Guides / Daily logs

Construction daily log: what to record every day

Updated October 20, 2026 · 8 min read

Nobody enjoys writing the daily at 5:30 in the afternoon. But when a delay claim lands eighteen months later, the dailies are often the only record of what actually happened on a given Tuesday. Attorneys and claims consultants read them line by line. A superintendent who wrote "rain, no work" every wet day, with headcounts, is in a much better spot than one who skipped the bad days.

Who keeps the daily log

On most jobs the GC's superintendent owns it. Subcontractors often keep their own foreman's dailies and may be required to submit them to the GC. Owner's reps and construction managers sometimes keep a parallel log. Check the contract: many general conditions and specs require the contractor to keep daily reports and make them available to the owner, and some spell out the format.

What to record each day

Weather and site conditions

Record conditions at start of day and any change during the day: temperature, precipitation, wind, and ground conditions. "Rain from 10:15 to 13:00, 0.4 in. per site gauge. Site muddy, excavation at Area B flooded, pumping until 14:30." Weather days are among the most argued items in delay claims, so record the effect on the work as well as the weather itself.

Manpower

Headcount by company and trade, and hours if you can get them. "ABC Electric: 1 foreman, 4 journeymen, 2 apprentices, 8 hrs." Note when a sub is short-crewed against what they committed to in the schedule. That's the start of a paper trail if their progress slips.

Equipment

Major equipment on site, whether it worked or sat idle, and why. Idle equipment caused by a delay can be part of a cost claim, but only if someone wrote down that it was there and idle.

Work performed

By area and activity, tied to schedule activities where possible. "Level 3 east: deck pour complete, 112 CY, placed 07:00 to 11:40." "Units 301 to 306: drywall hang 80% complete." Specific quantities and locations beat "continued framing."

Materials and deliveries

What arrived, from whom, and anything rejected or damaged. Late deliveries that held up a crew deserve their own line.

Inspections, tests and visitors

Building department inspections and results, special inspections, concrete cylinders taken, owner and design team visits. Name the inspector or visitor and their company. If an inspection failed, note the reason and the reinspection date.

Delays, problems and instructions

Anything that stopped or slowed the work: waiting on an RFI response, a design conflict, a utility strike, an access issue, owner-directed changes. Note the time, who was affected and for how long. If someone gave a verbal instruction that changes the work, write down who said what and when, then follow up in writing. Verbal changes that never got documented are a common source of disputes.

Safety

Toolbox talk topic and attendance, incidents and near misses, first aid, and any OSHA or insurance visits. Keep it factual and leave detailed incident investigation to your safety program's forms. For walk-through findings, see the jobsite safety inspection checklist.

Photos

A handful of dated photos each day, showing overall progress and anything unusual. Photos of conditions before they're covered up (underground, in-wall, under-slab) are the ones people wish they had later.

Daily log template

Why the daily log matters in claims and disputes

Contemporaneous records, meaning records made at the time, carry much more weight than recollections assembled after a dispute starts. Daily logs typically come up in:

• Delay and time extension requests, to show what was actually affected and for how long.
• Change order pricing, to back up labor and equipment claimed on extra work.
• Back-charges between GC and subs, to show who was on site and what they did.
• Defect claims years later, to show when work was installed and who inspected it.
• Injury claims, to show who was on site and what safety meetings happened.

A few habits make a log more credible. Write it the same day. Don't go back and change entries; add a dated correction instead. Be consistent, including on boring days. And stick to facts. "Sub's crew was lazy" helps nobody; "Drywall crew of 3 on site, schedule shows 8" is evidence. This isn't legal advice, and your contract's notice provisions still apply: a daily log entry usually doesn't count as formal notice of a delay or claim.

Common mistakes

• Copying yesterday's report and forgetting to change half of it.
• Skipping rain days or weekends when work was done.
• Recording "delays" with no cause, duration or affected crew.
• Logging a verbal change and never sending the written follow-up.
• Keeping the log on paper in the trailer, where it can get wet, lost or rewritten.

A phone app that timestamps entries and photos, and works without signal, removes most of these problems. Keep the log somewhere it can't be quietly rewritten, and back it up.

If you're the visitor rather than the super, you want a field report instead. Weekly OAC meeting minutes often pull from the week's dailies.

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