Recording site notes in front of the client is a bad idea because your first read of a defect is blunt and unfinished, and a client who overhears it will treat it as your conclusion. The fix is what experienced engineers already do by instinct: photograph while you are with them, step a little away, and narrate where nobody can hear. Engineers avoid recording in company for three reasons, and each has a practical answer: first opinions are not diplomatic, some sites prohibit video, and some people simply have not tried narrating yet.
First opinions are not diplomatic
What you say on first sight is not yet diplomatic, and not yet certain. Standing in front of a defect, the honest sentence is often blunt: this looks like it was done badly, this will not last, somebody is going to have to pay for this. That sentence belongs in your notes. It does not belong in the client's earshot, where it will be repeated back to you in a meeting three weeks later as though it were a conclusion.
The reason to protect it is not secrecy; a first assessment is an unfinished opinion, and unfinished opinions said aloud in front of a building owner, a property manager, or the contractor who did the work create problems you do not need. So capture the images with the group, then step off and narrate. The photographs anchor the observation; the narration a few metres away carries the interpretation, recorded while you are still in front of the subject. Stepping away is good practice, the sort of thing experienced engineers do without being told and juniors learn by watching. The expensive mistake is the opposite one: skipping the narration because the moment felt wrong, and reconstructing it at the office.
Some sites prohibit video outright
Secure facilities frequently permit stills only, and often only stills of the immediate scope you were engaged to cover, not general views. That is a client rule rather than an engineering constraint, and it is not negotiable on the day. It also does not affect what the report can conclude: you photograph what you are permitted to photograph and record a voice memo alongside the images. The interpretation still gets captured at the moment you have it, which is the part that matters.
The third reason is habit
Some engineers prefer images and voice memos because that is the workflow they know, and they have not yet felt how much easier narrating over video is once you have done it twice. That is a preference rather than resistance. The application supports either path equally, and people move over when they are ready rather than when they are told.
What the capture looks like
Photographs plus a voice memo, submitted together. The images go up, the memo goes up alongside them, and the memo transcribes into the notes, so there is nothing to write out later. The substance of the report is what you said: the model cannot assert a defect you never called, so narration recorded ten metres from the wall reads exactly the same as narration recorded at it. What gets recorded on site is a first read; the engineer confirms it, revises it where the evidence does not support it, and takes responsibility for what ends up in the report. Nothing in the workflow turns an unfinished thought into a finding without the engineer agreeing to it.
The full sequence for your next visit
With a client present, photograph everything while you are together, then find two minutes at the end, in the stairwell or at the truck, and narrate the whole walk while it is fresh. One pass, not per-photograph. And if you are going to a secure site, ask before you arrive what the capture restrictions are, specifically whether stills beyond the immediate scope are permitted. Finding that out at the gate costs you the visit.
Try it on one report
The two-minute narration at the truck is worth more in Tenera Reports than in a voice memo app, because it does not come back to the office as audio you still have to type up. The memo and the photographs go in together, and the narration comes back as the draft report in your firm's own template. The first 15 reports are free, with no time limit: take one visit where a client is present, photograph as you normally would, narrate the walk in one pass before you leave, and check whether the draft needed anything you could not remember.