Job photos and documents: the cheapest insurance a trade business can buy

By the SKEDS Team · 14 August 2026 · 5 min read

"That damage was already there." "You never did that part." "That's not what we agreed." Every trade business eventually meets a dispute like this, and the outcome almost never depends on who's right. It depends on who has evidence.

Photos cost nothing to take and everything to not have. The catch is that photos on personal phones, buried in camera rolls next to fishing trips, might as well not exist. The system that works is dead simple: every photo lives on the job it belongs to.

The photo habit: before, during, after

Three moments, every job:

1. Before you touch anything. The existing damage, the dodgy previous work, the scratched floor that was already scratched. This set protects you from inheriting someone else's problems.
2. During, at cover-up points. The moment before the wall closes, the trench fills, or the lining goes on. Once work is hidden, photos are the only proof it was done right — invaluable for inspections, and for the customer who questions the invoice for work they can't see.
3. After. The finished result, clean site, everything working. This set sells the invoice, feeds your marketing, and starts the record for any future warranty question.

In the SKEDS mobile app the camera opens from the job itself, so the photo is filed against the right job, customer and date the moment it's taken — offline if needed. No transferring, no naming, no "which house was this?"

Documents belong on the job too

Photos are half the story. The other half is paperwork that goes missing at the worst time: the signed quote, the variation approval, the compliance certificate, the manufacturer's spec, the customer's "yes, go ahead" email. In SKEDS, photos and documents attach to the job, so eighteen months later, when the warranty call comes, everything is one search away.

Where documentation pays for itself

• Payment disputes. A dated after-photo plus logged time on site ends most invoice arguments in one email — and if it goes further, it's the evidence a tribunal wants. Pair with the escalation ladder in chasing overdue invoices.
• Variations. Scope creep becomes billable when the extra work was photographed and approved in writing on the job record.
• Insurance and damage claims. "Already there" photos, timestamped before you started, are the whole defence.
• Faster quoting. Site-visit photos mean whoever prices the job sees the actual switchboard, roof or pipework — fewer surprises, tighter quotes. See how to quote a trade job.

Make it a rule, not a preference

Documentation only protects you if it's consistent — the one job you skip is the one that goes wrong. Make it a stated standard: no job starts without befores, no job closes without afters. When photos take ten seconds and file themselves, there's no honest excuse left.

Frequently asked questions

Do timestamps on photos hold up in a dispute? Photos logged against a job with a date, user and location context are persuasive precisely because they were created in the ordinary course of work — far stronger than a loose image someone produces later.

What about customer privacy? Photograph the work, not the household. Job photos of your workmanship on-site are normal industry practice; just be sensible about people and personal items in frame.

How long should I keep job photos? At least your warranty and liability horizon — for building work that can mean 10 years. Storage is cheap; the dispute isn't.