Proof that the work was done, from a scan on site
Good proof of work for contractors is a record that was made on site, at the time, by the person who did the job. Most of the time, what you have instead is a text, a line on a timesheet, and someone's memory. That works until a client says nobody came, or that the crew stayed twenty minutes on a two-hour job, or that the same fault is back and it was never fixed.
Both sides lose in that argument. A contractor who did the work has to spend an afternoon defending an invoice, and may give up a credit to keep the client. A client who pays for visits nobody saw has no way to tell a good contractor from a careless one. Neither of you was wrong to want a record. You just did not have one that either side could trust.
How to prove the job was done, step by step
The record is made in the place where the work happens, so it cannot be written up later from the truck.
- Put a code on the place or the equipment the work is for: the boiler, the rooftop unit, the electrical room, the lot.
- Set the reasons a worker can pick, such as Service call, Scheduled maintenance or Repair. With exactly one reason, the worker never sees a list.
- The person doing the work scans the code on arrival. A web page opens. They confirm their email the first time, and after that the phone is remembered.
- They pick the reason and scan again when they leave, if you turned on scan in and out.
- They tap Completed or Not completed. Not completed asks why.
- A photo comes from the phone's live camera. The page opens the camera and does not offer the photo library, which deters an old picture but cannot rule one out.
- Not completed opens a follow-up. It closes with the next completed visit, or when you mark it done.
- At the end of the month, make a PDF report for one point or several, with the photos, and send it.
Agree on what counts as a visit before the first code goes up. If you are the contractor, tell the client what the report will show and when it will arrive. If you are the client, tell the contractor that an unscanned visit will be queried. A record helps both of you only when each side knows it exists and has agreed to rely on it.
Worked example: Bramblewick Mechanical
Bramblewick Mechanical has 9 technicians who look after heating and cooling at 14 client buildings. Clients pay for 4 scheduled visits a year per building and call-outs on top. Disputes were always about the call-outs.
Bramblewick opens its own account and places 31 codes: one on each rooftop unit and boiler. Each code asks for a photo, sets a 50-metre location area, and expects a 60-minute visit, so anything under 30 minutes is reported as too short.
In March a client asks about a call-out on the 9th. Bramblewick opens the point on Unit 3. A technician scanned in at 13:12 and out at 14:26, picked Repair, marked it Not completed and wrote that the blower motor was on order. The photo shows the open panel. The phone was inside the area. The follow-up opened that day and closed on the 16th, when a second technician scanned at 09:40 and marked it Completed.
Bramblewick sends the two-visit PDF. The question ends there. On the first of each month, Bramblewick makes the same kind of report for each of its 14 clients.
Names and numbers are examples.
Recommended settings for a proof of service record
| Setting | Recommended, and why |
|---|---|
| Photo | Required. It is the part of the record a client can check for themselves. If a site bans photos, accept no photo with a written reason. |
| Location check | On, with an area that fits. Use 25 to 50 metres for a unit outdoors and 150 metres for a building, since a phone can be well off inside. |
| Scan in and out | On, with the expected visit length. The length answers the twenty-minute complaint. A visit under half the expected time is reported as too short. |
| Approvals | Approved people and companies, by email or domain. Flag anyone else on a contractor's own points, and turn them away in a room a client wants closed. |
| Alerts | Not completed each time, because that is a job still open with a client waiting. Too-short visits go in the daily summary. Both are set for the whole account. |
| Allowed hours | The hours the work may happen. A scan outside them is still recorded, and flagged, so a real emergency call-out is not lost. |
What it does not do
It does not invoice, dispatch or schedule. It sits beside the tools you use for those, and the PDF can go out with your invoice.
It does not judge the quality of the work. It records who came, when and what they reported. A record of a completed visit is not a finding that the job was done well.
It does not prove a location by itself. A phone's position is usually accurate to tens of metres outdoors and less indoors. A match supports the record. It does not settle it.
It cannot stop someone from writing something untrue. It records what the worker said, under their verified email, with the time. Giving legal advice is not its job either: ask your lawyer or insurer what they need to see.
Questions
Who should own the account, the contractor or the client?
Either works. A contractor can open its own account, put codes at the sites it serves and send clients reports. A client can open the account and approve the contractor by email domain, which keeps the history with the client if the contract moves.
What stops a technician scanning a photo of the code from home?
With the location check on, the visit shows whether the phone was inside the point's area, or how far away it was. A photo required from the live camera adds a second check. Neither one alone is proof, but a faked visit becomes much harder to pass off.
Can a client see the record without an account?
Yes. You send a PDF report for one point or several, over any period, with the photos. The client reads it like any other document and needs nothing from us.
What if the technician has no signal in a basement plant room?
The page needs a connection to send the visit. Put the code where the phone has signal, such as at the entrance to the plant room, and record the location of the work in the note.
Do my subcontractors pay anything?
Never. The account holder pays by the number of codes. Anyone who scans uses a web page, pays nothing and installs nothing, however many people you bring in.
Can I change the rules after the codes are up?
Yes. The rules live on our side and not on the sticker. You can add a reason, require a photo or tighten the hours, and the printed code stays where it is.
Start with one free code
No credit card. Workers never pay and never install an app. Pricing is per code, in US dollars, with unlimited workers.