Switching from Spectora
Documentation
You can bring your templates over directly. Most of the rest is a mapping exercise, and the vocabulary differences are worth reading before you start — several words mean different things in the two products.
What maps to what
| Spectora | Here | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Template | Template | Imported directly from the export file |
| Section → Item → Comment | Section → Item → Canned comment | The same three levels |
| The comment buckets on each item | The three comment tabs | Each exported row already carries info, limit or defect — the mapping is the identity, not a translation |
| Services | Services | Rebuilt by hand; each can carry its template, agreement, duration and deposit |
| Contacts | Contacts | Via a spreadsheet import |
| Team | Team, with four roles and nine permissions | Invited by hand — see Adding team members |
| Credentials | Licence numbers, on your profile | ⚠️ Different word, different thing — see below |
What actually comes across
Templates, from the export button's file. That file is a spreadsheet, one row per canned comment, with the section and item repeated on every row. A real export measured 1,873 rows and resolved to 16 sections and 90 items.
Sanity-check the item count after importing. Spectora files reuse item names across sections — in that measured file, 76 distinct names produced 90 items, because four names appear under more than one section and one appears under eleven. Both numbers are true of the file; the one that describes the structure is the larger. If you see more items than you expected, that is probably why, and it is correct.
Contacts and team members, from a spreadsheet. Any CSV works; you map its columns during the import.
What does not come across: past inspections and their reports, invoices and payment history, your scheduling configuration, your automations, and signed agreements. Signed agreements especially — a signature is evidence tied to the system that produced it, and importing one would mean asserting something this product cannot verify.
Where the words differ
- "Credentials" in Spectora means your licence number. Here, credentials are the licences and certifications on your profile, with their images, which get snapshotted onto reports at publish. Professional-association memberships are a separate idea again.
- Agents. Buyer's agent and listing agent are distinct roles on an inspection here, not one "agent" field. A referral agent can also hold their own account and see their jobs across every company that names them.
- The three status axes. Appointment, report and payment move independently — see Every status, and what it means. Expect one status where there are three, and half the product looks broken.
Running both during a changeover
The clean way, in order:
- Import your templates first and check them against a recent report you are proud of. The template is the thing that takes longest to rebuild by hand and imports best.
- Set up services, and attach the templates to them, so a booking brings the right form with it.
- Take new work here from a chosen date. Finish work already in flight where it started — moving a half-written report between systems costs more than finishing it.
- Keep the old account readable until your retention obligations for those records are satisfied. Export what you can before you close it; that is the step people skip and cannot undo.
Do not attempt to run both for the same inspection. Two systems holding one job is how a client gets two different reports.
See also: Switching from ISN.