Turn field photos and voice notes into an actionable report

Why the office cannot act on what the field sends

Here is a voice note that gets sent a hundred times a day in one form or another: "Hey, it's me, I'm at the site, that thing by the back door is worse than we thought, probably the flashing, I'd say we need the roofer back out, anyway I took some pics, call me." Followed by six photos with no captions.

The person who sent it did nothing wrong. They noticed a problem and reported it. But the person who receives it cannot act. Which site? Which back door? What does "worse" mean? Is "probably the flashing" something they saw or something they guessed? Has anyone told the roofer, or is that a suggestion? The office now has to call back, and if the field person is up a ladder, the item waits.

Public templates in construction expect a location, a description, a responsible party and a completion record for every item [S09]. That is the standard the office needs. This guide is about getting the field's raw material, photos and voice notes, into that shape without slowing the field down.

The five steps, in order

1. 01Identify the locationSay the site, the unit or area, and the position inside it before you describe anything. "Site: 14 Maple, Unit 3, main bathroom, wall behind toilet." If you cannot name the position precisely, say what you are next to. Photograph a wide shot that shows where the close-up sits.
2. 02Capture observable factsDescribe what is in front of you as if you were reading it to someone blind. Size, colour, wet or dry, how many, where it starts and stops. Do not say what caused it yet. Take the close-up, then a photo with something for scale, then the wide shot.
3. 03Add context, marked as contextNow say what you think. "I think this is coming from the flashing above" is useful, as long as it is labelled as your read, not as a fact. Add what has changed since last visit if you know.
4. 04Assign the next decision or actionSay what you need: a decision from someone, or a trade booked, or nothing yet. Name who you think should own it. If you have already been told what to do by someone with authority, say who told you and when.
5. 05Verify the reportBefore sending, read it as if you were the office. Can a stranger find the spot from the location line? Is every sentence marked as seen, thought or instructed? Is there one next action? If any answer is no, fix it now, while you are still standing there.

Observation, inference, instruction

This is the distinction that makes a report trustworthy. Every sentence in a field report is one of three things. Mixing them is how a guess becomes a work order.

A voice note and its corrected report

Yeah so I'm at the Maple job, the bathroom, the one upstairs I think, there's that stain again on the ceiling and it's bigger, it's wet now, I put my hand on it. Pretty sure it's the flashing on that window above because it rained last night. We should get the roofer back. Also the tenant says the fan doesn't work but I didn't check that. Pics attached.

Item: FR-018
Location: 14 Maple, Unit 3 (upstairs unit), main bathroom, ceiling above toilet. Wide shot photo 1, close-up photo 2.
Observed condition: Ceiling stain approx. 30 cm across, brown edge, damp to touch at 09:15. Larger than on 28 Aug visit (was approx. 15 cm per photo on file).
Date: 2026-09-04, 09:15.
Evidence: Photos 1-3. Photo 3 includes tape measure for scale.
Inference: I think the source is the window flashing on the roof above; rain overnight. I have not inspected the roof.
Proposed next action: Roofer to inspect flashing above Unit 3 bathroom window. Decision needed on whether to open ceiling now or after roof inspection.
Owner: Proposed site super (J.), to confirm.
Uncertainty: Source not confirmed. Tenant reports bathroom fan not working; not checked by me, separate item to log.
Reviewer: Office to confirm owner and book roofer.

When the input is bad

Capture checklist

[ ] Site, unit/area and position named before anything else
[ ] Wide shot that shows where the close-up is
[ ] Close-up, plus one photo with scale if size matters
[ ] Condition described as seen: size, state, count, wet/dry
[ ] Compared to last visit if there was one
[ ] Every guess starts with "I think"
[ ] Any instruction names who gave it and when
[ ] One proposed next action and a proposed owner
[ ] Anything unclear is marked unclear, not guessed
[ ] Separate problems logged as separate items

The report template

A prompt for structuring your own notes

If you use an AI assistant to tidy up notes, the risk is not that it writes badly. It is that it writes confidently about things you never said. The prompt below is written to stop that. Use it with non-confidential notes only, and read the output the same way you would read a report from a new hire: check it before it goes anywhere. This is an original end-user prompt for general assistants; it is not part of any Dryvn product.

You are helping me turn raw field notes into a structured report. Follow these rules exactly.

1. Use only what is in my notes and photos captions. Do not add locations, quantities, causes, names, dates or instructions that I did not state.
2. Sort every statement into one of three kinds and label it: OBSERVATION (something I said I saw or measured), INFERENCE (something I said I think or suspect), or CONFIRMED INSTRUCTION (something I said a named person told me to do). If a statement could be more than one kind, put it under INFERENCE and flag it.
3. If a location, quantity or instruction is unclear, missing or partly unintelligible, write "UNCLEAR" in that field and list it under "Questions for the sender". Never fill a gap with a plausible value.
4. Produce the report in this exact order: Item/reference, Location, Observed condition, Date and time, Evidence, Inference, Proposed next action, Proposed owner, Uncertainty, Questions for the sender.
5. Keep "Proposed next action" as a proposal. Do not word it as a decision or an approval.
6. If my notes mention more than one problem, produce one report per problem.
7. Ask me only for material facts that are missing. Do not ask about style or formatting.

Here are my notes:
[paste your notes and photo captions here]

Questions people ask

How do I turn site photos and voice notes into a useful report?

Name the location first, describe what you saw as facts, mark your guesses as guesses, propose one next action with an owner, then read the whole thing as if you were the office. Use the template on this page so the same nine fields come in every time.

What information should a field report include so someone can act on it?

A findable location, the observed condition with size or count, the date, evidence references, a next action, a proposed owner, and an explicit note of what is uncertain. The uncertainty field is what stops the office from acting on a guess.

Do I need a special app for this?

No. The template works on paper, in a text message or in whatever tool your business already uses. The value is in the fields and the discipline, not the software.

Can I let an AI assistant write the report from my voice note?

You can let it structure the note, using a prompt like the one above, if the notes are not confidential. You still verify the result before it goes anywhere, and you never let it fill in a location or an instruction you did not give.