Calculate scoring for multiple choice responses
Learn how to calculate multiple choice response scoring to automatically total response values, helping you measure performance and analyze inspection outcomes effectively via the web app and the mobile app.What does it mean to calculate scoring for multiple choice responses?
Multiple choice response scoring allows you to assign numeric values to each response in a custom response set, converting qualitative answers into measurable data. Once applied to a template, the total score of all selected responses is automatically calculated during an inspection. This helps teams quantify results, track performance, and make data-driven decisions through analytics, reporting, and automation workflows.
For example, during a cargo loading inspection, each response option can be assigned a value based on the severity of the issue, with higher scores assigned to major issues and lower scores to minor ones. As inspectors record their findings, the total score is calculated to reflect the severity of the loading issues. This allows the team to quickly determine whether it's safe to proceed with loading or if corrective actions are needed before continuing operations.
Only custom response sets can be referenced in a calculation formula.
What you'll need
Changes made to a custom response set's scoring apply to all questions that use the same custom response set.
Calculate a multiple choice response's scoring
Select
Templates from the menu on the left-hand side.Click the template and select Edit template in the side panel.
Add a new question or select an existing one.
Click
under the "Type of response" column on the right-hand side and select any custom response sets.Create calculation response questions or edit an existing one.
Click
on the right-hand side of "Functions" and select SUM_MC, then click on the right-hand side of "Questions" and select the multiple choice question you want to calculate.You can also type $ followed by SUM_MC function or $ followed by a question's label to use it in your formula.
Click Save and apply.
Click Publish on the upper-right of the page to publish the template. If you're not ready to publish the template, you can go back to the templates list and come back when you're ready.
Open the mobile app.
Tap
Inspections at the bottom of your screen.Select Templates tab at the top of your screen.
Tap the template and select
Edit template from the pop-up options.Add a new question or select an existing one.
Under the question label, tap
and select any custom response sets. Create calculation response questions or edit an existing one.
Tap
on the right-hand side of "Functions" and select SUM_MC , then tap on the right-hand side of "Questions" and select the multiple choice question you want to calculate.You can also type $ followed by SUM_MC function or $ followed by a question's label to use it in your formula.
Tap Save and apply.
Tap Publish on the upper-right of the screen to publish the template. If you're not ready to publish the template, you can go back to the template list and publish the changes when you're ready.
Add a number as the second argument to set the default score when a question has no response during an inspection.
Published changes made to templates only apply to new inspections moving forward.
Frequently asked questions
You can set up negative scoring for your assigning values below zero in your template. However, please note that other features, such as inspection report scores, tracking scores in Analytics, and more, may not fully support negative scoring.
Turning scoring off and then back on resets all score values at the question level to 0. This means that you would need to set up your score values at the question level again. Score values for custom response sets will be kept intact.
Scoring for multiple choice response types will always be based on the assigned score values for each response within the response set. If you select multiple responses, the score value for each response is added to the total score. To maximize your score, select all applicable responses; missing any will lower your score for that question.
No. Only one multiple choice question can be referenced in a single function call. While functions like SUM() can take multiple arguments, SUM_MC() works on a single question and sums the scores of all responses selected for that question. To calculate the total score across several multiple choice questions, use a separate SUM_MC() function for each question.
A function call is the action of executing a function. It consists of the function name followed by parentheses containing the arguments. For example, in the formula SUM(11+2) - SUM(5+3), SUM(11+2) is one function call.
No. The second argument is only used when a question has no response. If the question is answered, the function ignores the second argument and uses the actual response score in the calculation.
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