Site records
Site diary records that are worth something later
A site diary is the document that decides what a delay claim is worth months after the events it describes, and its value depends almost entirely on specificity. Aldbry builds the daily record on site from what the manager says and photographs, in your format, so the detail survives instead of being reconstructed from memory at a kitchen table.
The problem
The record is written at the worst possible moment
Not because site managers are unwilling, but because the writing happens after a full day on site, when the incentive is to finish quickly.
01
Detail decays within hours
Which gang, which plot, what plant, how long a delivery waited. These are the facts that carry weight and the first ones to blur.
02
Volume multiplies it
One record per site per day, or one per plot per day on housing. The repetition is what makes it feel disproportionate to its value.
03
It lands on expensive people
The person who knows what happened is the person you least want typing. Re-flow and YouGov found UK construction workers spend around 90 hours a year each on paperwork, at about £1,500 per employee per year.
04
Worth most when disputed
A record written from memory the next morning is worth considerably less than one captured while walking the works.
How it works
Captured on site, structured into your format
- Voice and photographs on the walkThe manager describes what is in front of them rather than reconstructing it later.
- Structured into your diary formatWeather, labour, plant, progress and delays, in the format your firm and your contract already require.
- Attributed to the right plot or areaOn multi-plot sites the work is assigned where it belongs, which is the part that makes the record usable in a claim.
- Filed against the jobIndexed and evidenced rather than sitting in somebody's email, so it can be found when it matters.
Being straight about it
Why the boring entries are the valuable ones
The entries that feel pointless on the day are often the decisive ones a year later: which access route was blocked, how long a delivery waited, why a gang moved to a different plot. Nobody records these when writing against the clock, and nobody can reconstruct them afterwards.
That is the practical argument for capturing the record while walking the site rather than writing it up at the end. It is not that the finished document looks different. It is that it contains things the end-of-day version never would.
Site Diaries is one of the modules that is live. Site Diaries, RAMS Assurance and Subcontractor Onboarding are live on UK construction sites with a small number of contractors. You can see the product detail on Corvleo Site Diaries.
Common questions
Questions about site diary records
What should a construction site diary include?
A site diary should record what happened clearly enough to stand up months later in a delay claim or a dispute. That means the date and weather, labour on site by trade and number, plant and equipment, the works carried out and where, deliveries received, and any issues, delays or health and safety observations, with photographs where they add evidence. The discipline that matters is writing it the same day, because a diary reconstructed on Friday for the whole week is worth far less. Corvleo's Site Diaries module is live and builds the record from what the site manager says and photographs as they walk the site.
How can construction firms use AI to cut admin?
Construction firms cut admin with AI by applying it to the documents they already produce every week, not by replacing the people who produce them. The work that responds best is repetitive and document-shaped: site diaries written from spoken notes, subcontractor packs checked for missing insurances and expired cards, RAMS cross-checked for conflicts and gaps before a competent person signs them off, and progress records assembled from what was already captured on site. Aldbry applies AI inside your existing workflows rather than asking you to move to a new platform, and a competent person reviews and signs off every output. If you want to size the problem before spending anything, the Construction Admin Cost Calculator gives you a headline figure in a couple of minutes.
How long should site diaries be kept, and how are they retrieved?
Longer than most firms plan for, because the claim that needs them often surfaces well after completion, and the period is set by your contract and the limitation period that applies to it rather than by anything we decide. The practical problem is rarely retention, since storage is cheap. It is retrieval: finding the entry for one activity on one date, years later, without reading a folder end to end. That is why the record should be indexed against the job, the location and the activity as it is created, rather than organised retrospectively when somebody asks for it.
Does a site diary need to follow a particular format?
Your contract usually decides that, not us. NEC and JCT projects, framework clients and insurers all tend to expect particular fields, and some firms have a house format refined over years. The record is produced into the format you already use rather than a new one, because a diary that does not match what the contract expects creates an argument rather than settling one. What matters more than the template is that entries are specific, dated, attributed and contemporaneous.
Next step
Put a number on the diaries first.
The calculator is free and needs nothing from you to show a result. Or book a call about the records your sites produce daily.