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Create one in the report editor: ⋮ Report Tools → Create Sample Report. Find them in the dashboard: Business Tools → Sample Reports.

A sample report is a copy of one of your real reports, with the client, the agents and the address swapped for made-up ones. Share it with agents and people shopping for an inspector, so they can see the quality of your work before they book. The Sample Reports page with a Refresh button, a Total 4 badge, a search box and four samples: Townhome Inspection Sample (Generating, Two-story townhome, 2004), Full Home Inspection Sample (Completed, Single-family home built in 1998, with radon and sewer scope), New Construction Sample (Completed, Final walkthrough on a new build) and Pre-Listing Inspection Sample (Completed). Completed samples have View, Copy Link, PDF and delete buttons. A tip at the bottom says sample reports use anonymized contact information and property addresses

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Create a sample report

You make a sample from a report in the web report editor. The mobile app can’t create samples.
1

Pick a good report

Choose a finished report that shows your work at its best: clear photos, well-written comments and a range of findings. Open it in the report editor (on the inspection, click Edit Reports, then Edit next to the report).Before you start, read What the sample keeps from the original. Some details are copied as they are.
2

Open Report Tools

Click the ⋮ button at the top of the editor, next to In-Report Photo Bank.The report editor's top bar: the report name Home Inspection Report, then Preview, CYA, In-Report Photo Bank, a three-dot button, Save, Publish and PDFThe Report Tools window opens. Under Order Management, click Create Sample Report.The Report Tools window: Tools and settings for Home Inspection Report. Report Editing has Defect Summary, Flagged Comments and Other Reports. Order Management has Inspection Order Page, Generate Reinspection, Create Sample Report (Publish a shareable sample based on this report) and Copy Report To
3

Name it and create it

Type a Report Name, for example Full Home Inspection Sample. People see this name when you share the sample, so make it describe the home or the inspection type. Add a Description if you like, such as “Single-family home built in 1998, with radon and sewer scope”.The Create Sample Report window: Report Name Full Home Inspection Sample, Description Single-family home built in 1998, with radon and sewer scope, a note that the sample report will use placeholder data for Property address, Client contact information, Buyer agent details and Listing agent details, and that custom field values used in the report (e.g. county, permit numbers) are carried over as-is, and Cancel and Create Sample Report buttonsClick Create Sample Report.
4

Wait for it to finish

You see Sample Report Creation Started. Hive builds the sample and its PDF in the background. This can take up to 15 minutes. You can close the window and keep working.Sample Report Creation Started: It may take up to 15 minutes to generate the PDF report. You can close this and check back in: Business Tools, Sample Reports. A Done buttonGo to Business Tools → Sample Reports to find it. It shows Generating while it’s being built and Completed when it’s ready to share. The page checks again by itself every 30 seconds, or click Refresh.
The sample is a snapshot of the report at the moment you clicked Create Sample Report, including changes you hadn’t saved yet. Changing the original report later doesn’t change the sample. To update a sample, create a new one and delete the old one. The original inspection and report aren’t changed.

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What the sample replaces

Hive puts made-up details in place of the real ones, everywhere they appear through placeholders (for example in the report header, the summary and the PDF): A shared sample report opened in the browser: JANUARY 15, 2024, 123 Sample Street, Demo City, ST 12345, Built 2010, 2,400 sq ft, a cover photo of a row of townhomes, then Client John Sample, Inspector Alex Rivera with email, license and digital signature, Buyer's Agent Jane Agent of Sample Realty Group and Listing Agent Bob Broker of Demo Real Estate. View Summary and PDF buttons are at the top

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What the sample keeps from the original

These are copied as they are. Check them before you create the sample, or pick a report where they don’t matter:
  • Your comments, photos and videos. Only placeholders are replaced. If you typed the client’s name, the street or the house number into a comment, it stays in the sample.
  • The cover photo. The sample uses the report’s real cover photo. If it shows the house number or a recognizable home, click Use a different cover photo for this report under the photo in the editor first, or choose another report.
  • Photos that show identifying details, such as a house number, a mailbox or paperwork.
  • Custom field values used in the report, such as a county or permit number.
  • Your company and the inspector: logo, colors, report settings, and the inspector’s name, photo, signature, license and contact details. That’s what makes the sample show off your business.
A good routine: open the report, use Search entire report to look for the client’s last name and the street name, fix anything you find, then create the sample.

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Share a sample report

Once a sample shows Completed, it has these buttons:
  • View: opens the sample the way other people will see it.
  • Copy Link: copies the sample’s web link (it says Copied!). Paste it into an email, a text, a social post or your website.
  • PDF: opens the PDF of the sample.
Anyone with the link can open it. They don’t need to sign in or have a Hive account. The sample shows your logo and branding, and lets them switch between the Full Report and the Summary and download the PDF. Payment and agreement banners and repair quote buttons are hidden on samples. The link keeps working until you delete the sample.

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Show your samples on your public page

Your Public Page (Business Tools → Public Page) lists every completed sample report in its Sample Reports section (headed See a real report before you book unless you renamed it), newest first. To hide one, open the Details tab and switch it off under Sample reports. The Sample reports group on the Public Page's Details tab, with a switch for each completed sample: Full Home Inspection Sample, New Construction Sample and Pre-Listing Inspection Sample, all on

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Put a sample on your own website

Use Copy Link and add the link to a button or a menu item on your website, for example “See a sample report”. The PDF link works too, if you’d rather people download a file.

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Find and delete sample reports

Type in the search box to find a sample by its name or description. To delete a sample, click the red trash button on it and confirm Delete. This can’t be undone: the sample, its PDF and its link stop working for everyone you shared it with. You can’t rename a sample. Create a new one with the new name and delete the old one.

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Who can create and see sample reports

Anyone who can open the report editor can create a sample. Everyone who can open Business Tools can see, share and delete your company’s samples. See Team permissions. There’s no limit on how many samples you can have. Two or three is usually enough: for example a full home, a condo and a new build.

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Common questions

Up to 15 minutes, while Hive builds the PDF. The page updates by itself. If it still says Generating after half an hour, message us in the chat bubble.
Delete it and create it again from the report. If it fails again, message us in the chat bubble with the sample’s name and we’ll rebuild it.
No. A sample is made from a report written in Hive. Imported PDFs can’t be turned into samples. Many inspectors rewrite one old report in Hive for this.
No. The sample is a copy from the moment you created it. Create a new sample, then delete the old one.
The sample keeps its own copy of the report text, so edits to the original don’t reach it, and deleting the inspection doesn’t remove the sample.The sample does show the original’s photo files. If you later replace the original inspection’s cover photo, the sample can lose its cover photo. Create a new sample if that happens.
Message us in the chat bubble and we can add a Spanish PDF to a sample. People then choose English or Spanish when they download the PDF.
No. Open the report in the web dashboard’s report editor.

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Watch how it works

This video shows the same steps. The menu has moved since it was recorded: the Create Sample Report option is now in the Report Tools window (the ⋮ button in the editor).

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Where to go next

Last modified on October 20, 2026