Read this Before Buying a Construction Daily Report Solution

Construction daily reports, also known as daily logs, are an ongoing narrative of the story that plays out at your construction site, where layers of data and observations add meaning to your project. These reports tell you the real story behind how your project is progressing.

So, how can you best manage and track all of the data needed to tell this real story? It isn’t through chasing traditional paperwork or computer folders full of Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets. It’s through the capabilities of today’s best construction planning software. 

A construction daily report solution can help you document a day in the life of your project by:

• Managing the overwhelming amount of detail generated by your large-scale projects.

The right software can help scale back the time and effort necessary to input and process the data that make up your daily reports, such as the weather, numbers and status of subcontractors and craftspeople, equipment used and its location, material deliveries, etc. This is especially true when the software offers a mobile app that allows those in the field to enter their data in real time from a job site tablet or personal smartphone. In turn, this helps contractors and project managers track productivity, analyze the impact of weather and other factors on the day’s activities, and ensure ongoing quality of work and materials.

• Customizing what goes into your construction daily reports.

Different audiences will be interested in different parts of your project’s story. So, while those out-of-the-box options might sound simple and quick to implement, the one-size-fits-all approach isn’t going to be of much help — especially when each project has its own distinct requirements and details to monitor. That calls for some flexibility. Customization functionality gives you the freedom to tailor daily reports unique to each project — and to each audience. Plus, many options have preloaded forms and templates you can edit and further customize with your company’s branded information so you don’t have to create your own from scratch.

• Automating daily report assembly and distribution.

When the day’s numbers have been entered, photos have been uploaded, and the daily report has been digitally signed, your software can automatically assemble everything into a professional report. All that data can further be transformed into visuals that convey at-a-glance insights. And with a few clicks or taps, you can produce those focused reports and share with those specially created distribution groups, on a recurring subscription basis. They get the information they need, when they need it, and can address anything that requires their immediate expertise.

• Increasing communication and collaboration.

Communication in a construction project depends heavily on what is documented, not just spoken. That’s what makes construction daily reports so valuable. The daily report communicates the latest data reflecting progress and insights about the project — all within a few taps or clicks. More importantly, that report may uncover the details behind real or potential delays. When stakeholders and project team members have the same information, they can collaborate more effectively to make more timely, data-driven decisions on corrective action.

Another bonus: Completing daily reports through a mobile app using a tablet or smartphone improves communication efficiency as time-wasting, back-and-forth calls and emails to report field progress are eliminated.

• Better tracking job site productivity and schedules.

Want to know how well your project is performing against the established plan? Take a look at the productivity numbers being reported in the daily logs. Productivity can be a rather broad term to measure specific factors: Total work hours per employee. Job tasks started, continued or completed — and when. The number of units of a particular material that were assembled. Certainly other performance metrics can give you the same indication of project progress; but a good daily report solution will help you capture the story behind those numbers: why a particular phase was completed sooner than expected, or how certain factors such as weather or late material delivery impacted schedules and productivity levels.

• Recording safety and quality control issues.

No need to wait for inspections or quality control to make the rounds. Photo and video capturing make it easy to call out concerns directly from the field as they’re discovered. You can snap images and report on injuries, site hazards or something that seems structurally amiss. When uploaded and shared in daily reports in real time, steps for corrective action can begin immediately.

• Better preparation in the event of disputes.

With customizable forms and templates that ask for specific pieces of information to be inputted every day, you won’t have to remember what to include, and reports will always be complete. Being able to search for and reference daily tasks — a chronological retelling of your project’s life — can keep detailed, time-stamped, data-rich logs ready if and when you may need them. 

Ready to digitize the data that tells the real story behind your projects? Construction daily report software like InEight Progress is a sound investment in the success of your work and your company, particularly for capital projects where so much is riding on accurate documentation. Request a demo to see how it can save you valuable time and effort while increasing the quality and relevance of your daily reports.