creates a task for several assets in one go (see How to Create a Routine). In the Related Tasks grid, set each row's Task Type first (Inspection or Job), then pick the checklist in the Task Template column. The grid does not preview the checklist, so look it up first in the Checklist Library, where every checklist is shown as it appears on the phone, or preview it on a standalone inspection.

3. On the mobile app (in the field)

When you create an inspection from the mobile app, you pick the checklist as part of setting it up. Handy for something you notice while out that was not already scheduled.