Every HOA we’ve worked with has the same problem.
The landscaper bills for hedge trimming. Someone on the board has to drive across the property, walk the site, take photos, and verify the work actually happened before the check goes out. Same with the pool guy. Same with pest control. Same with the painter. Same with the handyman who came out for the broken gate.
It’s not that anyone’s lying. It’s that nobody’s documenting. And without documentation, every monthly board meeting turns into the same argument. “Did he show up? Are we sure? Did anyone check?”
We watched one HOA president drive out at 6:30am on a Saturday to spot-check a landscape crew. He didn’t want to. He had to.
So we built a vendor accountability app to take the legwork out.
The conversation with Claude was straightforward. “I need an app where vendors upload before/after photos with GPS, and the board approves on their phone before payment goes out.” Claude built the data model. The upload flow. The board-side review interface. The notification system. We tested it with one vendor on one property. Then with three vendors. Then we rolled it out.
Here’s how it works now. Vendors take a before photo on their phone when they start a job. Then they take an after photo when they finish. The job logs automatically with a timestamp, GPS coordinates, and visual proof. The HOA reviews everything on their phone before they cut the check.
The disputes dropped to nearly zero in the first month. The good vendors got paid faster because the documentation was instant. The board got their Saturdays back.
One property manager told us: “I used to spend half my week driving and taking photos. Now I spend that time on the actual community.”
We built it for HOAs first, but it works for any property manager, association, or vendor coordinator who’s tired of being the photographer-in-chief. If you manage a property and you’re still doing this by hand, we should talk.
