Inspection Butler Overview

Inspection Butler is a database interface tool specifically designed for building permits, inspections, and related reports and certificates.  It easily allows one to enter information regarding building permits and subsequent inspections.  Then, reports and certificates can be created and printed for those permits and inspections.

With Inspection Butler, record-keeping and organization is a snap!  Every bit of information is right in one tool, on your computer, and easy to access.  Gone are the days when looking up a building permit meant digging through paper files.  Inspection Butler does it for you.  And, everything is cross-referenced for quick searches.

Inspection Butler is structured into three primary sections:  General Tools, Data Entry, and Run Report Tools.

Inspection Butler's General Tools allow the user to manipulate general properties such as town or parish name and street address via the Properties panel.  The tools also allow access to blank reports such as Certificate of Occupancy and Assessor's Reports.  Finally, the general tools allow the user to access the Inspection Butler help pages and website and to send email directly to the Inspection Butler development team.

Inspection Butler's Data Entry panels give the user the ability to enter data for storage and later retrieval.  For example, the user enters parcel information (i.e. parcel number and street address) via the Locations panel.  Then, the user records permit information via the Permits panel.  This information includes permit-specific data such as permit number, issuee contact information, and permit type.  Once permits have been issued and recorded in Inspection Butler logs for subsequent inspections can be recorded in the Inspections panel.  This panel is broken into several inspection types, including footers, frames, structures, and septic.  This panel also includes a section on plans review where the Inspection Butler user can attach building plan drawings and other images and can associate notes with each.  The last panel in the data entry section allows the user to record Complaints.  The information recorded with each complaint includes contact information for both the complaintant as well as the subject of the complaint.  It also allows for a description of the complaint and a follow-up investigation.  Reviewing the list of the fields used by Inspection Butler, gives an idea of the amount of data that can be tracked and organized.

The third section of Inspection Butler, Run Reports, allows the user to access data that has been previously entered.  First and foremost, Certificate of Occupancy and Assessor's Reports can be generated using information previously entered for specific permits.  These are pre-formatted reports that need nothing more than to be printed and signed.  Another report available to the user is a Summary by Dates of all the permits issued within a user-specified date range.  Likewise, Inspection Reports for specific permits can be created for review or hardcopy output.  A report that lists the building plans and their associated notes can also be created quickly using the Run Reports section of Inspection Butler.