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Glossary
Incident Reporting Software
Incident Reporting Software for Managing Safety and Risk in CRE Operations
Key takeaways:
Incident reporting software gives CRE teams a structured way to capture what happened, where, and how it was handled, keeping evidence and resolution data connected in one operational record.
When AI is used to consistently log incidents across buildings, the data better supports accountability, compliance reviews, preventive maintenance, and portfolio-level risk decisions.
Visitt keeps incident reporting inside everyday building workflows, so incidents are documented, reviewed, and resolved in the same system used to run maintenance, compliance, and tenant operations.
What is incident reporting software?
Incident reporting software is the system a company or facility’s team uses to document unexpected events that interrupt normal operations:
- Safety and injury-related events
- Security and access-related issues
- Fire, alarm, and emergency incidents
- Property damage and system failures
- Operational disruptions affecting the continuity of service
It does this through time-stamped, searchable records that centralize the facts, evidence, and follow-up activity tied to each incident, helping teams investigate what happened, assign accountability, meet compliance requirements, and reduce future risk.
Reports are stored in a centralized system and include the following details:
- Incident date and time
- Exact location within the property or site
- What happened, written as observable facts
- People involved or present, including tenants, visitors, vendors, or staff
- Injuries or property damage, if any
- Immediate response taken
- Supporting evidence, such as photos or videos
This framework keeps reporting objective and repeatable, which becomes critical when incidents are reviewed during audits, claims, inspections, or internal investigations.
What capabilities does incident reporting software support in CRE?
Because commercial real estate (CRE) portfolios span multiple buildings and asset types, the best incident report software solutions are designed to scale across properties while preserving consistency. They standardize how safety, security, fire, and property-related incidents are recorded, while keeping each report connected to ongoing workflows such as work order management and CMMS activity, COI tracking, and commercial property inspections. As incidents accumulate, the system, powered by AI, organizes them into a structured dataset that can be examined across buildings using commercial real estate data analytics, supporting portfolio-wide oversight without fragmenting operational detail.
At a functional level, incident reporting software for CRE supports:
- Centralized incident records organized by property, location, and incident type
- Standardized incident categories covering safety, security, fire, property damage, and operational disruptions
- Timestamped reporting with audit trails that preserve when incidents were recorded and updated
- Evidence attachment such as photos or documents that remain linked to the incident record
- Connection to operational workflows, including work orders and amenities management
- Search and filtering tools that allow teams to retrieve incidents for inspections, claims, or internal review
- Portfolio-level visibility so incidents can be learned from and preventive maintenance deployed accordingly
Who uses online incident reporting software in CRE?
When an incident takes place, reporting software use becomes the responsibility of all major CRE stakeholders:
- Property managers maintaining the official building record
- Facility management teams tracking what triggered repairs, inspections, or shutdowns
- Security teams documenting access issues, breaches, and on-site evidence
- Risk management leaders reviewing exposure, patterns, and incident history
- Operations and asset teams assessing recurring issues that affect performance and planning
What is the process for resolving an incident with incident reporting software?
Incident reporting software supports resolution by keeping the incident intact as it moves through different hands.
- The incident is recorded soon after it occurs, while details are still clear and verifiable.
- The report is timestamped and categorized so it can be routed appropriately.
- Relevant stakeholders are notified based on the incident type and severity.
- Corrective actions such as repairs, inspections, or investigations are assigned and tracked.
- Outcomes are documented, creating a complete record of what was done and why.
- The incident becomes part of the property’s operational history, available for future review and analysis.
Why does your CRE firm need incident reporting software?
Incidents are a normal part of running buildings. Equipment fails, people make mistakes, systems misfire, and unexpected events disrupt daily operations. What has changed is the operating environment itself. CRE portfolios now depend on connected platforms, AI-driven building systems, cloud software, mobile teams, and third-party integrations that increase visibility and speed, while also widening the surface area for risk, beyond the operational and physical incidents the industry has traditionally experienced.
In the case of incidents caused by malicious offenders, the Palo Alto Networks’ 2025 Global Incident Response Report shows that modern incidents increasingly exploit misalignment between systems to cause maximum disruption. The same pattern applies across the spectrum of CRE incidents. When incidents are documented late, scattered across tools, or handled informally, accountability weakens, response slows, and risk compounds across portfolios.
AI-driven incident reporting software gives CRE firms a way to keep incident data centralized, visible, and traceable, making the difference between controlled response and compounding risk.
How is security incident reporting software used by CRE firms?
Accident and incident reporting software gives property teams a consistent and centralized way to record, manage, and follow up on events that affect daily building operations.
Documenting security incidents with clear, time-stamped records
Security incident reporting software is used to document unauthorized access, theft, vandalism, or system malfunctions as they occur. Security staff record what happened, where, and when, then attach photos or video from the scene. This creates a reliable system of record that supports investigations and insurance reviews, and coordinated response by the appropriate vendor or maintenance team.
Capturing safety incidents to support compliance and accountability
With safety incident reporting software, teams record safety-related events in a structured way that reflects what actually happened on site, from a slip or fall to a blocked exit or accessibility issue. Each report ties the incident to a specific location, identifies who was involved, and records response timing, so safety incident reporting stays consistent while corrective actions remain connected to building compliance software and broader risk and commercial real estate property management processes.
Managing fire and emergency incidents across buildings
After a fire is contained and the building is stabilized, CRE teams need to understand how the incident unfolded, how building systems responded, and whether communication flowed as expected. Fire incident reporting software preserves that sequence in one continuous record, so inspections and compliance reviews aligned with BOMA standards and commercial property inspection requirements can shape future fire protocols and preventive maintenance plans grounded in documented system behavior and response history.
Enabling mobile reporting from the point of occurrence
Through online incident reporting software, guards, engineers, and on-site staff submit incident reports directly from mobile devices. Photos, videos, and notes are captured in real time, then synced to smart building systems. This removes delays caused by desk-based reporting and allows faster coordination with equipment maintenance, predictive maintenance, and resource management software.
Using incident data to reduce future risk across portfolios
Risk management incident reporting software platforms connect incidents directly to work order management and CMMS solutions, when physical assets are involved. A leak, broken door, elevator fault, or HVAC failure moves from incident report to tracked repair, with its full context preserved inside maintenance records that inform AI in commercial real estate insights over time. This helps property teams identify early signs of risk, anticipate future issues, and make more informed decisions that shape operations, capital planning, and long-term portfolio strategy.
What does safety incident reporting look like with Visitt?
Visitt helps property teams create incident reporting templates directly within work orders, so incident documentation happens in the same centralized platform where building operations are already managed. Teams pre-build templates with the right incident category, description fields, and checklists. When an incident occurs, the template is loaded, the specifics are filled in, photos and notes are attached while details are fresh, and the record is saved, fully timestamped and tied to the property.
Because incidents are saved under a dedicated incident reporting category, they stay easy to locate long after the issue is taken care of. Property teams can pull complete records when questions come up around claims, audits, or board requests, without stitching together emails or spreadsheets. That incident history sits alongside tenant operations and communications information, creating a single operational record that shows not only what happened, but how it was handled and resolved.
See what connected incident reporting can do for your portfolio.
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