Importance of Construction Daily Reporting
When you are thinking about starting a construction business, you have to consider many things. From formulating effective business plans and choosing marketing techniques to gain an audience, the business owners have to spend time creating feasible plans for the firm. If established, the construction company has to make sure that the management is capable of maintaining order in the office.
Importance of Construction Daily Reporting
Importantly, during the preconstruction phase and construction phase of the projects, the administration needs to know the status of the buildings. With that, daily construction reporting comes into play. This article thoroughly discusses the purpose and uses of a daily report. Read the article and use the information for the growth of your construction business.
What is a Construction Daily Report?
Construction daily report serves as a summary for a project’s day-to-day progress and delays. This daily progress report has detailed information about the performance and improvement of a project. If there are holdups in the construction of an establishment, it will be on the report. Thus, any forms of miscalculations and problems are traceable with the use of this document. Moreover, through contractor daily reports, contractors can include construction strategies that will improve the procedures in the project.
Why Construction Daily Reporting is Important?
For construction projects, verbally communicating the progress of a project is not enough. There should be a proper channel of communication that contractors and management can use to relay information. But then again, people continue to question the importance of daily reporting. Here some points as to why the activity is essential in a construction business.
- Inspection reports and risk management reports help the administrators and officers determine the level of security within the premises. Furthermore, these assessment reports assist HR managers in strengthening safety measures.
- From the site visit report, contractors and administrators can establish where the company needs to add more manpower or not. A site visit can happen daily or weekly, depending on the availability of inspectors and head contractors.
- Daily quality reports and daily maintenance reports make sure that the building meets the standards set by the construction company and the owner. If the contract states specifications on the quality of the structure, then the construction company must meet these qualifications.
- Contractors have the responsibility to reassure their clients that the project is going pretty well. With that, building construction progress reports come in favor of the construction business. The engineers and designers check and double-check the establishment to avoid pitfalls and avert legal problems.
As a whole, daily construction reporting tracks the improvement of the project and ensures the construction company that projects meet set deadlines.
History of Construction Reporting
Before the existence of modern technology in construction monitoring and reporting, superintendents and contractors would usually write their insights in notepads and notebooks. The inspectors take time to note the changes in the weather, delayed deliveries, work performances, and struggles of workers. Incidents, such as falls, broken walls, and defective machines, are also in the report.
Engineers and superintendents also mention the inventory and materials used in the construction to account for the inflow and outflow of materials or expenses tracking. The task was not exclusive for the daytime only. On other occasions, inspectors check the site during evenings, especially when there’s a deadline to catch. Reporting is an essential part of a construction project. Without the benefits of reporting, it would be not very easy to establish the status of the project. But with the creation of up-to-date construction reporting apps and tools, supervisors and inspectors would find the job more comfortable to handle.
Benefits of Construction Daily Report App
The task of compiling and encoding the activities and progress of a project can be a tedious job. Writing or typing endlessly for hours can drain the inspectors and supervisors. In making the task easier, modern methods are available for their convenience. Daily construction worksheets and daily construction schedules are some documents that assist superintendents in making their jobs more comfortable. Moreover, there are other tools accessible in the market—especially software applications. Here are some of the benefits that come with choosing daily report apps.
Save Time and Money
- Instead of spending too much time writing down notes on scratch pads and transferring them in the official document or template, the supervisors and inspectors can quickly jot down observations in the electronic gadgets. This method proves to be useful as it reduces the time spent on note taking altogether. Work estimate and cash flow forecast is also more manageable when a daily report app is available for the inspectors and officers.
Easy Tracking
- Cost tracking is an exhausting process for engineers and budget planners. The procedures that these workers undertake to have an accurate expense tracking result involves a lot of calculations and numbers. But with a daily reporting app, the planners can do their work more efficiently. Furthermore, the heads can easily track the happenings in the construction site using the app. Following risk management reports are also more convenient with software applications.
Increased Productivity
- With more time left for other work, superintendents and contractors can do other activities that will increase their productivity. Instead of writing the construction field report for long hours, they can complete the task in an hour less, depending on the scope of the site. They can also track labor productivity using the app and implement changes in the work if necessary. The app (again, it depends on the app) can also feature an algorithm to improve the pacing and productivity of the project. Contractors and engineers have the option to accept or decline the results.
Task Assignment
- Rather than sending heaps of paperwork to subcontractors and employees, the engineer and the planners can use the application for task assignment distribution. They can also inform the workers about the task assignments through email or messengers. Additionally, with a project management task list, the supervisors can avoid taking too much time consulting the schedules on the management plan. Information dissemination is essential for the success of a construction project. And the head officers need to use all the methods to make the activity easy for everyone.
Access Everything in One Place
- Having different folders and records for all the processes, activities, and schedules in a construction project often leads to misplaced documents and extra work. To avert this possible problem, construction companies utilize a daily report app to organize everything in one place. Subcontractors, HR personnel, engineers, and architects can follow the changes in the project by using the application. Some construction companies design and create their own apps to install particular features.
Other Special Features
- A daily report app has several features and functions. Besides the typical use of the application, construction companies can also enjoy automatic weather updates, schedule schedules, upcoming appointments, and deadlines. Importantly, it also has a data sync function to monitor the progress of the project. However, not all software applications have these features. So, a construction enterprise has to choose an app that fits their needs. If they can hire computer engineers to design an app, it’s also recommended.
Best Practices for Utilizing Daily Construction Reports
Even with a software application or template, when the inspector or supervisor doesn’t apply the effective methods of encoding details, it’s still pointless. Writing the contents of a safety daily report and site safety report includes many observations and insights. Moreover, it takes time to gather all the information. For the convenience of inspectors and even engineers, some efficient practices make daily report encoding quicker. Here are some notes to remember for construction companies.
Provide Appropriate Details
- Whether it’s a material receiving report or a daily construction activities report, the writers of the document should provide the relevant details only. Sometimes, the inspectors can utilize a construction inspection checklist to make tracking easy. Weekly quality reports should have sufficient information as it’s the basis for the project improvement. Through these reports, the construction company can implement immediate changes in the plans and schedules to improve the situation of the project.
Send Reports as Early as Possible
- A competent employee will not wait for the deadline before sending the documents requested from him or her. So as early as possible, these reports should be on the desks of the head officers. When complete with the auto expense reports and labor worksheet reports, the worker should send the documents. Doing this saves more time for the employee, contractors, and project owners.
Keep It Simple
- Refrain from using excessive words in the reports. These documents are records of the project’s situation, and it should not look like an essay. Be concise in providing descriptions and details. Stick to the facts and evidence in the construction site and don’t add opinions. Moreover, if inspectors can shorten phrases, it’s advisable. Being wordy can ruin the quality of the report, especially when it’s not necessary for the job.
Use a Consistent Format and Process
- To minimize confusion, construction companies should have a consistent format in the content of reports. Regardless if it’s a site or material report, it should have a formal arrangement for better comprehension. In addition, the company should have a list of processes for each document. Having a format will make the task of reporting easier, as it saves time in creating an organized way of laying out information for the readers of the material.
Always Be Prepared
- A construction site is vulnerable to changes in weather and some budget constraints. With that in mind, construction companies should always prepare for anything. For possible complications in the construction area, the company has to be ready with contingency plans. If anything happens in the location, the problem and solution should be on the document, especially if the workers solved the dilemma.
Must-haves on Daily Reporting
Besides the necessary software applications and documents, daily construction reporting also has other must-haves. The timesheet formats for the employees and equipment tracking sheets are some of the things that construction companies need to possess.
Utilizing Ready-made Templates
- Templates are useful in many different ways. One, it is an effective material to trace the progress of a business. Second, the document saves time and energy for the inspectors and encoders. Third, it is editable for the convenience of the business sector. In the construction company, ready-made templates make work more bearable for the employees, especially those with tasks that involve admin procedures.
List of Schedules
- To know the progress of a project, the inspectors or superintendents should keep a copy of the schedule in your electronic devices. For instance, if the construction checklist specifies the completion of the part of the structure, the inspector should see the expected edifice. Through the scheduled list, the superintendents have a clear view of the planned finished structures.
Project Plan Sample
- The supervisors and inspectors have to keep project plan sample copies to check whether the requirements and timeline are in order. The document doesn’t need to have all the pages of the project. In fact, it requires only some pages and parts of the project.
Conclusion
Investors and stakeholders take part in the building process of their projects. They don’t do the actual job of moving steel bars and mixing cement, but they are part of the decision-making body. Their take on budget planning and marketing plans are essential for the project. Besides that, construction companies also present ideas, calculations, and construction strategies. When the plan commences, the two parties should get information about the project. And that’s why daily construction reports are crucial. These materials keep track of the project’s status for the benefit of all the groups involved in the plan. In conclusion, daily construction reports are a must-have tool for any construction company, regardless if it’s a newly established or old one.