“Done” and “paid” are not the same word
A finished installation, three months unpaid, because the photos that prove it were sent to a group chat. Why delivery evidence goes missing in field services, and how keeping it with the job changes that.
- The job was done.
- The device works.
- The photos that prove it?
- In a group chat. Three months ago. Gone.
Done isn't the same as proven.
FortyFive keeps the proof with the work.
- a finished job waiting to be paid
- 3 months
- a finished job waiting to be paid
- return visit just to prove the work
- 1
- return visit just to prove the work
- photos left on the job record
- 0
- photos left on the job record
- 01The revisit that could have been avoided
- 02The rework nobody can attribute
- 03The invoice that has to be reconstructed
- 04The payment waiting for a decision (not in this case)
- 05The cost of carrying the gap (not in this case)
A device was installed and switched on. The old equipment came out, exactly as the remote engineer on the call asked when the site turned out to have no connectivity. By any sensible measure, the job was finished.
Three months later, it still has not been paid for.
Not because anyone doubts the work happened. Because the evidence that would prove it, the completion photos, were taken on the day and sent to a group chat. A quarter later, that chat is long gone, and so are the photos. The only way to recover the proof is to send someone back to a site where there is nothing left to do.
The same job, two ways.
- Work done
Device installed, old kit removed on the remote engineer's instruction.
- !Photos sent to a group chat
The evidence leaves the job the same day.
- !Weeks pass
The chat moves on and the photos go with it.
- !Invoice queried
The customer asks for proof nobody can find.
- Back to site to prove it
Still unpaid, three months on.
- Work done
The engineer follows the runbook on their phone.
- Evidence captured on the job
Photos and checks against each step, with time and place.
- Kept with the record
Not in a chat, an inbox or a phone.
- Reviewed and accepted
Against the acceptance criteria.
- Invoiced, no second trip
The record answers the question.
Why this happens
The work is the easy part. It is everything after the van leaves site that leaks: proving what was done, getting it accepted, getting it paid.
In a chain of subcontractors and hand-offs, the evidence lives wherever the person on the day happened to put it: a phone, a message thread, an inbox. None of it is with the job. Nobody made a mistake; the chain is very good at coordinating the work and barely records it at all. So when a question comes weeks later, there is no single record to answer it, and a finished job turns into an unpaid dispute.
The cost lands on both sides. The engineer or delivery partner waits for money they have earned. The business accountable to the customer cannot stand behind work it cannot show. And somebody pays for a second trip to prove a first one.
- “I sent the photos the day I did the job.”
- “Do I really have to go back to prove it?”
Costs them: Unpaid for finished work, and maybe another trip to a site with nothing left to do.
- “The customer won't sign off without the photos.”
- “Nobody can find them.”
Costs them: Can't stand behind work it can't show, and pays for a second visit to prove the first.
What FortyFive does
FortyFive captures the proof of the work on the job itself: photos, checks, readings and sign-off, each recorded against the step it demonstrates, with the time and place it was taken. The runbook asks for it as part of the job, so it does not depend on someone remembering to send it afterwards.
That evidence stays with the record of the job. It is the same evidence the reviewer uses to accept the work and the same evidence the invoice draws on. When someone asks, three months on, what happened on site, the record answers, without anyone getting back in the van.
It does not make hard jobs easy. It makes finished work provable, which is what turns “done” into “paid”.
Less friction. More flow.
Frequently asked questions
Why do completion photos go missing?
Because they are captured wherever the person on site happens to put them: a phone, a group chat, an email. None of those is the job record, so when someone asks weeks later there is nothing reliable to point to.
Is a photo enough to prove the work?
Only if it answers the right question. Evidence is useful when it is tied to the check it demonstrates, with the time, the location and the person who captured it, and kept with the job.
Does capturing evidence on the job add work for engineers?
It should remove work. The engineer captures what the job asks for once, as the work happens, instead of being asked to find it again weeks later or going back to site.
The ideas behind this case
The done-to-paid gap
The done-to-paid gap is the elapsed time between field work being completed and payment for it being received. It runs from completion through evidence, acceptance and invoicing to settlement.
Proof of delivery in field services
Proof of delivery in field services is the record that shows a job was completed to the agreed requirement: what was done, where, when and by whom, measured against which acceptance criteria, and who accepted it.
Digital site report
A digital site report is the record of a field visit captured on a phone or tablet while the work happens: what was done against each required check, with photos, test results, readings, time, location and sign-off.