How to use this guide
Read the next section first. Write down the jobs you need done. Then go through the nine areas and ask the vendor the questions that matter for your crews. Skip the ones that don't.
Every area ends with red flags. A red flag isn't a reason to walk away on its own. It's a reason to ask a follow-up and get the answer in writing.
Ask for a live demo on a phone, not a slide deck. Ask to see the answer, not hear it.
Start with the job, not the feature list
Feature lists look the same from every vendor. Your crews don't. Before you talk to anyone, write down the five or six things that have to work on a bad day.
- Name the crews. A pipe crew in a trench, a ramp team on a night shift and a plant floor each need different things.
- Name the worst conditions. No signal, gloves, rain, a shared phone, a foreman who isn't comfortable with apps.
- Name the records you get asked for. Inspection history, training proof, incident files, sign-in sheets.
- Name who gets asked. The auditor, the customer, the insurer, your own safety lead.
- Name what you use today and what breaks. Paper, spreadsheets, a group chat, a system nobody opens.
- Name who will own it after launch. If nobody does, the best tool still goes stale.
1. Working with no signal
Many sites have weak or no coverage. A tool that needs a connection to open a form will fail where you need it most. Offline has to mean the real work, not a cached login screen.
- Red flag: Offline is described as 'view only' or 'coming soon'.
- Red flag: The vendor demos on office wifi and won't switch the phone to airplane mode.
- Red flag: Nobody can explain what happens when two edits collide.
Ask the vendor
- Which tasks work with no signal at all? Training, inspections, forms, incident reports, sign-offs. Ask for each one.
- What does a worker see when they open the app for the first time with no signal?
- How does the phone decide what to download ahead of time, and who controls it?
- What happens when two people edit the same record offline and both sync later?
- How long can a phone stay offline before something stops working or data is at risk?
- Do photos and video taken offline upload on their own when signal comes back, and can a worker see what's still waiting?
2. Getting every crew in
A tool only works if everyone on the crew can sign in. That includes people with no company email, people who share a phone, and people who just started this morning.
- Red flag: Every user needs a work email address or a personal Google or Apple account.
- Red flag: A shared login for the whole crew, which means no record shows who did what.
- Red flag: Removing a person means deleting their records.
Ask the vendor
- How does someone with no company email sign in? What do they need, and who sets it up?
- Can several workers share one phone and still leave records under their own names?
- Do you support single sign-on with the identity system we use, and does it cover the mobile app and the web app?
- Can our people directory create, update and remove accounts on its own?
- When someone leaves, how fast is their access gone, including the phone, and what happens to the records they made?
- How does a lost or stolen phone get handled?
3. Inspections and evidence
An inspection is only as good as what it can show later. You want to know who looked at what, where, when, and what they found.
- Red flag: Edits overwrite the original answer.
- Red flag: Photos are optional on the whole form but can't be tied to a step.
- Red flag: A failed step is just a red mark. Nothing happens next.
Ask the vendor
- Can a worker attach a photo or a short video to a single step, not just to the whole inspection?
- What happens when a step fails? Does it open a repair or task, and who gets told?
- If someone fixes a wrong answer afterward, is the original kept and the change shown?
- How are the time, the person and the location recorded, and can a worker change them?
- Can we build and edit our own inspections without the vendor, including the ones for our equipment?
- Can a lead see the whole history of one truck, lift or machine in one place?
4. Training and skill checks
Crews learn on the job, on a phone, in short stretches. A course that assumes a desk and a full hour won't get finished. Also, watching a video isn't the same as being able to do the task.
- Red flag: Completion means the video finished playing.
- Red flag: Training lives in a separate system with a separate login.
- Red flag: Expiry dates are a column in a report, with no warning to anyone.
Ask the vendor
- Can a worker finish a course on a phone with no signal?
- Can a lead sign off that someone did the task in person, not just passed a quiz?
- Can we set learning paths by role, so a new hire sees what they need and nothing else?
- How are certifications and expiry dates tracked, and who is warned before one lapses?
- Which languages does the app support, and can we load our own courses in the languages our crews speak?
- Can we bring in the courses and training records we already have?
5. Forms and logs
Every company has its own forms. If you can't change them without a support ticket, you'll end up back on paper for anything the vendor didn't think of.
- Red flag: New forms are built by the vendor for a fee, every time.
- Red flag: Changing a form changes old records.
- Red flag: A signature is just a typed name.
Ask the vendor
- Can our own people build and change a form, and how long does a change take to reach the phones?
- Do forms support repeating sections, such as one block per worker or per piece of equipment?
- How are signatures captured, and what's stored with them?
- Can a form be filled in and signed offline?
- How does a shift handover work, and can the next shift see open items from the last one?
- When a form changes, what happens to the records made with the old version?
6. Reporting and records
Reports are how the office sees the field. They only help if you can trust the numbers and trace each one to a real record.
- Red flag: Dashboards show totals that can't be traced to a record.
- Red flag: Export is a request to the vendor, with a wait and a fee.
- Red flag: Deleted means gone, with no hold and no log.
Ask the vendor
- Can I slice results by site, crew, job type and time without asking for a custom report?
- Can I click a number and get to the actual record behind it?
- Can I export all of my data, in a usable format, at any time and not just at the end?
- How long are records kept by default, and can we set retention by record type?
- Can we place a legal hold so nothing is deleted while a claim is open?
- Is there an audit log of who viewed, changed or exported what, and can we see it ourselves?
7. Security and data
You'll be putting employee records, incident files and site photos into this system. Ask plain questions and expect plain answers.
- Red flag: A certification is claimed with no report, no date and no scope.
- Red flag: 'Compliant' used as if it were a certification.
- Red flag: No clear answer on whether your data trains a model.
Ask the vendor
- How is one customer's data kept apart from another's? Ask them to describe it, not just say it's secure.
- Is data encrypted in transit and at rest, and on the phone too?
- Which security certifications or independent audits do you hold today? Ask for the report itself, its date and what it covers.
- Where is our data hosted, and can we choose the region?
- Does any AI feature send our documents or records to an outside model? Are they used to train anything? Can we turn it off?
- Who are your subprocessors, and how do you tell us when the list changes?
8. Integrations and AI access
This system has to work with the others you run. It also has to let you use your own tools on your own data, with your permissions kept intact.
- Red flag: 'We integrate with everything' and no documentation.
- Red flag: An AI connection that uses one all-access key.
- Red flag: The vendor owns the sync, and you can't see its errors.
Ask the vendor
- Is there a documented API and webhooks, and can I read the docs before I buy?
- Can our HR or payroll system sync people in, and which system owns each field, such as name, role, site and status?
- What happens when the HR system and this system disagree?
- Can we connect our own AI tools to our data? If so, does it respect each person's permissions, so the tool sees only what that person could see?
- Is API use limited or priced separately?
- Who gets told when an integration breaks?
9. Rollout and cost
Most of the pain shows up after the contract. Ask what the first ninety days look like, who does the work, and what the invoice could turn into.
- Red flag: A quote with a list price and many 'contact us' lines.
- Red flag: Setup is described as 'quick' with no list of what you need to bring.
- Red flag: No references from a company that runs crews like yours.
Ask the vendor
- What do we have to provide before launch? Lists of people, forms, courses, equipment, site names.
- Who does setup, you or us, and what does your team do versus ours?
- What does the time to launch depend on? Ask for the factors, not a promise.
- How does pricing work, and what changes it? Users, sites, storage, video, AI use, support, extra forms.
- What happens at renewal, and how much notice do we get of a price change?
- At the end, how do we get all of our data out, in what format, and how long do you keep it after?
Score your shortlist
Don't pick on gut feel after the best demo. Score each vendor the same way.
- 1
List your must-haves
From the job list you wrote, pick the handful that would stop you from using a tool at all. Offline work and sign-in for crews with no email are common ones. These are pass or fail.
- 2
Send the questions
Send the questions for the areas you care about to each vendor in writing. Ask for written answers. Vague replies tell you something.
- 3
Score each area from 0 to 2
Zero means it can't do it or the answer was unclear. One means it can, with a catch or extra cost. Two means it does it plainly and showed you. Score every vendor on the same sheet.
- 4
Run one real task on a phone with no signal
Put a phone in airplane mode. Have a foreman, not an office person, do one real task start to finish: open an inspection, take a photo, fail a step, sign. Then turn signal back on and check the record. Do it with every finalist.
Questions for a reference call
Ask for a reference from a company with crews like yours. Ask for one who has been live for a while, not just one who signed.
- What did you have to bring to the setup, and how long did it take you?
- What do your crews do on a site with no signal?
- How many of your people actually use it each week, and who doesn't?
- What did you have to change after launch that you didn't expect?
- Has the price changed since you signed, and what caused it?
- When something broke, how did support handle it?
- Would you pick it again? What would you ask for in the contract this time?