What the validation panel does

The validation panel checks your incident report against the national system's requirements and tells you exactly what needs to be fixed. It saves you from submitting a report that will be rejected or fail.

Where to find it

The validation panel lives on the right edge of the screen when you are editing an incident or viewing the incident detail page. You will see a small vertical tab labeled Valid. Click it to open the panel. Click it again to close it.

Running a validation check

Click the Run Validation button at the bottom of the panel. The system saves your current work (if you are editing) and then checks every field against the requirements. This takes a few seconds. While it runs, you will see a spinning indicator on the tab.

Reading the results

After validation runs, the panel shows one of two outcomes:

  • Green "Validation Complete" -- Everything passed. Your report is ready to submit.
  • Red error list -- There are errors that need attention. A red pill at the top shows the error count.

If there are errors, each one is listed with:

  • A step badge showing which form step the field lives on (for example, Risk for step 12).
  • The field name and a short message describing what is wrong.

Jumping to the problem

Each error card is clickable. Click it and the form jumps directly to the step where the issue is and highlights the field. Fix the field, then run validation again to confirm the error is gone.

The tab color changes

The vertical tab on the edge of the screen changes color based on the last validation result:

  • Green -- The last validation passed.
  • Red -- The last validation found errors.
  • Blue (spinning) -- Validation is currently running.
  • White/gray -- No validation has been run yet for this report.

Example workflow

  1. You finish filling out a fire incident report and reach the Review & Submit step.
  2. You click the Valid tab on the right edge of the screen.
  3. You click Run Validation.
  4. The panel shows two errors, each tagged with a step badge.
  5. You click the first error. The form jumps to that step and highlights the field. You fix it.
  6. You click the second error and fix that field too.
  7. You run validation again. This time you get a green "Validation Complete" message.
  8. You go back to the Review & Submit step and submit the report.
Tip: Make it a habit to run validation before submitting every report. It only takes a few seconds and catches issues that can delay your report in the review process.