In our Volunteer Department myself and a few others are trying to find an easier way for our fire reports to be done. As of right our our First Responders are typing up reports made on the computer and emailing it to the Chief, he puts them in NFIRS. He says this is easier then having to type all the narratives into NFIRS he copies and paste them. We are trying to talk him into getting a tablet or Toughbook and putting our fire reports and typing them and emailing them also but he doesn't think it will work. Any ideas on helping him realize it would be easier and better?

To our current problem, The First Responders have made a new report that is in excel. Made it easier to use with drop down list and check boxes. When our Chief went to open it on the County computer, that each department has, to put it into NFIRS it doesn't have excel on it. When asked the Fire Coordinator says we can not put excel on the computer cause of viruses. We are wondering if there is anyway to upload the Excel files to Firehouse and allow our Chief to sign into Firehouse and then put the reports into NFIRS. If so how would a department go about setting it up?