Machine guarding audit software
A guarding audit goes machine by machine: identify each danger point, record what guarding is fitted — fixed, interlocked, presence-sensing — and judge whether it actually prevents access to the hazard. Manufacturers buy the report to prioritise capital spend and to show the regulator they have assessed their plant. SurveyThanks records each machine once and links every danger point to it, so a press with four nip points produces one section with four rated findings.
Built for manufacturers running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Guarding audit report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Guarding audit report
Machine 7 — Mechanical power press (fictional asset P-07)
- Site
- Fictional Metal Pressings, Example Street
- Audited
- 28 July 2026
- Operating mode
- Single stroke, two-hand control
| Danger point | Existing guarding | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Tool area (front) | Two-hand control; side access open | Rating: Inadequate |
| Flywheel and belt drive | Fixed guard, fastened with tools | Rating: Adequate |
| Rear die access | Hinged guard with no interlock | Rating: Inadequate |
| Emergency stop | Present at operator position; tested and functional | Rating: Adequate |
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 guarding audit report where your template puts it.
Per machine
- Machine ID and description
- Manufacturer and year
- Operating modes
- Photo of machine plate
Per danger point
- Hazard type (crushing, shearing, entanglement, drawing-in)
- Existing guard type
- Can the hazard be reached (yes / no)
- Rating
- Photo
- Recommended control
Controls
- Emergency stop present and tested
- Isolation points identified
- Recommendation priority
Standards the report works to
- AS 4024.1 seriesSafety of machinery
- The design and guarding principles, including safety distances, that a recommended guard is specified against.
- Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011Model WHS Regulations — Part 5.1 Plant
- The duties for managing risks from plant, including guarding requirements, that each finding cites.
- Code of PracticeManaging the risks of plant in the workplace (Safe Work Australia)
- Practical guidance on guard selection and the hierarchy of controls for plant.
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 guarding audit report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the machine guarding audit 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 areas, tasks and plant
Enter areas, tasks and plant once, as a register. Every one of your hazards, controls and findings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The guarding audit 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 guarding audit 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 report says all plant is guarded; the form carries an unguarded drive shaft in the workshop.
Checks a WHS consulting framework usually carries
- Every finding cites the regulation, code or clause it is assessed against
- Every hazard has a control and a person responsible for it
- Risk ratings are applied consistently across findings of the same kind
- Corrective actions are specific enough to be actioned and dated
Questions
- Can we audit a whole production line in one job?
- Yes. Machines are a repeatable group and danger points repeat inside each machine, so one job covers the line and the report gets a section per machine.
- Can the report include a prioritised summary across all machines?
- Your template can loop over every danger point rated inadequate and sort it by priority to produce an action table at the front.
- Will re-auditing next year compare against this audit?
- Machines are stored records, so the next audit links to the same machine and its earlier findings rather than starting from a blank form.
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 WHS consulting work we cover
- PPE compliance auditsPPE audit report
- Psychosocial hazard assessmentsPsychosocial risk report
- Remote worker site checksRemote site report
- Workplace WHS auditsWHS audit report
- Contractor prequalification auditsPrequal audit report
- Hazard identification walksHazard register report
- Hazardous chemical auditsChemWatch register audit
- Incident investigationsICAM investigation report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your guarding audit 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.