Daily Reports Overview

Daily reports are a central responsibility for every superintendent across the industry. Daily reports capture the official record of the job site status, people on site, and work accomplished during the day. Some companies also track rental equipment being used on site. These reports can seem like a paperwork hassle, and repetitive from day to day. However, whenever a dispute or legal problem crops up, the daily reports are the first piece of information that is requested by management and eventually lawyers.

Daily reports are also very helpful for reminding the project team of events that happened on the job site. For example: when a piece of equipment was delivered, what day the snowstorm was that cancelled work, or how many workers a subcontractor provided each week.

Current practices for daily reports include handwritten paper forms, Excel or Word forms, project management database programs (like Prolog), and even dictation services (Notevault, Procore).

Issues with daily reports can include:

● Superintendents not completing a daily report (or within a reasonable time frame).

● Superintendents writing all of their reports at the end of the week when their memories may not be as accurate.

● Electronic reports being copied verbatim from one day to the next with no real review.

● Superintendents are sure they did the reports, but on one can find them when needed - hard copies are missing from files, or the files are not saved centrally on the network.

● Important events are undocumented because of faulty memory or a superintendent inundated with work.

● Too much time spent documenting issues with words when a photo would be faster or more effective.

● Dissociation of the report from ay other important media.

● Daily reports are not distributed in an effective or timely manner to project decision makers such as the project manager.

Objectives

The primary purpose of daily reports is to record what was accomplished on the job site that day, especially anything unusual that could be a point of contention later. Important information includes:

● Companies and number of employees on site, including subcontractors and general contractors.

● Visitors, including the owner or design representatives, inspectors or testing agencies.

● A general description of where each company is working on site and what they are working on.

● Significant deliveries of equipment and materials.

● Safety issues, corrective actions, and training.

● Instructions received from the owner/design personnel, or given to subcontractors.

● Rental equipment on site by tag number, and planned return dates.

● Photos as appropriate for important progress milestones or problems.

● Anything that could affect the project schedule, including subcontractor complaints.

● Meetings held on site, attendees, and general discussion items (separate detailed minutes).

Project superintendent

● Creates the official record of job site status and progress.

● Complies with corporate requirements to complete a daily report every day in the least time and with the least effort.

● Provides enough detail that the project team can look up important job site developments/events at a later date.

Construction management

● Ensures consistent compliance across all projects in completing the report on a daily basis.

● Retrieves reports from the database if needed to support a legal case.

Permissions

You must have Professional User and Contract Manager roles to have full access to daily reports.

Workflow for using daily reports

Daily reports most often begin with field notes that are captured on the job site. See the image below for an example of the process for capturing data on the job site and converting it to a daily report.

Getting Started

As an external user, you can log daily reports from the following locations:

● The Daily Reports log in Info Exchange

● An iOS or Android-based smartphone or tablet via field notes entered in the Field Notes app.