When a job goes wrong, the site diary is the first document anyone asks for. A contemporaneous, dated record beats a reconstructed account every time — and a diary written up three weeks later is worth very little.
What to record every single day
- Weather — conditions, temperature, and any weather that stopped work
- Labour — who was on site, from which company, for how long
- Plant and equipment — what was on hire, what was running, what stood idle
- Deliveries — what arrived, what did not, and what was rejected
- Visitors and inspections — building control, clients, HSE, principal contractor
- Work completed — by area and trade, not "carried on with the works"
- Delays and disruption — what happened, how long it lasted, and the cause
- Instructions received — who said what, when, and whether it was confirmed in writing
The four mistakes that make a diary worthless
1. Writing it up at the weekend
A contemporaneous record carries weight because it was made at the time. Batch-written entries look — and are — reconstructed.
2. Vagueness
"Delays due to weather" tells an adjudicator nothing. "Rain from 09:30; concrete pour to Plot 4 abandoned; four operatives stood down 09:30–15:00; pour rescheduled to 16th" is a claim.
3. Recording only problems
A diary that only appears when something goes wrong looks defensive. Consistent daily entries, good days included, are what makes the bad-day entries credible.
4. No photographs
An entry saying formation level was soft is an assertion. The same entry with three dated, located photographs is evidence.
Keeping it honest about instructions
Verbal instructions on site are the origin of most final-account disputes. Record who gave it, when, exactly what was said, and confirm it back in writing the same day. If the instruction changes the scope, raise a variation before doing the work.
Making it a two-minute job
Diaries stop getting filled in because they are a chore at the end of a fourteen-hour day. Reduce the effort and the habit survives: SiteClick pulls the weather from the site's coordinates automatically, fills the labour section from clock-in data, attaches the day's photos, and accepts voice notes that it transcribes into the entry. The foreman writes progress and delays and nothing else — then any date range exports as a branded PDF when a QS or solicitor asks.