Crew leads send progress photos to a dedicated WhatsApp number and pick the job from a short list. Each photo is saved to that job's Google Drive folder with the date and job number, and the project sheet shows the latest upload.
Typical results
Under 1 min
From photo sent to photo filed
Every photo
Named with the date and job number
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Renovation crews take dozens of progress photos a day and send them to the office in personal WhatsApp chats. Someone has to download, rename and file them by job, and photos needed for warranty questions, homeowner updates or disputes are often missing or buried in a phone gallery. Sorting takes about three hours a week.
Before and after
Office hours per week spent sorting photos
−86%Minutes to find a job photo for a homeowner
−93%The automation
Crew leads send progress photos to a dedicated WhatsApp number, and the bot replies with a numbered list of their active jobs from the project sheet. After they pick one, each photo is saved to that job's Google Drive folder and renamed with the date and job number. The project sheet shows the latest upload time next to the folder link, so the office sees which jobs have fresh photos.
How it works
- 01
Photo sent on WhatsApp
A crew lead sends one or more progress photos to the firm's dedicated WhatsApp number.
- 02
Job picked from a list
The bot replies with a numbered list of that crew's active jobs from the project sheet, and the crew lead picks one.
- 03
Saved and renamed
Each photo is saved to the job's Google Drive folder and renamed with the date, job number and a running count.
- 04
Project sheet updated
The latest upload time appears next to the folder link, so the office sees which jobs have fresh photos.
Starts from
- Crew progress photos
- Dedicated WhatsApp number
Delivers
- Photos in job Drive folder
- Latest upload in sheet
The impact
The office saves about three hours a week of downloading and sorting, and every job folder holds a dated photo record. Project managers check progress from the sheet without calling the crew, and homeowner updates or warranty questions start with the right photos in seconds.
Questions about this automation
Do crew leads need a new app?
No. They keep using WhatsApp on their own phones and send photos to one saved contact. The bot only asks them to pick a job number, and it keeps that choice for the next 30 minutes, so a batch of photos from the same site needs just one reply.
How does the bot know which jobs to offer?
It reads the project sheet, where each active job lists the crew lead's phone number and its Drive folder link. When a job is marked complete, it drops off the list. A crew lead with no active jobs gets a short reply asking them to call the office.
Can videos and voice notes be filed too?
Yes. Short videos are saved to the same job folder with the same naming rule, and voice notes can be stored as audio files next to the photos. Simple automations like this are usually live within days, and extra file types can be added later.