Use this guide to report what happened on site, add injury, near-miss, property-damage, environmental, and security records, close the incident, export it as a PDF, and configure the forms your project captures. It covers desktop web, mobile web, and the native app.
Start here
- I report what happened: Report an incident → Review records and attachments.
- I close the record: Close or reopen an incident.
- I send the record to someone outside Constructable: Download an incident PDF.
- I set up the forms: Configure incident settings.
- Something is missing or blocked: Start with Troubleshooting Incidents.
Common task recipes
- Log a near miss before the end of the shift: Open Incidents, select New Incident, fill Title and Occurred, and select Create Incident. On the incident, select Add Record and choose Near Miss.
- Add a second record later: Open the incident, select Add Record, and choose another type such as Property Damage.
- Send the report to the owner or your insurer: Open the incident, open its actions menu, and choose Download PDF.
- Shape the form for this job: Open Incident Settings, pick Incident details or a record type under Forms, then Add Field or Add Section.
Understand access and workflow
Understand how Incidents work
Incidents under Field Tools is the project's safety log: one incident for the event, then one or more records for what actually happened. It is not the same tool as a list whose type is Incidents under Lists — that list still uses punch-item assignment and review. See Understand Lists and list types.
Report → records for what happened → attachments and custom fields → Open → Closed
- Open is the working record. Anyone with write access can keep editing it.
- Closed is the finished safety record. Closing needs Close and reopen incidents.
- Draft is only the in-progress create form. Drafts do not appear on the Incidents index.
Every project comes with an incident type named General and five record types: Injury/Illness, Near Miss, Property Damage, Environmental, and Security. You report the event first, then add a record for each outcome once the incident exists.
The forms come pre-built, too. The incident itself asks for reporting details, an investigation (hazard, contributing conditions and behaviors, root cause), witness statements, and corrective actions — the last two repeat, so you can add one entry per witness or per action. Each record type brings its own details: an injury record asks about the person affected, the injury, and treatment and classification; near-miss, property-damage, and environmental records each have a details section of their own. A security record's details section covers the company affected, the type — theft, vandalism, trespass or unauthorized access, break-in, arson, threat or assault, or other — what was stolen or damaged, whether a police report was filed and its number, and the estimated cost impact. Change any of it in Incident Settings.
Permissions, visibility, and platform availability
Incidents splits access four ways, and holding some without the others is normal.
- View incidents opens Incidents and the records themselves, and covers Download PDF.
- Report incidents, make changes to existing incidents covers New Incident, editing overview fields, adding records, attachments, custom field values, and Delete.
- Close and reopen incidents is what turns the status control into Mark as Closed or Mark as Open. Without it, status is a disabled label.
- Manage incident settings, including incident types opens Incident Settings and the form editor. List custom fields still use Configure custom field definitions; incident forms do not.
Administrators, managers, and employees receive view and write by default. Close/reopen and settings default to administrators and managers. Subcontractor, consultant, and owner roles do not receive Incidents by default.
Incidents is part of the Project Management package, which the Financial package also includes. An organization on the Field package alone doesn't get Incidents under Field Tools, whatever its roles allow.
Once you can view incidents, the index, an open incident, reporting, and PDF export work on desktop web, mobile web, and the app.
- On web, Incident Settings and New Incident sit in the Incidents header.
- In the app, New Incident is the + button in the header. Form setup stays on web under Incident Settings.
Troubleshooting Incidents
Most surprises here are a permission, a filter, or mixing this tool up with a Lists Incidents list. Find your symptom and work through the checks in order.
Incidents is missing from Field Tools
Check the package first: Incidents needs the Project Management package (or Financial, which includes it). On the Field package alone, the tool doesn't appear for anyone.
If your organization has the package, your role needs View incidents. Ask an administrator to check Incidents in Project Settings → Roles and Permissions. A Lists shortcut named Incidents is a punch list, not this tool.
New Incident is missing
Confirm Report incidents, make changes to existing incidents. View access opens the log but does not create records.
Incident Settings is missing
That control is on the web Incidents header and needs Manage incident settings, including incident types. It is not in the app header.
An incident I just started isn't in the list
The create form saves a Draft titled Draft until you select Create Incident. Drafts stay off the index. Open New Incident again and the form resumes your latest draft.
I can't close an incident
Closing needs Close and reopen incidents. Write access lets you edit the record; it does not change Open / Closed.
Custom fields I expected aren't on the form
The New Incident form only shows fields from Incident details. Fields that belong to a record type appear on the record after you select Add Record, not while you're reporting. If a field is missing from either place, open Incident Settings and check that form. Fields live there, not on Lists → Custom Fields. A record type turned Off isn't offered under Add Record.
Report and review
Report an incident
Get the event on the log while the facts are still in front of you. The form asks what happened and when; the injury, near-miss, damage, environmental, or security details go on records you add once the incident exists.
- Open Incidents under Field Tools.
- Select New Incident. In the app, use the + button in the header.
- Enter a Title. That's required.
- Set Occurred. It defaults to now.
- Optionally pick a Location, write a Description, and add Attachments. You can pull in project photos you've already uploaded.
- Fill in the incident form's custom fields — reporting, investigation, witness statements, corrective actions, or whatever your project has set up.
- Select Create Incident.
Title and Occurred are the only required built-in fields. Required custom fields also block save — but a required field inside a repeating section, like a witness's name, only matters once you add an entry to that section. While attachments are still uploading, the button reads Uploading attachments....
If you already have a draft of your own, New Incident reopens it instead of starting a second one. Cancel on a draft deletes it and returns you to the index — that draft never becomes an Open incident.
You now have an Open incident on the log, numbered and ready for its records.
Where do I record the injury or near-miss details?
On a record. Open the incident, select Add Record, and choose the type — Injury/Illness, Near Miss, Property Damage, Environmental, or Security. The record opens with that type's fields. Add as many as the event needs; a fall that hurt someone and damaged a lift gets one of each, and a weekend break-in that wrecked the site office gets Security and Property Damage.
Why does New Incident reopen something called Draft?
Leaving the form mid-way keeps a draft so you don't lose the attachments you already started. Finish it with Create Incident, or Cancel to throw the draft away.
Review an incident and add records
Open an incident when you need the overview, the records underneath it, or the activity of who changed what. The index is the place to find it; the incident page is where the story lives.
On Incidents, filter Open, Closed, or All, and search with Search by number, title, or location. The grid shows Number, Title, Occurred, Location, Status, Reported By, and Records. Drafts never appear here.
Select a row to open the incident. You'll see:
- Overview — title, occurred time, location, reported-by, and any standalone fields from Incident details
- Description
- The sections from Incident details, such as reporting, investigation, witness statements, and corrective actions
- Records, with Add Record
- Attachments
- Activity Log, including custom field edits
To add a record, select Add Record in the Records block and choose a type that's turned on. The new record opens right away so you can fill in its fields. Empty copy reads No records yet. If every record type is turned off, Add Record doesn't appear.
Delete on a record asks Delete record? — that record is gone from the incident. Deleting a record needs write access.
You now have the event, the records, and the files in one place the safety team can close.
What's the difference between the incident and a record?
The incident is the event — when and where, plus the overall description. A record is one kind of outcome: someone was hurt, a near miss, damaged property, an environmental release, or a security event such as theft or trespass. One incident can hold several.
Close or reopen an incident
Close the incident when the record is complete enough to leave the open list. Reopen it when a fact still needs to change.
On web, the status control next to the title shows Open or Closed. With Close and reopen incidents, open it and choose Mark as Closed or Mark as Open. Without that permission, the same control is a disabled button showing the current status.
In the app, those same Mark as actions sit in the incident's actions menu.
Closing does not lock the fields. Write access can still edit an Open or Closed incident; status is a separate permission from editing.
The index Open filter hides Closed incidents, which is usually what you want once the record is finished. Use All when you need history.
Download an incident PDF
When the owner, your insurer, or the corporate safety team needs the report and doesn't log in to Constructable, export the incident as a PDF. Each incident prints its overview, description, custom fields and sections, and every record with its own fields, followed by its attachments if you include them.
For one incident:
- Open the incident.
- Open the actions menu — Actions next to the status control on web, or the ⋯ button in the app header.
- Choose Download PDF.
For several at once, use the Incidents index:
- Filter Open, Closed, or All, and search or filter until the grid shows exactly the incidents you want.
- Open Download above the grid and choose Download as PDF.
The PDF covers every incident the grid is showing, so the filters are your selection. Incidents print in number order, one after another, in a single file.
If any of the incidents have attachments — files on the incident or in an attachment custom field on the incident or one of its records — the Export Incident PDF dialog opens first with an Attachments option, already turned on, showing how many there are. Leave it on to append each incident's photos and PDF attachments right after that incident; turn it off for a lighter file with just the report pages. When there are no attachments, the download starts straight away. Either way, you'll see Exporting PDF... while the file builds.
Note: A PDF has no permissions once it leaves Constructable. Read it through for injured workers' details and other sensitive information before you send it.
An attachment is missing from the PDF
An attachment that can't be read is skipped so the rest of the export still finishes. Open the incident and check that the file opens there, then export again.
You now have a single file that tells the whole story of the incident to someone who's never seen the project.
Delete an incident
Delete an incident that should not stay on the log — a duplicate, or a draft you meant to abandon from the incident page rather than Cancel.
- Open the incident.
- Open the actions menu — Actions on web, or ⋯ in the app header — and choose Delete.
- Confirm Delete incident?.
The incident leaves the Incidents list. There's no restore on this screen. Deleting a draft from the create form with Cancel does the same thing before the incident is ever Open, and that delete does not write an activity event.
Configure forms
Configure incident settings and forms
The built-in title, time, location, and description cover the event, and the default forms cover the usual safety questions. When your process needs something they don't — a permit number, a client's own classification, a repeating list of equipment involved — put those fields on the incident form or on a record type.
- Open Incidents.
- Select Incident Settings in the header.
- Under Forms, choose Incident details or a record type in Records.
- Select Add Field or Add Section. Empty copy reads Capture the details your team needs, with Fields and Sections cards explaining the difference.
- Enter a Name and choose a Type: Text, Rich Text, Number, Date, Date and Time, Checkbox, Single Select, Multi Select, User, Company, Cost Code, Location, or Attachment. Cost Code picks one of the cost codes enabled on the project, and Location picks one of the project's locations.
- Turn on Required when the incident or record shouldn't save without a value.
- For Single Select or Multi Select, add Options — each option on a field needs its own name, ignoring capitalization, or you'll see An option with this name already exists. For User or Company, set Choose from to the project team or the directory, and Allow multiple when more than one value is allowed.
- Turn on Has many entries on a section when people should fill it out more than once — one entry per injured person, one per material involved.
Each record type in Records can be turned on or off. Off hides it from Add Record. Reorder record type changes its order in that menu.
New projects start with these forms already filled in — the reporting, investigation, witness-statement, and corrective-action sections on Incident details, and a details layout on each record type. Edit, remove, or add to them the same way you would a field you created.
Filling in the values still uses Report incidents, make changes to existing incidents. Building the form uses Manage incident settings, including incident types.
A project created from a template copies the incident type, which record types are on, and the form layouts. It does not copy incident records.
Set the forms once and every report on the project asks for the same details.
Should this go on Incident details or on a record type?
Put facts about the event — weather, shift, who reported it beyond Reported By — on Incident details. Put facts that belong to one outcome — body part on Injury/Illness, substance on Environmental — on that record type so they only appear on records of that type. Keep anything you need at the moment of reporting on Incident details, since the New Incident form shows only those fields.
Why isn't this the same Custom Fields page as Lists?
Lists configure fields per list with Configure custom field definitions. Incidents configure fields per incident type and record type here. The editor looks the same; the permission and the page are different.