Backcharges are where relationships and files both get messy. A trade damages work, leaves incomplete work, or forces you to clean up after them. The cost is real. The paper often starts only once someone is already angry, which is usually too late for a clean record and sometimes too late for a fair conversation.

This is not legal advice, and it is not a guide to what your subcontract allows you to backcharge. That is a contract question. This is the document control habit: if you may later need to show that a condition existed, that you notified someone, and that you incurred a cost, start that file when the condition is visible.

Procore and other platforms can facilitate a backcharge or a change-event record on jobs that use those tools. A dated folder, photos, a short notice, and a log row in Google Drive or Dropbox can accomplish the same filing goal.

Start when the condition is visible

The same day, if you can:

  1. Take photos that show the condition, the location, and enough context that a later viewer is not guessing. See Photos That Support a Delay or Extra Work Claim.
  2. Write a short, factual notice to the responsible party: what you saw, where, when, and that you intend to document costs. Do not write a legal brief. Do write it down, and send it.
  3. Keep a copy of that notice, and of how it was sent, in 06_Changes or a clearly named backcharge folder.
  4. Record labor, equipment, and third-party costs as they happen, on a ticket or a simple log, not from memory at the end of the month.
  5. Add a row to the change or backcharge log: date, party, description, status, and links to the backup.

If you already cleaned it up and have no photos, say so honestly in the file. Do not invent pictures or a notice that was never sent. A thin file beats a reconstructed one that falls apart at the first question.

Keep it factual, and keep it in one place

The file should make a short story obvious: the condition, the notice, the work you did or paid for, and the costs you recorded. Keep the argument out of it. That can come later, if it has to, with a file behind it.

The pattern is familiar. A trade tracks mud through finished work. The cleanup happens over a weekend. Photos are not taken, the email goes unsent, and two months later a backcharge appears on a pay-app reconciliation. The other side has no memory of a notice and no pictures. The cleanup was real. The missing same-day file turned it into a fight.

A habit, not a surprise at closeout

Do not let backcharges pile up as a closeout surprise. Raise them while the trade is still on the job, with the paper already in the file. If you want help, I can set up the folder and the log, or file the backup that reaches the job file as part of a retainer. I do not decide whether a backcharge is valid, and I do not negotiate it. The files stay yours.

If you want help, not just a checklist

Some jobs run fine on a clean file and a superintendent who gives the log fifteen minutes twice a week. Others do not: revisions are moving fast, closeout is already behind, or the field simply has no hours left for paperwork.

That is where I come in. I set up the job file, run the logs on a retainer, or prepare closeout before the scramble starts. Your files stay yours, and there is no software contract to sign.

Email travis@builtonrecord.com Get the free Job File Kit