A call about a roof from years back
A caller says you re-roofed their house some time ago. There is a leak, or they are selling, or they want to know what tiles were used. They think they paid by cheque. Your office is not sure the job is even in the current system, because you changed software a few years back.
Someone goes through the filing cabinet. Someone else searches an old email account. You find an invoice with the address, but not the quote, not the specification, and not the certificate.
Why old jobs disappear
Roofing firms often outlast their software. Jobs from older systems, paper files and ex-staff inboxes are hard to reach, and even current jobs keep documents in several places. Nothing ties them together except the address, and addresses are typed differently everywhere.
- Old job systems were never migrated, or only partly.
- Paper files are organised by year, not by address.
- Quotes, invoices, photos and certificates are stored separately.
- Addresses are spelled and formatted inconsistently.
- Former staff took their knowledge, and sometimes their inboxes, with them.
What lost records cost
Customer calls about old jobs take hours to answer, or cannot be answered at all. You cannot confirm whether a new leak relates to your work or not. Conveyancing enquiries go unanswered, which frustrates people at a stressful moment. And any disagreement about what was agreed becomes your word against theirs.
It also affects new work. A homeowner who rings about an old roof is often ready to spend money on the next one. If the first impression is that you cannot find their records, you have made the next quote harder to win.
The job history we build
- Records are gathered from your current system, old system exports, accounts history, email archives and scanned paper files where you have them.
- Addresses are standardised and matched on postcode and house number, with uncertain matches listed for a person to confirm.
- Each address gets a timeline: surveys, quotes, jobs, invoices, photos, guarantees and certificates.
- Documents are read so their type, date and key details are searchable, including scanned paper.
- New jobs file their documents to the same history automatically as they move through your normal process.
- Searching by address, name or postcode shows everything in one place, with permissions so only the right staff see personal details.
- A summary of past work can be produced for a customer or their conveyancer from the record, for someone to check before sending.
| Source | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Current job system | Recent jobs and documents |
| Old system exports | Older jobs, where the data can be read |
| Accounts history | Invoices and payments by customer |
| Email archives | Quotes, correspondence, certificates |
| Scanned paper | Older quotes and job sheets |
What can be recovered depends on what still exists. We tell you honestly what we find and what we could not.
After the history is built
A call about an old roof becomes a search. You can tell customers what was done and when, with photos where they exist. Certificates and guarantees are found in seconds. And new jobs are filed properly from the day they start, so the problem does not build up again.
Is this your filing situation?
- Old jobs are in a system you no longer use.
- Paper files are boxed by year.
- Finding a past job takes more than one person.
- Conveyancer requests take days to answer.
- Certificates are sometimes never found.