The Digital Transition for Building Certification

The number of building projects in Australia is rising. In March of 2021, the seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwellings approved rose by 17.4%. When you look at changes over the last year, the numbers are even more striking. From March of 2020 to March of this year, approvals increased by 47.4%.

High demand puts pressure on building certifiers and surveyors. To remain competitive, you need to boost efficiency and productivity without impacting the quality of the work you do. The problem is, with traditional, paper-based processes, speeding up approvals without sacrificing accuracy or customer care is next to impossible.

This is why so many building certification companies are turning to digital solutions. With the right software, you can simplify the complicated building approval and inspection process, and at the same time, ensure accuracy and service excellence.

How a Digital Solution Can Streamline Building Certification

When you switch from paper-based to digital, your building certification company can operate virtually. With software that's purpose-built for the industry, you'll be able to:

• Better manage business interactions with customer relationship management (CRM) functionality
• Automate the data entry of digital templates that are standardised to meet the requirements of your relevant state PCA (principal certifying authority)
• View the latest legislative documents and requirements with complete integration with your local Council’s systems
• Track every stage of the building process from a single dashboard and streamline workflows with notifications and reminders
• Store information, distribute, annotate plans, and approve applications electronically
• Generate accurate reports and distribute them digitally
• Access information you need to review easily with a search feature that allows you to find documents based on specific criteria

The Benefits of Switching from Paper to Digital-Based Processes

Here are some of the major benefits of going digital in the business certification industry.

Save time and increase productivity

Stop wasting time digging through paper files for information and filling out forms by hand. By merging client details, streamlining the application and approval process with automated data, and offering productivity-boosting functions such as instant checklists and helpful reporting, you and your employees can work faster without worrying about a dip in quality or accuracy.

Cut costs

Not only is transitioning to a digital solution going to enable your company to accomplish more, but you’re also likely to save money. With a predictable pay-as-you-go subscription model, you can enjoy a set monthly budget while eliminating a lot of the costs associated with manual processes such as postage, paper and printing, and labour costs for administration.

Ensure accuracy

State and regulatory authorities such as the Victorian Building Authority and the NSW Building Professionals Board require building certifiers to submit their building activity data in a specialised digital format. With a digital solution that does all the hard work for you, you can have total confidence that information is accurate and everything is filled out and formatted properly. Digital automation also reduces your risk for errors, which means less chance of fines or time-consuming audits.

A Digital Solution That’s Proven to Boost Productivity

Visual Approvals is a fully integrated software solution designed to handle every step of the building certification process. In recent trials comparing electronic to manual processes, users saw at least a 26% jump in productivity over a 12-month period.

When one Aussie building certifier, South West Building Certification, starting using Visual Approvals, they reduced time spent processing applications by 66%. The company experienced a massive boost in business because they were able to process 430% more applications every month.

Visual Approvals is the only fully integrated software solution for the building industry in Australia. With our cloud-based system, not only will your company be able to streamline processes and cut costs, but you’ll also be mobile. What's more, you can access your information from your desktop or an iPad, enabling on-the-go productivity. And, because the software is managed in the cloud, you can count on industry-leading security and don’t have to worry about managing the IT on your internal servers.

Contact us to learn more about the benefits of transitioning to a digital office.