The report a code auditor will accept, and how software builds it
NDT reporting software must hold two template axes at once: one per method — UT, RT, MT, PT, VT, ET, PAUT, TOFD — and one per governing code, because ASME V, API 1104 and AWS D1.1 each demand different mandatory fields on the same weld. Add revision control, signature routing by certification level, and batch export.
The gap between a report writer and a reporting system shows up at the audit, not at the desk. A report writer produces a document. A reporting system produces a record that carries its own evidence: which revision of which procedure was applied, which calibration block and which certified operator, what the acceptance criterion was and which edition of the code stated it. Buyers reach NDT reporting software when a client rejects a package, when an auditor writes a finding against traceability, or when a turnaround generates 400 reports in nine days and the QA manager cannot sign them fast enough. Each of those is a different requirement. Templates per method are table stakes. Templates per governing code, bound to the job's contract, are what stops the same UT report from being compliant on one project and rejected on the next.
Source: Google Search Console, atlantisndt.com software section, 90-day window to 2026-09-01: 'ndt reporting software' 273 impressions at position 13; 'ndt software' 328 impressions at position 52; 'ndt inspection management software' 21 impressions at position 31. Mandatory field sets read from ASME BPVC Section V (Article 1 T-190 Documentation, Article 2 radiography, Article 4 ultrasonic examination of welds), API 1104 (Section 9 acceptance standards, Section 11 NDT procedures), AWS D1.1 (Clause 8 in the 2020 edition, Clause 6 in earlier editions) and the reporting requirements of API 510, 570 and 653.
| Governing code | Applies to | Content the code names in the record | What a generic template omits |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASME BPVC Sec. V, Art. 1 (T-190) | Every method used under an ASME referencing code | Procedure number and revision, date, examiner identity and level, equipment and serial, calibration record, technique details, results, evaluation | Procedure revision — templates carry a static number that goes stale silently |
| ASME BPVC Sec. V, Art. 2 | Radiography | Source or tube and focal size, source-to-film distance, film or detector and screens, IQI type, number and placement, density readings, geometric unsharpness, technique sketch | Density and IQI sensitivity as free text, so no range check can fire |
| ASME BPVC Sec. V, Art. 4 | Ultrasonic examination of welds | Search unit frequency, size and angle, couplant, calibration block, DAC or TCG record, scanning surface and finish, gain and transfer correction, indication table with sound path and depth | Transfer correction and reference level — without them the exam is unreproducible |
| API 1104 | Pipeline girth welds | Weld identity, welder ID, technique, the acceptance clause applied, disposition, repair and re-examination record | The welder-ID link to the weld map, which is what a pipeline client audits first |
| AWS D1.1 | Structural steel | Inspector qualification, joint identity, WPS reference, UT report form with dB readings, indication rating and length | The dB rating arithmetic (a − b − c = d), done off-system on a calculator |
| API 510 / 570 / 653 | In-service pressure equipment | Equipment or circuit ID, CML identity, measured thickness, t-min, corrosion rate, remaining life, next due date, inspector certification number | Computed fields typed by hand instead of derived from the reading history |
| SNT-TC-1A / ISO 9712 written practice | Who may sign the report | Examiner level and method, expiry date, and the level authorised to interpret and approve | Signature captured as an image file, with no certification check at the moment of signing |
Two template axes: the method and the code that governs the job
Every NDT report answers two questions at once. What did you do physically, and under what rule did you judge it. The method drives the first: probe angle, frequency, couplant, current, particle type, developer, exposure. The code drives the second: which fields must exist, how results are classified, which acceptance criterion applies, and what the record must retain. Software that models only the method produces a beautiful technical sheet that an auditor rejects.
The practical design is a matrix, not a list. Method templates hold the physics fields. Code overlays add or make mandatory the fields that the governing document names, and they set validation. Bind the overlay to the job, not to the technician, so that when a client's contract cites ASME Section V with a supplementary specification, every report on that job inherits the correct field set automatically.
This is also the reason a project setup screen matters more than a report screen. When the project is created with its code of construction, referencing code, acceptance criteria and client-specific supplements, the report templates are already resolved. Get that wrong and you are correcting 300 reports at the end of the job. Compare how vendors handle this in the NDT reporting software comparison.
Mandatory fields, and why they must be typed fields rather than free text
ASME Section V Article 1, T-190, requires the record to identify the procedure, the personnel, the equipment, the calibration and the results. Article 2 adds the radiographic technique details — source and focal size, distance, film or detector type, IQI identity and placement, density, geometric unsharpness. Article 4 adds the ultrasonic set: search unit description, calibration block, DAC or TCG, scanning surface and finish, transfer correction, and an indication table carrying sound path and depth.
The failure is not that these fields are absent from generic tools. It is that they are captured as text. A density value stored as a string cannot be checked against the code's permitted range at entry. A geometric unsharpness figure typed by the technician cannot be recomputed from source size, source-to-object and object-to-film distances. A typed field lets the system reject an impossible value at the point of capture, which is the only place correcting it is cheap.
Typed fields also make the report searchable and reportable. A client asking how many indications above a given amplitude were found on a system, or an integrity engineer pulling every thickness reading on a circuit, needs data, not documents. That is the difference between a document archive and NDT inspection software.
Revision control: what Rev 2 has to mean
Reports get reissued. A client finds a transposed weld number, a supplementary examination changes a disposition, a repair is completed and the re-examination attaches to the original. In a document folder this is handled by overwriting a file and hoping the right person notices. In a reporting system, the issued report is immutable, the revision is a new record, the change reason is captured, and the superseded version stays retrievable with a superseded marker on its face.
Distribution matters as much as storage. The system must know who received Rev 0 — which client contact, which portal user, which package — so the reissue reaches everyone holding the old one. Auditors regularly find the correct current revision in the vendor's system and the wrong revision in the client's file. That is a distribution failure recorded as a quality finding.
Revision control extends to the things the report cites. Procedure revisions, technique sheets and acceptance criteria all change. The report must reference the revision in force on the examination date, not the current one. Storing a link to a live document means a procedure update silently rewrites the history of every report that points to it.
Digital signature and approval routing that checks certification at signing
An approval route encodes your written practice. Under SNT-TC-1A a written practice defines who may perform, interpret and approve for each method and level. The software's job is to make the route unbypassable: the report cannot leave draft until the examiner of record signs, and it cannot be issued until a signer holding the required method, level and current expiry approves it.
The check has to happen at signing time, not at user creation. A technician whose UT Level II lapsed last Tuesday must be blocked on Wednesday, automatically, from the reports his certificate authorises. That requires the signature step to query live certification data — the same data that drives expiry alerts in certification expiry tracking.
For signature validity, decide early whether you need a cryptographic signature with a tamper-evident hash, or an authenticated audit-trail signature under 21 CFR Part 11-style controls. Aerospace and nuclear clients frequently specify the former. A pasted signature image satisfies neither and is the single most common finding on an otherwise sound reporting workflow.
Batch export and the turnaround problem
Routine work hides the throughput problem. A turnaround exposes it. Four hundred reports in nine days, three clients wanting different package structures, and the QA manager becomes the bottleneck for every one of them. The fixes are structural: bulk approval for reports that pass every validation rule, exception queues for those that do not, and package assembly that runs unattended.
A package is more than PDFs in a zip. It carries an index keyed to the client's numbering, cover sheets, the procedures and calibration certificates referenced by the reports inside, and a manifest for reconciliation at receipt. Building this by hand takes a day per package and introduces the omissions that cause rejection. Building it from data takes minutes and is identical every time.
Delivery should complete the loop. Publishing to a client portal with a dated download record answers the question that otherwise consumes a week of email: what was sent, when, to whom, and at which revision.
Where a generic report builder fails, and what to specify instead
A generic builder fails on four links, and auditors ask about all four. Was the procedure revision cited the one in force on the exam date? Was the instrument within calibration on that date? Was the examiner certified in that method, at that level, unexpired? Did the acceptance criterion applied match the one the contract specifies? Each is a relationship between records. A form tool stores fields, not relationships, so each link has to be rebuilt manually from paper.
That reconstruction is the actual cost. A firm with strong technical work and weak record structure spends days assembling evidence for a two-hour audit, and still takes findings for gaps it cannot close retrospectively. Where a package has already gone out and come back disputed, an independent report validation review identifies which findings are technical and which are documentary before the client escalates.
When you specify a system, write the requirements as verification questions rather than feature names: show me a report whose examiner certificate expired after issue and prove the check ran; show me Rev 0 and Rev 1 side by side with the change reason; export a 200-report package with attachments in the client's structure. The RFP requirements checklist turns those into scoreable line items, and Atlantis — Odoo-based, cloud or on-premise, configurable per method and per code — is built to be demonstrated against them. Demo or quote on request via contact.
Why is one template per NDT method not enough?
Because the method decides the physics fields and the code decides the record fields. A UT weld exam on a structural job under AWS D1.1 needs a dB indication rating; the same exam on an ASME vessel needs transfer correction and a DAC record; on a pipeline under API 1104 it needs welder ID and the acceptance clause. One UT template cannot satisfy all three.
What does revision control mean for an inspection report?
Every issued report gets an immutable version. Rev 0 is superseded, never overwritten. The system stores what changed, who changed it, when, and why, and it reissues under a new revision with the prior one retained and marked superseded. Clients holding Rev 0 must be identifiable so the reissue reaches them. Editing in place destroys the audit trail.
How should approval routing use certification records?
The signing rule belongs in the written practice, and the software should enforce it. A Level II interprets and reports; the level authorised to review and approve is defined by your written practice under SNT-TC-1A or your ISO 9712 scheme. The system checks the signer's method, level and expiry at the instant of signing and blocks a lapsed certificate. See certification tracking.
What does batch export need to do during a turnaround?
Produce a single client-ready package: several hundred reports rendered to PDF, sorted by the client's structure — by unit, by system, by weld number or by work order — with an index, a cover sheet, the applicable procedures and calibration certificates attached, and a manifest listing what is inside. Manual assembly of that package is where turnaround margin disappears.
Why does a generic report builder fail an audit?
A form builder captures values but not relationships. It cannot prove that the procedure revision cited was the one in force on the exam date, that the instrument was in calibration that day, that the examiner was certified in that method, or that the acceptance criterion matched the contract. An auditor asks for those four links. A generic builder holds none of them.
Can inspection reports be written offline in the field?
They must be. Refineries, tank farms and pipeline right-of-ways have no usable signal, and a report started at the component is more accurate than one reconstructed at night. The capture app holds templates, prior readings and the asset list locally, then syncs with conflict handling on reconnect. See offline field data capture.
Built for any business that runs on operations
Most companies do not fail at their craft. They lose time, margin and goodwill in the gaps between the tools they use to run the place — a quoting spreadsheet that does not talk to the job sheet, a job sheet that does not reach accounts, and a compliance folder nobody can search when a client asks. Atlantis closes those gaps by putting the whole operation on one platform, so information is entered once and everything downstream stays in step.
What you can run on it
- Sales and CRM — leads, quotes, follow-ups and the pipeline that tells you what next month looks like.
- Projects and job costing — plan the work, track the hours and materials against it, and see the margin while the job is still live rather than at final account.
- Field and service teams — dispatch, schedules, mobile capture that works with no signal, and sign-off from site.
- Inventory and purchasing — stock, suppliers, reorder points and goods receipt, joined to the jobs that consume them.
- People — records, qualifications and licences with renewal reminders, timesheets, leave and payroll.
- Quality and documents — procedures and forms under revision control, with the audit trail an inspection or accreditation body actually asks for.
- Accounts — invoicing, expenses, multi-currency and the reporting your accountant stops chasing you for.
Affordable, accessible, fully customizable — and we mean each word
Affordable because the whole suite is included rather than sold to you a module at a time, and because implementation is done by people who have run operations rather than by a chain of subcontractors. Accessible because it runs in a browser and on a phone, works for a small team on day one, and does not need a specialist on staff to keep it alive. Fully customizable because your process is the thing that makes you competitive — the software should bend to it, not the other way round.
Industries we configure for
Service businesses and contractors, manufacturing and fabrication, trading and distribution, laboratories and testing houses, engineering consultancies, construction and facilities, and asset owners across energy, marine, aerospace and infrastructure. Inspection and testing is where we started, and it remains the sector we go deepest in — but the platform underneath is general-purpose, and most of what it does has nothing to do with inspection at all.
What happens when you get in touch
A short conversation, not a sales sequence. We ask how the business runs today and where it hurts, show you the platform doing that work, and send a written quote shaped to your region, your team size and the scope you actually need. No obligation, nothing to install first, and no pressure to decide on the call. Reach out and tell us what you are trying to fix.
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