What is an ITP in construction? Inspection and test plans explained

An ITP (inspection and test plan) is a list of every check a piece of construction work needs, written before the work starts. For each activity it says what gets inspected or tested, what a pass looks like, who checks it, and whether work has to stop until the check is signed off. Then each line is signed as the work is checked, so the finished ITP is the record that it was.

What an ITP is for

An ITP is a quality record, not a safety one. The SWMS covers how the work is done safely. The ITP covers whether the finished work is right: the reo was the right size and spacing before the pour, the waterproofing was flood tested before the tiles went down, the frame was checked against the drawings before the lining went on.

You will usually meet one in three situations:

• A head contractor asks for it. Subcontract packages on commercial jobs often require an ITP for each trade before work starts.
• A government or council contract specifies it. Road, civil and council works run under quality specifications that require ITPs as part of the contractor's quality plan.
• You run a quality system. If you are ISO 9001 certified, or working towards it, ITPs are how you show each job was checked against its criteria.

On a straightforward house for a private client, nobody may ask for one. Plenty of builders use one anyway for the stages they cannot check later, because it turns "we always check the reo" into a signed page with a date on it.

What goes in an ITP

The quality specifications that require ITPs agree on the core. Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads, in its quality system specification MRTS50, lists the work process and its inspection and test points, who is responsible for each, how often, the method, the acceptance criteria, any tests that need calibrated equipment, and every hold and witness point. The AUS-SPEC quality management specification that many NSW councils use asks for much the same, plus who reviews results, what happens with non-conforming work and who does the final review.

For a builder, that boils down to one row per check:

1. Activity. The stage of work, in the order it happens: excavation, footings, reo, the pour, frame, waterproofing.
2. Inspection or test. What is physically checked. "Bar size, spacing, cover and laps" is a check. "Reo OK" is not.
3. Acceptance criteria. What a pass is, in a form someone else could check: a drawing number, a specification clause, a tolerance.
4. Reference. Where the criteria come from, so anyone can look it up.
5. Hold, witness or record. Whether the work stops, someone gets notice, or the check is just documented.
6. Responsible and sign-off. One name against the check, and a signature and date when it is done.

Our free ITP template has these columns and two worked examples to start from.

Hold points and witness points

This column is where an ITP earns its keep.

A hold point is a stage the work cannot go past until the check is done and released. MRTS50 puts it simply: the contractor may not pass a hold point without written authorisation. Reinforcement before a pour is the classic example, because once the concrete is in, nobody can check it.

A witness point is a stage where the client or their representative gets notice and can choose to come and watch. Under MRTS50 the contractor gives at least a working day's notice and can carry on once the notice period has passed, whether or not anyone turns up.

A record point (sometimes called a review point) just needs the check written down.

Who releases a hold point depends on your contract, not on the ITP. Under MRTS50 the client's administrator releases it in writing. Under the AUS-SPEC council specification, the contractor releases its own hold points and the client audits that it was done properly. Read the quality clause in your contract before you write the plan, because it decides whose signature goes in that box.

A filled-in example: a slab on ground

Here is what a few rows look like for a house slab. The drawing references and tolerances are made up; yours come from the engineer's drawings and the specification.

The reinforcement row is the hold point: nothing gets poured until the engineer has seen it and signed.

ITP, SWMS, checklist or quality plan?

They get confused because they often sit in the same folder. Each answers a different question.

Where small builders get caught out

Writing it after the work. An ITP filled in at handover from memory is a list, not a record. It has to exist before the work so the checks happen at the right time.

Vague criteria. "Check waterproofing" cannot be failed. "Flood test 24 hours, no drop in water level, per the waterproofing specification" can.

Hold points with no hold. If the concrete truck is booked before the reo is released, the hold point is decoration. Release the hold point first, then book the pour.

Blank sign-offs. An ITP with empty signature boxes proves a plan existed, not that anyone followed it. One name per row, signed on the day.

Losing them. Paper ITPs live in the site shed and leave with whoever had the folder. When a defect claim arrives two years later, the ITP for that stage is the first thing you will want.

Keeping ITPs on the phone instead of the shed

Foreman does not have an ITP module, and it does not run a hold-point release workflow between you and a client. What it has is a form builder that suits the job. You build your ITP once as a form: a checklist for each check, a photo field for the reo before the pour, a date that cannot be backdated, and a signature. Your crew fill it in on their phone against the job, and every submission is kept with that project, ready when a head contractor or auditor asks.

If you connect Foreman to Claude or ChatGPT, you can describe the ITP you want and have the assistant build the form for you, then ask later which jobs have a submitted ITP for a given stage.

Related

The free ITP template is the one-page version to print, with worked examples. What a SWMS is covers the safety document that sits alongside it, and the defect list template picks up what the checks find at handover.