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Daily Logbook/Record Keeping

22K views 56 replies 25 participants last post by  Big Shoe 
#1 ·
How do you guys keep track of your daily activity for later billing/record keeping? Logbook, some type of daily form, etc???

I'm talking from the standpoint of an owner keeping track of my time, what I did, where I drove and how much, etc.
 
#3 ·
About a year ago I got very serious about tracking my time and tested a bunch of apps. I settled on Gleeo for an app. It has an export feature which is handy for saving your tracking on your computer for later review.

I also created two calenders on my Google calender, one for scheduling jobs and then another one where I would record the actual hours so I could track my accuracy and try to improve my estimates.

It all worked well but after six months I ended up ditching almost all of my apps and gadgets and switched to a piece of paper folded in quarters which I keep in my back pocket. I have one panel for a to-do list, one for a shopping list and one for tracking hours. I start a new piece of paper each night and save them for a couple weeks in a folder. It's a lot easier and more reliable.
 
#10 ·
He's a solo guy looking to keep track of his own time. He could write it in a My Little Pony book with a crayon. He shouldn't be getting far enough behind on anything T&M that court would even be worthwhile.

If he starts doing commercial then he should revise his system to something more appropriate.
 
#11 ·
He's a solo guy looking to keep track of his own time. He could write it in a My Little Pony book with a crayon. He shouldn't be getting far enough behind on anything T&M that court would even be worthwhile.

If he starts doing commercial then he should revise his system to something more appropriate.
That is true....however many residential guys I know are now using a commercial type bound book on their projects. No matter what the project a daily hand written record will help resolve issues and provide evidence of what transpired on the job.
 
#16 ·
This is something that I need to start doing. Up to this point, I've been relying solely on my memory and whatever I put on estimates and invoices.

Every now and then I'll have a situation where I'll go back to an old unfinished job and, neither the HO nor I remember what we agreed to or what was promised.:blink: I'm fortunate to have clients that I can trust and clients that trust me so if there is ever a misunderstanding we always give each other the benefit of the doubt.

But now I realize that I need to start logging these conversations just for my own level of professionalism even if I never have any conflicts.
 
#19 ·
I'm surprised you haven't had problems. I have found with my current job that even when I give people a very direct black and white price, I'll do the project and they'll come back and say, "What? 50 bucks. I thought you said 30."

I've have learned that people can have very selective hearing and often hear what they want to hear. It is good to have something down in writing. Even just an email that you can go back to is better than a presumed verbal understanding.

Not don't mean this in an offensive way so please don't take it that way, but my old boss used to operate like that and he is out of business. Someone is losing in situations like you are talking about and I think more often than not it is the contractor. My ex boss is exactly the way you describe yourself, trustworthy and people trusted him, but the lack of organization caused him to take it on the chin constantly. I could go on and on about that...I'll stop.
 
#17 ·
I don't really do it for record keeping, other than mileage. Every morning when I get into my truck I write down the business mileage and where I went. As a bonus to me I write down what I did that day.

It has come in handy tracking some things down or timed events. I don't ever plan on using it in court as I am a one man show.
 
#21 ·
Spencer go digital, the reason I use my smartphone so much is because that information is instantly stored to the cloud. You loose that book and you are up crap creek...ontop of that it's one less thing to carry around with you.
 
#24 ·
this is something I have been planning to improve upon this year.

In the past it really has not mattered much. most of our jobs are completed in one day-------- occasionally we will work somewhere 2-3 days-and 5 days on a single job is an eternity
however- now with additional employees there are significant workers comp. savings to be had with detailed records of how many hours carpentry,how many hours roofing, how many hours sheet metal etc.
stephen
 
#27 ·
I use evernote, just write all my notes, time, prices, shopping list in there and its accessible from phone/desktop/tablet


FWIW- I know someone who used to produce journals / daily diaries for accountants
it is a black market business that she used to do in her spare time. All of those out of date daily calendars are sold and kept until needed. If you need it bad enough there is a place to buy it.
 
#31 ·
Neither does mine. It's for my own personal use. I know many guys who are surprised that I keep a log of my daily activities. On more than one occasion it has helped me find a receipt or what a figure was when doing my checkbook. Turns out to be pretty handy at times.
 
#33 ·
480sparky said:
However you record it, make sure the method will stand up in court. Punched pages in a 3-ring binder ain't gonna cut it. Trust me on this. Been there, done that.
I learned of this too, not from personal experience but after hearing from others. There's certain rules as to how you keep records if you want it to hold up in court. I can't remember all of them but I know it's got to be written in ink.
 
#35 ·
A bound book where the pages cannot be exchanged is paramount. Ringed or spiral bindings will not stand up.

As for ink, I was questioned why all my pages were written with what appeared to be the same pen. I responded with, "Well, I go to work every day with the same pair of boots, the same belt, the same glasses, the same wallet, the same cell phone, the same keys......... why not carry the same pen every day?"

The judge agreed.
 
#36 ·
480sparky said:
A bound book where the pages cannot be exchanged is paramount. Ringed or spiral bindings will not stand up. As for ink, I was questioned why all my pages were written with what appeared to be the same pen. I responded with, "Well, I go to work every day with the same pair of boots, the same belt, the same glasses, the same wallet, the same cell phone, the same keys......... why not carry the same pen every day?" The judge agreed.
That's because it makes it look like you wrote the whole thing the day before you went to court instead of every day. I had a boss who would look for the same thing on our time sheets. He said "No one ever keeps the same pen!"
 
#37 ·
Pencil. I've made enough mistakes writing things in that I use pencil. Guess I'm screwed.
 
#42 ·
I just have an excel document that I print out.
Columns for: date, customer, address (for mileage tracking), hours on site, job description, materials used and supplies needed to complete job for next visit. Pretty simple. If I wanted to track it online I could make it into a google spreadsheet and do it that way, but I like writing it out by hand.
 
#47 ·
It's been done for decades. One book for the business and one book for the feds.
 
#48 ·
I believe that's called "cooking the books". It's been done since the dawn of record keeping.

If you have accounting software, there is an audit feature. If you go in and say change a date for a transaction, it logs that "user X changed this information on THIS date." Some audit trails will log not only that it was changed, but the value it was, and the value it was changed to. "User X deleted customer payment for $14,234.23 at 12:23pm 11/23/2013".

These records are hidden from the user end of the system, and much more difficult to falsify than a bound book.

Of course you can turn the audit trail off, but that basically turns it into an electronic 3 ring binder.

Like any system, there are ways around things, but it's extremely difficult, and prone to indication of tampering.
 
#49 ·
maybe this site will clear up what type of log book could be used; http://www.safetymeetingoutlines.com/logbooks.html I have been using them for 20+ years and yes I have a lot of log books (20+ years) stored in the mezzanine for just in case.
I think the main thing is to decide for yourself what you want to use them for. I write just about anything pertinent to that days work, oh yea, some stuff not pertinent.
 
#50 ·
Does it have to be an actual logbook? Can't you just use a permanently bound notebook?

I don't see why I should spend 25$ on a fancy version when I can buy a nice notebook for 3$ if it does the same thing.
 
#51 · (Edited)
Whatever you use, it has to be apparent when a page is ripped out. If you use a ringed binder then you can rip a page out to hide it and nobody would know.

This is a list out of a book by Edward Fisk:

Format of the Construction Diary

  1. Use only a hard-cover, stitched-binding field book such as used by surveyors for their note keeping, or a "record book" obtainable at stationers.
  2. Pages should be consecutively numbered in ink, and no numbers should be skipped.
  3. No erasures should be made. In case of error, simply cross out the incorrect information and enter the correct data next to it.
  4. No pages should be torn out of the book at any time. If a page is to be voided, place a large "X" through the page and mark "void."
  5. Every day should be reported, and every calendar date should be accounted for. If there is no work performed on a given date, the date should be entered on the page followed by the words "no work" or similar wording. It is still desirable to record the weather on "no work" days, as it may have later bearing on why no work was performed in a case involving a claim for liquidated damages.
  6. All entries must be made on the same date that they occur. If notes are kept on a separate scratch paper, and later transcribed into the diary, and this fact is disclosed during a trial, the credibility of the entire diary comes into question.
 
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