Why your construction site diary should be a major focus for projects

Tenderfield
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

In today’s construction world, there is more emphasis than ever before on documentation and administration for every project. No matter what is your role, be it an estimator, project manager, contracts administrator, or site manager, everyone has an administration focus that is crucial for the project’s success.

For site managers, the daily site diary is one of the most important administrative tools. It acts as a solid record of the project’s progression and can be used as supporting documentation for many different aspects of a construction contract such as:

  1. Inclement weather — Being able to claim an extension of time claim with supporting diary entry reports of weather conditions and photo evidence.
  2. Design delays — Any works being held up due to design delays can be recorded and issued with extension of time claims.
  3. Negative Variations — Ensuring that any damage caused by a contractor is accounted for and backcharged accordingly if required.
  4. Progress Claims — Keeping a record of works performed and labour on site for each contractor that can assist with payment claim approvals.
  5. Recording Safety — Logging all accidents/incidents on site into the diary and ensure that the safety management process has been followed.
  6. Delivery of goods — Tracking what has been delivered from all purchase orders sent out for a project.
  7. Workers on site — Keep a record of the number of people on the site so managers can organise adequate amenities that are required by law, e.g. bathrooms, lunch sheds etc.

Download our free construction site diary template to give you a head start with your digital site diaries

Tenderfield’s Site Diary

Moving from a paper process to online

There are many software providers that either solely focus on construction site diary software, or have it included in their suite of features. It’s worth having a look around to see if they can meet your requirements along with any other administration processes that you’re looking to streamline with software.

However, if you not ready to make the move to a software just yet, it doesn’t mean you can’t make your site diary process digital. You can still be more efficient by having a soft copy of your diary loaded up on a low-cost cloud server such as Dropbox that can then be accessed from any smart device and completed daily.

By having a digital process, not only do you eliminate the risk of losing paper entries, but you will have an easily searchable document when you need to find information as supporting contract evidence.

If you need a helping hand with a template for your construction site diary, then feel free to download our free template that can be fully customised to meet your needs.

Download our free template (CSV format) to give you a head start with your digital site diaries.

Other construction articles that might interest you:

Australian Construction outlook 2017–18

3 tips to improve your construction defect management

Using social technologies for better construction collaboration

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Tenderfield

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Tenderfield provides a cloud-based construction management software to connect teams to projects without barriers.

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