Daily Reports Are a Legal Document

Why do daily reports daily on your projects?  There are several reasons why daily reports should be done daily.  The most important reason is that these are legal documents and should be done the day that they are dated and signed by the person completing them.

Daily reports are critical and should be maintained as part of the project files even after the project is complete and for the period following the longest warranty on the project or until all issues on the project, including lawsuits, are resolved.

Some of the items that need to be included on every daily report are:

• Date and day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)
• Temperature and weather conditions (cloudy, rainy, etc.)
• Name and location of the project
• Project number as assigned by the home office and other identifying numbers from the Architect or Owner
• List of subcontractors on site and how many workers from each company
• Visitors to the site and what they were there for (IE: meeting, inspections, etc.)
• Inspections or testing performed by your company or others on site
• Working hours on site (some projects require that you keep track of all hours worked by all employees and a cumulative total on the project - mostly Government)
• Deliveries to the site or pick ups from the site - materials or equipment -- if equipment is called off, you need to note the call of number for future reference
• Safety items or issues, warnings or citations
• What work was performed and what needs corrected or completed
• Correspondence received or sent, including safety notices or 24/48 hour notices, etc.
• Any photographs taken should be noted and labeled
• And any thing else that happened at the site.

The report, once completed, should be signed by the person completing it and scanned into the project file or have an electronic signature attached to it and filed in the project file.

Some software will allow you to customize reports or documents such as Sage Timberline.  Timberline custom reports can be developed to track the things critical to your company's success including daily reports.    

In a legal proceeding or in any issue where weather or other delays take place, these records will prove invaluable to your cause.  Make sure these are done daily by your team on all projects.  

You or someone on your team needs to make sure that these important documents are completed on a daily basis and that someone is reviewing them for accuracy and completeness.  

Don't let anyone save them all for the end of the week because important details will be lost.  I find that about 75 - 80 percent of the companies that I work with will allow their superintendents to wait to complete them until they have "spare time" -- this is a very bad habit and bad habits such as these can cause your company to fail or lose contracts, bonding, money or your reputation.

Establish a policy and procedure for completion of your daily reports and make everyone accountable for their duties in the process.  Don't allow these 'little things' to become big issues in your progress.

Daily reports are something that I stress heavily in my book and I can't say it enough, you need to be sure your company is staying on top of document management.  If you need help in these items, contact myself or someone else to get the help you need.  Don't put your income and company at risk of serious loss or failure.

Choose to succeed -- Document EVERYTHING ! !

Charlene S Reed, Owner/Author

www.MyConstructionOffice.com