Construction Daily Reports 101

While filling out a construction daily report can be tedious and time-consuming, it’s also inescapable and extremely important. What is a daily report? A construction daily report as a record of field notes, including work completed, weather conditions, and materials delivered or used onsite. Daily reporting keeps the project management team — including the owner and general contractor — informed and aware of project progress. More importantly, daily reports can save key stakeholders a lot of time and money when the information contained in them is used to resolve litigation disputes.

Despite being perceived as time-consuming and tedious, construction daily work reports should not take more than a few minutes to complete. Field management software, like Fieldwire, which empowers workers to operate with ease onsite, allows specialty contractors to submit a construction daily report from any mobile device. In just a few minutes, daily reports can be generated from any location in the field — significantly reducing office hours and eliminating the need for emails or calls just to communicate project progress. Reduce wasted time in construction with efficient communication and reporting software!

Fieldwire construction daily reports

In a nutshell, Fieldwire daily reports are designed for jobsite workers and office teams to document work in a convenient and straightforward manner. Using the Fieldwire platform and customizable construction daily report templates, a project manager or superintendent in the office can assign a daily report to a foreperson or specialty contractor in the field. They receive a notification in real-time on their phone or tablet to complete a daily field log and submit it. From within the Fieldwire construction management app, the contractor can instantly fill out a construction daily report to include important information, such as:

• Weather conditions, which can be input manually or automatically generated based on the project’s location.
• Information about schedule delays, conditions, accidents, and equipment or materials used.
• A log of work that was undertaken, including who did it, the time it took them, and any other additional notes. This information can also be reported in a time and materials (T&M) form, also supported in Fieldwire.
• Attachments such as photos and files that support the work log.

Process daily reports with ease

Once all information for a daily report is supplied by the contractor, they can instantly notify the team in the office by clicking ‘submit’ within the Fieldwire construction forms app. The office team can generate a PDF report and send it to various stakeholders in just a few minutes — so no more hours wasted at the end of the day manually compiling lengthy reports!

Daily reporting best practices

When choosing a construction daily report app, check that it supports these four daily reporting best practices to ensure construction projects progress smoothly:

1. Automatically dated and organized reports. Trying to locate a daily report from days, weeks, or months ago is going to be extremely painful if you don’t have an organized history of reports. Just including the date on each report isn’t enough; you also need a searchable index in a single daily reports online database.
2. Weather conditions. An accurate log of weather conditions can help jobsite teams explain construction delays and/or future defects, and should be automatically included based on location. If, for example, heavy rain impacts a general contractor’s trenching and shoring schedule, team members can look back at their daily reports and validate the necessary steps to get back on track.
3. Clearly defined work completed. For key stakeholders to understand what progress is being made each day, workers must list all tasks completed (plus how long it took them to do each one) in a daily work log. This way, craftspeople in the field take ownership for their work and the owner’s office teams have a sense of project progress without physically being onsite.
4. Detailed documentation. Before submitting your construction dailies, make sure you have included enough information — including files and project photos. This eliminates unnecessary questions being asked post-submission.

Completing a construction daily report doesn’t have to be tedious and time-consuming. Accurate daily reporting is essential for the success of any project. For more information on Fieldwire construction daily reports, read this overview or watch this video online. Daily reports are just one of six form types offered by Fieldwire’s construction forms app.