Construction Daily Reports and T&M Tickets
What a daily report should record, why every day belongs on it, and how a T&M ticket ties to the same day and gets signed.
What a daily report is for
A daily report is the contractor's record of the day, written that day. When a delay, a back charge or a change order is argued months later, the daily reports are what both sides reach for first. A report written the same day is a business record. One written a month later from memory is an opinion.
What every daily report should carry
- The date, the day of the week and who wrote it.
- The weather, with measurements: high and low temperature, rain in inches and sustained wind. Many contracts define a weather day by a measurement.
- Whether weather stopped or slowed work, the hours lost and the activity that stopped.
- Who was on site, by company and trade, with workers and hours. Standby hours go in their own column.
- Equipment on site, with operating and idle hours kept apart.
- The work performed, where, and how far it got.
- Delays, deliveries, visitors and inspections.
- A signature certifying the report.
Write one every day, including the days nobody worked
A rain day or a weekend with nobody on site is still a day on the record. A series with no gaps is believable. A missing day is the one somebody asks about.
Where the T&M ticket fits
When the field is directed to do work outside the contract and the price is not agreed yet, the work is tracked on a time-and-material ticket. The ticket records quantities only: labor hours by trade, equipment hours and materials. Prices go on the change order the ticket supports, at the contract's rates.
The ticket belongs with the daily report for the same day, and the crew and equipment on it should match that report. A ticket that disagrees with its own daily report gets read twice.
Get the ticket signed the same day
Quantities the owner's representative agreed to on the day are rarely argued later. An unsigned ticket is the one that gets disputed. If the rep will not sign, write down who you asked and when, and send the ticket in writing that day.
Check your contract's notice clause. A direction to do extra work often starts a short clock to give written notice, and the ticket does not replace that notice.