Compliance gauge best practices

The BNQ gauge is a useful but imperfect tool. Used well, it saves you time and reduces oversights. Used poorly, it can give a false sense of security or waste time on false positives. This page gathers the practices that maximize its value without falling into its pitfalls.

The golden rule

The gauge is an assistant, not a certificate. A score of 100% does not mean your report is BNQ-compliant — only that nothing is mechanically missing. Real compliance includes the relevance of observations, the accuracy of severities, the quality of professional judgment — none of which any automatic tool can validate for you.

When to engage it in your flow

Several moments where the gauge is particularly useful:

During on-site inspection

If you fill in your report on Lumos Web Mobile during the inspection, open the gauge at the end of the visit before leaving the property. You immediately see if you forgot photos on certain findings — you can capture them before leaving.

After the first writing pass at the office

When you have finished writing the narratives at the office, open the gauge to identify gaps: forgotten administrative fields, missing Not Inspected justifications, photos without descriptions.

Before final delivery to the client

Last step before clicking Send the report to the client: verify that the gauge is at 100% green, or that remaining issues are explicitly and consciously ignored.

When not to rely on it

At the start of an inspection

The gauge will show 0% and 30+ issues — that is normal and means nothing. No need to pay attention during the first hour of writing.

To assess the quality of a finding

The Quick Check does not read the content of your narratives — it does not know whether an observation is relevant, whether a severity is right, whether a recommendation is useful. Your final review remains essential.

On unusual cases

If your inspection falls outside the standard BNQ scope (commercial, environmental, specialized expertise), some gauge rules may not be adapted. Treat the warnings with discernment.

Properly managing the “Ignore” mechanism

The crossed-eye icon lets you dismiss an issue to remove it from the score. Three good practices:

Only ignore true false positives

If the gauge says “this finding has no photo” and you know that this finding doesn’t need a photo (justified exceptional case), ignore. If you ignore just to bump the score without correcting, you mislead your future self at final review time.

Document why you ignore

When you ignore an issue, take 30 seconds to add a comment in the relevant finding or sub-section explaining why. If a dispute arises later, you have the trace of your reasoning.

Periodically revisit ignored items

Before final delivery, browse the list of ignored issues (still visible in the modal). Confirm that each ignore is still justified. Undo the ignore if you’ve changed your mind or context has evolved.

Properly using AI Review (Unlimited plan)

Run it after Quick Check

The AI takes a few seconds to analyze. Run it once Quick Check is at 100% — you then have a structurally complete report, and the AI can focus on writing quality without being drowned in completeness gaps.

Read the reasoning before applying

Each AI suggestion explains why it is proposed (BNQ reference, terminology, CCQ). Read this reasoning before clicking Apply. If you don’t agree with the justification, don’t apply.

Apply in batch vs one by one

For terminology (LEGAL COMPLIANCE, TERMINOLOGY) that concerns well-established vocabulary substitutions, batch application is generally safe. For CONTENT suggestions (which touch meaning), take the time to look at each individually.

Prefer Modify over Apply for content

When AI suggests a content reformulation, use Modify rather than Apply at once. You can adjust the suggestion to your voice before it replaces the text.

Building your own reflexes

Over time, you will internalize the BNQ rules the gauge verifies. The goal is not for you to depend on the gauge — it’s for it to serve as a memory aid in moments of inattention.

When you notice the gauge always flags the same types of oversights (e.g. justifications of Inaccessible sub-sections), it’s the signal to change your writing habit to no longer forget them — not to keep relying on the gauge to catch them.

Reporting false positives

If you identify gauge rules that often produce false positives in your context, report them to the Lumos team via the Comments button. The feature is in alpha, your feedback is valuable for improving it.