How to Send Before-and-After Photo Reports in ZartonAI

Why before-and-after photos are worth the extra minute

For electricians, plumbers, HVAC companies, auto body shops and contractors, photos do three jobs at once. They show the value of work that is often hidden behind a wall or under a hood. They protect you when someone later asks whether that crack, stain or dent was there before you arrived. And they sell the next job, because a customer with a tidy report in their inbox is far more likely to forward it, or to call you again.

The problem is that job photos usually live in five different camera rolls. ZartonAI keeps them on the job itself, labelled as before, during, after or document, so the report almost writes itself.

What goes into the report

How to make a before-and-after photo report, step by step

1. Take the before photos on the first visit. Before anyone touches anything, photograph the problem and the area around it, and add the photos to the job’s files under the before stage. Every file on a job carries a stage — before, during, after or document — and an optional caption, so a note like “corroded main breaker” travels with the picture.
2. Ask the customer for photos when you can’t be there. For a leak, a dent or an old unit you haven’t seen yet, send the customer a photo request from the job. ZartonAI makes a link they open on their phone to upload several photos or documents at once, with no account to create. You write what you need in your own words — “a few photos of the leak and the ceiling below it” — and choose the stage the photos belong to. The link is emailed to the customer’s address on file (or another address you give), and a QR code for it appears on the job’s page too, handy when the customer is standing in front of you.
3. Set how long the link stays open. A photo request link stays open for 14 days by default and accepts up to 20 files. You can set anywhere from 1 to 90 days and from 1 to 50 files, so a one-off snapshot and a whole renovation folder both fit.
4. Let the photos land on the job. Whatever the customer uploads goes straight into the job’s files under the stage you chose, and you are told when it arrives. The file list shows who sent each one — your staff, the customer through a photo request, or a generated report — so you always know where a picture came from.
5. Capture during and after photos as the work progresses. Add photos under during for the parts that will disappear behind a wall, and under after once the work is finished. Try to shoot the after photos from the same spots as the before ones; the report places them side by side, and matching angles make the difference obvious.
6. Generate the report. From the job, create a before-and-after report. Give it a title (it defaults to “Before & after”), write a short summary for the customer or let it use the job’s scope, and decide whether to include the during photos. ZartonAI builds a PDF with the before photos beside the after ones, plus the services, crew and dates, and saves it in the job’s files. Nothing is sent at this point. The report needs at least some before or after photos on the job to work from.
7. Review it, then send it. Open the PDF and read it as the customer will. When you are happy, send it: ZartonAI emails the job’s most recent report to the customer with the PDF attached, either with a short standard message or with a personal note you add. You can also send it to a different address than the one on file — a property manager or an insurer, for example.

Tips and common mistakes

Do it with Claude

ZartonAI works with Claude through the Zarton connector, so you can handle job photos and reports in plain language from your phone. Claude can list the photos on a job, ask a customer for photos, build the report and send it when you say so. Anything that reaches a customer — the photo request email and sending the report — only works when “Allow actions” is switched on for the connection, and Claude sends a report only after you have seen it. Try requests like:

“What photos do we have on the Ruiz roof job? Did the customer send any?”

“Ask the customer on JOB-21 for before photos of the leak and the ceiling below it. Keep the link open for a week.”

“Make a before-and-after report for JOB-21 and include the during photos.”

“The report looks good — send it to the customer with a note thanking them for their patience.”

“Send the Elm Street report to the property manager’s address instead.”

See what else Claude can do on our Works with Claude page.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• How to Run Jobs from First Call to Final Invoice in ZartonAI — set up the job your photos and report belong to.
• How to Invoice Customers and Get Paid in ZartonAI — send the bill alongside the proof.
• How to See If a Job Made Money with Job Costing in ZartonAI — close out the job with its real numbers.