Daily reports that never get written
Make the daily a two minute phone entry tied to billing.
Your foreman is tired at 4:30 and the paper form is in the truck under a coffee cup. By Friday he can't remember which day the extra crew came out or who was on the loader. Then the GC claims the delay was yours and you have nothing written down to answer with. A missing daily costs you the change order, the back charge you could have fought, and the proof of what happened on the job.
Three moves, in order
What CFOS does about it
In CFOS the foreman fills out the daily on his phone browser, with his crew, the equipment on the job, and photos from the day. If there's extra work, the T&M ticket rides on the daily, the GC signs it on site, and it becomes a change order draft that goes on the next pay app. That gives the foreman a reason to write it, because the daily is what gets his extra work paid. The equipment on the daily is charged to the job at its daily rate, so the job cost is right without anyone keying it later.
Who owns this: Office manager.
At $5M with six crews, the office checks six foremen every Monday. That takes a few minutes. It's the cheapest control you'll add.
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Step 06: Project management
Billing dates, change orders, and notices, written as standards that work without anyone following up on them.
Other problems step 06 solves
Other things that go wrong
What owners ask
Foreman daily reports not getting done?
Make the daily a two minute phone entry tied to billing. Your foreman is tired at 4:30 and the paper form is in the truck under a coffee cup. By Friday he can't remember which day the extra crew came out or who was on the loader. Then the GC claims the delay was yours and you have nothing written down to answer with. A missing daily costs you the change order, the back charge you could have fought, and the proof of what happened on the job.
Which part of the system fixes this?
The step is number 06, project management. Billing dates, change orders, and notices, written as standards that work without anyone following up on them. It's drawn from chapter 6 of CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System.
Is this normal for my trade?
Across the 48 trades that publish a figure, net profit at $1M to $5M averages 7% before taxes. If you're well under that and this page describes your month, the two are usually the same story. The published average tells you where the pack is, and your own job costing tells you where you are, which is the number that pays payroll.
Where do I start?
Cut your daily form down to crew, equipment, work done, and photos, and drop every field the foreman doesn't use.
How long should a daily report take a foreman?
Two or three minutes at the end of the day is the target. If it takes longer, the form has too many fields. Cut it down to crew, equipment, work done, and photos, and add more only when you miss something that cost you money.
What if my foremen won't use a phone?
Most will once they see the daily gets their extra work billed. Start with the one or two foremen who already text you photos. The others will follow when they see those jobs get paid on change orders and theirs don't.
Can I fix this without touching anything else?
You can try, and it doesn't hold. Step 06 depends on step 04, estimating system. Install it ahead of that and it produces numbers the field won't trust, which is worse than the problem you started with.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.