Guide

Switching from Spectora

Spectora is a very different kind of product from HomeGauge, so inspectors coming from it ask different questions. This page is written for the inspector doing the move. It is honest about what Spectora does that Plumb Report does not, because the move only works if you know that going in.

The short version

Spectora is an all-in-one business system with a report writer inside it: scheduling, online booking, a client database, automated texts and emails, agreements, payments, a website, and the report. Plumb Report is a report writer first, built around sorting a day's photos and drafting comments in your own words, with the pieces that sit closest to the report (the invoice, the agreement, card payment, sending the report) included. If most of what you value in Spectora is the office automation, Plumb Report will feel narrow. If most of what you spend your evenings on is the report itself, that is what it is for.

What carries over

Your comments, all of them. Spectora can export a whole template to a spreadsheet: every section, item and comment, with the comment type and the severity you gave it. In Spectora, open Templates → My Templates, pick the template, click the three dots at the top right and choose Export to spreadsheet (plain text is fine; HTML keeps any links or formatting, which the report does not need). Send us that file and we bring your library across: your Observations (or whatever you named your deficiency comments) become comments on the matching items with their severity, and your Information answers become picklist values for the styles and materials. If you have customized the template heavily, we may ask you which of our items a few of yours belong to.

Your past reports, as a check. Every Spectora report can be saved as a PDF. A few of those are useful to us for seeing how you numbered things and which comments you actually use, but the spreadsheet is the source of truth for the library.

Branding. Your logo, business name, address and inspector name go on every page of the PDF.

What is different in the day-to-day

The report is a PDF with a known layout, not a web page. Spectora's report is an interactive web page with a deficiency "card" for each finding, a summary and a repair-request builder, and a PDF behind it. Plumb Report produces the PDF directly, in the layout buyers and agents have seen for years from HomeGauge-style reports: numbered sections and items, IN / NI / NP / TR status boxes, photos with captions under each item, styles and materials, and a General Summary of what needs attention. Clients and agents open it from a link on a page that also carries the agreement to sign, the invoice and card payment. There is no separate web view of the report and no repair-request builder.

Observations become comments with a severity color. Spectora's three buckets map cleanly: Information answers go to styles and materials, Limitations become informational comments, and Observations become comments colored by severity (minor, mid-level, major). Items keep their IN / NI / NP status and gain TR, which marks an item for a tradesperson.

Photos first, on a laptop. Spectora is built to be filled in on a phone as you walk the house. Plumb Report is built for the other half of the job: you take photos however you like, drop the whole folder in afterwards, and move through the grid assigning each photo to an item by typing its code. Arrow keys move, 2.3 and Enter assigns, x excludes, c captions. It is a keyboard job and it goes quickly, but it is not a phone job, and there is no offline mode because the writing is done back at the desk.

AI drafts from your library, not from scratch. Spectora's AI assists comment by comment as you dictate. Plumb Report's Draft report with AI works on the whole inspection at once: it sorts the photos along the order you walked, reads data plates into the styles and materials fields, and drafts comments from your library. Everything arrives as pending suggestions; nothing reaches the report until you accept it. You can also skip it entirely and write by hand.

One subscription for the business, not per inspector. A business subscribes once and can have as many inspectors as it likes; owners invite them by email and everyone works in the same library, price list and agreements. Each inspection is assigned to the inspector doing it. See pricing.

Your first inspection is free. Create it, draft it with AI, build the invoice and send the report, with nothing to pay and no card on file. Subscribe when you want to start the next one.

What Spectora does that we do not

Be clear-eyed about these before you move.

Scheduling and online booking. There is no calendar, no booking page and no availability engine. Inspectors who move keep their calendar elsewhere (Google Calendar is the usual answer) and book by phone or their website.
Automated texts and emails. Plumb Report emails the client their report link (the page it opens carries the agreement to sign and the invoice) and tells you when they sign or pay. It does not run drip campaigns, review requests or appointment reminders.
A client and agent database with history. We keep contacts (clients and agents) and link them to inspections, and the Business page shows which agents bring you work and who still owes you. It is not a CRM.
Reinspection reports and repair-request builder. Not offered.
Writing the report on a phone on site. See above.

If any of these is the reason you chose Spectora, you may want to keep it for that and use Plumb Report for the report, or wait: we add things when enough inspectors ask.

What to have ready

Your template export from Spectora (the spreadsheet described above). This is the one that matters.
Three to five recent report PDFs, exported from Spectora, so we can check that the library matches how you really write.
Your logo as a PNG or JPG, and the business details you print on reports.
The photo folder from one past inspection. Rebuilding a report you already delivered is the quickest way to learn the workflow and to compare the two PDFs side by side.

A sensible first week

Day 1: sign in, set your branding under My account, add a passkey, and open the library to see your comments in place. Invite your other inspectors from Account → Team if you have them.
Day 2: rebuild one past inspection from its photo folder. Compare the PDF with the one Spectora produced. Tell us about anything that does not match.
Day 3 onward: run your next real inspection through Plumb Report while keeping Spectora for scheduling and anything else you rely on. Keep both until you have delivered two or three reports and are happy.

Things people ask

Can I keep using Spectora in parallel? Yes. Nothing is moved out of Spectora and nothing is uninstalled. Many inspectors keep it for scheduling and client messaging for a while, or for good.

What about my old reports? They stay in Spectora, and so do their web links. The PDFs you send us are used only to check your library; they do not become inspections in Plumb Report. Export your archive before closing a Spectora account.

Does my template import exactly? Sections and items that match ours come across as they are. Spectora templates vary a lot between inspectors, so some items need a decision about which of ours they belong to; we do that with you rather than guess. Comments keep their wording exactly.

Who sees my photos? Your photos and reports belong to your account. If you use AI drafting, the photos for that inspection are sent to the AI provider to be analyzed, as described in the privacy policy. Inspections drafted by hand are never sent anywhere.

Ready?

Request access and mention that you are coming from Spectora. We will reply with an invite code and tell you where to send your template export.