BuildingReports Blog

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed into law March 27th, 2020 included over $2 trillion in economic relief to help offset the impacts of COVID-19. It also included tax savings for businesses, including options for commercial and industrial facilities to take advantage of Qualified Improvement Property (QIP) investments under section 168 of the Act. According to accounting firm KBKG, Qualified Improvement Property (QIP) is defined as any improvement made by the taxpayer to an interior portion of a building that is nonresidential real property as long as that improvement is placed in service after the building was first placed in service by any taxpayer (Section 168(k)(3)).” For full details, download the PDF from the IRS.

This is part 1 of a 2-part series to help consolidate important information for Service Members for easy reference. The information contained here is accurate as of April 10, 2020. Part 2 will focus on what we’re hearing from Members and AHJs regarding the challenges, processes and opportunities they are experiencing in the field and office.

The following is part of an ongoing series of thought leadership contributions from BuildIngReports' network of over 900 Service Members during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that facility management professionals, especially those with more downtime than normal, find them useful in advancing their knowledge during this time. Thank you to Guardian Security and Bob Vezzani for the contribution!

When annual fire inspection time rolls around – or, a property receives notification that the fire department wants to see an inspection completed on demand – it can be a stressful time for managers of a commercial property. To address this, here are some recommendations for businesses of all sizes.

LiveArchive is a sticker with a unique QR code that is placed near or in a building’s control panel, as well as in other areas such as utility rooms or wherever your fire and life safety equipment is stored. LiveArchive QR codes can be placed in multiple locations within a facility providing users with a variety of access points to compliance documentation, creating redundancy in the event that equipment with a QR code is moved or replaced.

BuildingReports and Edwards United Technologies (EST) are pleased to announce the continuation of the export and import tool launched for the EST3 with the new EST4 panel. With the EST-3 panel, BuildingReports users are able to export a special .brc file from the EST-3 System Definition Utility. Now, with the new EST-4 panel, users can follow a similar process to export a file from the EST-4 software interface to avoid having to manually build a device database in the BuildingReports system.

Here is a summary of the new devices - and updates to existing devices - coming to ScanSeries soon. BuildingReports always recommends keeping your application up to date with the latest version to ensure you have the latest features and functionality, and to keep current with changes to your device's operating system. However, due to the nature of this update you will see the changes automatically with no app store update required.

Service Members who subscribe to DocDrive, a web service that enables the storage and sharing of any document in any file format in the BuildingReports portal, now have access automatically enabled for the new interactive floor plan feature. Accounts with floor plans allow for the upload of building floor plan images so that inspectors can use icons to denote the physical location of a device being inspected. Icons are color-coded to indicate the status of each devices.

BuildingReports recently added a new feature for Building Owner users with multiple Building Owner accounts, allowing them to consolidate those accounts under one set of login credentials. This will give Building Owners convenient access to all of their inspection reports within one combined view, regardless of whether or not they work with one or multiple BuildingReports Service Members.

As August 13^th draws closer, U.S. federal agencies are still attempting to comply with Congress’s ban passed last year which takes effect on that date. Recently, two prominent security camera manufacturers have been identified as having vulnerabilities that can allow unauthorized parties to gain administrative access over the devices. Other manufacturers and devices are also named in the US Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team advisory and subsequent legislation that effectively banned their use by Federal agencies on that date:

The following is a reprint from the October 2018 issue of Industrial Fire World Magazine. The article has been reproduced in its entirety for your convenience, but you can also read the original by clicking here.

According to a 2002 report by the National Fire Protection Association, an average of 228 fires or explosions were reported in or at petroleum refineries or natural gas plants per year from 1994 to 1998. A more recent April 2016 report uncovered the following statistics: