Released 6 August 2024

Audits performed online: Better progress indicators and other improvements

When performing audits and assessments online, each section now has a colored progress bar to indicate if all checkpoints have been filled in:

When adding a note to a checkpoint, the user experience is improved as it now allows typing directly, and the text field expands to multiple lines if the note is long like in the example below:

Audit report: minor improvements

• Date formatting of PDF report: Date formatting is now consistent to always use this three-letter month and then date and year, like Aug 6, 2024. This makes it unambiguous for all and it’s the way dates are displayed elsewhere in Qarma.

• Auditor summary translation in PDF report: In case the online version of the report showed a translated version of the auditors summary text, the PDF version should do it as well. You can control if you want to see translations automatically in your user profile.

• Confirmed supplier and production unit data in PDF report: When the auditor confirms supplier or production unit data, the online report displays a ✓ . The PDF report now also displays this.

• Supplier or production unit data previous values in online report: When there is no previous value, there used to be just a - to indicate this. This is now more clear with text

  

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• Online report summary: When putting the mouse on top of the colored status box, you can now see the detailed description underlying the selected option as shown in the example below where the auditor selected Excellent which has a detailed description.
  

  

• In progress PDF reports: Previously, it was not clear from the PDF report that the audit was in progress. That has now been changed so that it also shows the In progress marking.

Various minor improvements and fixes:

• Inspections planning (week view): Sometimes the reassign option was not shown in case of many inspections for one supplier. This has now been fixed.

• Inspection PDF report: In the header section, if there was no value to show, the report would show the text “None”. This has now been removed, so the box is empty instead.

• Production unit list filters: In some special cases, the filters included production units that should not have been shown.

• The tool to create corrective actions resulted in a separate email to be sent to the responsible user for each corrective action. That has now been fixed so that only one summary email has been sent.

Data integrations for audits: approval flow information now included in event-based data (webhooks)

For event-based data integrations (webhooks), it is now possible to include approval flow information in the data. You can read more about event-based data integrations here: https://qarmainspect.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/596934663/Webhooks

For more information, please reach out to [email protected].

Released 2 July 2024

Audits: Avoid duplication of corrective actions

When creating corrective actions in the mobile app, there is now an indication on checkpoints which have already been used for corrective actions. In the example below, the two checkpoints at the top already have a corrective action created.

If the user attempts selecting those checkpoints again, a warning message is shown:

Audits and inspections: moving images between checkpoints has become easier

When you have taken an image on a checkpoint, it is possible to move it to another checkpoint. This supports a work flow where the user takes a lot of images on one checkpoint without spending time on organizing them, and then spends some time on sorting the images later.

When moving the images, the view has been improved with new design and type-to-search for the checkpoint name:

Released 4 June 2024

Approving in progress audit reports

It is now possible to set approvals for audits that are still in progress. This allows organizations to speed up decision-making processes while leaving the auditor enough time to fully write up the audit in all details.

Please note that users would in this case base their conclusion on a preliminary version of the audit report which might be changed by the auditor after the conclusion was set.

Bug-fixes: Image orientation

Images can now be rotated in the image preview box.

Fixed: In some cases measurement tables and text tables in inspection reports were shown twice.

Released 30 May 2024

In order to allow our users to work more effectively following up on inspections, we have released a new feature to work with corrective actions for inspection reports.

We intend to host a webinar in Mid June highlighting how this new feature could be used for sample inspections and other purposes (will be announced on our LinkedIn page), but until then please find below all the details of this new feature. It will be automatically available as a replacement for follow-up tasks, so there is no action needed on your side. Users who have been using the follow-up tasks feature will get guidance in the report view when the new feature is available.

From the report page, you can select defects or checkpoints which should trigger a corrective action and with a few clicks create a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for the supplier to follow up.

Getting visual feedback into the reports

One of the key benefits from this new feature is that the images or videos provided as evidence when resolving a corrective action is displayed directly in the report next to the images of the problem. Below is an example of a defect reported (the first two pictures) and then the evidence from the corrective action provided later (shown with the green “Evidence” marking):

This is particularly useful for sample reports where a lot of changes and updates are made based on previous findings, and suppliers will be able to easily provide images for the corrected version.

Inclusion in PDF report

It’s possible to download pdf report including corrective actions by selecting that option in the download menu:

Keep track of corrective actions per supplier

Once Corrective Actions have been created, there is a dedicated menu for keeping track of the status of corrective actions, where you can filter on supplier, due date, status etc.

Resolve from mobile app

In many cases, you want the supplier to provide some evidence that the problem has been solved. The mobile app has a Corrective Actions menu where the supplier can easily take pictures or video and resolve the corrective action. If an approver has been added, it will send an email to this person for approval.

Follow-up tasks

Today, the section on inspection reports called “Follow-up tasks” has been replaced by the new corrective actions. All existing follow-up tasks have been converted to corrective actions.

Permissions

Corrective actions permissions are being split in two with this release:

1 - Corrective actions for Audits and Suppliers

This is the previous section that has just been renamed. It has been left un-touched.

There is also an entry under Features, website which controls whether the corrective action menu is shown or not, this has also been left untouched.

Note that for the mobile app, there is only one entry for controlling visibility of the corrective actions menu, as it included both types of corrective actions.

2 - Corrective actions for Inspections

This section is new and include different scopes than the one above.

The following scopes can be used to control access:

• Creator: The user who creates the corrective action. This user will always have access to editing the corrective action.

• Responsible: The user who is assigned as responsible. This user will always have access to seeing the corrective action plus uploading evidence and resolving it.

• Approver: The user who is assigned as approver. This user will always have access to seeing the corrective action and approving it.

• Group: A corrective action can have a group (can be set on the detailed page). Members of any group that is set on the corrective action will have access through this scope.

• Supplier: Users that are member of the supplier will have access to corrective actions belonging to inspections for this supplier.

• Inspection: Users that have the Show Report permission for an inspection, can be granted access to corrective actions for this inspection as well. To put it short: if you want users who can see the inspection report to also have permissions for its corrective action, use this scope.

User roles will per default have the access that they had for follow-up tasks in the previous version: If the user role had Manage follow-up tasks permissions, it would get all permissions set in the inspection scope (as shown in the above figure). If the user role did not have Manage follow-up tasks permissions, it will only have Show permission in the Inspection scope. You can of course modify these permissions, but the default permissions should make sure that operations can carry on unaffected by this release, only with the added capabilities of the corrective actions as described in this post.

Data export

When exporting inspection data, it is now possible to include corrective actions as a separate sheet:

Furthermore, the inspections sheet will include columns for total, open and closed corrective actions.

Please note that the data format for inspections has not been changed - the addition of corrective actions was anticipated and prepared for when the data format was released.

Release: 4 April 2024

Summary: Web-based audits is now available as an opt-in and will be rolled out to all customers by June 5th, 2024. Improved layout of the audit edit page and changes to the mobile app login screen are released today.

Find more detailed information below

Want to know more? Watch the recording of our webinar on this exact feature.

* Opt-in from April 4th 2024 by contacting [email protected].

Web-based audits

This feature is being rolled out to all customers by June 5th 2024. You can already now opt in and get access by contacting [email protected].

If you go to audits assigned to you in the audit list, you will now see a brand-new option when clicking the audit:

Clicking Start audit will enable you to carry out the audit on the website. For checkpoints with mandatory image or video there will be a QR code which can be scanned using the Qarma mobile app to capture images and videos. This is also they way GPS coordinates for the audit are captured.

It is possible to carry out the entire audit in the mobile app as well, and it is possible to switch between the website and the mobile app. While using the mobile app, edits on the website are not possible. This ensures data integrity as the mobile app is able to run offline and needs to have full control of the audit data in this case.

To release control from the mobile app and continue on the website, click the Continue in browser button.

In case checkpoints are not defined with mandatory image, you can still open the mobile app and take pictures or videos through the Add media button:

This will allow scanning of a QR code using the mobile app in the same way as shown above.

One-click link to supplier assessments

This feature is being rolled out to all customers by 5 June 2024. You can already now opt in and get access by contacting [email protected].

In cases where you need an audit or assessment carried out by someone who does not have a user account in Qarma, it is possible to send a link to an email using the External user option on the audit edit page:

Once you have entered an email and sent it, the recipient will receive the email with a link to filling in this audit. This person will have access to nothing else in Qarma except the specific audit. It can be opened on the website and in the app.

In order to get access to the External user option, the user who sets it up need to have the Assign audit to external user permission enabled:

Mobile app login screen

The new login screen will look like this:

A few notes on the changes:

• The login has one more step, with the password showing in step 2.

• There is an option to scan an audit QR code at the bottom which is part of the new web-based audit feature (see above).

Aside from that, everything is the same as before

User experience improvements of audit assignment page

The new audit assignment page will look like this

Functionality-wise, nothing has changed, but the design has been updated to make the page easier to navigate and visually more appealing. Users will see a notice the first time they open the page which explains the changes made.

Planned release: 4 April 2024

We are preparing for the upcoming release for web-based audits. It will let you carry out audits on the website and add the option to invite external users to carry out audits/assessments, we are updating the login screen on the mobile app and the audit creation and assignment page.

If you are interested in learning more about this feature, we recommend browsing through a webinar recording showing how this new feature works.

Mobile app login screen

The new login screen will look like this:

A few notes on the changes:

1. The login has one more step, with the password showing in step 2.

2. There is an option to scan an audit QR code at the bottom which is part of the new web-based audit feature.

Everything else is the same as before

User experience improvements of audit assignment page

The new audit assignment page will look like this

Functionality-wise, nothing has changed, but the design has been updated to make the page easier to navigate visually more appealing.

Released: 7 March 2024

See checkpoint instruction text and attachments

For any checkpoint, it is possible to add an instruction text and a list of files. The intention is to give extra background to the user on what to check for. For inspections this can be instructions on labeling, protocols for testing, etc, and for audits it could be instructions on certain processes, background information on acceptable conditions etc.

Up until now, this was only possible to see in the mobile app, as it is mainly intended for the inspector or auditor. With this release, it is also possible to see the instruction text and attachments in the online report. In this way, it can also be helpful for the reader of the report to see the same background information.

If there is an instruction text or attachment, it will show with a blue ℹ️ next to the checkpoint:

Clicking or putting the mouse cursor on the icon will reveal the text and/or attachments.