RBA Surveying

Offline iPad surveys for complex buildings

A Claris FileMaker solution built by Smart Wolf for RBA Surveying — an offline-capable FileMaker Go iPad app for on-site engineers, paired with FileMaker Pro back at base for project management and client reporting.

Building Surveying • Asset Management

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iPad asset capture — every asset, every photo, every defect, on-site

Screenshots are illustrative — data may be hidden or redacted.

At A Glance

Client: Raymond Bell Associates (RBA Surveying)
Sector: Building surveying — social housing, schools, universities, hospitals
Platform: Claris FileMaker (Pro, Server, FileMaker Go)
Primary access: FileMaker Go on iPad for on-site engineers (offline-capable); FileMaker Pro on desktop for admin and reporting
Used for: On-site asset surveys; condition, defect and photo capture; project management; client report generation
Reach: Every RBA engineer on every survey

Inside the system

RBA Surveying runs on a single Claris FileMaker build. Engineers take the survey out to site on iPad — a custom FileMaker Go app that works with no internet connection, captures every asset and photograph locally, and syncs back to the central database when the iPad's back in coverage.

At the office, the admin team works in FileMaker Pro on desktop — managing projects, surveyor assignments, photo libraries and the final client reports. One schema, one database, one survey process from site visit to deliverable.

Project Results

Paper → digital

the whole survey process, from site visit to client report, now runs on FileMaker

Offline-first iPad

engineers capture surveys with no internet and sync when they're back in coverage

Hundreds of photos

every asset, repair and defect captured with supporting imagery per site

Historical comparison

previous photos from previous inspections available against the same asset

The challenge

RBA Surveying (Raymond Bell Associates) carries out condition surveys of social housing, schools, universities and hospitals — producing costed plans for maintenance and renewal. Their fieldwork means visiting every room of every building and recording every asset and its condition in detail.

For regular houses, off-the-shelf apps could cope. For complex public buildings — hundreds of rooms, thousands of assets, thousands of photographs — nothing off-the-shelf could handle the volume. Everything had to be captured on paper on-site and then painstakingly reassembled back in the office, often taking several days of admin work per building.

RBA needed a field app fit for real surveying work: usable in a basement with no signal, able to photograph and tag hundreds of assets per site, and able to feed cleanly back into a central system that produces the final client reports.

Pain points

Paper-based capture on-site, manually rekeyed in the office
Off-the-shelf apps unable to handle complex buildings at scale
Days of admin work per building to assemble the final deliverables
Photographs scattered across phones, cameras and laptops
No easy way to compare an asset's condition against previous inspections

Smart Wolf's solution

Smart Wolf designed and built RBA's survey platform on Claris FileMaker — one database, two interfaces, and a field experience built specifically for the realities of surveying complex public-sector buildings.

Offline iPad surveys on FileMaker Go

A custom FileMaker Go app that works completely offline — engineers can survey a basement or a site with no signal and every record is captured locally on the iPad.

Works with no internet connection
Sync on demand when back in coverage
Built for the full building: room, asset, condition, repair, defect
Used by every RBA engineer on every job

Photo capture at scale

Hundreds of photographs can be attached to the right room, asset, defect or repair — straight from the iPad camera, without switching between apps.

Direct iPad camera capture
Tagged to the exact asset or defect
Hundreds of photos per site
Exported alongside the structured data

Historical comparison across visits

When an engineer returns for a repeat inspection, previous photographs from the last visit appear against the same asset — making changes in condition obvious at a glance.

Previous photos shown on the same asset
Visual comparison over time
Catches deterioration earlier
Supports evidence-based renewal plans

Admin & reporting on FileMaker Pro

Back at base, the admin team works in FileMaker Pro — managing projects, surveyors, assets, photo libraries and the final client deliverables on the same database.

Project-by-project dashboards
Photo and spreadsheet exports
Surveyor assignment and project tracking
Client-ready reports generated from the same data

Transformational outcomes

With the FileMaker Go app in every engineer's hand and FileMaker Pro running the back office, RBA has moved from a completely paper-based survey process to a completely digital one — every asset, every photograph, every defect captured once on-site and flowing straight into the client deliverables without being rekeyed.

Survey capture

Before

Paper forms room-by-room

After

Structured digital records on iPad, offline

Paper to digital

Photograph management

Before

Scattered across phones and cameras

After

Hundreds per site, tagged to the right asset

One library per project

Report generation

Before

Several days of manual admin per building

After

Generated straight from the captured data

Days of admin removed

Repeat inspections

Before

No easy reference to previous visits

After

Previous photos shown against the same asset

Comparison over time

Standard kit on every survey

Every RBA engineer uses the FileMaker Go app on every survey — from small blocks to large public-sector buildings — with the iPad going out to site as standard kit.

The result is a single Claris FileMaker build that underpins the whole business: the on-site survey experience, the office-side project management, and the client-ready report at the end of the job.

Every engineer, every site

The FileMaker Go iPad app is standard kit for RBA's entire surveying team.

Hundreds of photos per site

Every asset, repair and defect captured with supporting imagery as part of the survey.

One platform, end to end

From on-site capture to client report, all on the same Claris FileMaker build.

Built with

RBA Surveying is a 100% Claris FileMaker build — FileMaker Go on iPad for on-site engineers, FileMaker Pro on desktop for admin and reporting, all on the same database.

Claris FileMaker Pro
Claris FileMaker Server
FileMaker Go (iOS)
Offline Data Capture
iPad Camera Integration
On-Demand Sync
Photo Library Exports
Client Report Generation

Thinking about an offline iPad survey app?

If your team works on-site, in buildings without signal, and needs to capture detailed records and photographs that flow back into office systems, a Claris FileMaker solution from Smart Wolf can give every engineer the same structured experience — no internet required.

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