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When I started working as an instructor, I remember my first supervisor telling me that I needed to teach our people how to properly document a restoration project. I didn’t know it back then, but this seemly simple task started me on a 25-year adventure. An adventure that I now know, will only end when I retire.
I started this task by doing a lot of research. I looked at hundreds of job files to get an idea of our current level of documentation. I met with insurance clients to gather their feedback on what they expected from a job file. I met with members of our legal department to learn their expectations and how our documents preformed in past legal actions. I quickly agreed with my supervisor, our people needed to step up their game when it came to documenting a restoration project. On average. our documentation was horrendous. Most of it was non-existent. What was there, was poorly written, and mostly irrelevant to the project. I could not understand how I could get a $50 oil change and receive better documentation than we were providing on a $10,000 water loss.
For context, this was back in 2001, and all of our documents back then were hard copies, pen and paper. Job files were actually a file. We all had fax machines and faxed our files to the insurance clients or other bill payers. Here we are, 2026, technology all around us, and I am sorry to say that the job files produced by most restoration companies are just as bad as they were back then.
We perform a lot of really great work in our industry. We are there to help people that have had their lives changed by a traumatic event. When someone’s home has been damaged by fire, water, or mold, their most valuable asset has been affected. I have always received a sense of pride in the work we perform. We are helping people at some of the lowest points of their lives, and we can instill a feeling of hope, and make their lives normal again. The work we do is very honorable work.
We do ourselves an injustice if we do not take the time to document all of this great work. We need to tell our story on every project we perform. Yes, if we document the project properly, the insurance client will have fewer objections, fewer questions, and will process the claim faster, which means we get paid faster. Yes, if we document the project properly, our company will have a lot less liability. Yes, if we document the project properly, we can justify our price to whoever will be paying the bill. The real reason I would like for all of us to take the time to document the project properly is so that our story is told. The hard work that you do everyday needs to be told, and you are the only one that can tell it.
Use the technology available. Document everything you do on a project. It is impossible to over- document, but 99% of job files are extremely under-documented.
The Restoration Institute offers job file review services. We review job files for both the restoration provider and insurance clients.
If you have any questions about this newsletter, would like information about our job file review services, or have any other cleaning or restoration related questions, please reach out to me, Dale Dohner, at ddohner@restoration-institute.com
