Scan to start an inspection

Scanning the QR code on a machine takes the person standing in front of it straight to the inspection due today — not to a list of past inspections. Drivers, operators and technicians get the form in one step, and the record shows the inspection was opened by a scan.

What happens when you scan

1. Scan the QR code on the equipment or location, with your phone camera or the Scan QR button in the app.
2. FreeMaint finds the inspection that item owes for the current period and opens it.
3. If two templates apply, you pick from a short list. If none is set up, the page says so and points you to the templates.
4. Fill in the checklist and complete it as usual.

When the sticker is damaged

A label that is scratched, worn off or was never printed does not block anyone. Open the equipment page, go to the Inspections tab and use "Start today's inspection". You get the same form. The record then shows a manual start rather than a scan, which is the honest description of what happened.

What the record shows

When an inspection is opened by scanning, the run stores the code that was scanned and the moment it happened, and the PDF prints a "Scan check" line. This is a control and a dated record: it shows that a scan took place. It is not proof that anyone was physically present, because a printed code can be photographed.

A check each time the equipment is used

Some checks are not due on a date but every time someone takes the equipment: the walk-around of a pool vehicle, the check before driving a forklift. Set the template to "Each time the equipment is used" and every scan opens a new check for the person scanning — a vehicle taken three times in a day gets three checks, each signed off by whoever had it. If that person left one unfinished today, the scan resumes it instead. The button on the scan screen then reads "Do the pre-use check". This mode is available on the Business plan.

1. On the template, set "When is it filled in?" to "Each time the equipment is used".
2. In "Applies to every asset of the category", pick the category it covers — for example Vehicles. Vehicles added later are covered automatically.
3. Add a meter reading item to record the odometer, and let each item take up to 6 photos for the walk-around.
4. On each vehicle page in Fleet, the "Checks" section lists who did the last checks, when, and how many items failed.

Setting it up

1. Create an inspection template with the checkpoints you want to verify.
2. Open the template's schedule, choose how often it runs, and pin the equipment or locations it applies to.
3. Print the QR codes from each equipment page, or in bulk from the equipment list.
4. Give the people who will run inspections a role that includes the "run inspections" permission.

Tips

• Require a scan: on the template, turn on "Require a QR scan to start" so a run can only be opened at the machine. Someone who can edit templates may still override it for a damaged label, and the override is recorded with its reason. Once the inspection has started, every other device or browser tab, the web app included, must scan the code again before it can fill in or complete it, and each of those scans is recorded too.
• An existing barcode or serial-number plate already works — FreeMaint matches those too, so you can start before printing any stickers.
• Locations work too: scanning the QR code of a room, a corridor or a plant room offers “Start today's inspection” for the rounds pinned to that location — on the web page opened by the scan and in the mobile app — just like an equipment label.
• Two people scanning the same machine at the same moment get the same inspection, never two.