Help, for specialists
Running a session
You create a session, send the technician a link, and guide the job from your browser while the evidence collects itself. At the end there is a report you can hand to a customer or an inspector.
1. Create the session
From the dashboard, give it a job or site label. That is the only required field, and it is what you will search for later, so make it something you would recognise in three months.
You can attach a checklist template at creation, later, or never. You get a six-character code and a join link.
2. Get the link to the technician
- Copy the join link and send it however you normally reach them.
- Text it from Proofwalk, if SMS is configured. Ask them first: consent is collected per message and the record of that matters.
- QR code, if they are standing with you or on a call and can point a camera at your screen.
The link is for that one session. Do not reuse or forward it.
3. Guide the work
The console is one screen: video on the left, job details and checklist on the right.
The technician's camera starts off
This is the part people trip over. A technician who has joined is connected and can talk, send photos and work the checklist before any camera is on. A phone streaming video for a two hour job is a dead phone, so it stays off until it is needed.
Press the video request button when you need to see. They get a prompt and tap Start video or Not now. You cannot turn it on yourself, by design. You can ask them to turn it off again too.
What you can do while it is on
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Talk | Push to speak to them. |
| Unmute tech | Hear them. Off by default, so a noisy plant room is not in your ear all session. |
| Quality | Auto adapts to their network. Force low, medium or high when you need to. |
| Zoom | Zooms their camera, not your view, so the detail actually gets captured. |
| Torch | Turns their flashlight on. Android only. |
| Snapshot | Grabs a full-resolution frame into the gallery and opens it for annotation. |
| Request photo | Puts a prompt on their phone asking for a picture. |
| Send image | Pushes a diagram or manual page full screen to their phone. |
| Record | Records the session. Tell them first. |
| Click the video | Drops a pointer on their screen where you clicked. Faster than describing it. |
Zoom their camera, not yours
Zooming your own browser makes a blurry picture bigger. The zoom control drives the lens on their phone, so the detail is actually in the frame that gets captured. Same for the torch, and same for asking them to move rather than squinting at what you already have.
4. Photos and annotation
Clicking any photo in the gallery opens it. From there:
- Draw on it with pen, arrow or circle.
- Read text runs OCR on the image, which is how you get a serial or model number off a rating plate without typing it.
- Notes appear here too. If the technician wrote one it shows with their name against it, because "the technician says this port was already cracked" and "somebody at a desk typed this" are different claims and the report has to keep them apart.
Photos are captured at full sensor resolution regardless of the video quality. A serial plate is readable in the photo even when the live stream looks unusable.
5. Checklists
A checklist turns a session from a video call into a record.
- Attach one at creation, or change it mid-session if the job turned out to be different.
- Steps can require a photo before they close. That is the whole point: the evidence becomes a condition of finishing rather than paperwork afterwards.
- Sign-off records that the technician confirmed the install complete, with a timestamp.
Team admins write checklists on the Team page.
6. Close the session
Closing is not housekeeping. It is what kills the join link. A session left open is a live credential sitting in somebody's text messages.
Once closed, neither the technician nor anyone holding the old link can rejoin.
7. The report
Every session produces one, carrying the job label and work order, timestamps, the checklist with each step's evidence, photos with notes, the sign-off, the consent record, and diagnostics about how the connection actually behaved.
Share report creates a link a customer or inspector can open with no account. It deliberately excludes chat, recordings and diagnostics: they get the evidence, not your internal conversation. You can revoke it. Treat a share link as public once you send it.
Before they bite you
Every seat in your company sees every session your company created. That is deliberate, so a colleague can pick up a job you started. Do not use Proofwalk for work that must be hidden from your own team.
Recordings are deleted automatically after 14 days. Photos and step evidence are deleted a year after the session is closed, measured from closure rather than creation, so a job that runs long keeps its evidence. Longer retention is arrangeable, but ask before assuming it.
Tell the technician before you record. Several US states require every party to consent to an audio recording, Florida among them. The joining notice says a recording may happen; saying it out loud costs nothing and settles the question.
Photo and chat mode is not a failure state. If their camera will not start, the session carries on without it and the report still gets written. Plenty of jobs need photographs and a conversation more than they need live video.
Team administration
On the Team page, if you are an admin:
- Invite someone to a seat. They get a link, set their own password, and are scoped to your company.
- Reset a password for someone locked out.
- Write checklists for your own team. These are yours, not shared with other companies.
Seats are per named person. Sharing one defeats the audit trail, since every action lands under whoever's seat did it.
When it goes wrong
"Technician is not connected yet." They have not opened the link, or opened it and not tapped through the notice and Join.
Video will not start. Check whether they denied the browser's camera permission. Ask them to reload and allow it. If it still fails, photo and chat mode is right there.
Torch or focus does nothing on their phone. Both are Android capabilities. Safari exposes neither, so on an iPhone those buttons are hidden rather than shown broken. For focus, have them shoot it in the phone's camera app and send it with the upload button.
Everything is slow or the picture keeps dropping. Look at the diagnostics on the report. If the call is being relayed, their site network is blocking direct connections, which is normal in plant rooms and nothing you can fix from your desk. Force a lower quality and lean on photos.
Anything else: support@proofwalk.io.