By Jessica Meno, Raken

In construction, keeping a project on track (and your customers happy) is easier said than done. However, increasing your project visibility can help you make more informed decisions along the way. One of the best ways to do so? Photo documentation.

Photos let you see how teams are following safety protocols and maintaining high-quality work. They can also help you identify any potential safety hazards or risks. By learning how your crews are working, you can offer better support by giving them the resources they need.

Here are some best practices to improve your photo documentation—and your projects.

1. Use cloud storage to keep all your photos in one place.

Photos help capture your project’s progress when you can’t be on the site yourself. Instead of sifting through messy project notes, you can quickly review any images uploaded by your field team. This saves your field crews time, too—all they have to do is snap a few shots with their phones.

With cloud storage, you can easily save, store, and share jobsite photos online—no matter where you are. Automating the process for photo management also makes remote collaboration easier than ever. Since all your photos are a few clicks or taps away, you’ll never have to search long for important documentation. This makes keeping clients in the know easier, too.

2. Highlight the most critical project info with photo markup.

Sometimes, your crews take photos to highlight something specific about a project. Photo markup lets you do just that.

With photo markup, workers can draw directly on photos of the site. For extra clarity, they can also add photo descriptions and captions. This helps your team have a clear idea of project progress—and helps them adjust accordingly to keep things on track.

3. Protect against litigation with date and timestamps.

Time-stamped photos clearly document who’s doing what, when, and where on a project. More specifically, a timestamp captures the date and time an image was taken. (Construction software, like Raken, also shows you who uploaded the photo and the site location.)

Timestamps can be powerful evidence in the case of a dispute or litigation. Combining them with other digital documentation (like productivity data or safety checklists)? Even better. Historical data will give your company more legal protection in court, since you can prove your case with a clear record of events.

Just look at companies like Sellen Production. Since they use construction software, they can clearly document their progress—and improve compliance as a result.

“[We can] easily access data, keeping our field workers on site instead of in the legal office,” said Tyler Stewart, Technology Solutions and Training Manager at Sellen Production.

Improve your photo documentation with Raken.

With Raken, your field crews can download the mobile app and start taking project photos right away. Every photo is automatically attached to their daily reports—then, everything is stored on the cloud for easy access. Hello, real-time insights and better project management.

About the Author

Jessica Meno is a writer for Raken, the cloud-based software that was built to connect the field to the office. Raken helps boost productivity and safety by streamlining workflow processes such as daily reporting, time cards, production tracking, and safety management. Schedule a demo today to see how Raken can work for your business.