Construction Daily Report Template

On a construction site, documentation and communication are key. Keeping tabs on the who, when, where, why, and what is happening on a project is crucial to ensure a project runs smoothly. Construction daily reports are needed to know what is happening in a construction project. This article takes a closer look at daily reporting – why it's so vital for construction firms, what essential items a construction daily report template needs to contain and how to complete them.

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Although the answer to this question may seem a little obvious – so we have documentation of the daily activities on the job site – there's a little more to it than that. Although many consider the daily construction reports tedious and think they should be kept short and sweet, here are the reasons why keeping good construction daily reports is necessary for completing projects and reducing the overall project cost and timeframe.

1. They provide insight for all stakeholders regarding site progress: By disseminating daily reports to all important jobsite stakeholders, they can easily see what is happening on site – even if they aren't required to be present.
2. They highlight what is happening in a very small timeframe: Daily reports are a micro-snapshot of site progress, recording each daily activity so you can pinpoint the exact day when things happen. This is important for risk mitigation so you can implement a workable timeline to resolve issues quickly.
3. They can be used as evidence when schedule issues arise (or worse, in case of court claims): Did a contractor say it's not their fault that the work is behind schedule? You can easily trace back within daily site reports to see if that's true. You often need to prove that you did inform certain people about specific issues or observations on time. Having a job site report PDF in your mailboxes “sent items” is clear evidence that you informed the right people about specific issues or observations at the right moment.
4. Every essential detail is captured across the project: And this is not just the big issues. For example, you might record observations such as:
   • We need to rethink the floor plan because the site digging didn't go as planned.
   • An accidentally skipped electrical outlet
   • A late start of task due to two days' bad weather
   • A delay caused by the wrong length of overhead beams arriving on site

1. Project Identification

This section will include the basic project details, such as the project name and description, the project code or number used internally, and the address of the job site.

Keeping your records in order will be important, no matter how many different projects you have going.

2. Report Identification

This will be the code or number to refer to this exact report, if necessary, along with today's date. The report number often combines the unique project ID + 1, 2, 3, … and so on. In this case, the report number is “NY125-A13-1”, which is the first report for project “NY125-A13”.

Although it may be easy to identify a report by the date, many systems also require a number or code for the exact daily report. This makes finding and referring to the report later much easier (“as you can read in report number NY125-A13-1”), no matter how many daily reports you accumulate.

3. Overview of the Site for the Day

This section often includes a weather report, the time onsite, the overall project progress, and optionally some generic site overview pictures or a view on the planning.

It is always good to keep track of weather conditions, as they sometimes influence construction project planning, as one can imagine.

4. Key Contacts

This list will encapsulate all the important people involved in the project, such as the electrical engineer, the construction project manager, the landscape architect etc. For each contact, list their name, position, company they work for, contact details, whether they were present on site that day, and whether they were sent a copy of the report.

Ensuring everyone involved in the project is in the loop with daily reports is essential. When assigned tasks arising from observations, stakeholders can quickly scan each daily report for their names.

5. Observations

This is the heart of the report. Various companies record their observations in different ways. It is standard procedure to note down the task name and a unique reference number or code, the task due date, complete or incomplete (and possibly the percentage of the task complete), the parties involved / assignees, a description of the work done and any outstanding issues arising, and pictures and plans of the task relevant to the description.

To further distinguish observations and make it less likely that important sections might be overlooked, you may like to separate your observations into various categories, such as:

• New business and old business
• Work in progress, issues resolved, and arising issues
• Interior, exterior, and yard work

It is always better to include more in-depth observations and pictures. Clear documentation and communication illustrated with clear pictures (including annotations) reduces waste, delays and costly mistakes. This way, there will not be any data left out of the daily report that may have to be guessed at later.

Just imagine. The construction manager asks one of the subcontractors to replace a door without any additional details. In this scenario, there is a lot of room for costly mistakes. If you include a clear picture of the door, why it needs to be replaced (is it broken? Or is the color not right? Or was there no door needed at this spot?), and a clear indication on a PDF plan of where precisely the door is located, chances are that soon you'll have what you need, without any further phone calls, misunderstandings or additional overhead.

Check out this fictional example, generated with ArchiSnapper field reporting and punch list software.

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Many free examples are available online in MS Word, PDF and Excel. That is: if you are willing to work the old way – which means gathering information on-site with pen and paper, a camera, your smartphone, emailing pictures to yourself and then in the afternoon heading back to the office to put everything in place in a predefined template which you found somewhere on the internet.

If you want to create your daily report the old-fashioned way, then here's a handy spot where you can find some free daily construction report templates on Template.net:

The issue with “the old way” is that you have to:

• Assign unique numbers to each of the observations (for later reference)
• Change the date in the report
• Come up with a new report number and make sure you don't forget to change it every time
• Resize all of the pictures to make sure they look OK
• Annotate the pictures if you want to include some extra details to clarify the issue

Thankfully, there is a better way to organize and collate your daily reports.

Due to advances in technology, we've made it possible for you to complete your daily report via your smartphone or tablet. Using Archisnapper, you can build a customized form online, access it, and fill it in on the job site via our easy-to-use app.

The following is done automatically:

• Report number and date are set
• Project information is gathered on the report
• Report distribution list is automatically updated
• Pictures are all resized and clearly aligned
• Observations each get a unique number
• PDF is generated
• Annotations happen on the tablet within seconds
• Observations can be located on PDF plans

There are sections for everything we've mentioned above – plus, you can add in your own fields and attach pictures and diagrams (with annotations if desired). The reports are then automatically sent back to the office and can be sent out to all stakeholders in the list. That means no more paperwork to look after and no more messing around with your laptop out on site or trying to add pictures to your report afterward – it's all done within the app.

With the old method, most of the daily report work only starts when you get back to the office after your site visit, but with ArchiSnapper, the report is ready when you arrive at the office from the construction site.

Want to see it in action for yourself? Give ArchiSnapper a try today!

Try Deltek ArchiSnapper for Free

Join 10,000+ architects, engineers and contractors who use Deltek ArchiSnapper for fast field reports and efficient punch lists.

Start a free 14-day trial