How to evidence a queried valuation

You put in your valuation. A few days later it comes back with a line knocked off or marked "query", and the QS on the other side wants proof before they'll pay it. You usually have a few days to get it to them, or it gets pushed to next month.

What actually answers a query

Most queries come down to one of three questions, and each has its own kind of evidence.

Where was it done, and how much? Send a marked-up drawing. Highlight the run of pipe, the area of slab or the manholes you're claiming, so the other side can measure it themselves.

Was it actually done, and when? Send a photo. It needs to show the work clearly and be dated, ideally taken before it was covered up. A photo of a backfilled trench proves nothing about what's under it.

Is the rate right? Send an invoice or delivery note. If you're claiming for materials, or a rate is being challenged, the supplier's invoice shows what it actually cost.

Why the photo is always the hard part

The drawing and the invoice are usually filed somewhere. The photo almost never is.

On most jobs it's in a WhatsApp group. You know roughly when the work was done, so you scroll back to that week and look through hundreds of messages, delivery photos and "on my way" texts.

If it isn't there, you start asking around: "Has anyone got a photo of MH4 before it was backfilled?" Sometimes someone has it on their own phone. Sometimes the person who took it has left the job.

And even when you find it, it often doesn't say what it shows. A photo of a manhole is no use if you can't prove which manhole it is.

What it costs you

If you can't evidence an item, the usual result is that it comes off the valuation or gets held over to next month. For a subcontractor working on tight margins, a few thousand pounds held for a month is a real cash-flow problem. It also turns into weeks of back and forth that nobody has time for.

Habits that fix it

• Label photos when they're taken. "MH4 bedding before backfill" is evidence. "IMG_4471" isn't. A label with the location and the item turns a photo you can't find into one you can search for.
• Photograph before it's covered. Anything that gets buried, boxed in or plastered over needs a photo first. You can't go back for it.
• Ask for the photo before you need it. Whoever does the valuation knows which items tend to get queried. Ask site for those photos while the work is happening, not a month later.
• Keep photos against the job, not on people's phones. When someone leaves, their camera roll leaves with them.
• File invoices against the item they prove. It saves digging through accounts when a rate gets challenged.

The short version

Most queried valuations are lost through poor filing, not poor work. If the evidence is labelled, dated and kept in one place for each site, a query takes five minutes to answer instead of five days.

Kerbline is a site chat built for this. Photos are kept against the site with who sent them and when, the office can ask site for a photo before it's needed, and you can export the evidence as a PDF when something is queried. The first site is free for 30 days.