Hello all. I am getting close to starting my new business question is that i will be taking many before pics of jobs at time of walk around. I have read that some guys will take as many as 50 pics of their jobs to cover their butts.Dont know if i will be taking that many but where do you guys’ store all of these pics taken from your phone? I assume we will be saving these pics for a while?
I use apples iCloud. 2TB of storage. More than enough.
I forgot to mention I’m using Android but there’s got to be something similar didn’t know if I could just get a bigger SD card or something or should I go to the cloud
I use cloud based systems, every brand typically has their version of them these days. You can also store on a flash drive, SD, or external hard drive as well. If you really wanted to, you could double down and put them on the cloud and a removable/external drive.
I’m pretty sure Android have something similar to Apple. With the cloud it’s just easy. Snap a photo or video and it’s taken care of and stored instantly. At the shop, at home it’s all there in the cloud to access when you need them. Works well.
Okay I appreciate it. I will have to make a decision on which way to go well the easiest I guess. Will be taking photos with phone and then I suppose transferring to a file.
Also thinking hard about getting a CRM right from the get-go so not sure if I would be able to possibly attach photos to customer and the CRM.
We use Quick Books for ours and they have the option to attached media files to the estimate and invoices.
Use something cloud based, so if you add trucks/employees it all goes to one place. If you go with a full scale CRM, make sure you can easily get all of that out if you should ever decide to change systems.
50 pics will cover several years of working. I’ll take one every year or two of there’s a broken window or something
2 Likes
You’re over thinking this. Take some pics of existing damage on the phone, keep for a month or so then delete. Easy.
2 Likes
I take about 12 to 15 before photos, not necessarily just damage, but the whole house for reference. I use Dropbox for storage, but I hear a lot of people are using companycam now. I have a folder for each property in Dropbox, sorted by address. I keep the photos there. It’s a great reference for when someone calls back and says, this time I would like the driveway done also, and you can just go to your photos and refresh your memory. You can do the same with OneDrive by Microsoft or Google Drive.
2 Likes
Thank you guys for the input for sure I appreciate it. I think I’ll just use dropbox in the beginning and see how that works out.
1 Like
As @dcbrock stated, for home washing, I take maybe 5-10 photos of a property when necessary and keep them for about two months - I guarantee customer satisfaction for 30 days.
I was taking a lot of pictures of before and after. We are trying out just taking a video of the home, then can take stills from the video if needing pictures
1 Like
Be careful, I’m gonna be the next YouTube guru 
1 Like
I would recommend saving your pictures for up to 5 years. People can sue you long after your guarantee.
1 Like
We found this app and so far has been great. It also links all the photos which is great. It’s free to use unless you need over 50 projects a month. Unlimited photo storage. Notes, drawings etc available in app.
Each “project” is the job site - we use the address.
The app lines the photos up in before and after mode. Using “image” or “outlines”. Easy to get them close this way. It will also make before and after collages in the app.
The free version limits to 50 projects a month. $19 is unlimited projects. It’s per user but our accounts are linked as one user on the work phones.
The before and after feature is paid only
When done I take the collages and add logos in another app. Make your logo a PNG then add it as a template. https://apps.apple.com/…/ezy-watermark-photos/id494472589
AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/companycam/id960043499
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…
1 Like
I agree, if your taking pictures as proof of existing damage, I would keep them for a long time. Talk to your attorney about the laws for your state. Imagine deleting the photos then some shyster atty tries to sue you 2 years later stating that your cleaning lead to the degradation of a pipe that fell off a roof and killed the neighbors dog. Suing for $5 million in punitive damages due to all the emotional and psychological damage done to the families involved.
I’ve met several unscrupulous attorneys over the years. My favorite was the one who was “allegedly” paid in drugs by his clients. He was a real actor in court, very flamboyant, lost most of his cases, but his clients loved him.
