The short answer
The expensive part of paper job sheets is not the paper. It is the work that never gets invoiced because the sheet did not make it back, and the disputes you cannot win because there is no evidence.
The four leaks
Unbilled work. A job gets done, the sheet ends up in a van footwell, and it never reaches the invoice. This is the largest leak and the hardest to see, because you cannot count what you never knew about.
Disputes you lose. The customer says it was not done, or not done to spec. Without a timestamped photo, you take the hit.
Re-keying. Somebody in the office types the same information into an accounting system. Hours a week, doing data entry from handwriting.
Compliance risk. A certificate is requested three years later. If it cannot be found, that is a different and much more expensive category of problem.
Cost it
| Leak | How to estimate it | Yours |
|---|---|---|
| Unbilled jobs | Jobs done vs jobs invoiced, one month | ___ |
| Lost disputes | Value written off last year | ___ |
| Re-keying | Hours per week x 52 x hourly cost | ___ |
| Compliance | What one unfindable certificate would cost | ___ |
The bar for a replacement
Photographing a paper sheet and sending it on WhatsApp takes about eight seconds. That is what you are competing with, and it is why most site apps fail.
What a replacement has to do
- Be faster than the eight secondsOr it will not be used, whatever anyone agreed in the meeting.
- Work with no signalCapture locally, sync later.
- Work with gloves on, one-handed, in the rain
- Work on the oldest phone anyone on the team has
- Attach photos to the job automaticallyNot to a camera roll.
Common questions
What do paper job sheets actually cost?
Four things: unbilled work where the sheet never arrived, disputes you cannot win without evidence, admin time re-keying, and compliance risk when a certificate cannot be found. The first is usually the biggest and the least visible.
Will the lads use an app instead?
Only if it is faster than photographing a sheet and sending it on WhatsApp, which takes about eight seconds. That is the bar, and it is the whole design brief.
Do we need signal on site?
No, and any system that requires it will lose data. Capture on the device, sync when signal returns.