Most water damage jobs stall because the file has a gap somewhere: no clear scope, no authorization on record, or a scope change nobody documented until the invoice showed up. After 45 years in this industry, I’ve watched the same pattern repeat. The contractors who get paid consistently aren’t doing anything extraordinary. They’re getting the order right, every time.
Start with client information and scope of work.
Job and client information is its own thing. Every job needs it, no matter what. But scope of work is where I’d put the weight. Scoping is becoming a lost art. People aren’t taking the time to understand it anymore.
I read a story years ago called “The Lost Art of Scoping.” It’s stuck with me all these years because it’s still true: there are four things that have to happen for a job to go well. First, scope of work. If you and the adjuster don’t agree on the scope, the next thing won’t work. Pricing can’t be right if the scope isn’t right. Approval can’t happen if the pricing is off. And communication won’t hold up if the scope was never solid to begin with. Scope is the necessity every single job is built on.
Here’s what that looks like when it breaks: I want a new deck, 12’ by 14’. I send it out for tender, get three quotes, take the low bid. The contractor shows up and builds a 10’ by 10’. That’s on me. My scope was bad. Understanding what the scope of work actually is isn’t optional. You can’t get a good estimate without a good scope.
Authorization falls right under scope.
You can’t do anything without it. Scope of work and authorization go together; one doesn’t function without the other. Pricing and payment terms come after that, in that order.
Document with 360° tours, not photos.
I’ve been pushing this everywhere I go: photos are antiquated. They were great technology for a long time, but that time has passed. A 360° tour shows the whole room. A photo shows what you pointed the camera at.
We took our sales team to a training session and ran an experiment. Seven people, one at a time, walked into the same room and photographed it. Not one of them came back with the same set of photos. Most missed a corner, the ceiling, or the floor. Put two people in a room and tell them to document it, and you’ll get two different sets of pictures, and something will get missed.
There’s a phrase in this industry: if you didn’t document it, it didn’t happen. What carriers actually say is closer to the truth: if you didn’t document it, you’re not getting paid for it. With a 360° tour, there’s almost no way to miss something. With photos, it happens constantly.
When the scope changes, say so immediately.
Your 360° tour should also act as a living record of your scope. Right now, our industry operates on a fragmented process. Document, write scoping notes separately, and do it all over again when scope changes.
Instead of writing, we should be able to talk through the damage and required work as you walk the space. That’s what we’ve been working on at DocuSketch this year. Speak in plain language and we prompt you for missing information to complete your scope. If you did miss something, you can record another walkthrough for that room and we update the existing scope.
You can’t wait until the end of the job to tell someone the scope changed. If I hire a contractor for a $25,000 deck and the final bill is $35,000, I’m going to ask why nobody told me. That’s not a payment problem. It’s a communication problem, and it starts with the scope of work. Document the change, note it in the file, and get it in front of the adjuster before the work happens, not after.
That’s the file: client information, scope, authorization, 360° documentation, and real-time communication the moment anything changes. I don’t know a contractor doing all five who has a real problem getting paid. It’s the ones who wait until the end who do.
Nelson is the Vice President, North America at DocuSketch. Prior to 
