Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free construction daily report checklist is for site managers, superintendents and site engineers who keep the site diary on a building project. One run is one working day on one project. It starts with the weather, the day’s programme and the start-of-day briefing, then records the labour on site by company and trade, the plant and its hours, the deliveries, the work completed in each area against the programme, the inspections and tests, the instructions received, the visitors, and the day’s safety, quality and environmental issues. Weather steps appear when the weather affects work. A delays phase collects the evidence and the notice decision when work is held up, and an incident phase records an accident or near miss and checks whether it must be reported under RIDDOR in the UK or to OSHA in the US. The day ends with tomorrow’s issues, a secure site and the site manager’s sign-off before the report is sent.
A daily report, called a site diary in the UK and a daily log or daily report in the US, is the record of one working day on one site: who was there, what plant worked, what arrived, what was built, what was inspected, what was instructed and what went wrong. The site manager or superintendent writes it, usually because the contract, the client or the company’s own procedures ask for it rather than because a regulation sets out its form. Its value comes later. When a delay claim, a payment dispute, a defect or an accident is looked at months afterwards, the daily report is the record that was made at the time.
The Society of Construction Law’s Delay and Disruption Protocol (2nd edition, 2017) treats these as raw records: normally compiled daily on anything other than a very small project, made as the work happens rather than afterwards, and setting out facts rather than opinions. This checklist works to that standard. It records that other checks took place without repeating them: each worker’s site induction, each permit to work and each change that goes through a scope change request has its own checklist.
Records: the weather, labour, plant, deliveries, progress, inspections, instructions, visitors, safety and quality for one day.
Who: the site manager or superintendent, with the site engineer and the subcontractors’ supervisors.
Output: a signed, factual record of the day, sent to the project manager.
Records: progress against the programme, the critical path, risks and the look-ahead.
Who: the project manager, usually for the client.
Built from: the daily reports, which supply the facts it summarises.
Records: the instruction, permit or incident itself, in its own process.
Who: whoever owns that process, such as the permit issuer or the project manager.
In the daily report: a line saying it happened, with its reference, so the day’s record is complete.
Eight phases follow one working day, from opening the report before work starts to the site manager’s sign-off. The weather steps appear when the weather affects work, Phase 6 appears when work is delayed or disrupted, and Phase 7 appears when there is an accident, injury or near miss, with the reporting rules for the UK or the US. Nothing after the sign-off can be completed until it is given.
Open the report before work starts, not at the end of the day. Every due time counts from the start of the working day, and the weather answer decides whether the weather steps appear.
Resources are the records most often missing when a delay or a dayworks claim is examined later. Count them on the day, by company, with the hours.
Record progress against the programme activities, area by area, so the report can be matched to the programme later. The delay answer decides whether Phase 6 appears.
Some inspections are required by law before work starts in an area. Record each one, its result and where its report is kept, beside every instruction and visit that could change the work.
Record what happened today, good and bad. The incident answer decides whether Phase 7 appears.
Applies only when work was delayed or disrupted today. Record the facts while they are fresh. The contract decides whether and when a notice is needed, so the project manager checks it the same day.
Applies only when Phase 5 records an accident, injury, dangerous occurrence or near miss. Make the area safe and get help first; this phase records what happened and checks whether it must be reported.
The site manager signs the report before it is sent, and the checklist halts at the sign-off until they do.
The daily report itself is usually a contract or company requirement, but some of what it records is required by law, often before anyone starts work in an area. The table sets out the inspections and reports that come up most often on a building site in the UK and the US, with the rule behind each one. Use it as a prompt for the inspections task in Phase 4 and the incident phase, not as legal advice, and read the regulations for the work you do.
| What | UK | US |
|---|---|---|
| Excavations | Where supports or battering are provided, inspected by a competent person at the start of the shift, after any event likely to have affected its strength or stability, and after any material unintentionally falls or is dislodged. An inspector who is not satisfied says so before the end of the shift and provides a report within 24 hours (CDM 2015, regulations 22(4) and 24). | Inspected daily by a competent person, before work starts and as needed through the shift, and after every rainstorm or other hazard-increasing occurrence. Exposed employees are removed from the area if there is evidence of a possible cave-in or another hazardous condition (29 CFR 1926.651(k)). |
| Scaffolds and working platforms | A working platform used for construction work, from which a person could fall 2 metres or more, is not used unless it has been inspected in that position within the previous 7 days, and is inspected after exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise its safety. The report is prepared before the end of the working period and provided within 24 hours (Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 12). | Inspected for visible defects by a competent person before each work shift, and after any occurrence which could affect its structural integrity (1926.451(f)(3)). |
| Cranes and lifting equipment | Thoroughly examined at least every 6 months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, at least every 12 months for other lifting equipment, or under an examination scheme, and after exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise its safety (LOLER 1998, regulation 9(3)). | A competent person begins a visual inspection before each shift the equipment is used. A documented monthly inspection and an annual inspection by a qualified person are also required (1926.1412(d) to (f)). |
| Serious injuries and dangerous occurrences | Deaths, specified injuries to workers, injuries to people not at work who are taken to hospital, and listed dangerous occurrences are notified to HSE without delay; HSE says the report must be received within 10 days. Over-7-day injuries are reported within 15 days (RIDDOR 2013). | Fatalities are reported to OSHA within 8 hours, and in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye within 24 hours. Recordable cases go on the OSHA 300 Log within 7 calendar days (1904.39 and 1904.29). |
| Keeping the records | RIDDOR records are kept for at least 3 years. Excavation and working platform inspection reports are kept at the site until the construction work is completed, then for 3 months (CDM 2015 regulation 24(3), Work at Height Regulations regulation 12(8)). | The OSHA 300 Log, the annual summary and the 301 forms are kept for 5 years after the end of the calendar year they cover (1904.33). |
Weather and re-inspection. Heavy rain, frost and high winds are the kind of event these rules have in mind. OSHA names rainstorms in 1926.651(k)(1), and in the UK a supported excavation is inspected again after any event likely to have affected its strength or stability. When the weather affects work, this checklist adds a step to re-inspect excavations, scaffolds and temporary works before anyone uses them, and a step to record the hours and activities lost.
Agree the records at the start. The SCL Protocol suggests the parties agree at the outset which records are kept, who produces and checks them, how often, who receives them and in what format. It also says records should be kept for at least as long as the contract requires or any relevant statutory limitation period. Set the distribution list and the retention period before the first daily report is written.
A recurring schedule starts the day’s report on the weekdays you choose, assigned to the site manager and the site engineer. Due times count in hours from the start of the working day, so a report not finished by the end of the day shows as overdue on the Reports Grid instead of being written up from memory at the end of the week.
Answer Yes to the delay question and the evidence, the labour and plant affected and the decision on a contract notice appear, with the notice decision assigned to the project manager. An accident or near miss adds the incident record and the reporting check for the UK or the US. Rules show and hide each step, so a quiet day stays short.
The sign-off is assigned to the site manager alone, and nothing after it can be completed until they record a decision, so the report is approved before it goes out. Photos, delivery notes, inspection reports and daywork sheets sit on the tasks that produced them, with names and times.
CheckFlow is not a programme or scheduling tool, and it does not replace your planning software or your contract. It runs the daily record around them, so every day’s report is complete, in the same order, with the evidence attached. A finished report can be printed or saved as a PDF from the browser’s print dialog for the client or the project file.
The daily report sits beside the other site routines. Induct each worker with the Construction Site Induction Checklist, control hazardous jobs with the Permit to Work Checklist, assess the risks of the work with the Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist, and put a change instructed on site through the Scope Change Request Checklist before the work is done.
Construction Site Induction Checklist
Construction Site Safety Inspection Checklist
Permit to Work Checklist
Scope Change Request Checklist
Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
Enough for someone who was not there to know what happened that day: the date and weather, the labour on site by company and trade with hours, the plant and its working and idle hours, deliveries, the work done in each area against the programme, inspections and tests, instructions and RFIs, visitors, delays and their causes, safety observations, incidents and near misses, quality issues and photos. The Society of Construction Law’s Delay and Disruption Protocol gives a similar list for daily reports: weather, manpower, deliveries of key materials, adverse site conditions, working hours, major plant and the work under way.
Usually only the name. Site diary is the common term in the UK, and daily report or daily log in the US, for the same record of one working day. Some contractors keep both: a diary in which the site manager notes events and conversations as they happen, and a formal daily report built from it and sent to the project manager or the client. If you keep both, make sure they agree, because two records of the same day that contradict each other are hard to rely on in a dispute.
The site manager, superintendent or foreman in charge of the site, who signs it. They rarely collect everything alone: a site engineer or assistant usually counts the labour and plant and logs deliveries and visitors, and each subcontractor’s supervisor gives their numbers and hours. What matters is that one named person is responsible for the report each day and checks it before it goes out. The SCL Protocol suggests that factual progress and resource records are signed by both the contractor and the contract administrator where reasonably practicable.
The report itself is usually required by the contract, the client or your own procedures rather than by law. Some of what goes into it is a legal requirement, though. In the UK, supported excavations are inspected at the start of each shift under CDM 2015, working platforms within the previous 7 days under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and serious injuries and dangerous occurrences are reported under RIDDOR. In the US, OSHA requires daily excavation inspections, scaffold inspections before each shift and reports of serious injuries within 8 or 24 hours.
A claim for more time or money has to show what was delayed, when, why and what it cost, and the daily report is the record made at the time. The SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol says records of progress should be made as the work happens, not afterwards, and should set out facts rather than opinions. A report that names the cause of a delay, the activity affected, the labour and plant stood down and the instruction or late information behind it is far easier to rely on than a reconstruction months later. Give any notice the contract requires as well.
Not usually to the regulator, but they should be recorded. In the UK, RIDDOR requires a near miss to be reported only when it is one of the dangerous occurrences listed in Schedule 2, such as the collapse of a substantial part of a scaffold more than 5 metres high or plant touching an overhead power line above 200 volts. In the US, OSHA’s reporting rule in 29 CFR 1904.39 covers fatalities, in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye, so a near miss with no injury is not reported under it. Record every near miss in the daily report anyway.
At least as long as the contract requires and any statutory limitation period for claims under it. The SCL Protocol recommends keeping project records until after completion, the end of the defects liability period and the resolution of any disputes. Some records in the report have their own legal periods: in the UK, RIDDOR records for at least three years, and excavation and scaffold inspection reports at the site until the work is finished, then for three months; in the US, OSHA 300 Logs and 301 forms for five years after the year they cover.
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