SIRE Inspector - Common Pitfalls/Errors to avoid when submitting an inspection

When submitting SIRE inspections there are a number of basic fundamental issues that can cause them to fail. There are a few details to watch out for before submitting your report.

These issues are preventable or easily corrected by an inspector before submitting an inspection. We'll take a brief look at these issues in turn:

SPACES OR ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS ADDED TO BOOKING CODES - One of the most common issues we see is where a booking code has been copied and pasted from an e-mail or document into the editor when validating and submitting. If you receive an error advising that the booking code does not match, always double check and try again. If copying and pasting still gives this problem, take the time to type the booking code in to ensure it is entered correctly.

IMO/REG NUMBERS DO NOT MATCH - As above if any errors on submission indicate a problem with the IMO or Reg number, double check these details correspond.

INCORRECT TEMPLATE/VARIANTS USED CREATE A REPORT - It is vital to ensure when creating a new report that you have selected the correct template and the variants specified in the commission are used. If a report is selected using the wrong template type, you will need to re-start from scratch and create the report again. Always ensure you check the details of e-mails you receive that specify the details of the commissioned inspection and ensure the report created matches to avoid the time consuming exercise of rewriting the report again. 

INCORRECT DATE ENTERED INTO INSPECTION - This often occurs at the start of a new calendar year but we do see this frequently. This happens when a report is submitted correctly in all other respects but the inspection date entered is wrong. This often happens when the previous year is entered and the inspection is attributed to the right vessel but the wrong year and can result in the report not being visible to companies as SIRE will already treat it as out of date if the date entered falls outside of the permitted availability of SIRE inspections after publication.

If you discover you have entered an incorrect date on an inspection, the best thing to do is to check with the submitting company concerned to see if the report has been processed or not. If processing has not happened you can easily change the date and re-submit the report without any further action required from the submitting company. If however, the report has been processed or even published, the submitting company will need to mark the report for re-submission within SIRE. You will not be able to re-submit until they confirm they have completed this very important step, so always check before re-submitting.

REUSE OF PREVIOUS INSPECTION REPORTS - A less common issue that does still occur occasionally. This happens when an inspector attends a vessel that they have inspected previously and still have their last inspection in their editor software. This is then used as the basis of a new report for submission. This will always fail as the original report would have been allocated a unique report name when originally created. Amending this report and attempting to re-submit to SIRE will always be rejected because of the unique report name/code allocated to it. This cannot be changed. When creating a report always go through the process of clicking on the "New Inspection" button and entering the data from scratch. 

INCORRECT LOGIN DETAILS USED IN EDITOR SOFTWARE - Another issue we see occasionally is where an inspector has more than one SIRE account,  or has recently transferred to a new organisation and their editor is logged in to the wrong account when they create an inspection and attempt to submit it. This will fail as the credentials in the editor will not be valid. 

In order to correct this you will need to contact SIRE Support via email at siresupport@ocimf.org Please also export the affected inspection from your editor and send it to us. We will need to correct the report to ensure the incorrect credentials are removed. We will also send further instructions on how to clear the incorrect credentials from your editor as well as the corrected inspection. If you then follow the instructions that are sent to you it should then correct your editor and allow you to submit your inspection.