How to build a digital safety checklist app with Glide

Learn to build your own custom mobile safety checklist app without code

Your typical safety check is done on a clipboard with pen and paper. While that works in the moment, as time goes on, headaches only grow. Those paper checklists pile up, get lost, and are more and more difficult to track as time goes on, leading to a lack of visibility and accountability. Both of which are critical in any working environment.

The solution is to move your checklists digital, but how? A no-code platform like Glide allows you to quickly create your own safety checklist app, without the heavy resource drain required to code it from scratch. You can get a mobile-optimized app, customized to exactly the way your business works.

Glide is a no-code platform that allows businesses to build custom apps without having to rely on engineers. Here’s how you can use it to build a safety checklist app that will replace paper forms, ensure daily field compliance, and avoid lost checklists or audit headaches.

What you can do with a digital safety checklist app

Once implemented, your Glide app will:

Enable field teams to start each shift with one tap.
Authenticate users via email.
Lock forms after a certain time period to enforce daily checks.
Require explanations for any skipped items.
Push submissions instantly to an admin dashboard.
Filter by missing items, roles, or locations on demand.

Install the app on company devices so employees can launch the safety checklist from the homescreen with just one tap, email a link to your app as part of your work assignments, or print a QR code to display at worksites to make using the app quick and easy.

The problems with managing compliance with paper checklists and WhatsApp photos

Every shift begins with a crucial safety check. Many On-site teams in construction, energy, or rail still rely on paper forms or WhatsApp snapshots. Safety managers, compliance officers, and field supervisors are too familiar with the difficulty of managing a pen and paper system.

Using manual forms and chat threads to manage safety creates compliance blind spots:

Paper forms can easily get wet, torn, or lost, especially on site. Damaged documents become illegible and messy.
Photos in WhatsApp cant be structured and referred back to in an organized way.
Missing signatures leave you open to potential hazards and exposed to liability.
Spreadsheets are siloed data, offering bo real-time insights for leadership.

Why build a digital safety checklist system

With a custom Glide app, your crew completes a one-tap digital checklist before every shift. Submissions lock after 24 hours, leaders get live visibility, and audit-ready records are guaranteed. It can be accessed from laptops, tablets, or smartphones, whatever device teams are using, and the data is centralized and stored.

This lightweight app makes legal compliance easy and embeds safety into your daily workflow. You can use it to help your business better identify hazards, evaluate risks, and ensure preventative measures are in place for specific environments or tasks, like home safety, workplace safety, or equipment checks.

You can build this app yourself, or contract an agency like ours, Kwapso, to get launched faster and benefit from the skill and expertise of professional no-code developers, at a fraction of the time and expense of a traditional software development team.

“We were on the verge of a security problem because of missing work entry forms. The team from Kwapso sent us a prototype that convinced us and the app was ready in three days. Over 100 employees use it every day and it secures us for audits. A quick, simple solution that we could never have imagined without starting a huge programming project.”

Valentin Seidel

Quality Control Manager, Railway Company Safety4you

Safety4You, one of Austria’s leading rail safety companies, worked with us to digitize its daily checks in a Glide app. As a result, they:

Achieved 100% audit compliance.
Complete dozens of digital protocols every day.
Have real-time visibility into team readiness.
Project a 10% reduction in incident frequency.

How to build a digital safety checklist system

These are the core steps you’ll take on the business side to get your digital safety checklist customized and built.

Define user access and authentication - Establish which roles need to log in and set up secure email-based authentication.
Set checklist frequency rules - Configure the form to require completion on each shift or once per day, and enforce those limits.
Create role-based checklists - Build separate question sets for each job type so every role sees only the relevant items.
Enforce time constraints - Lock submissions after a certain time, like 24 hours, to prevent backdating and ensure real-time compliance.
Specify completion requirements - Require explanations for skipped items and block submission until all mandatory fields or reasons are provided.
Configure office oversight tools - Design dashboard views, filters, and alerts so supervisors can monitor submissions by role, location, or missing items.
Integrate with your admin system - Connect incoming checklist data to your existing office app or reporting dashboard for seamless data flow.

Defining these elements ensures your app mirrors real-world compliance processes while reserving human oversight for critical decisions.

Build and deploy a custom app in just days

We built this micro-app for Safety4You in just days and they’re now expanding to digitize every field process. You can follow our guide to create your own safety checklist app in Glide, supported by the tutorials in Glide University, or let our team scope and launch a tailored solution for you.

Ready to turn field risk into field resilience? Start building today with Glide or contact us to get your custom app live in days.