The tool, in your browser
The backcharge log
One card every time a sub crew’s miss costs you money. The day you found it, the crew, what happened, whether there’s a photo, the day you told him, what it really cost, and whether he agreed. Each card flags the one thing still wrong with it — and the box up top counts the list, the dollars, and which crew they belong to.
Free, and it asks for nothing. No email, no account, no sign-up. What you type stays in this browser on this device.
Read this first
This log only knows about this browser. Nothing you type is sent to us and nothing syncs, so the phone and the office computer each keep their own copy — and anyone who opens this page on that computer can read every crew name and every complaint on it. Clearing your browsing data wipes it, and a new phone won’t bring it along. Keep the-backcharge-log.xlsx on the computer at the office if a season of backcharges has to last.
The log fills in right here in your browser. If this line stays put, JavaScript is off — the spreadsheet below does the same job.
What the flag means
A flag is a to-do list, not a report card.
A card can be more than one kind of wrong at once — no photo and never told — and it only names the first one. NOT TOLD comes first, because a man who never heard about it is worse off than one who heard and disagreed; that is the failure that costs you the crew, and it’s the whole point of paying them first. NO PROOF is next: without the picture you can’t hold the line anyway, and that rule is on you, not on him — it’s why the photo habit exists. NOT SETTLED and HE SAYS NO come last, because those are open conversations and not broken process. Fix the one it names and the next one appears.
A flag is not an exclusion. Every flagged card still counts and its dollars still total, which is why the by-crew column says Cost you and not “backcharged”: it adds the rows that aren’t backcharges yet on purpose, because that is the number that tells you which cheap crew is the expensive one. The one card that stays out of the dollars is one with no crew name on it — the count and the total always describe the same rows. Most of this never has to become money at all if somebody looks first: a checkpoint catches it while it is still a phone call.
This log records cost, never a penalty. There is no box for a markup, an admin fee or anything “for the trouble”: $240 is a downspout and a gutter apron, and $500 for the trouble is a fine — and a fine ends the relationship. Whether you can hold money back at all, and on what notice, is set by your subcontract and by your state. Read yours and ask your own attorney before you keep a dollar of his.
How it gets used
- Open a card the day you find it — the crew, the job, and what happened in one sentence a stranger would understand six months from now. “Cracked the north downspout,” not “damage.”
- Photograph it before it’s cleaned up. Photo is Yes only if the picture exists and you can find it. Anything else and the card says NO PROOF, which is it telling you this one isn’t ready to become money.
- Call him the same day, then fill in “Told him on.” Give him first shot at fixing it himself — that beats pulling your own crew off paying work. Leave the date blank until you’ve actually spoken to him.
- Read the whole list before you cut sub checks. Anything flagged gets settled first, not deducted first. Then the check gets a name — “5/29 draw,” “invoice 4412” — never “the next one.”
Want it in a spreadsheet?
The same log as a spreadsheet
the-backcharge-log.xlsx is this log as a spreadsheet — same columns, same flags, same green box — for the computer at the office. Four differences in the page’s favour: the file makes you retype each crew’s name into a second block and matches it exactly, so a typo silently totals nothing, where this page gathers the crews itself; the flag word here comes with a sentence saying what to do about it, where a cell can only print the word; words in a money box are said out loud where the file quietly reads them as nothing and comes out short; and there is no row-24 ceiling, where the sheet stops counting past it while still looking right. One the other way: the file is a real file, so a season survives a cleared browser and prints for the meeting. The sheets ask for your email once; this page never does.
The play behind it — M12-04 He Should Hear It From You, Not From His Check — is where the log comes from, and the sheet notes spell out every column and formula.