About Elevate Building Commissioning (BCx)

Elevate BCx is a specialist building commissioning consultancy based in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to ensuring high-performing, energy-efficient, and reliable building systems. Known for its hands-on site presence and deep technical expertise in complex MEP systems the team delivers high-quality assurance for building owners and their representatives across the full project lifecycle, from early design through post-occupancy.

As the company grew, manual reporting processes and fragmented issue tracking made it increasingly difficult to maintain the consistency and clarity their clients relied on. Implementing PlanRadar allowed Elevate BCx to digitize site reporting, centralize commissioning issues, and streamline communication with contractors, resulting in faster reporting cycles and a smoother, more transparent project experience.

“PlanRadar gave us the flexibility to keep our reporting identity while eliminating all the manual work behind it, cutting 75% of the time it took to create each report. It changed how quickly and clearly we communicate with our clients.” Caleb Aring, Co-Founder and Principal, Elevate BCx

The Challenge

Before adopting PlanRadar, Elevate BCx faced significant challenges producing its signature site visit reports, a cornerstone of how the company communicates with owners and contractors.

Each report combined detailed technical observations, issue tracking, and photographic documentation. However, producing them was time-intensive and inconsistent:

• Reports were built manually in Adobe Forms, involving heavy formatting and image handling.
• There was no seamless link between site data, issue tracking, and final PDFs.
• As the team grew, training new project managers to follow the same report process became difficult.
• Separate issue logs (in Excel or earlier tools like Buildup) created duplication of effort and confusion.

“It looked great, but it was painful. It took hours of manual manipulation and was impossible to standardize. The more people we hired, the harder it became to keep consistency,” explains Caleb Aring, Co-Founder and Principal at Elevate BCx.

The Solution

When Elevate BCx discovered PlanRadar, the team was searching for a platform that could deliver the same high-quality reports they were known for, but without the hours of manual formatting and duplication.

Working closely with PlanRadar’s customer success team, Elevate BCx was able to recreate their existing Adobe-based report format inside PlanRadar, from the cover page and site observations to issue logs and closing sections.

That was the turning point.

“When we saw our own report template come to life in PlanRadar, exactly the way we’d built it before, that was the ‘aha moment.’ PlanRadar gave us the flexibility to replicate our exact reporting style.  We realized it could look and feel exactly how we needed.” explains Aring.

From that moment, the team knew they could maintain their distinctive report quality while gaining speed and consistency benefits.

PlanRadar now supports two critical deliverables for Elevate BCx:

• Site visit reports – standardized, instantly generated, and visually identical to their previous Adobe format.
• Commissioning issue logs – integrated directly into each report, allowing seamless task assignment and collaboration with contractors.

Subcontractors can access assigned tasks for free, respond directly in the app, and update progress in real time.

“That was a huge pivot point. Now, our site visit reports and issue logs live in one place. Contractors get their tickets instantly, respond in the app, and we can assign multiple people to one issue if needed. It’s seamless.” explains Aring.

Results

75% Time Saved on Report Creation

Before PlanRadar, producing a site report took up to two hours. Now, reports can be completed in 30 minutes or less, including photo upload and report content creation.

“It’s the difference between struggling with formatting and focusing on content. Our project managers can now spend more time on the technical analysis.”

35% More Reports Delivered

Faster workflows mean Elevate BCx can produce more frequent and timely updates for clients, providing clearer visibility across project cycles.

Richer & More Detailed Reporting

With administrative tasks reduced dramatically, project managers can dedicate more time to meaningful site observations. Elevate BCx now captures significantly more useful findings per visit.

“Because it’s so quick to build a report, we capture more of what matters. The quantity and clarity of information in our reports has increased and our clients notice the difference.”

Stronger Collaboration with Contractors:

PlanRadar’s multi-assignee feature has made task delegation and follow-up far simpler and more transparent for subcontractors.

“We can assign issues to three people from the same subcontractor, and they all see what’s expected. It was our favorite update this year. It solved something we were trying to hack workarounds for.”

Conclusion

As Elevate BCx grows, PlanRadar remains a key enabler in maintaining the company’s high standards of accuracy, efficiency, and project transparency, empowering the team to scale confidently while delivering exceptional commissioning quality.

About PlanRadar

PlanRadar is a leading platform for digital documentation, communication and reporting in construction, facility management and real estate projects. It enables customers to work more efficiently, enhance quality and achieve full project transparency.