On a rooftop, the cheapest insurance you can buy is a photograph. A clear shot of an existing roof crack settles a dispute months later; a photo of clean wire dressing lets your senior engineer approve the job from the office; a gallery of the array going up reassures the homeowner watching from below. This guide is the field standard for what every crew should capture at every stage.
Overview
Every project card in the installation pipeline has a photo log grouped by stage. Crews upload from their phones as they work; the office reviews and approves; the customer sees a curated view in their portal. The habit to build is simple — shoot before you cover, shoot what you'd want to prove later.
public/images/docs/photo-logging-best-practices.pngThe rule of thumbIf something will be hidden by the next step — a sealant bead under a foot, a termination behind a panel, a roof crack under a rail — photograph it now. You can't go back for the shot once the panel is down.
Why photo logs matter
Two outcomes justify the few minutes a crew spends shooting: quality control and liability protection.
- Quality control. Your best engineer can't stand on every roof. Photos let them verify torqued bolts, correct polarity, neat dressing, and proper earthing remotely — and reject work before it's energised.
- Liability protection. Roofs already have cracks, damp patches, and old damage. Documenting the pre-existing condition means a homeowner can't pin a leak on your crew that was there before you arrived.
- Customer trust. A homeowner who watches their installation progress through the portal is a homeowner who pays the final invoice without friction and refers you to a neighbour.
- Warranty & service. A photo of an inverter's serial and the as-built wiring saves a service trip two years later when something needs diagnosing.
Before you start
Before a single bolt goes in, walk the roof and document its existing state. This is the most-skipped and most-valuable set of photos you'll take.
- Photograph any existing cracks, chips, or damaged tiles on the roof surface — wide shot for context, then close-up.
- Capture damp patches, rust, or prior leakage stains on the slab or underside if visible.
- Shoot the existing electricity meter and the sanctioned-load display, plus the main board you'll connect to.
- Take an overall before shot of the empty roof from the same angle you'll later use for the finished array.
Document damage before you touch the roofIf you find a pre-existing crack, photograph it and note it on the project card the same day. Without that timestamped evidence, any roof problem discovered later — fairly or not — becomes your crew's bill to pay.
During the install
The golden window is the period when the structure and cabling are exposed. Once panels are clamped down, most of the work that matters for QC is permanently hidden.
- Rail mounts & hooks — shoot each mounting point fixed to the structure before clamps and panels cover them.
- Sealant / waterproofing — capture the sealant bead at every roof penetration; this is the exact spot a future leak would start.
- Wire management — photograph DC strings, MC4 terminations, conduit runs, and earthing while they're still visible and accessible.
- Inverter & DCDB/ACDB — shoot the inverter serial number and the internal terminations of the DC and AC boxes before the covers go on.
Shoot terminations, not just panelsA finished array looks the same whether the strings underneath are dressed and torqued or a tangled mess. The photos that actually prove quality are the unglamorous ones — terminations, earthing lugs, and conduit — taken before the modules hide them.
Per-stage photo checklist
Use this as the minimum standard per stage. A card shouldn't move right in the pipeline until its stage photos are logged — these are the same exit criteria the office checks before approving.
| Stage | Minimum shots | Must capture |
|---|---|---|
| Site Survey | 4+ | Existing roof condition & any damage, the meter & sanctioned load, the main board, an overall empty-roof shot. |
| Design & Engineering | 1+ | The approved layout / SLD attached to the card (document, not a site photo). |
| Civil Work | 3+ | Mounting bolts & anchors, the erected structure, sealant at each roof penetration. |
| Electrical Work | 3+ | Wire dressing, MC4 terminations, earthing & lightning arrestor, inverter serial — all before panels cover them. |
| Commissioning | 3+ | Energised inverter showing first generation, installed & sealed net meter, finished array from the survey angle. |
Uploading from mobile
The whole point is that photos go up from the roof, not from a laptop that evening when half of them are forgotten.
- On the phone, open the project from your assigned list and go to its photo log.
- Make sure the correct stage is selected so the photos are tagged to Civil, Electrical, and so on.
- Shoot or pick the images and upload — multiple at once is fine.
- If signal is poor on the roof, capture everything first, then upload when you're back in coverage. Upload before you leave site, while you can still re-take a missed shot.
Frame it so it readsOne in-focus, well-lit photo that clearly shows the bolt or termination beats five blurry thumbnails. Get close, avoid shooting into the sun, and include enough surroundings that the office can tell where on the roof it is.
Remote QC & portal transparency
Logged photos feed two audiences at once, and the same disciplined gallery serves both.
- Remote QC approval. Your office engineer opens the stage gallery, checks it against the checklist, and either approves the stage or sends it back with a comment — no site visit needed. This is what lets one senior engineer oversee many crews.
- Customer portal transparency. A curated set of these photos appears in the homeowner's customer portal, so they watch their rooftop progress from survey to commissioning and feel looked after.
Because remote approval gates each stage move, photo discipline directly drives how fast jobs flow through the installation pipeline. Crews that shoot well clear QC on the first pass; crews that don't get cards bounced back and lose a day.