Observation reports, by text

Where observations leak today

Across the projects we’ve sat on, the field-observation pipeline has four leak points:

1. The text never makes it to Procore. Foreman texts the super; super texts the PM; PM is in a meeting; the text scrolls off the screen.
2. The photo never gets attached. The foreman has the photo on their phone; the PM types up the observation from memory; the photo lives in someone’s camera roll, untagged.
3. The location detail goes missing. “The tile” — which tile? Which floor? Which room? Foreman knew, PM didn’t ask, no one types it in.
4. Disputed work has no contemporaneous record.Three months later, a punch item shows up, the sub argues it wasn’t their work — and there’s no time-stamped, location-stamped, photo-attached field observation to settle it.

What Forward does for observations

Foreman texts the observation. Optional photo attached. Forward parses location, trade, severity, and observed condition; drafts the Procore observation; queues it for PM approval.

Foreman: observation cracked floor tile at room 207 north wall
         under window — looks like settlement crack
         [photo of cracked tile]

Forward: Drafted observation #045 — cracked tile, room 207.
  Trade:     Flooring
  Severity:  Standard
  Location:  Room 207, north wall under window
  Photo:     Attached (1 image)
  Notes:     "looks like settlement crack"
  Status:    Queued for Sarah Chen's approval

What lands in the approval queue

Every drafted observation appears in the Forward dashboard approval queue (app.getforward.xyz/drafts). For each draft the PM can:

• Approve — posts to Procore as-is.
• Edit — change the trade, severity, location, or notes; then approve.
• Reject — drop the draft with a reason; the foreman gets a courtesy text-back.
• Escalate — route to a different reviewer (sub PE, owner-rep) before approval.

No observation reaches Procore without a human approval click. The texting layer captures intent; the dashboard is where official records get made.

The audit story

Every text → draft → approval round trip is logged:

• The verbatim text the foreman sent.
• The timestamp + phone number of the texter.
• The photo URL (or null if no photo).
• The draft Forward generated.
• The PM who approved (or rejected) it + when.
• The Procore observation ID after a successful post.

When a dispute lands six months later, you have a contemporaneous, location-stamped, photo-attached record of exactly when the field flagged the condition. That’s a defensible audit chain in a claim or arbitration package.

How to try it

Text +1 (682) 300-6750 with an observation. Optional: attach a photo from your camera roll. The live demo runs against a synthetic commercial project and will draft an observation record matching the shape your real Procore project would see.

Drop your email above for early access on a real project. The Procore + Autodesk connection takes ~30 minutes of OAuth.