Frequently Asked Questions

You ask, we answer! Yup, here are all the questions we’ve been asked by customers and prospective customers – most often when trying to make a decision about audit/inspection management software. And, here are the answers – because we believe the best decision is an informed one!

Audit / Inspection Data Collection

Yes, we have a full video library of Certainty tutorials that can be found within your Certainty instance.

Tutorial topics in the playlist include:

  • App Login
  • App Overview
  • Checklist Submission
  • Working With Actions
  • Reporting & Admin Overview
  • Site & Site Groups
  • Users & User Groups
  • Managing Checklists Overview
  • Working With Actions
  • Getting Started With Checklist Builder
  • Checklist & Action Workflow
  • Notifications
  • Reporting Overview
  • Dashboard Overview
  • System Reports
  • Business Intelligence Graphs
  • Scheduling.

Yes, with Certainty’s Checklist Builder and translation tools you can create a ‘master’ checklist in one language and then create any number of translated versions of that same checklist which means your auditors can operate in the language of their choice and you can be sure that everyone is auditing against the same criteria – regardless of the language used.

Yes, if your System Administrator has enabled ‘the create actions on the fly’ for an audit checklist, then as an auditor you can create and delegate actions instantly, on the fly and as you conduct your audit.

Yes, Certainty’s Checklist Builder allows you to add signature fields to your audit checklists. In fact, the checklist builder allows you to add a wide range of answer types to a checklist including: text, radio buttons, drop downs, dates, signatures, check boxes and more.

Yes, the Certainty app allows for on and offline audit data capture. If you lose connectivity mid audit or have to do your entire offline, no problem, your audit data is automatically sync’d with your instance of Certainty as soon as you have connectivity again.

Yes, the Checklist Builder allows you to create a single checklist that can be published for use at any and all sites in your company.

Yes, Certainty allows for the creation of corporate-wide master checklist that can be ‘published’ for use at a single site, groups of sites or company-wide.

Yes, the checklist builder allows you to duplicate (and then amend, change, modify) checklists.

Yes, the Checklist Builder allows you to create a single corporate-wide master checklist that can be duplicated and added to for sites that need to add site-specific questions to their audit checklist.

Yes, you can create a single ‘corporate’ audit checklist that contains your mandatory ‘corporate-wide’ questions and if a location needs to add site-specific questions to that audit they can ‘duplicate’ the corporate audit and add their own questions to it ensuring that all sites are meeting the minimum/core corporate audit requirements while also answering (and reporting separately) any site-specific audit questions they may have added.

Yes, Certainty allows for the creation of a single corporate-wide master checklist for the reporting of corporate-wide metrics and the ‘duplicate checklist’ feature means that a ‘master’ checklist can then be duplicated and added to if sites have additional audit data collection and reporting requirements.

Yes, with Certainty’s scan-to-email and optical character recognition (OCR) technologies, users can submit completed paper-based audits using any standard office scanner by simply sending their scanned checklist directly to a project-specific email address (that we provide to you) and your paper-based audit data will automatically be digitized and entered directly into your instance of Certainty.

Yes, the Certainty app allows you to have the scan of a bar code as the answer to a question which means you can easily identify and document what asset or piece of equipment you are inspecting.

Yes with Certainty, you can add photos and images to audit findings to improve clarity, include supporting information or further document their findings and all of the images added to an audit are included the audit report (PDF).

Yes, Certainty’s notification tools allow you to configure automatic email notifications (to users or User Groups of your choice) based on the results of audits submitted (e.g. Notify Senior Safety Director when any auditor answers ‘major non-conformance’ to any question in the audit). These email notifications can also include a PDF version of the audit report and/or links directly to the issues identified.

Yes, Certainty allows for audit data entry using any browser-enabled device (e.g. PC, laptop) as well as the Certainty app for any iOS or Android smartphone, tablets or devices.

Yes, Certainty allows for audit data entry using any browser-enabled device (e.g. PC, laptop) as well as the Certainty app for any iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.

Yes, Certainty’s Checklist Builder provides all you need to design a checklist that can be used for combined audits (e.g. Safety, Health, Environmental & Quality SHEQ audits) and questions. A Certainty subscription also allows for an unlimited number of checklists which means you can also have separate checklists for each discipline when needed.

Yes, the Checklist Builder allows you to embed images in your audit questions. This is a great feature if you need to show auditors exactly what compliant, safe or best practice should look like!

Yes, Certainty’s Dashboard, Matrix Reports and Power BI reporting tools allow you to report audit results by section (page), question set, question and answer. It’s up to you.

Whether its the risk of explosion, the risk of contamination or security issues preventing you from using your smartphone/device, with Certainty, you can still collect and digitize your audit data using paper-based audit checklists and our scan-to-email and optical character recognition (OCR) technologies.

Whether its the risk of explosion, the risk of contamination or security issues preventing you from using your smartphone/device, with Certainty, you can still collect and digitize your audit data using paper-based audit checklists and our scan-to-email and optical character recognition (OCR) technologies.

The Checklist Builder allows you to create a single, corporate or ‘master’ checklist that can be published for use at any and all sites in your company. The Checklist Builder allows you to create a single corporate-wide master checklist that can be duplicated and added to for sites that need site-specific questions on their audits. All of this means you can offer site-specific flexibility and corporate consistency all in the same audit.

With digital checklists (submitted using PC, laptop or the Certainty app) the results of audits and inspections are available online as soon as your auditors ‘save’ their audit (and sync if offline using the app). When submitting paper-based checklists, there can sometimes be a short delay in the digitization process (usually no more than an hour or two) and for data to be available on line. Also, as soon as your completed audit have been saved, you can report on the results and the data is included in your Dashboard graphs and metrics.

Yes, Certainty allows for audit data entry using any browser-enabled device (e.g. PC, laptop) as well as the Certainty app for any iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.

Yes, the Certainty app can be used on any iOS (Apple) or Android smartphone, tablet or device.

With Certainty there are 3 different ways to get audit data into the system (paper, browser and app). This means there should be a solution to meet the needs of all your team. The buy in part comes from the fact that each of these ways saves time and makes the audit process easier – for auditors – which should increase buy in, participation and results.

An example of this (and as shown in our Rocky Brands case study), auditors saved 25% of their time using the Certainty app compared to their previous ‘by hand’ approach. That’s 2 hours a day to do things more productive than re-keying observation/audit data! Hopefully that will be incentive enough!

Lastly, if the carrot doesn’t work, maybe the stick will? with Certainty’s Dashboard and System Reports managers can instantly and easily see metrics and KPI’s showing exactly who has and who hasn’t completed the audits expected.

No problem. With Certainty, audit and inspection data can be collected in any of 3 separate ways: a browser-enabled device (PC, laptop); the Certainty app and by using pen and paper and our scan-to-email feature that automatically digitizes scanned checklists. Which ever way is used, all your inspection data is stored centrally, online in your instance of Certainty.

Yes, the Certainty app allows you to have the scan of a bar code as the answer to a question which means you can easily identify and document what asset or piece of equipment you are inspecting.

The Certainty app allows for on and offline audit data capture and also allows you to take a photo – on the spot – and add it to an audit answer. If you are using the browser-based option for PC or laptop, your device must have an active internet connection and you must browse to a previously saved image to add it to an audit answer.

Yes, when you submit a completed paper-based audit using Certainty’s scan-to-email technology, the system automatically digitizes the paper-based audit results and the digitized audit record in Certainty includes a PDF of the original scan submitted and can also include a ‘snapshot’ image of any key comments fields with hand written findings.

Spend Time On Prevention
Not Paperwork

Watch our overview video to see how your organization can benefit from Certainty.

Reduce Risk, Ensure
Compliance, and Improve
Performance