1. Inspector works in their own app
The third-party inspector or contractor uses whatever tool they already know — phone, tablet, paper-then-typed, or another fire door product. They produce their normal PDF report at the end of the visit.
Resources • migration • PDF import • review
Importing existing PDF inspection reports (and what to review)
A practical guide for migrating from PDF-based inspections: what Fire Door App can extract, what your team reviews, and when to use the "Send to support" path.
- Migration
- PDF import
- Review steps
- Send to support
- Draft review
Guide summary
Import to save time on migration,
then review once
The import flow creates a draft inspection from your PDF - fast, but still reviewable before anything is saved. Three things to understand before you start.
Step 01
What you get
Upload a PDF and Fire Door App extracts property details, door list, inspection metadata, and component results into a draft inspection — ready to review before saving.
Draft ready, nothing saved yet
Step 02
Review focus
Before saving, your team reviews five things: door IDs and locations, pass/fail outcomes, severity, findings and notes, and any duplicate records created from repeat visits.
Review before anything is saved
Step 03
When to use support
Scanned or image-only PDFs can't be parsed automatically. For unusual formats or when confidence is low, use "Send to support" for an assisted import — you still approve the draft before anything goes live.
You still approve before go-live
Onboarding paths
Two paths to the same
joined-up workflow
Both routes end in the same place - stable door records, consistent outputs, and a register you can repeat visits against. The right path depends on what you're starting with.
Start from scratch
Clean setupImport PDFs
MigrationBest for
New sites, new workflows, or when you want a clean setup quickly without legacy data to carry over.
Existing estates where PDFs contain usable door registers you want to migrate without retyping everything.
What happens
Use the guided inspection setup, create doors as you walk, and keep everything structured from day one with a stable ID and location scheme.
Upload a PDF, review a draft inspection, edit anything that needs correcting — door IDs, locations, outcomes — then create the inspection in Fire Door App.
Outcome
A clean register from day one. Repeat visits, remedials, and outputs all joined up with no legacy data to reconcile.
Live records without rebuilding everything by hand. History preserved where the PDF allowed extraction — reviewed and confirmed by your team.
Watch for
Agree door IDs and location labels early — inconsistencies between inspectors are harder to fix once the register has grown.
Lock IDs before first capture
Scanned PDFs and inconsistent templates may need extra review or the "Send to support" path. Imports are best-effort — not a replacement for on-site QA.
Review draft before saving
Imports are best-effort: Fire Door App extracts what it can, then your team reviews before saving. For scanned PDFs and unusual formats, use "Send to support" for an assisted import and review. Learn about the support path →
Migration playbook
A simple five-step plan for your first building
01
Start small
Pick one building
Import a single representative PDF from one building or small client site first. Don't start with a portfolio pack.
02
Lock first
Agree door IDs and locations before scaling
Lock the ID format and location hierarchy before importing more buildings so the register doesn't drift between inspectors. Door ID checklist →
03
Review
Review the draft
Check locations, pass/fail outcomes, severity, and notes. Fix what needs fixing, then create the inspection.
04
Validate
Run one end-to-end workflow
Use the imported inspection to generate an output and raise a small remedial set — so you know inspections, remedials, and client outputs all join up. How to use the app →
05
Scale
Only then scale
Import the rest of the estate using the same ID and location rules validated in steps 1–4. One building end-to-end catches most configuration drift before it multiplies.
Extraction
What Fire Door App pulls from
a text-based PDF
The import creates a draft - not a finished record. Four categories of data get extracted when the PDF structure allows it, each requiring a review pass before anything is saved.
01 — Property & metadata
Building identity and inspection context
The first things extracted — used to create the inspection structure and tie the draft to the right property in your register.
Property details
Name and address where present — used as the starting structure for the inspection.
Where presentInspection metadata
Inspection date and inspector name where detectable in the PDF header or footer.
Where detectable02 — Doors & results
Door list and component outcomes
The core of the import — door records and inspection findings extracted from the body of the PDF when structure allows it.
Door list
Door locations and key attributes — ratings, dimensions, type fields — when detectable in a consistent table or list structure.
Structure-dependentComponent results
Pass/fail outcomes and notes where the PDF contains consistent component headings and result columns.
Consistency-dependentConfidence warnings
Low-confidence extractions are flagged in the draft — review these areas first before saving.
Review flagged areasWhy some PDFs are hard to parse
Three things that reduce extraction quality
Scanned PDFs — image-only reports don't contain extractable text. Fire Door App can't parse what it can't read. Use "Send to support" for these.
Inconsistent templates — if tables, headings, or row ordering change between pages, extraction confidence drops and more fields need manual correction.
Custom wording — fail reasons and component names vary between firms. Mapping may need manual correction during the review pass.
Prep checklist for best results
Five things to do before importing
Prefer text-based PDFs — exports from a reporting system are usually easier than scanned documents.
One PDF per building/visit — avoid large portfolio packs unless you plan to split them first.
Keep filenames meaningful — building name and date makes it easier to trace what you imported later.
Plan your door IDs — decide whether you'll keep existing IDs or reissue a clean scheme before importing at scale.
Expect a review pass — the import creates a draft, not a finished record. On-site QA still applies.
Review before saving
The goal is a clean,
consistent door register
Three things to check on every draft inspection before creating it as a live record. Getting these right is what keeps the workflow joined up later - remedials, outputs, and repeat visits all depend on it.
Check 1
Door identity and location
The most important check. Location strings, floor labels, and ID references must be consistent — because these are what repeat visits use to open the same door record.
Confirm location strings match your agreed hierarchy — Site → Block → Floor → Area
Standardise floor labels — "Floor 02" not "2nd floor" or "Second Floor"
Confirm any tag or ID references match your agreed door ID scheme
Check for duplicate records — same physical door appearing twice with slightly different names
Check 2
Pass/fail and severity
Verify outcomes for each opening so remedials can be prioritised and tracked accurately. Severity in particular drives triage — it needs to be in a field, not buried in a note.
Confirm pass/fail outcomes are correct for each door and component
Move "urgent" or severity language out of notes and into the severity field
Check that severity levels are consistent — not mixed between High/Medium/Low and numbers
Confirm any low-confidence results flagged by the import are reviewed first
Severity drives remedial filtering and prioritisation
Check 3
Findings and notes
Unclear or inconsistent notes make outputs look unprofessional and make it hard to compare findings across buildings and visits. A quick edit pass now prevents long-term reporting drift.
Edit unclear notes so they read consistently in client-facing outputs
Standardise fail reasons — pick consistent wording so outputs compare across buildings and time
Resolve any duplicated findings from the same physical door appearing more than once
Consistent notes keep outputs comparable across time
Common fixes during review
Four things teams typically correct before saving
Make floor labels and area names consistent across all doors in the draft — "Floor 02" not "2nd floor", "Stair A" not "stairwell A" or "stairs". Use your agreed glossary as the reference. This is the most common source of reporting drift.
Floor 02 not 2nd floor
Use glossary
Affects filters & exports
Move "urgent", "immediate", or priority language out of notes and into the severity field. Severity drives remedial filtering — if it's buried in a note, it won't surface in triage views or exports. Use a consistent set: High / Medium / Low.
Move from notes
High / Medium / Low
Drives triage
Pick a consistent wording set for common fail reasons and apply it across all doors in the draft. "Closer inoperative" not "broken closer", "closer not working", and "Closer-faulty" — three different strings for the same finding make cross-building reports impossible to compare.
Consistent wording
Cross-building comparison
Set it once
If the same physical door appears twice in the draft — often from inconsistent location naming across pages — merge the intent before saving. Duplicates that become live records create two separate histories for one door and break remedial tracking. Much cheaper to fix in the draft than after saving.
Fix before saving
Merge intent
Breaks remedial tracking
Assisted import
Use this path when the PDF is scanned, unusual,
or too time-consuming to correct manually
The support path is for teams migrating large estates where getting to a consistent door register fast matters more than perfect extraction on day one. You still approve the draft - nothing goes live without your sign-off.
Support import flow
Step 01 — Done
Upload and send
Upload your PDF and choose "Send to support" from the import flow. Include the context support needs to scope and price the work accurately.
PDF uploaded
Context provided
02
Step 02 — Active
Scope and quote
Support reviews the PDF and confirms what can be extracted and the expected time and quality before proceeding. You decide whether to go ahead before any work starts.
Support reviews
Quality confirmed
You approve scope
03
Step 03 — Next
Review and approve
You receive the draft inspection and review it — door identities, outcomes, severity, notes — exactly as you would for a standard import. Nothing becomes live data until you approve it.
Your review
Your approval
Then live
What to include when you send to support
Four things that help scope the import accurately
Which building or site
And whether this is a first import or an update to an existing record.
What you need out of it
Door list only, full findings, or a specific reporting outcome — be explicit so support doesn't over or under-extract.
Your existing ID scheme
Whether you want to keep existing door IDs from the PDF or reissue a clean scheme on import.
How many PDFs and their format
Count and typical size — scanned vs exported — so support can estimate time and quality before the quote.
This path is designed for teams migrating large estates where getting to a consistent door register fast matters more than perfect extraction on day one. You review the draft and approve it before anything becomes live data.
Scenario
External inspector, consolidated management.
Managing agents and FM teams who keep Fire Door App as the master record do not need their contractors to switch tools. The PDF import path lets the inspection happen anywhere and still land in one consolidated record.
2. PDF lands with the managing agent
The inspector emails the PDF over (or uploads it to a shared folder). The managing agent or FM lead drops it into Import PDF in their workspace — same flow as a migration import, no template setup needed for common layouts.
3. Review and commit to the master record
Property, doors, components, pass/fail and notes prefilled with confidence scores. Nothing is saved until the managing agent reviews and commits — at which point it joins every other inspection under the same building, the same portfolio view, the same audit trail.
4. One source of truth across contractors
Reports from multiple contractors and inspectors consolidate into one history per door. Remedials, exports, client portal sharing and CSV/PDF reporting all run from the consolidated record — not from a folder of PDFs.
Common questions
Quick answers on QA, PDF quality,
IDs, and the support path
Four questions that come up when teams start migrating from PDF-based inspections. Deeper edge cases are in the related guides.
No — and they're not designed to. Imports create a draft so your team can migrate faster, but someone still reviews identity, outcomes, severity, and notes before anything is saved. The review is the QA pass.
Imports are best-effort extraction from a document. On-site inspection captures first-hand evidence — photos, measurements, assessments — that a PDF can only partially represent. The two complement each other; one doesn't replace the other.
Draft requires review
Import ≠ inspection
Faster migration only
Text-based exports from a reporting system import most cleanly — consistent headings, structured tables, predictable component ordering. These give Fire Door App the most to work with during extraction.
Scanned or image-only PDFs don't contain extractable text, so the automatic path won't work. Use "Send to support" for these — support can review the document and quote for an assisted import. One PDF per building works better than large portfolio packs.
Text-based exports — best
Consistent structure — best
Scanned — use support path
Send to support path
Door IDs & support
You can keep existing IDs if they're unique and stable. Carrying them over avoids a remapping exercise and keeps continuity with any prior records your client holds. Confirm them during the review pass — the draft will surface any it couldn't confidently match.
If existing IDs drift, clash, or are tied to locations that might change, it's better to reissue a clean scheme and document the mapping from old to new before importing at scale. Decide the rule early and apply it consistently across the estate.
Keep if unique + stable
Reissue if drift or clash
Decide before scaling
Door ID checklist
For scanned, image-only, or unusually structured PDFs where automatic extraction won't work or would produce too many errors to correct manually. You upload the PDF and choose "Send to support" from the import flow.
Support reviews the document, confirms what can be extracted and at what quality, and provides a quote before any work starts. You approve the scope, then receive a draft inspection to review — the same review pass as a standard import. Nothing becomes live data without your approval.
Scanned PDFs
Unusual formats
You approve scope first
You approve draft before live
How the support path works
Quick facts
PDF import at a glance
Import creates
A draft — nothing saved until you review and confirm
Best PDF type
Text-based export with consistent structure
Scanned PDFs
Use "Send to support" — can't auto-extract image-only
Existing door IDs
Keep if unique + stable; reissue if they drift or clash
Imports replace
Retyping — not on-site QA or first-hand evidence
Support path approval
You approve scope before work starts + draft before go-live
Get started
Migrate one real building first
Import a PDF, review a draft inspection, then follow the workflow into remedials and client outputs.
7-day trial
No card required
Cancel anytime
Get started
Migrate one real building first.
Then scale once the workflow holds.
Import a PDF, review a draft inspection, then follow the workflow into remedials and client outputs.
7‑day trial
No card required
Cancel anytime