Hold the PDF until they sign and pay

Holding the PDF until they sign and pay is a simple delivery policy with a practical software requirement. You need to generate the report while the inspection is fresh, review it before it leaves your hands, and still control when the client can open it. That is different from delaying report writing. Inspecta Home 360 is home inspection software that can keep the inspection, agreement, invoice, portal, and report on one job. It is software, not an inspector. It does not make findings, decide severity, or replace your professional judgment. Inspecta Home does not inspect houses and takes no cut of client payments.

Without a gate, the pressure is familiar. The agent wants the PDF immediately. The buyer is waiting for a roof answer. You send the attachment to be helpful, then discover that the agreement is unsigned or the invoice is still open. Once the document is forwarded, it cannot be recalled. A visible portal hold lets you be clear without donating a finished work product or bypassing the process your firm already chose.

Generate first, deliver second

Holding a report should not mean composing it after payment. The inspection record should contain the structured sections, findings, photos, recommendations, limitations, and summary needed to create a draft. Generate the PDF when the walk is complete. Review names, addresses, scope, captions, severity labels, and client-facing language. Fix errors while the property is still in your memory. Then publish the reviewed version into a controlled delivery state.

The hold applies to access, not to your ability to work. Office staff should be able to preview the report, see that it is ready, and identify what is blocking release. The client should see a plain explanation rather than a broken link. The agent should receive the same policy message rather than a private attachment from an inspector’s phone. A clear state is easier to defend than a vague “coming soon.”

Keep the canonical inspection data separate from its presentation. A web report and a PDF can derive from the same report model. If you edit a template later, a previously generated and delivered version should remain historically reproducible. Do not let a new cover page quietly rewrite a signed agreement or an already released report.

The gate needs two conditions

“Paid” alone is not enough if the agreement is still unsigned. “Signed” alone is not enough if the fee is still outstanding. The workflow should evaluate both conditions for the inspection and explain which one remains. The Hold until paid Help article covers the job-level setting, the client message, and the release behavior.

• The required agreement belongs to this inspection and has the acceptance record your firm requires.
• The invoice belongs to this inspection and is marked paid from an authenticated processor event.
• The portal explains whether the client needs to sign, pay, or complete both steps.
• The report is released only to authorized recipients after the gate clears.
• Any override is recorded on the job with a reason and the user who made it.

Do not mark an invoice paid because a client sent a screenshot. Do not release from an agent’s text message. Stripe or PayPal events need verification, matching, idempotency, and retry-safe handling. If the event is delayed, the job should remain visibly unpaid while staff gets a recovery path. A safe hold is better than a fast mistake.

Explain the hold before the inspection

Clients are less frustrated by a policy they saw before the appointment than by a surprise after the report is finished. Put the release rule in the booking confirmation, agreement message, and portal. Say what the client receives, where they sign, where they pay, and when the report opens. Avoid legalistic fog. “Your report is ready. Sign the agreement and pay the invoice to open it” is an actionable sequence.

The Client portal should make the sequence easy on a phone. The buyer can open the inspection, review the appointment, sign the agreement, pay the invoice, and return to the same job. The agent can have the access role your firm allows without receiving a forwarded copy that bypasses the gate. A portal is useful when it reduces handoffs, not when it adds another account with no explanation.

Let the portal distinguish client and agent access. The person who pays may not be the person who needs a report link. Permissions must be checked on the server, and a guessed report URL must not expose an inspection. The organization boundary applies to reports, agreements, invoices, photos, and every other tenant-scoped resource.

Agreements are historical records

An inspection agreement can be legally significant. Store the version, inspection, client, acceptance time, signature details, and relevant metadata. If you edit the default template next month, the agreement already sent to this client should not silently change. The hold should evaluate the actual agreement on the job, not whichever template happens to be current.

Service-specific work may need specific language. A 4-point inspection, a radon service, a reinspection, and a full home inspection may not share the same scope. Your template system should let the firm choose the right agreement and preserve the accepted copy. The report can explain limitations, but it should not be used as a substitute for a contract that was never signed.

Copilot can help draft a narrative or improve a sentence inside the report, but it cannot supply legal consent. Inspecta Copilot suggestions remain suggestions until you review them. The inspector remains responsible for observations, confirmed findings, severity, recommendations, and final report content. Payment automation should never be allowed to turn an uncertain AI observation into an authoritative conclusion.

Invoices are client money, not subscription money

Connect Stripe or PayPal under Firm Billing for client inspection fees. Account Billing is separate: it is the subscription that your company pays Inspecta Home for software access. The distinction matters when a client says they paid but an invoice is still open, or when an office manager sees a subscription card and assumes it is the job payment method. The job should show the invoice, provider reference, amount, and paid state in one place.

Inspecta Home 360 uses seats rather than a fee on every inspection. Solo is $119, Team is $169, and Scale is $229. Inspecta Copilot is included. Extra seats are $25, and there is a 7-day trial. There is no per-job fee, and Inspecta Home takes no cut of client payments. You keep the inspection revenue and decide whether a prepaid job should bypass the hold.

A prepaid exception still deserves a record. Turn off the gate on that job, note the reason, preserve the invoice as paid, and release through the same authorized portal or delivery path. Do not email an untracked copy while the job still says held. The next person on the team should be able to understand the state without searching personal inboxes.

Standards inform the report, not the payment decision

The InterNACHI Standards of Practice can help your firm define inspection scope and template sections. The ASHI resources provide additional professional context. Neither source says to release a report before your agreement and payment policy is satisfied. Standards, contracts, inspections, and billing each have a role.

Use the field writer to document what you observed, use the report model to render what you reviewed, and use the gate to control delivery. Do not let a sales promise, an AI draft, or a payment redirect rewrite the inspection. Clear boundaries are what make automation trustworthy.

When the gate clears

Release should be uneventful. The portal marks the report available, sends the notification your firm configured, and records when delivery occurred. The client opens the reviewed PDF or web report. The agent receives only the access your policy permits. If a notification fails, the report state and delivery attempt should remain visible so staff can retry without generating a second version.

Audit the exceptions. A report released manually, a payment reconciled after a delay, or an agreement corrected after sending should have a who, what, and when. That history helps an owner answer questions and keeps automation recoverable. The system should make the ordinary path fast while making unusual paths explainable.

Hold the PDF until they sign and pay when that policy protects your firm. Generate the work promptly, explain the requirements early, verify the two conditions, and deliver through the portal. For provider details, read home inspection software with payment processing. For the separate billing screens, read Stripe, PayPal, and the two kinds of billing. A gate is useful because it preserves your control without asking software to pretend it is the inspector.