LibreHow to Verify Subcontractor and Install-Crew Work Before You Release Payment
Pay against the record, not against a phone call from the roof.
Paying on a phone call
The crew calls at four o'clock and says the roof is dried in and the flashing is done. You have two choices. Drive out and look, which costs an afternoon and gets you there after the tarps are down. Or take their word, cut the check, and find out in November when the owner calls about a stain on a ceiling. Most companies take the word, because driving to every job does not scale past a couple of crews. The problem is not trust. It is timing. By the time anyone could check, the work is covered: underlayment under shingles, ice-and-water under metal, a seam under a cap sheet. Nobody can tell you what is under there from the ground, and the crew that installed it is already at the next address.
What evidence actually holds up
Location and time on the photo itself
GPS and a timestamp attached at capture tell you which address and which day. A photo texted to you at the end of the week tells you what somebody chose to send.
Each layer before it is covered
Deck before underlayment, underlayment before shingles, step flashing before the counter goes on. Once it is covered, the photo taken that morning is the only evidence that will ever exist.
A checklist tied to the scope you are paying for
Checklist items that require a photo before they can be marked complete, built from the scope in the agreement. The checklist shows what is still unshot while the crew is on the roof.
The sub's own photos, in your record
Upload-only links let a sub add photos to your job record with no account. Their work lands in your file instead of a text thread on a foreman's phone.
How to run it
Put the shot list in the agreement
Write the required photos into the sub agreement or the work order the same way you write the scope. Name them: four elevations before start, the deck after tear-off, each layer before it is covered, flashing details, final overview. A crew that knows the list on Monday shoots it on Tuesday.
Give them a way to shoot into your job record
Either they run the app on the job like your own crews, or they use an upload link that drops photos onto your job record without an account. Either way the photos land on the job instead of arriving as a text message with no address on it.
Check the list before they leave the roof
The checklist shows which items still have no photo while the truck is in the driveway. A missing flashing shot caught at four o'clock is a two-minute fix. Caught on Friday, it is a truck roll or an argument.
Pay against the record
Open the job, look at the set, release the payment. When something is missing or wrong, you are pointing at a photo with a date and an address on it instead of repeating what somebody told you on the phone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Send them an upload link. It opens in a browser, needs no account, and puts their photos on your job record. If they still will not, your crew lead shoots the same list when they walk the job.
No. The checklist shows which items still have no photo, and the review is yours. LibreCam makes the evidence complete and easy to look at; it does not grade the work.
Add them as users at no cost, or keep them outside your org and take their photos through an upload link. With unlimited users the decision is about access and roles, not about a bill.
Ahead of it. The roofing quality control checklist is the final pass; the photos taken during the install are what let that pass happen without a second trip to the roof.