Risk scoring : a score from the very first field visit
How do you turn a field visit into a scored decision, without rereading every file line by line? Certificall now builds risk scoring directly into its data collection templates. Each answer captured on site earns points, positive or negative. The file reaches the decision-maker with its score already calculated.
The essentials in 30 seconds
- A risk scoring grid assigns points to the answers in a template: a choice, a date, a number.
- The total appears on the file record, in the Certificall admin console.
- Points can be negative: good practice lowers the risk score, an aggravating factor raises it.
- Certificall configures the scoring grid on request, based on each client's business criteria.
What is risk scoring in a Certificall template?
Risk scoring is a points grid that turns the answers from a field inspection into a single score that can be read at a glance.
A Certificall template is the step-by-step flow followed on site: questions, photos, documents, signature. Until now, the decision-maker received these answers and had to interpret them alone. With the scoring grid, interpretation happens at the moment of capture, according to rules written in advance.
Each rule links an answer to a number of points. "Building constructed after 1997" removes points. "Open-flame heating in the workshop" adds a lot of them. The total gives an immediate reading of the level of risk described.
Negative points matter. They reward good practice instead of only counting defects. Two sites with the same defect do not weigh the same if one of them offsets it with solid prevention.
Insurance risk survey: scoring an industrial joinery at the point of capture
Take an illustrative scenario. An insurer assesses an industrial joinery business before offering a commercial multi-risk policy. Its risk surveyor fills in a Certificall template on site.
| Captured answer (illustrative grid, fictitious values) | Points |
|---|---|
| Annual electrical inspection carried out | -3 |
| Fire extinguishers checked within the year | -2 |
| Building constructed after 1997 | -3 |
| Battery charger inside the workshop | +3 |
| Wood shavings stored less than 10 m from the building | +4 |
| Open-flame heating in the premises | +8 |
The logic follows an underwriter's reasoning. A single ignition source, such as open-flame heating, weighs more than several good practices combined. The final score supports the decision: accept as is, request prevention measures or adjust the premium.
For a broker or an insurer, the insurance risk survey becomes a steering tool. The score serves underwriting, then risk monitoring from one year to the next. When the survey is done remotely, the policyholder can capture the evidence themselves through a secure CertiLink capture link.
From the field to the decision, in three steps
With Certificall, risk scoring turns every captured answer into points, and every file into a score.
The scoring grid applies at the very moment of capture, with no re-entry and no manual calculation once the visit is over:
- Capture: the person on site completes the template steps, with certified photos and answers.
- Score: each answer adds or removes points according to the client's rules.
- Decide: the total shown on the file record guides the next step: acceptance, inspection or adjustment.
Energy efficiency schemes: prioritising heat pump site inspections
A second illustrative scenario, outside insurance. In France, the energy savings certificate scheme (CEE) funds renovation work and requires site inspections. A stakeholder in the scheme asks the installer to fill in a template at the end of a heat pump installation.
The questions cover how the work was carried out: whether a sizing study was done, whether the old equipment was removed, whether a subcontractor was involved. Each answer earns points according to the risk of non-compliance it signals.
The score is then used to rank files. Files with the highest scores move to the top of the inspection queue. The scoring grid also prepares a possible accredited on-site inspection, by targeting the sites that justify it.
The time-stamped photo remains the evidence of the work. The scoring grid directs the inspector's attention.
What the score measures, and what it does not measure yet
What the score measures
How the declared answers match the client's criteria, calculated instantly and in the same way for every file.
What it does not measure today
Whether those declarations are accurate. The scoring grid does not check an answer against the photos in the file.
Today, field inspection scoring is based on questions and declarations about the site or the work. That is the case in both scenarios above. Someone who declares that the extinguishers were checked gets the points, whether the statement is accurate or not.
This is where Certificall certification plays its part. Each answer is time-stamped and linked to a location and a device. The Trust Score flags abnormal capture conditions: simulated location, emulated device, or a photo taken of a screen.
The scoring grid answers the question "what risk does this file describe?". The Trust Score answers "can we rely on the way it was captured?". The photos in the file remain available to check any declaration that weighs heavily in the score.
Field inspection scoring: how to activate it with Certificall
The scoring grid is available on request. Certificall's teams configure it with the client, based on the client's own criteria: which questions are scored, how many points per answer, and in which direction.
Once in place, the grid and the points for each step appear on the file record. The total is displayed as soon as a score has been recorded. Duplicating a template keeps its scoring grid, which makes variants by business line or region easier.
Organisations that want to retrieve the score in their own software can consider it now, on request, through the API or a webhook. An API lets two software systems exchange data. A webhook automatically sends information as soon as an event occurs. Technical details are available in the Certificall documentation.
For a photo certification app, moving from evidence to decision support changes what the tool is for. With Certificall, the same certified file serves both as evidence and as the basis for a decision.
Contact us to integrate Certificall into your business processes
A scoring grid built on your criteria, a score on every file.
The questions we really get asked about risk scoring
- ❓ Who defines the points in the scoring grid?
- The client defines its criteria and their weight. Certificall's teams turn these criteria into rules in the template. The grid belongs to each client and can change over time.
- ❓ Does the score appear in the PDF certificate?
- No. The score and the points for each step are displayed on the file record, in the Certificall admin console.
- ❓ Does the score check the answers against the photos?
- Not today. The scoring grid rates the declared answers. Their reliability rests on the certification of the capture (date, location, device) and on the file's Trust Score.
- ❓ Can the score be retrieved in our own software?
- Yes, transmission through the API or a webhook can be considered now, on request to your Certificall contact.
- ❓ Which industries can use risk scoring?
- Any industry that collects field information to make a decision: insurance, energy efficiency schemes, construction, real estate, quality control. The scoring grid adapts to each business's criteria.
