With thousands of photos taken on a jobsite, contractors will find Threshold from 383 Studio in San Francisco helps them organize the images by placing them onto the plans.

"It really saves time," says Keith Morehouse, senior project engineer at Swinerton Builders in San Francisco, an AGC of California member. "In the construction industry, we take a lot of progress photos, for coordination and quality."

Morehouse is using Threshold on a 22-story apartment tower project to track issues, monitor progress and save photos to send to the appropriate subcontractor.

"The visual is what I really like," Morehouse adds. "You don’t have to think about where you stored the photo. You go to your structural or architectural floor plan and see the photo tags associated with that space. It’s great."

Adam Freeman, chief operating officer of 383 Studio, who has a degree in construction management, had the idea for Threshold while working in construction and documenting progress with digital photos. At that time, he manually labeled each photo and hoped his description was adequate when he had to retrieve them later.

"I thought with the Web, there had to be a better way for photos to be easily organized, shared and stored," Freeman says. To that end, he and partner Philippe Gauthier, CEO, developed Threshold, which places the photo into the online plan sheet, making it faster to find a specific image later.

"Threshold allows contractors to photo manage very, very quickly from the field," Gauthier says.

The contractor uploads a PDF of the plans with any Web browser when he or she creates a project. Photos can be uploaded from a desktop in the office or directly from an Apple mobile device in the field. They add standard or custom, searchable tags to place the image in the appropriate place, which will help to locate it at a later time. Tags include the room name, the trade involved, and whether the photo is of a wall or ceiling or floor. The contractor also can add a comment to the photo to spur conversation or document specific issues in depth.

Morehouse calls the app intuitive to use.

The contractor can allow anyone from the project team, including clients, to view the photos, adding privacy settings to ensure the appropriate level of access (from view only to full administration). That allows owners to monitor progress without making a physical site visit.

"Creating a Web and mobile platform that allows you to organize photos well and distribute them well is key," Gauthier says.

Contractors also can email photos from Threshold.

An Internet connection is not needed to document from the jobsite. The contractor can upload to Threshold once a cell or Internet connection is re-established.

Threshold offers an unlimited number of free projects up to 100 photos. After that, up to 1,000 photos cost $9.99 per month, up to 5,000 photos $49.99 per month, and up to 10,000 photos $99.99 month. Pricing is available if the contractor expects to take more than 10,000 photos. Paying by the year saves 17 percent.

"For the cost, which is little, it has great advantages," Morehouse says. "The overall ease of use is the greatest benefit."