Narrative configuration per sub-section

The Observations & findings column (on the right of the sub-section form) lists the findings Lumos will suggest to the inspector when writing this sub-section. This is where your template’s added value lives: a well-chosen list turns writing into a series of clicks.

The column in detail

Observations & findings column with an expanded finding

From top to bottom:

The Add from bank button (at the top of the column).
The No deficiency observed row — present if the option is enabled in the sub-section’s Settings (see RT.5). This is the checkbox the inspector will tick when they inspected and found nothing.
The list of predefined findings, each with its title and type badge (Deficiency, Limitation, Information…).
The Allow custom findings and Order by popularity toggles at the bottom of the column.

Reading a finding

Click a finding to expand it and read its full narrative — the exact text that will be inserted into the report. A second click collapses it. Handy for checking a phrasing without leaving the editor.

Reordering

When hovering a finding, a drag handle appears left of its title. Drag and drop to change the order — this is the order in which findings are suggested to the inspector during the inspection. Put the most frequent ones on top.

Would you rather have this ranking happen by itself? Check Order by popularity (see below): the list then automatically follows each inspector’s most-used findings, and drag and drop is disabled.

Removing a finding

On hover, an × appears right of the title. Click to remove the finding from this sub-section. The finding stays in the Bank — it’s simply detached from this sub-section, and you can re-attach it later.

To delete a narrative from the Bank itself, go through the Narrative Bank (Chapter 8).

Adding from the bank

Select a narrative window with search and filters

The Add from bank button opens the narrative picker:

Counter — the total number of narratives available in your Bank.
Search field — instant filter on the title.
Filters: Inspection type, Domain (building component), Category, Type (Information / Limitation / Deficiency / Method), Source (System / Personal / Team), and a filter to include inactive narratives.
List — check multiple narratives (multi-select), the chevron > shows each one’s details.
Most used — the same popularity sort as in the narrative bank: your most-used narratives on top, each with its counter as a purple badge.
+ Create a new finding — to write a narrative directly from this window if it doesn’t exist in the Bank yet.

Confirm: the chosen narratives immediately appear in the predefined findings list. Narratives already attached to the sub-section are excluded from the list — impossible to add duplicates.

Allow custom findings

The toggle at the bottom of the column. On by default: “The inspector can write free-form findings in addition to the predefined list.”

Turn it off only if you want the inspector strictly limited to predefined findings (a very constrained template, for example for a firm that wants maximum consistency).

Order by popularity

The second toggle at the bottom of the column. Off by default: the list keeps the manual order you defined by drag and drop.

When enabled, it replaces the manual order with an automatic ranking based on real usage: predefined findings appear from most used to least used, and each already-used finding carries a purple badge with its counter (e.g. “6×”).

Three things to remember:

The ranking is personal to each inspector. During the inspection, everyone sees their most-used findings first — the counter only counts their own reports, never their colleagues’. In a team, the same template therefore adapts to each person’s habits.
Drag and drop is disabled while the option is checked. Uncheck it to return to the manual order (it is preserved).
Never-used findings stay visible, after the others, in the template’s manual order.

This is a per-sub-section setting: you can keep the manual order on sub-sections where the sequence has a pedagogical meaning, and enable popularity on long-list sub-sections (Foundations, Roofing…) where finding your regulars fast matters more.

What about comments?

The Comments zone (free notes at the bottom of the sub-section, included in the report) is controlled from the sub-section’s Settings panel — see RT.5.

How many findings per sub-section?

No strict technical limit, but in practice:

Highly standardized sub-section (e.g. Foundations, Roofing) — 20 to 40 predefined findings. The BNQ template has 20 to 30 per sub-section.
Less frequent sub-section (e.g. Sump pump) — 5 to 15 findings.
Rare or highly specialized sub-section — 3 to 8 findings may be enough.

Too many findings can overwhelm the inspector. Too few force manual writing. Aim for the right balance based on the sub-section’s frequency in your practice.