When building templates in Visibuild, you can mark a task as a Hold point or a Witness point within your checklist. These task types sit alongside your other checklist tasks.
Hold points are critical checkpoints that make sure key requirements are met before work proceeds. Each hold point has a setting that controls how strictly it's enforced.
Witness points can be used in scenarios where a third party is required to observe that specific quality standards or criteria are being met.
How to add a hold point or witness point
When creating or editing a task in the template, you can choose from three task types: No type, Hold point or Witness point.
When the task is collapsed, it shows whether a Hold point or a Witness point has been added.
Hold point behaviours
There are two hold point behaviours:
Can be skipped is the default. If someone completes a later task while the hold point is still open, Visibuild asks for a reason and records the hold point as skipped. Managers can review skipped hold points in the project dashboard and on the Visi list.
Cannot be skipped blocks the Visis after the hold point until the hold point is closed. Nobody can skip it, including admins.
Use ''Cannot be skipped'' for checks where work must not continue until someone has signed off. Examples include contractual release points, safety-critical checks and regulated stages. For most checks, ''Can be skipped'' gives teams the flexibility they need, with a recorded reason and manager oversight.
It is strongly recommended to add reviewers on hold points to ensure the hold points are reviewed and ultimately closed by the appropriate person.
Setting a hold point's behaviour
In the template builder, add or select a task and set its type to Hold point.
Open the Hold point dropdown and choose Can be skipped or Cannot be skipped.
Publish the template.
Once a Visi has been created, its hold point behaviour can't be changed.
Key things to know about hold points
Hold points cannot be marked as N/A.
Hold and witness points can be filtered in the Visibuild web app.
Skipped hold points are monitored and surfaced to management for review.
Skipping a hold point
If the hold point is set to Can be skipped, and you complete a later task while it's still open, Visibuild asks for a reason. Enter the reason and continue. The hold point is recorded as skipped, and the reason appears on it.
A task after a hold point set to Can be skipped can be marked N/A, and doing so does not count as skipping the hold point. A task that is blocked by a hold point set to Cannot be skipped cannot be marked as N/A.
Finding and Reviewing skipped hold points
Alerting management encourages accountability and transparency, ensuring that any deviations from the established inspection protocol are documented and justified.
In the More filter option you can filter for "skipped hold points'', "Hold points blocking visis", ''Blocked by hold points"
What a ''Cannot be skipped'' hold point blocks
A hold point set to Cannot be skipped blocks the Visis that come after it in the same inspection, at the same location. This includes:
Tasks that come after the hold point in the checklist.
Tasks inside sub-inspections that come after the hold point.
Tasks before the hold point aren't affected. Hold points don't block tasks in other inspections.
Here's an example from a concrete pour inspection. Engineer's pre-pour sign-off is a hold point set to Cannot be skipped.
In this example:
Formwork set out and levelled and the Rebar install sub-inspection come before the hold point, so they aren't blocked. The rebar tasks can be completed as normal.
Slump test comes after the hold point, so it's blocked.
The Pour and finish sub-inspection also comes after the hold point, so it's blocked along with the tasks inside it: Pour and vibrate slab and Finish and cure slab.
When the engineer's pre-pour sign-off is closed, everything after it stops being blocked.
Hold points that are blocking Visis
A hold point set to Cannot be skipped shows a stop icon and a banner stating how many Visis it's blocking. Tapping the banner opens the checklist view, where you can see the blocked Visis.
What blocked Visis look like
A blocked Visi stays Open, but it's marked as blocked. On web, it shows a red Blocked badge. On mobile, it appears under a divider with the hold point it's waiting on. Hovering over the badge on web, or opening the Visi on mobile, shows which hold point is blocking it.
While a Visi is blocked, you can open it and add comments. You can't:
Complete the task, put it in review, or mark it N/A
Add or change attachments, requirements, documents or links
When a blocked Visi is no longer blocked
A blocked Visi stops being blocked when the blocking hold point is closed. Its activity feed shows a "no longer blocked" event.
A hold point set to Cannot be skipped can also be marked Can't Close. A reason is required. When that happens, the Visis it was blocking stop being blocked, and the reason is recorded in the activity feed.
If a closed hold point is re-opened, Visis that were completed after it stay closed. Any Visis that are still open become blocked again.
Offline
Hold points are enforced offline as well as online.
If you close a hold point set to Cannot be skipped while offline on the mobile app, you can carry on with the blocked tasks on that device.
Other devices and the web app won't let work continue until your close has synced. Get online as soon as you can after closing the hold point so that the work after it is unblocked everywhere.
If the app doesn't yet know that the hold point has been closed, you can't continue past it (for example if the hold point has been closed since the device was last online).
Mobile app version 8.9.2 or later is required.
Ad-hoc items and inspections
If you add a task or inspection on site to an inspection that was created from a template, the new item isn't blocked by hold points. A hold point added this way doesn't block anything either.