A SafetyCulture and Dashpivot alternative for environmental compliance.
SafetyCulture (now Mitti), Dashpivot and similar platforms digitise forms and site-wide inspections well. claused. is built around one narrower thing, the approval condition. This page sets out where that difference matters and where a general platform is the better choice.
| What matters | SafetyCulture, Dashpivot and similar | claused. |
|---|---|---|
| Core design centre | The form. Digitise any checklist for any industry, and do it well. | The approval condition. Every record exists to evidence an obligation. |
| Condition linkage | Possible if you build and maintain the tagging convention yourself. | Records are tagged to EPL, consent and CEMP conditions at capture. |
| Rainfall-triggered inspections | Scheduling is typically calendar-based. Weather triggers are up to your team to manage. | ESC inspections are raised automatically when a rainfall trigger is met. |
| Dewatering permits | A permit can be built as a form, but the logic that gates it lives in your procedure. | Permits are test-gated. Discharge cannot be signed off until the water quality results pass. |
| Record types | Generic templates you configure into inspections, audits and checks. | Environmental records already shaped: ESC inspections, observations, corrective actions, incidents, dewatering permits. |
| Audit output | Reports per form or per period, assembled into audit shape by you. | Per-condition audit packs generated directly from tagged records. |
| Scope | Whole of business: safety, quality, operations, any industry. | Environmental compliance for construction and infrastructure, deliberately narrow. |
| Setup effort | You design the forms, workflows and registers to fit your approvals. | Upload the approval and the record types and triggers are already shaped around its conditions. |
| Pricing model | Per seat or per user, so every crew member and subcontractor adds to the bill. | Per project with every user included. Crews and subcontractors join at no charge. |
Built around the form, or built around the condition.
Credit first. Generic inspection platforms have done the industry a genuine service. They took clipboards and carbon-copy books and turned them into fast digital forms with photos, sign-offs and dashboards. Many Australian contractors run their whole safety system on one of them, and run it well. If your site uses one already, that is not a mistake.
The distinction is simpler than a feature list. A general platform is built around the form, and environmental compliance is built around the condition. A digital checklist proves an inspection happened. An approval condition asks for more: that the right inspection happened at the right trigger, that the finding was closed out, and that the whole chain can be produced per condition when the regulator asks. That chain is what claused. is designed to hold.
Condition intelligence, not just completed forms
On a general platform, connecting a completed form back to condition B12 of your EPL is your job. You build the naming convention, you add the reference field, and you rely on every user filling it in the same way for the life of the project. Disciplined teams manage it, but the platform is not checking the work because it does not know what an EPL is.
In claused. the approvals are the skeleton of the workspace. EPL conditions, DA and SSI consent conditions and CEMP commitments are loaded first, and every inspection, observation, corrective action and incident is tagged to the conditions it evidences. When an auditor asks for everything against a condition, the per-condition evidence pack already exists.
Triggers that come from the sky, not the calendar
Recurring schedules suit weekly walks and monthly audits. Environmental obligations do not always behave that neatly. ESC inspections in NSW are typically triggered by rainfall, with a defined window to complete them, and the wettest week of the project is exactly when the team is busiest with everything else.
claused. watches the trigger and raises the inspection, so the record shows the event, the due window and the completed inspection as one story. The guide to ESC inspections after rainfall in NSW explains why that window is so easy to miss by hand.
Permits that are gated, not just documented
Dewatering is where paperwork meets real consequence. Discharging before the water quality results pass is exactly the kind of breach that turns into a penalty notice. On a forms platform you can build a thorough dewatering permit form, but the sequence, test first, approve second, discharge third, is enforced by procedure and habit.
claused. makes the gate structural. A dewatering permit cannot be signed off until the required test results are in and within limits. The record does not just describe the control. It is the control.
Purpose-built records versus configured templates
Flexibility is a general platform's strength and its tax. Every record type is possible, so every record type must be designed, built and maintained by someone on your team, and it drifts when that person moves on.
claused. ships with the environmental record types already shaped: ESC inspections, observations, corrective actions, incidents and dewatering permits, each carrying the fields, photos and condition links the job needs, each captured offline in the field app. Less to configure, less to drift, less to break.
When a general platform is the right call.
If you need one tool for whole-of-business inspections, safety forms, plant prestarts, quality checks and toolbox talks across every trade, a general platform is the right choice, and the established players do it well. That breadth is what they are built for.
Many sites will sensibly run both: a general platform for safety and quality, and claused. as the environmental system of record where conditions, triggers and audit packs live. If your scope has no approval conditions to manage, you do not need claused. at all. If it does, the pricing page shows what a project team pays for each.
Three questions teams ask before they switch.
Does claused. replace SafetyCulture or Dashpivot?
Not for safety and quality. Those platforms cover prestarts, toolbox talks, quality checks and safety forms across every trade, and they do it well. claused. covers the environmental obligations in an approval, licence or plan. Many sites run both, one for safety and quality and claused. as the environmental system of record.
Can records from another platform be brought across?
Conditions and existing register rows can be imported from a spreadsheet by CSV, and exported documents can be uploaded and filed against the condition they evidence. New field records are captured in the claused. field app from the switch onward.
How is claused. priced compared with a per-seat platform?
Per project, with every user included. Crews and subcontractors join at no charge, so the price follows the approval rather than the headcount. The plans, and a comparison of what a project team pays for the alternatives, are on the pricing page.
The guides and pages behind this comparison.
- The condition evidence pack: what auditors actually ask forGuides · 7 min read. Environmental audits come down to one question per condition: show me the evidence. What a per-condition pack looks like and why spreadsheets fail it.
- ESC inspections after rainfall: the NSW 20 mm trigger explainedCompliance · 7 min read. What the Blue Book expects after rain. The 20 mm in 24 hours trigger, what a post-rainfall ESC inspection covers, and the records that make it defensible.
- PricingOne price per project with every user included, and what a project team pays for the alternatives.
- The field appInspections, observations, incidents and permits captured offline on site and filed against the condition they evidence.
Ask each tool one question.
Show me everything for one condition on the current project. Request early access, open the live demo and ask it there too. The tool that answers in seconds is the one built for the question.