Utility locating and mark-up report app
A locate report has to survive the moment an excavator operator stands on the paint marks and asks how sure anyone was. It records which asset owner plans were obtained, which services were found by which method, the quality level each one was located to, and which plans showed services that could not be found. SurveyThanks captures each service as its own row on site, with photos of the marks and the method used.
Built for locators running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Locate mark-up report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Locate mark-up report
Locate summary — trench alignment, chainage 0–60 m
- Site
- Fictional Avenue footpath renewal
- Locate date
- 12 January 2026
- Before You Dig enquiry
- Plans received from 5 asset owners
| Service | Method and quality level | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Telecommunications conduit | Electromagnetic locator, QL-B, marked | Status: Located |
| Water main (DN150) | Electromagnetic locator, QL-B, marked | Status: Located |
| Gas service to No. 18 | Non-conductive — not traced | Status: Not located |
| Unknown linear target | GPR only, 0.6 m apparent depth | Status: Unidentified |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the locate mark-up report where your template puts it.
Plans
- Before You Dig enquiry number
- Asset owners and plans received
Per service
- Service type
- Locate method
- Quality level
- Apparent depth
- Marked on ground (yes / no)
- Photo of marks
Unlocated
- Service shown on plans but not found
- Reason
- Recommended next step
Standards the report works to
- AS 5488.1:2019Classification of subsurface utility information (SUI)
- The quality levels each located service is reported against, from plan records only through to exposed and surveyed.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the locate mark-up report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the utility locating record form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your marks, stations and monitoring points
Enter marks, stations and monitoring points once, as a register. Every one of your observations, rounds and movement readings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The locate mark-up report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a locate mark-up report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The movement summary reports 4 mm at PM3; the round’s readings put it at 11 mm.
Checks a surveying framework usually carries
- Control, datum and epoch are stated for every deliverable
- Quoted tolerances match the project specification being reported against
- Every mark named in the text exists in the register
- Assumptions and sources of error are recorded rather than assumed
Questions
- Can each service carry its own quality level?
- Yes. Quality level is a field on every service row, so one report can show some services traced, some located by GPR only and some taken from records.
- Can locators capture photos of paint marks in the field?
- Yes. Photo fields sit in each service’s group and work offline, so marks are photographed against the service they represent.
- Can services shown on plans but not found be listed separately?
- Yes. They are their own group, and the template prints them as a warning schedule ahead of the located services.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other surveying work we cover
- Mine survey pickupsMine survey report
- Strata plan field verificationStrata plan report
- Volumetric drone surveysVolume report
- Aerial mapping missionsMapping deliverable report
- As-built verification surveysAs-built report
- Bathymetric survey runsBathymetry report
- Boundary survey field notesSurvey plan evidence
- Construction set-out recordsSet-out verification report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your locate mark-up report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.