Choosing Between Percentage- and Points-Based Rating Systems

For each inspection form you create, you can choose to use a variety of rating systems, such as a percentage-based rating system or a point-based rating system. These ratings provide you with a numeric score to compare inspections or view trends over time.

For most teams, we recommend starting with a percentage-based rating system, as it is the easiest to understand and share with your team. If your team already has extensive knowledge about point-based systems (like APPA scores) and has the training resources available for your team, then you might consider implementing a point-based rating system for your organization.

With flexibility in mind, OrangeQC does allow you to have both percentage and points-based ratings into a single form. We only suggest this for advanced teams or those with unique processes. If you mix ratings systems, your inspections will have both an overall percentage score as well as an overall points score.

Percentage-Based Rating Systems

OrangeQC defaults to using percentage-based ratings. We recommend these for most of our clients, as they are a widely used, intuitive way to rate line items. Each rating the inspector chooses represents a certain percentage—for example, in the pre-loaded 1–3 rating system, “Meets Standard” is 100%, “Needs Attention” is 75%, and “Below Standard” is 50%.

The overall score for the inspection will also be a percentage.

Point-Based Rating Systems

If your industry uses a point-based rating system, OrangeQC supports that, too. For example, the APPA standard, often used at universities, is a 1–5 rating:

Since each rating has a point value, the overall score for the inspection will be a weighted average of those points: