Signing up
Getting More Credits
My Schedule
Booking an Inspection
Report Writing
Descriptions, Limitations
Report Writing
Recommendations
Adding Photos
Report Publishing
My Items 1
My Items 2
Manage Inspectors
Company Information
Formatting Reports
Setting up the Invoice
Managing Agents
Using Spell Check
Editing Bottom Line
Confirmation Emails
Ancillary Reports
Business at a Glance

HORIZON - Report Writing
Descriptions and Limitations

 

General Tips on HORIZON
HORIZON has been optimized for monitors set to 800 by 600 pixels or greater. HORIZON will fill about ¾ of your screen if your monitor is set to 1024 by 768 pixels. Use the Back buttons in HORIZON to navigate, rather than Back on your browser. If you get stuck, click on Need Help?, which is on many of the pages, for quick help.

Call 800-268-7070 or email us at support@discoverhorizon.com for help.
When you are done, logout each time for security reasons.

In this session we will cover:

1. Preparing a Work Order for Report Writing
2. Ancillary Reports
3. HORIZON Report Structure
4. Selecting Standard Descriptions and Limitations
5. Editing and Deleting Standard Descriptions and Limitations
6. Making a One-time Entry

1. Preparing a Work Order for Report Writing

1.1. Log in to www.discoverhorizon.com with your username and password to get to My Schedule.
1.2. We’ll start with writing basic reports and then customize the process.
1.3. Select a report that has been booked.
1.4. Click on View Work Order.

Figure 1

1.5. Now we have the work order on screen. (Figure 2)
1.6. Let’s click on Send to Web (For more on these options see the Booking Inspections tutorial).

Figure 2

1.7. This takes us to a revised work order screen (Figure 3).
1.8. Note that we can go To Report Writing or To Report Publishing.
1.9. We can also Cancel this Inspection, which will delete the inspection and restore your credit.
1.10. This can take you to My Schedule and you can Download the Work Order.

Figure 3

2. Ancillary Reports:
2.1. Ancillary Reports are templates we can use to build you any ancillary report you need – Wood destroying insects, pool and spa, well and septic, and so on! - Available on both the web and PDA, of course.

2.2. The To Ancillary button takes you to the ancillary reports section. If you have had Ancillary reports configured for your company you can access this data by clicking To Ancillary and enter data into your custom Ancillary Report sections just as you would in the main sections of HORIZON.

2.3. Please see Horizon Tutorial 19 – Ancillary Reports for more help on this feature.
To find our more please email technical support at support@discoverhorizon.com or call 800 268-7070.

3. HORIZON Report Structure
3.1. The Roofing Description screen appears (Figure 4).

Figure 4

3.2. Let’s look at how HORIZON is structured:
3.2.1. The building is divided into 9 systems:
3.2.1.1. Roofing
3.2.1.2. Exterior
3.2.1.3. Structure
3.2.1.4. Electrical
3.2.1.5. Heating
3.2.1.6. Cooling
3.2.1.7. Insulation
3.2.1.8. Plumbing
3.2.1.9. Interior

3.2.2. Each system is divided into 3 sections
3.2.2.1. Description
3.2.2.2. Limitations
3.2.2.3. Recommendations

3.3. Using the bar at the top of the screen (Figure 4), you can go to any section in any system in just two clicks! For example, to get to Plumbing Limitations, simply click on Plumbing then Limitations. This is what you see (Figure 5):

Figure 5

3.4. You can see in Figure 5 that each system is color-coded, so you can always see what system and what section you are in.
3.4.1. Roofing is black like tar.
3.4.2. Exterior is green like grass.
3.4.3. Structure is gray/green like concrete.
3.4.4. Electrical is yellow like sparks.
3.4.5. Heating is red like fire.
3.4.6. Cooling is blue/green like an iceberg.
3.4.7. Insulation is a warm orange.
3.4.8. Plumbing is blue like water.
3.4.9. Interior is purple because we like purple.

3.5. You can enter data in whatever order you choose.
3.6. Paper copies of the system layout help you become familiar quickly with the logical layout of HORIZON. These can also be used as inspection checklists.
3.7. Let’s move to the Structure Description section and make some entries:

4. Descriptions:
4.1. We’ll start in Structure Description, although you could start anywhere. (Many people start with Roofing and move across the screen from left to right.)
4.2. There are 5 categories where we can make entries on the Standard (left) side. (See Figure 6.)
4.3. My Items is the customized section, but let’s stay with the Standard side for now.

Figure 6

4.4. Let’s click on Configuration from Figure 6:

Figure 7

4.5. In Figure 7 is a list – Basement, crawl space, slab-on-grade, etc.
4.6. Use the arrows to scroll up and down the list.
4.7. Click on crawl space to highlight it, and then click Add.
4.8. It will appear in Selected Items. (See Figure 8.)

Figure 8

4.9. If part of the house has a crawl space and part has a basement, we can select basement, and click Add again. (See Figure 9.)

Figure 9

4.10. Now we have two items selected (Figure 9). If we are done, we can click Back.

Here’s a shortcut! When you make your last (or only) entry in a list, you can click Add and back instead of Add to add the item and take you back to the previous screen.

4.11. Let’s click Back to return to the first level (Figure 10).

Figure 10

4.12. In Figure 10 we are back to the main Structure / Description page.
4.13. We see a check mark beside Configuration – telling us we have made an entry here.
4.14. Now we can click on Foundation material (or any other item on the list).

Figure 11

4.15. Poured concrete is already highlighted. By clicking on Add and Back, you can make your entry and be out of this section in one click and back to the main Structure / Description screen. (Figure 11)
4.16. The lists have the most common items at the top. This saves clicks and scrolling.

Figure 12

4.17. In Figure 12 we now have check marks beside two sections.
4.18. Getting the idea? Let’s try one more example by clicking on Floor construction in Figure 12.

Figure 13

4.19. In Figure 13, Joists are highlighted and the house has joists, so we will click on Add.

Figure 14

4.20. But the joists are unusual because they are made of oak. We’d like to tell the client they have oak joists, but this was not an option on the list.
4.21. No problem – click on Edit beside Joists.
4.22. Clicking on edit brings us to the Notes screen (Figure 15) where we can type in whatever notes we want.

Figure 15

4.23. Below (Figure 16) we have typed in what we want to say. We can click on the red Spell Check button to make sure we got it right.

Figure 16

4.24. Once we have added our notes, we click Save and Back. (Figure 16)
4.25. The Add Image button allows you to insert a photo of the oak joists. But we’ll get to that later.
4.26. Once we are finished with the Structure Description section, we can move on to the Structure Limitations section by clicking on Limitations on the bar at the top.
4.27. We can also go to any other system and section in two clicks!

5. Limitations:
5.1. Limitations work exactly the same way as Description.
5.2. Click on the Limitations tab to open this page (Figure 17).

Figure 17

5.3. The Limitations screen looks similar to the Description screen.
5.4. If there were no limitations to the inspection, just skip this section. But if there was no access to the crawl space. We would click on crawl space (Figure 18.) and highlight No access.

Figure 18

5.5. Clicking Add will capture that limitation.
5.6. Clicking Add and Back will capture that limitation and take you back one screen.
5.7. Clicking Back will take you back one screen but will not save the selected item.
5.8. What if I add something and then decide I don’t want it?
5.9. Go to the item, and click edit. (Figure 19)

Figure 19

5.10. Then click the Delete button on the edit screen to remove this item from your list. (Figure 20)

Figure 20

6. Making a One-time Entry
6.1. Sometimes there will be no standard item that fits.
6.2. For example, let’s say the floor is glass block.
6.3. This is where My Item comes in.
6.4. Figure 21 shows us Structure / Description / Floor construction.
6.5. There is no glass block in the list.
6.6. Look at My Items on the right side of the screen.
6.7. Blank item is highlighted.

Figure 21

6.8. Click Add and this takes us to Figure 22, which lets us add text to create a new item just for this report.

Figure 22

6.9. We have typed in Glass Block.
6.10. Click Spell check to make sure we have it right.
6.11. Click Save and Back, and you are done.
6.12. Now you can add standard items and anything else that comes up!


Congratulations! You now have the basics for entering data to write a report!

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