Free site diary template for Australian builders
One page, covering a full day on a residential or small commercial site, with a filled-in example. Print a stack for the ute, or work through the same headings on your phone.
Daily site diary template
PDF, 1 page, A4 and Excel · Free · No email required
Running more than one job? Foreman's site diary app keeps each day against the right project on your phone, and exports a CSV or a PDF with the photos when a client asks. Free on your first job, with every feature and unlimited users on it.
This template covers a full day on a residential or small commercial site: who turned up, what got built, what turned up late, what went wrong, and who told you to change something. One page. Print a stack and leave them in the ute, or work through the same headings on your phone.
Two formats: a print-ready PDF for the ute, and an Excel version if you would rather fill it in on a laptop or adapt the columns.
Both are free, and they download straight from the button above.
What goes in each section
Who was on site. Name, company, trade, start, finish, hours. Do this by person, not by company. When a subbie invoices for eleven hours and your diary says he arrived at ten, you want the row, not a memory. If your crew clock in at the gate, that row fills itself in.
Work completed today. Write what was finished that day, leaving out what was only planned. "Second fix rough-in, kitchen and both bathrooms" beats "plumbing". Six months from now the detail is the whole point.
Deliveries received. What arrived, from whom, what time. This is the section that settles arguments with suppliers, and it takes ten seconds.
Visitors to site. The building surveyor, the client, the engineer, the bloke from the energy provider. Anyone who is not your crew or your subbies.
Delays and disruptions. What happened, what caused it, and how long you lost. Rain, a late delivery, waiting on an inspection, a service that was not where the plans said. This is the single most valuable section in the diary and the one most people skip.
Instructions, variations or directions. Who told you, how they told you, and what they said. Verbal instructions on site are the ones that vanish. Writing down "client asked to move the laundry door, verbal, on site" the day it happens is worth more than any argument you will have about it later.
Safety. Four tick boxes: toolbox talk, incident or near miss, new workers inducted, photos taken. Then a box for detail if you ticked yes to any of them.
Site diary example: one filled-in day
This is the format the template follows, filled in for an ordinary day on a single-storey house. The job and the names are made up. The level of detail is the point.
Date: Tuesday 13 October. Weather: fine morning, rain from 1:30 pm.
On site: Sam Nguyen (carpenter, own crew) 7:00 to 3:30, 8 hrs. Josh Reilly (labourer, own crew) 7:00 to 3:30, 8 hrs. Coastline Plumbing, 2 people, 8:00 to 12:00, 4 hrs each.
Work completed: Wall frames stood and braced, garage and bed 3. Plumbing rough-in, ensuite.
Deliveries: Roof trusses from the frame and truss supplier, 9:40 am, checked against the delivery docket, one truss cracked and photographed. Supplier told by phone at 10:00 am.
Visitors: Building surveyor, 11:00 am, frame inspection of the front half. Passed.
Delays: Rain stopped frame work at 1:30 pm. Crew moved to cleaning up and stacking off-cuts. About 2 hours of framing lost.
Instructions: Client asked on site to move the ensuite vanity 300 mm left. Verbal, about 12:15 pm. Told them it changes the rough-in and will be priced as a variation.
Safety: Toolbox talk on working near the open stair void. No incidents. No new workers.
It runs to about 150 words. That is enough for anyone reading it a year later to know what happened, and it takes a few minutes to write while the day is still fresh. For a worked example of a bad day, with what each section should say when things go wrong, see how to keep a site diary.
The sections builders skip, and regret
Delays and instructions. Every time.
Work completed feels like the important bit because it is the visible bit. Yet the diary comes out of the drawer when there is a dispute about time or money, and both of those live in the delays section and the instructions section.
If you write nothing else on a bad day, write what stopped you and who told you to do something different.
Who fills it in, and when
Whoever runs the site that day, usually the supervisor or the builder. Put their name in the Completed by box at the top, so there is no doubt later about who wrote it.
A diary entry written on the day carries weight. One reconstructed three weeks later from memory and a camera roll does not, and it reads that way to anyone assessing it.
The practical version of this rule: fill it in before you leave site, not at the kitchen table on Sunday. Two minutes at the gate beats an hour on the weekend, and it is more accurate.
Getting the same thing without the paper
The template works fine. What lets you down is the folder: it lives in the shed, the shed is on one job, and you are running four.
Foreman's site diary app does the same job from your phone. You pick the project, pick the crew member, log hours, write what happened and attach photos taken in the app. Deliveries, delays and instructions go in the same daily note. Every entry is dated and attached to the right job, and the diary exports as a CSV or as a PDF with the photos when a client or a head contractor asks.
The free plan covers one project with every feature, and your whole crew can use it, so you can run a real job on it before you decide anything.
Related
If you want the legal side rather than the practical one, read is a site diary legally required in Australia. If you are chasing a daily report format for a head contractor, this same template covers it, since "site diary" and "daily report" describe the same document in Australian practice.