PRACTICAL GUIDE / MOVING FROM WORD & EXCEL
Move the record, not just the paperwork.
A practical starting point for inspection and maintenance businesses moving from Word, Excel and separate photo folders to connected asset records.
1. Decide what identifies an asset.
Before transferring data, agree how an engineer will identify the equipment on site. A useful record has a customer, site, asset reference, type and location. Check for duplicate references or rows that describe the same asset in different ways.
Keep the reference consistent when an asset is revisited. Replacing a spreadsheet with software does not solve ambiguous identification by itself. Start with a small, representative set of assets and check that an engineer can find each one without guessing.
2. Separate checks, findings and access limitations.
A check outcome and a finding serve different purposes. Pass, Fail or N/A describes the result of a check; the finding explains what was observed. Record an asset that could not be accessed separately so the record does not suggest it was fully inspected.
Review your existing checklist wording before moving it. Remove questions that combine several different observations into one result. Your business remains responsible for deciding the inspection scope and the standards that apply.
3. Give photographs a place in the record.
A photograph needs context: which asset, which check or work record, and what it demonstrates. Keeping files together in a phone album is not the same as linking evidence to a finding.
During a demonstration, review a few inspection records from the perspective of someone who did not attend the site. Can they identify the asset and understand why the image was attached? If not, improve the finding or evidence description before expanding the process.
4. Preserve what happened after the finding.
A remedial item is a starting point, not a complete history. The return visit should record the reported problem, findings, work carried out and outcome. Do not overwrite the original inspection to make the later record look clean.
Keep uncertainty explicit. A completed visit is not automatically a successful repair. A Fixed outcome and a No fault found outcome communicate different things and should not be collapsed into the same meaning.
5. Review the customer-facing output.
Compare the new report with the information your customer needs. Check site and asset references, findings, outcomes, evidence and the description of completed work. A polished PDF is only useful when the underlying record is accurate.
Pilot the process on a manageable visit before transferring a large register. In Squigg, structured .xlsx or UTF-8 .csv asset data can be mapped and reviewed before import. Do not assume that legacy Word documents, old PDFs or all spreadsheet formats can be automatically migrated.