Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Construction Daily Reports?

Every element that goes into your construction daily report — from resources on site and completed tasks, to safety incidents and delays — tells an important piece of your capital project’s story. But it doesn’t have to be merely a static account of each day’s details and accomplishments. How can you ensure you’re getting all that you can out of your daily reports?

Document for context, progress and assurance

In and of itself, a construction daily report is a key form of documentation. Yet, that report needs documentation of its own, too. Why? You may have noticed that line item checklists can only go so far. Plus there are limits to the amount of written detail you can include. Supplemental documentation can provide a reference point when detecting trends or when monitoring any ongoing developments, such as unexpected delays.

Think of the issues you note in your construction daily report that could benefit from a clearer frame of reference. Some examples could include:

• Documenting weather-related delays: Use a smartphone to capture a photo of flooding after a severe storm to show where performing work in that area would prove to be unsafe.

• Recording safety issues: Take photo or video of the violation — whether it resulted in injury or equipment damage — and upload a hyperlink to the corrective action or protocols that will be implemented to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.

• Showing progress: Record video during a walkthrough of the structure to demonstrate the headway made to that point.

• Verifying changes made based on recently annotated blueprints: Take a screenshot of those changes along with a photo of the corresponding work completed.

For clients, these visual details and supporting documents help them grasp the intricacies and amount of work that go into their project, which can help manage expectations. And it builds trust between client and contractor because it provides a layer of truly visible, verifiable accountability.

In addition to providing context and proof of progress, all that documentation in your construction daily report can pull extra duty an official record. While no one ever goes into a project expecting any contractual disputes or claims of safety violations that might lead to litigation, it can happen. The best defense is documentation. Daily reports, photos and accounts provide an ongoing narrative of the series of events and issues that develop during a build. 

Ensure you’re adhering to contract requirements

Every project is unique, with its own set of contract requirements as well as local ordinance and building codes to comply with. Plus there’s the overwhelming amount of detail to capture and verify. The risk of overlooking a key detail can be high.

Construction daily report templates — standard or customized — not only improves client relations by providing reassurance that their requirements are being met but makes certain the relevant data is being collected each day.

Especially during long-term capital projects and infrastructure builds, it’s highly unlikely the same person or team will be completing the daily reports. Templates ensure there aren’t multiple versions in various states of completion, capturing inconsistent information that could leave you exposed to disputes and litigation that can otherwise be difficult to defend against.

Digitize the process

Construction companies are seeing the value in digitizing processes using industry-specific software. They recognize that generic software, while helpful to a point, isn’t able to deliver the insights they need. Adopting construction planning software helps consolidate all the daily details in one place. To take full advantage of this software, make sure it includes a mobile app for time-saving, on-site construction daily report completion. It makes documenting in real time and adhering to your contract obligations that much easier, more thorough and accurate.

If you thought customized templates that collect that day’s activities would be helpful, imagine tailoring the full reports themselves. After all, not every audience needs or benefits from the same information. Once reports are customized with the data each audience will use, you can automate their compilation and distribution at the end of each day. This establishes a regular, predictable schedule for timely decisions to be made as reported issues or trends develop. An opportune byproduct of this capability is the potential for stronger collaboration among project team members when they all have access to the same information at the same time.

Getting more out of your construction daily reports is possible when you have the right tools. InEight Plan and InEight Progress, which integrate well with each other and are designed to work for capital projects, enable you to capture and leverage the ongoing details they generate. Want to learn how? Request a demo to see how these InEight software solutions can work for your projects.