Custom software for private investigators

How investigation work gets messy

A PI agency often serves very different clients at once. Insurance carriers and third-party administrators send workers’ compensation and liability claims that need surveillance. Law firms want witness locates, interviews, background research and process service. Corporate clients need workplace investigations and due diligence. Private clients bring infidelity, custody and asset cases. Each type has its own intake questions, reporting format, billing rules and level of sensitivity.

In the field, investigators work long, irregular hours, often alone, and record everything: start and end times, mileage, locations, what they observed and when. Video and photos pile up by the gigabyte. Back at the office, someone has to turn notes into a clean report, check that time and expenses match the client’s billing guidelines, and answer the adjuster asking whether the claimant was seen working yesterday. When that runs on notebooks, text messages and a shared drive, details get lost and reports go out late.

What private investigators software we build

• Case intake: forms per case type that collect subject details, objectives, budget caps and client instructions, with a conflict check against past cases.
• Assignment and scheduling: investigators matched to cases by location, skill and availability, with a calendar of surveillance days.
• Field app: timestamped activity logs, GPS location, mileage, photo and video capture and notes, working offline and syncing when there is signal.
• Evidence and media log: every file stored against the case with who added it, when and from where, so the record is clear if it ends up in court.
• Report builder: daily activity and final reports generated from field logs in your format, ready for review and editing.
• Billing: hours, mileage and expenses checked against each client’s rates and caps, then invoiced.
• Client portal: a secure place for clients to submit cases, see status and download reports.
• Research tracking: which databases and records were searched for each case and why, to support permissible-purpose records.

Off-the-shelf PI case management vs. custom

There are case management products made for investigators, Trackops being one of the better known, and many smaller agencies run well on one of them. Agencies also rely on data providers such as TLOxp and Accurint for research, which stay separate from any case system.

Custom software makes sense when your mix of clients and case types does not fit a standard product: a surveillance-heavy agency with strict carrier reporting formats, a firm that wants a branded portal for law firm clients, an agency combining investigations with security or process service, or a team that needs its own reports and billing rules. A custom build can also be scoped small, such as a field app and report builder only.

Licensing, privacy and record keeping

Private investigators are licensed at the state level in most states, and rules on licensing, record keeping, recording conversations, GPS tracking, and the use of personal data from research databases vary by state. Federal laws also limit how certain personal data can be obtained and used, which is why permissible-purpose records matter.

Software supports this with role-based access, audit trails, encrypted storage, retention settings and clear chain-of-custody records for media. We build to the policies your agency sets; we do not advise on what the law permits in a given case. Talk to a lawyer about that.

How a project works

1. Map your case typesWe walk through intake, field work, reporting and billing for each kind of case you take.
2. Design the office and field viewsInvestigators and office staff click through the screens before anything is built.
3. Build in roundsThe field app and report builder often come first, since they save the most hours.
4. Move your casesWe bring in clients, open cases and templates from your current tools.
5. Launch and refineYour team is trained, and the monthly plan covers changes as clients and case types change.