One sheet, three jobs #
Most site sheets are quietly doing three unrelated jobs at once, which is why they satisfy nobody.
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Proof of attendance
Who was on site, from when to when. This is what a billing dispute turns on, and what pay is calculated from.
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Proof of work
Which parts of the specification were done, including the periodic tasks that only come round monthly or quarterly.
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Evidence for duties
Equipment checks, product use, an incident, a lone worker who made it off site safely.
Those have different readers. The first is read by an account manager in a dispute, the second by a client at a review meeting, the third by nobody at all until the day it is urgently needed. Bundling them onto one piece of A4 means the sheet is designed around the person filling it in rather than around any of the three people who will need it later.
Why paper survives, and why it should be taken seriously #
It is easy to be dismissive about the clipboard. Do not be. Paper works in a basement with no signal, at five in the morning, in gloves, for somebody whose phone is nearly out of battery and who may not want to install anything on their own device. A signature from a client's own representative on a sheet is stronger evidence than any tick a contractor records about itself.
What it costs when the record is thin #
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Disputed invoices
A client says a site was missed on the 14th. You believe it was not. Whoever has the better record wins, and if that is the client, you credit the visit and lose the argument about the next three.
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Pay accuracy
Hours drive pay, and GOV.UK guidance is clear that travelling from one work assignment to another counts towards the hours for which the minimum wage must be paid. If the record does not capture the real shape of a shift, the payroll built on it is approximate in a way that is nobody's friend.
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Safety evidence
HSE says employers must manage health and safety risks before people work alone, and lists cleaners among lone workers. A check-in arrangement that exists but is not recorded is an arrangement you cannot demonstrate.
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The monthly report
Everything in the client report is downstream of these sheets. A thin record makes for a report that is really a work of reconstruction.
Which parts run on rules #
Runs on rules
- Knowing which sheets are outstanding right now, given the rota already says who was where
- Reminding whoever holds them
- Flagging a site with no record for a scheduled visit, which is the single most useful flag on this list
- Filing records against the right site and month
- Pulling the records for one site when a dispute starts, if they are filed consistently
- Chasing a client representative for a countersignature. Yes to prompt, no to persuade
Needs a person
- Judging whether a completed sheet is honest, because a supervisor who visits will always know more than a form
- Deciding what to do about a site that keeps having no record. That is a management conversation
The question to ask before changing anything #
Answer that first and the design of the record follows from it. Answer it second and you end up with an app that collects the same three jobs on one screen and is ignored in a basement.
Start by counting how many scheduled visits last month you can evidence today, without ringing anybody. That number is usually the argument. The free tools will help you price the chasing time around it, and the same record feeds the invoice run.