NSPEC Workflow Customization

Customers often ask “how can we customize nSpec for our team’s workflow?” The honest answer is that nSpec’s core inspection workflow — the tabs, the required fields, the report templates — is fixed per report type and not user-customizable. But there are several places where you can tailor nSpec to your team’s needs. This article walks through every customization point that’s currently available.

What You Can Customize

Customization	Where	What it changes
Roles and permissions	Admin → Roles	Who can see and do what across the entire app
Standards tooltips	Admin → Tooltips	The inline help text shown next to fields throughout the app
Project building / floor options	Edit Project modal	What buildings and floors inspectors can pick when adding observations and photos
Project defaults (Procore)	Edit Project modal	Default Procore Type, Trade, Assignee, Location, etc. for action items
Distribution lists	Edit Project modal	Who receives automated emails per project
Report content (Type 4)	Inspection → Report Content tab	Custom narrative paragraphs and figures
Report content types	Add Report Content modal → “Create new type”	Define your own paragraph categories

What You Cannot Customize

These are intentionally fixed and not user-configurable:

• Inspection tabs — Each report type has a fixed set of tabs (General, Observations, Photos, etc.). You can’t add or remove tabs.
• Required fields — Each modal has its own required fields baked into the validation. You can’t make a required field optional or vice versa.
• Report templates — The PDF layout for each report type is rendered server-side from a fixed template. You can’t change colors, fonts, or section ordering.
• Observation/action item fields — These are standardized so reports stay consistent across customers
• Tenant type — Switching between standard NSPEC and Procore (NSPEC-X) is not self-service

If you need a customization that isn’t in the list above, contact support@nxtconstruction.ai. Some changes can be made server-side by the support team.

Customizing Roles

The most powerful customization is creating custom roles. Roles control what every user can see and do, so by tailoring roles to your team’s responsibilities you can make sure each person sees only what they need.

1. Open the sidebar and click Admin
2. Open the Roles tab
3. Click Add Role (or edit an existing one)
4. Pick the permissions that match the role’s responsibilities
5. Save and assign the role to employees from the Employees screen

See Roles and Permissions for the full role workflow.

Customizing Tooltips

Tooltips are the small help icons next to fields throughout the app. nSpec has default tooltip text for every field, but you can override it to match your team’s terminology or include company-specific guidance.

1. Open Admin → Tooltips (requires the Edit Standards Tooltips permission)
2. Find the field you want to customize
3. Edit the tooltip text
4. Save

Custom tooltips appear immediately for everyone in your tenant.

Per-Project Customization

A lot of customization happens at the project level — each project can have its own set of buildings, floors, distribution recipients, and Procore defaults.

Building and floor options

Configure the Building Options and Floor Options on each project so that the dropdowns inspectors see when adding observations and photos reflect the actual structure of the site instead of generic placeholders.

1. Open the project edit form
2. Find the Building Options and Floor Options sections
3. Add the buildings and floors that exist on this site
4. Save

Procore defaults

For Procore-linked projects, set default Type, Trade, Assignee, Due Days, Location, and Specification so action items pre-populate consistently. See Setting Up Procore Default Fields.

Distribution lists

Each project has its own distribution list for automated emails. See Distribution Lists.

Customizing Report Content

For Dynamic Report inspections (report type 4) and reports with the Report Content tab, you can build entirely custom narrative content with paragraphs, sub-paragraphs, and figures. You can also create your own content type names.

See Instructions and Dynamic Report Content for the full Report Content workflow.

Requesting a Custom Change

If something you need is not in the customization list above, here’s how to request a change:

1. Email support@nxtconstruction.ai with a clear description of what you want to change and why
2. Include your tenant name and the specific report type or screen affected
3. Some changes (custom report templates, new report types, new field options) can be implemented server-side by the engineering team
4. Other requests may turn into product improvement suggestions for a future release

Best Practices

• Configure roles before onboarding new team members — easier than reassigning permissions later
• Set up Building/Floor options when you create a project — easier than retrofitting after photos have been taken with generic values
• Use descriptive role names — “Senior Inspector” beats “Permission Group A”
• Keep custom tooltips concise — long tooltips are skipped over
• Standardize report content types — agree on common type names so reports look consistent across inspections

Related Articles

• Roles and Permissions
• Managing Projects in nSpec
• Instructions and Dynamic Report Content
• Distribution Lists
• Setting Up Procore Default Fields
• Understanding nSpec Report Types