Solo private investigator · Fort Lauderdale, FL · 6 years in business · former Broward Sheriff's Office
Before SproutDock — and what changes after.
He doesn't have "Jobs" — he has Cases. Custom terminology is built in, set once during onboarding.
Walk through how Marcus's whole workflow runs through SproutDock. Each stage shows whether the feature is live today, coming soon, or on the roadmap.
An insurance defense attorney calls Marcus about a workers' comp claimant who's reportedly more active than his disability claim would suggest. Marcus creates the law firm as a Client and opens a Case under that client, with the subject's name and the matter type recorded on the case.
He applies his "New Client Matter" workflow — the first step is the engagement letter. He sends it straight from the case. The attorney gets a branded email with a link, reviews the terms (retainer + hourly + expenses), digitally signs. The executed engagement letter is locked, timestamped, and archived under the case before the call's even over.
Investigations have phases, and good investigators bill them separately. Marcus breaks the case into Aspects: Pre-surveillance research, Surveillance Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Report drafting, Trial prep.
Each Aspect holds its own tasks, files, photos, and deliverables, and can carry its own invoice — so each phase bills on its own line instead of one lump sum. Marcus can pull up "Surveillance Day 2" in isolation to see only that day's work, or open the parent case for the full picture — aggregated invoicing, task completion, and a financial health breakdown across every Aspect.
PI work runs on hard windows. Surveillance has to happen before the subject knows they're being watched. Reports have to land before trial. Subpoena responses are due on specific dates.
Marcus puts each one on the case — field days as scheduled work, report and filing deadlines as dated tasks. Everything surfaces on the unified calendar alongside every other open case. Drag any item to a new date to reschedule, and the audit trail logs who moved it and when.
Marcus sends emails to defense counsel directly from inside the case. With a custom domain configured, it sends from his agency's own address — looks completely native on the attorney's end. When she replies from her Outlook, the reply automatically threads back under that case, attachments included.
No more digging through a personal inbox for "what did Karen ask me about the Smith case last week?" Every email sent or received through the case lives next to the evidence, the tasks, and the billing record — searchable, threaded, and timestamped.
This is where PIs live or die: defensible evidence. Marcus uploads his surveillance photos and field notes directly into the case. Each upload is attributed to the user who uploaded it, timestamped, and logged in the case audit trail — a documented chain of custody from field to file.
Files can be marked admin-only (Marcus's working notes), client-visible (Karen sees them when shared), or public. For delivering evidence to counsel, Marcus generates a token-shared gallery link — the attorney opens it to view and download photos without needing a login or a giant email attachment.
PI invoicing has more line items than most service businesses — investigation time, mileage, database lookup fees, equipment costs, per-record charges. Marcus builds these as line items on the invoice, attached to the case or to the specific Aspect so the billing detail matches the work breakdown. To save retyping, he can start from a saved invoice template for the line items he uses every month.
He reviews, edits, and sends. The invoice reaches the firm by email, and Marcus sees when it's opened, how many times, and — once he records the payment — when it was paid.
Coming soon: a client portal will give each attorney their own login to check case status, interim reports, and invoices on their own schedule — replacing the "what's going on with Smith?" call with a thirty-second self-serve check.
Today, Marcus already keeps the firm in the loop without phone tag: invoices reach them by email (and he sees when they're opened), contracts are signed by link, and photo sets are shared by gallery link — no login required.
On the roadmap: AI integrations that put Marcus's data to work — analyzing email tone and client sentiment, spotting patterns like late-paying firms or cases going stale, flagging approaching deadlines before they sneak up, and surfacing insights across the caseload that would take hours to piece together manually.
The data is already in the system — case activity, email threads, invoice history, task completion. AI will connect the dots and surface what matters, so Marcus spends less time reviewing and more time in the field.
Same day. Same caseload. Different reality.
Marcus's billable hours go up because his admin hours go down. Defense firms refer him to other defense firms because his case files are tighter, his reports are more defensible, and his communication is faster. The reputation compounds — and in PI work, reputation among attorneys is the entire game.