Construction daily log template, and how to fill it in

Download the daily log template: PDFWordExcel

The template

Fill in one per day. Print the PDF, type into the Word file, or keep one row per day in the Excel sheet.

What to include

• Date, job and who wrote it.
• Weather, morning and afternoon, especially anything that stopped work.
• Crew on site: your people, subcontractors and hours.
• Work completed, by area: what was started, what was finished, what is still open.
• Materials delivered, and anything missing, damaged or wrong.
• Equipment on site, and anything broken down.
• Visitors and inspections: inspectors, the owner, the architect, the utility. What they said or decided.
• Delays and their causes: weather, a late delivery, waiting on another trade, a change from the owner.
• Instructions and changes you were given, by whom, and whether they are in writing.
• Safety: incidents, near misses, toolbox talks.
• Photos of the day's progress and of anything you wrote about.

How to write it in a few minutes

• Write it the same day, ideally before you leave the site. Memory gets worse by the hour.
• Facts, not opinions. "The drywall delivery arrived at 2:15 pm, four hours late" is useful. "The supplier is useless" is not.
• Name names and times for decisions: who asked for the change, and when.
• Short is fine. A five-line log every day is worth more than a long one once a week.
• Attach the photos rather than describing what they show.

Vague entries and useful ones

• Vague: "Rain."
  Useful: "Heavy rain from 10:30 am; roofing crew stopped tear-off at 10:45 and tarped the north slope. Resumed next day."
• Vague: "Waiting on electrician."
  Useful: "Drywall on hold in the kitchen: electrical rough-in not finished. Called the electrician's office at 9:10 am; told Thursday."
• Vague: "Owner wants changes."
  Useful: "Owner asked on site at 3 pm to move the kitchen island outlet 2 feet east. Told her it needs a change order; sent it at 4:30 pm."

Who should write it

The person who runs the site that day: a foreman, a lead or a superintendent. If several crews are on site, each lead can add their part, but one person should own the log so it gets done every day.

Common gaps

• Days with no log because "nothing happened." Write one anyway; a quiet day is a fact too.
• Decisions with no name or time attached.
• Weather left out on the days it mattered most.
• Photos kept on someone's phone instead of with the log.

How long to keep logs

Keep them at least as long as your contracts, warranties and any claims could run, and longer if your contract or local rules say so. If you aren't sure, ask your attorney or your insurer. Storing them with the job's photos makes them easy to find years later.

Why it matters

Logs written every day, at the time, are far more convincing than a summary written after a dispute starts. They show when a delay began and why, back up a request for more time or money, and remind everyone what was agreed on site. They also make handovers easier when a different person runs the job tomorrow.

Doing it in FieldPix

Instead of typing at the end of the day, record a walkthrough as you walk the job: say what got done, what arrived and what is holding things up, and take photos as you go. FieldPix can turn that recording and the day's photos into a daily log for you to review, then save it as a PDF or send it to the office. Watch how AI documents work.