As a contractor or builder, it’s crucial to understand the power of data and equip yourself with the recent technological advances in construction. A report from Mckinsey Global Institute shows that about $1.3 trillion could be conserved from infrastructure productivity modifications.
Construction reporting, documentation, and on-site inspections take a significant amount of time every day, especially when it’s not done the traditional way. However, software reporting solutions like “PlanRadar helps you save two hours of rework time for every job-site inspection hour” – Domagoj Dolinsek, CEO PlanRadar.
In this article, we’ll show you how to track the progress of your project on-site and create daily reports in just a few minutes using the multi-faceted construction software, PlanRadar. You can download the app for free to get the most out of this article.
Why Is a Detailed Daily Report so Important?
Detailed daily construction logs and reports help your business to track progress in the construction area. They are especially important when it comes to compensation or warranty claims because of delays—and we don’t have to tell you that delays are common in the construction business.
Contractors often record delays daily, but when the delay continues, the parties involved neglect recording its continuation. It can create the false impression the delay was only temporary and they were potentially resulting in a delay in the whole construction project.
Detailed construction reporting about hold-ups and their reason is one way to remedy defects promptly and get back to schedule.
Some delays are so significant that they make it to the headlines of our newspapers. However, the ensuing public onslaught is nothing compared to the damages such delays would cause, including deficiencies in construction, failure to meet deadlines, and, consequently, the partial stoppage of the construction area.
Depending on the size of the construction project, this results in very high running costs. Badly stored materials become unusable and have to be obtained again. Unfinished and underused work might break down and has to be carried out again.
Construction field report apps like PlanRadar can give you oversight over your entire project and let you know when there are any form of bottlenecks. It helps you in reporting, scheduling, and remote monitoring building projects. It’s the first tool to offer you the chance to do all these and so much more with an intuitive application.
If you record the number of people on-site in your reports, the client may only reimburse the contractor for a lesser number. Sometimes, you’ll have the problem that your client does not want your records submitted in your format but rather on their own.
If this is the case, you should try to convince your client to accept your daily report where all the above recordings are contained. It is the only way for you to minimise risks and not become a part of a future survey by “Statista”.
Related reading: Discover how PlanRadar can cut costs and create efficiencies for property managers
Types of Construction Reports
Proper documentation is necessary for any project, and construction reports are an effective way to document activities, people, machines, and more. Different types of construction reports cover a range of activities, and below is a highlight of the most common ones:
1. Material Reports
The construction process involves keeping up with new materials that disrupt the industry. Each material has an impact on the structural integrity of the building. It’s therefore important to know that the materials used to build the structure are the ones specified by the architect or engineer. Failure to use the correct material – or a material, like concrete, that can have different strengths – could mean that the building no longer complies to regulations.
Material reports can also document the manufacturer of the piece used, the date delivered and installed, and any non-conformity to the design brief.
2. Cost Reports
With cost reports, you get substantial documentation that offers an accurate cost estimation of the materials and workforce used. They come in handy in the bid stage of a project and help stakeholders plan properly. Contractors typically create cost reports according to clients’ designs and make them an integral part of construction reporting.
Once construction is underway, it’s important to document the project’s actual costs vs. predicted costs, so that the project managers and clients are kept aware of any changes.
3. Site Diary and Daily Reports
This encompasses all activities involved in the day-to-day for construction businesses. It essentially serves as a daily construction log. Every worker ought to prepare such for future references and the integrity of the construction project.
4. Fire Safety Reports
A fire safety report is a document detailing the assessment of a building project or construction site in regards to how it would fare in a fire. The document needs to be updated at all times as it’s a requirement from regulatory bodies. Due to the changes in the Building Safety Act, it is likely that contractors will need external support to complete fire safety reports or fire risk assessments.
5. Snag Reports
When delays and setbacks occur on a construction site, it’s important to keep a record of such events using snag reports, as they are necessary to cut costs and fix all bottlenecks hindering the smooth workflow. Snagging list reports are also important at project handover, as part of the final payment is often withheld until all of the snags within the report are resolved.
6. Health and Safety Reports
Safety in construction is the most important thing every organisation should be concerned with. Using health and safety reports, it’s possible to better understand the risks on-site, the near misses and the actual accidents that happened. It’s important to keep these records in the event of any claims, but it’s also important to use them as living documents that inform health and safety decisions.
What You Need to Include in a Daily Construction Log
Daily construction logs help document the work completed and the progress of construction projects. Daily logs are important parts of construction reporting filed at the end of every workday, but content might vary from the project. Here are some things to include in your daily construction log:
- Site conditions
- On-site visitors
- Safety Report
- On-site personnel
- Equipment used or idle
- Potential delays
- Materials used or delivered
- Job details
- Work accomplished
Why You Should Use an App for Creating Construction Reports
Traditional daily construction logs or reports are great at recording every on-site work. But for ease and optimum productivity, construction professionals are now moving towards construction field report apps. Here’s why you should use software or a mobile app for creating reports:
1. Seamless Access to Everything in One Place
Apps document and store all documentation and daily construction logs in a single location so you can access the necessary information wherever you are. A construction report app syncs data across several devices, allowing you to access the documents from your laptop, phone, or tablet. This easy access increases team collaboration and personal accessibility between clients, team members, and stakeholders.
2. Unique Features
Construction field report apps offer unique features that make daily reports easier and faster for all stakeholders. For one, they include automatic weather recording, automated reminders, report sharing, data sync across multiple devices, and the ability to upload photos and videos.
3. More Productivity
Another reason to switch to construction report applications is that they allow you to track and log all employee work activity and hours. Such documentation keeps workers accountable and helps maintain a high quality of the project.
4. More Accuracy
Physical or paper documentation is an alternative way of conducting daily construction logs, but they’re more prone to human error. However, with construction report apps, the process is automated and reduces errors. What’s more, the daily reports are easier and faster to generate, saving managers hours of time.
5. Enhanced Visibility
Construction report apps offer improved visibility, allowing executives, project managers, and relevant stakeholders to track project progress in real-time. You can access the software to view the project’s history and track its progress. It also helps you see if the construction team is on track to achieve stipulated milestones.
Combining Construction Software With Social Technologies
Social technologies aim to improve productivity and the standard of living. They unleash people’s creativity and networking prowess toward individual and corporate growth.
According to McKinsey, “using social technologies enhances companies’ communication and raises the productivity of knowledge workers by 20 to 25 percent.”
To better understand the McKinsey study, we must dive deeper into understanding the meaning of social technologies and knowledge workers. Then, we´ll explain how the PlanRadar app facilitates teamwork while improving the assignment, tracking, and execution of tasks.
Social Technology vs. Knowledge Workers
Social technologies are innovations for a particular social purpose, task, or problem. They help to optimise processes through the use of software and hardware as well as information technologies. A self-explanatory example of this is “communication”.
On the other hand, knowledge workers are people whose greatest value on the market is their knowledge. Examples are engineers, architects, physicists, lawyers, and many more.
PlanRadar is undoubtedly the best construction daily report app in the industry today. It combines the usefulness of a construction daily report app (for knowledge workers) with the profits of real-time communication (social technology) to help you get the full personal benefit of the McKinsey study mentioned above.
The key factor for comprehensive reports is the smart collaboration of all construction workers in the field. You won’t be able to track all information, tasks, defects, jobs, and certainly not all your projects on your own. So, let PlanRadar do the work for you! Here we go with a few of the things you can do with PlandRadar to prepare evidence-proof daily reports:
Digitise Your Workflow With PlanRadar
You can use PlanRadar to transition from traditional pen-on-paper reporting into digitised online reporting. Plan radar allows you to create daily site reports, conduct inspections and checklists, document meeting minutes, and record timesheets.
The platform’s intuitive user interface allows users to get started in as little as ten minutes.
While you can use the Report Templates feature to create complex reports, PlanRadar’s Project Reports allow you to simply import existing PDF report templates you already use. That way, your workers can complete the forms online without having to print anything.
Creating a Ticket With PlanRadar
Is there a job to allocate on the construction site? Grab your iOS or Android mobile device, open the PlanRadar app, create a new ticket, assign a responsible person, and add a picture, voice recording, or text. Lastly, find the ticket on your digital blueprint – where this job must be done on PlanRadar!
You can upload, use and store up to 100 digital blueprints with the pro license package. But before buying a license, try out our software for 30 days for free. If you still need any help, contact us for a webinar, which is also free of charge.
Your employee or subcontractor will automatically receive a notification that there is an open task to complete. Every progress on that task will be communicated to you via the app and updated in the PlanRadar web app—this builds the basis for your company-branded report!
Even more: PlanRadar will store all information in the cloud, and everyone who received an invitation to the project will get automated updates on that task on their devices. It is an easy-to-use defect management system that works with SaaS (Software as a Service).
Reporting and observing progress has never been that easy before, as you can track your fieldwork conveniently. Create a new ticket and let everyone help you track their work. Construction management apps facilitate our everyday work in terms of money and time!
Export Your Company Branded Report
As the best construction daily report app, PlanRadar allows you to export your company’s report easily. Simply follow these steps:
- Login to the web app. Here you will find many more management features to explore.
- Go to the menu item “tickets” and select “Export PDF File”. Next, create a new filter, and choose your properties.
The PlanRadar app will send a link for your daily construction report after a few seconds. Also, you can find all information about your project, including site updates, project participants, (due) dates, pictures, task details, defects, plan locations, and more (see photo below). Reporting operational procedures has never been so easy.
Besides daily reports, you can create complete construction documentation for all your projects and receive statistics about all tasks and tickets, employees or subs, the task’s progress, and become a PropTech manager in 2022. You can use our free trial version for your projects related to the construction business.
If you’re not in the office to enter the web app, you can still get your daily report on your smartphone. PlanRadar’s offline feature allows you to use the software even with a bad internet connection. Once you reconnect online, all your activities on the mobile device will automatically sync with the web app.
What Customers Say About PlanRadar
Nowadays, we are proud to present hundreds of thousands of tickets created with the PlanRadar app across the globe. During the construction process, our business clients register massive time savings due to facile construction management facing 9x ROI using our construction software and service. We currently have more than 120,000 users in over 65 countries. Project managers can access key information and regularly updated reports in seconds, from any device!
Conclusion
PlanRadar is not just the best construction daily report app but also your one-stop solution for all your construction needs. From the office to the field and while on the go, you can stay updated with workers and get access to reports.
Get the PlanRadar construction management app for free today and start saving time on the field. It’s time to stop using notepads and technology from the 90s. Work with the PlanRadar app in 2023!
