There are two words that get used like they mean the same thing when you switch inspection software. They do not. One is "import." The other is "rebuild." The gap between them is the difference between your reports still sounding like you and your reports sounding like a stranger wearing your name. This is the most important thing to understand before you move off Horizon.
What "import" means
Import means your actual comment library is carried over, word for word, exactly as you wrote it. The sentence you use for a worn roof is the same sentence, character for character, in the new software. Nothing is generated. Nothing is guessed. Your library shows up whole, and on day one your reports read exactly like they always did, because they are built from the same words.
What "rebuild" means
Rebuild is different, and the difference is easy to miss because it sounds just as helpful. Rebuild means the new tool does not take your words. It reads your old reports and generates a new comment library in its own style. Very often that style comes from a system trained on thousands of other inspectors' reports.
So what you get is not your voice moved. It is a new voice, built to resemble yours, shaped by a crowd of strangers. It might be close. It will not be you.
Why "close" is not good enough
Your wording is not decoration. You chose it on purpose, over years, and some of it you chose after a hard conversation with a client, an agent, or a lawyer. Your comments are careful for a reason.
When a system averages your voice together with 3,000 other inspectors, it sands off exactly those careful edges. The phrasing you use to stay accurate and stay safe gets replaced with phrasing that reads fine and means something slightly different. You will not catch every one of those. That is the danger.
The hidden cost of rebuild: the second job
Here is the part nobody puts in the offer. After a rebuild, you do not get to relax. You get a second job: reading the new AI-written comments, catching the ones that are wrong or not-quite-you, and fixing them, report after report, for weeks or months. You left Horizon to save time. A rebuild quietly hands that time right back.
Import does not have that second job. Your words are your words. You start where you left off.
The safety angle people skip
There is a safety difference too. A rebuilt or freshly generated comment is a comment you have not personally checked. A basic matching system can even do something worse: you say "no damage to the roof," and because it sees the word "damage," it pastes in a "damage observed" line. That single flipped comment is the kind of thing that gets an inspector sued.
Wording you imported is wording you already stand behind. That is not a small thing when your license and your name are on the report.
How to tell which one you are being offered
Offers rarely use the plain words. So translate for yourself:
- "We rebuild your library from your old reports." That is rebuild. New text.
- "Our AI recreates your comments." That is rebuild. New text.
- "We import your existing library in your exact words." That is import. Your text.
- "We move your records." Careful: records are your job list, not your library. Ask about the library separately.
When in doubt, ask: "Will my comment for a specific defect read the exact same after the move, word for word?" If the honest answer is no, that is a rebuild.
Where Mach One stands
We import. Full stop. Your comment library comes across in your exact words, unchanged, reading 7 common file types. There is no rebuild, no averaging, no second job. Your report sounds like you on day one, and it is built to tell "no damage" from "damage," so it does not just grab any comment with the word damage in it. Your library stays yours, and you can export and walk anytime.
Your software is shutting down. We import the library you spent years building.