Records and reporting

Keeping the site diary

2 min read · Checked against the product 3 October 2026

Two minutes a day: who was on site, what was done, what got in the way and what was instructed, with photos, exported as a print-ready record for any date range.

When access is blocked or the programme slips, the argument is won by the record written on the day. The site diary is that record, kept per project, and it exports as a dated pack when you need to prove what happened. It is built to be filled in from a phone’s browser in the site cabin.

When to use it

Every working day, by the supervisor or whoever runs the job, ideally before leaving site. Quiet days count as much as busy ones: a gap in the diary invites the question of what happened that day.

How to do it

1. Open the project and choose “Site diary”.
2. Pick the date and note the weather and temperature.
3. Write what was done today. After the date, it is the one line the entry needs.
4. Under Labour on site, add a line per trade with the number of people and the hours.
5. Record delays and disruption: what stopped you, from when to when, and who caused it. For example: “No access to riser 09:00 to 13:00, main contractor’s electricians. Four operatives stood down.”
6. Record instructions received, plant on site, materials delivered, visitors and health and safety notes.
7. Save the entry, then add photos to it.

Exporting the record

Use “Print / export” with a from and a to date to produce a print-ready pack of every entry in that range, with its photos, to save as a PDF. It is the document to put behind an extension of time notice, a loss and expense claim or an adjudication referral.

Linking the diary to your variations

When an instruction is given on site, the diary records it and the app captures it as a variation. Put the variation reference in the diary line, so the two records point at each other and the diary corroborates the capture.

What good looks like

• An entry for every day on site, written that day.
• Delays recorded with times, causes and the labour stood down.
• Photos of the obstruction, not just of the finished work.

Common mistakes

• Writing the week up on Friday. A tribunal trusts the record made at the time, not the one reconstructed later.
• “Delays: access issues.” Name the area, the hours and who was in the way.
• Editing old entries to tidy them up. An entry can be edited or deleted only by its author or a commercial role, and a diary that changes after the event is worth less.