Pre-installation site readiness checklist for equipment dealers

Why readiness is a decision, not a form

A pre-installation survey is only useful if somebody acts on it before the visit is locked in. Collecting answers is the easy part. The hard parts are knowing which answer blocks the job, noticing a missing answer in time, and recording who decided that the site is ready.

That is why this checklist is split into three kinds of items: measurements the customer takes on site and compares against the equipment, yes/no confirmations where a “no” stops the job, and context (photos, notes) that helps your team judge the answer but should never be a barrier on its own.

The checklist

1. Delivery route and access

• Narrowest point on the route: door, corridor, elevator or loading door — measured, not estimated. Compare it with the equipment's shipping width from your own catalog, not with the installed width.
• Route clear on the day: nothing stored in corridors, no construction blocking the path, stairs or ramps known in advance.
• Loading area: reserved for the delivery window, with the time the building allows deliveries.
• Photo of the narrowest access point with a tape measure in frame — optional, but it settles most follow-up questions.

2. Utilities at the installation point

• Power: the available voltage and phases, matched against the equipment's requirement. An “other” answer should go to a person, not be guessed.
• Water and drain where the equipment needs them, at the installation point rather than somewhere in the room.
• Gas, compressed air or network where the model requires them, correctly identified.

3. Space and foundation

• Final position: footprint plus the service clearance the manufacturer specifies.
• Foundation or floor: complete and, for concrete, cured — confirmed by the customer, ideally with a photo of the footprint and anchor locations.

4. Schedule and people

• Installation window the customer can actually offer.
• Decision date: the latest day your office has to decide go or no-go, early enough to re-plan the crew.
• Who is on site to open doors and sign off, and how to reach them.

5. The customer's confirmation

Before submitting, the customer should confirm that the measurements were taken on site and entered accurately. It turns a guess into a statement, and it gives your office a clear basis when a measurement later turns out to be wrong.

Who answers, who decides

Worked example: an ice machine that would not have fit

Fictional example. The model is from InstallCue's demo catalog, whose manufacturers are invented; your own catalog holds your real models.

A dealer is due to install a Frostline ProIce 900 ice machine at a restaurant. The coordinator creates a readiness request from the “Commercial ice machine” starter template and attaches the model, so its shipping width (760 mm, about 29.9 in) comes from the catalog. The site contact receives one secure link.

1. Day 1Sent
   Request goes out

   The customer opens the link on a phone. No account, no app. Progress is saved, so the survey can be finished after measuring.

2. Day 2Blocked
   Two blockers, named exactly

   The narrowest doorway is measured at 28 in — below the machine's shipping width, and the shortfall is shown. The customer also answers “no” to a drain at the installation point. Both are flagged the moment they are saved, with the reason, before anybody books a crew.

3. Day 4Needs review
   Blockers resolved, with a reason

   The restaurant arranges to take the door off its hinges on delivery day and a plumber adds a floor drain. A reviewer on your team resolves each blocker and records the reason; once the last one is closed, the request returns to Needs review.

4. Day 5Ready
   A person marks it Ready

   A reviewer reads the answers, sees the confirmation that measurements were taken on site and marks the site Ready. The install pack — answers, photos and notes — is printed or saved as PDF for the crew.

Without the check, the most likely outcome was a crew at the door with a crate that does not fit and no drain to connect to — found out on site instead of four days earlier.

Four statuses are enough

• Needs information — required answers are missing. Chase the customer, not the crew.
• Blocked — an answer is below the requirement or a required confirmation is “no”. Someone has to fix the site, or you re-plan.
• Needs review — everything is answered and no blocker is open. A person looks at it.
• Ready — a person decided. Only now does the visit go ahead as planned.

Tie every open request to a decision date a few days before the installation. If the date passes without Ready, the visit is at risk — and you know it while there is still time to move it.

Build it with a form, or use a readiness tool?

A generic form builder can collect every item on this checklist, and for a handful of installations a year that may be all you need. The gaps show once volume grows: comparing measurements against each model's requirement, keeping one link per job that expires, reminding the customer before the decision date, and recording who approved what.

InstallCue is built for exactly that step and nothing around it. It does not replace your scheduling, dispatch or field service software; it sits in front of it and hands over a site that a person on your team has marked Ready.

How InstallCue runs this checklist

• 15 starter templates — ten basic ones (CNC machines, packaging and processing lines, automation cells, HPLC, LC/MS and GC/MS, liquid handlers, commercial ice machines, dishwashers, walk-in refrigeration and a generic template) and five detailed trade checklists (heat pump, solar PV with battery storage, wallbox, split air conditioning, kitchen installation) — all editable.
• One secure customer link per job, in English, German, French or Italian, with conditional questions, save and resume, and optional photo upload from the phone camera.
• Deterministic blockers: required answers, “no” on a blocking confirmation and measurements compared against the equipment data in your catalog. Photos are never approved by AI.
• Human Ready: only an admin or reviewer can mark a site Ready, and the decision is written to the audit trail.
• Decision deadlines and reminders: a configurable number of days before installation (default three), plus automatic reminders to the customer.
• Install pack for the crew, printable or saved as PDF.

Use it with your own equipment: get started or see the plans and prices.