Choose one place for your records
A notes app, timesheet or construction software can all work. What matters most is that your team doesn’t use three systems at once. Agree where hours are recorded, which project name to use and who checks the week’s entries.
Record it while you remember
Update your entries after a job or at the end of the day. Record at least the date, team member, project and time worked. Add a short description if different tasks have separate budgets.
Agree how to handle unclear cases
- Do you record travel time separately?
- How do you record breaks and waiting time?
- Where do you book a trip to collect missing materials?
- How do you identify hours spent on approved extra work?
What usually doesn’t help
Retrospectively booking the same eight hours to every project makes the figures tidy but less useful. Too many required fields can also get in the way: when entering hours takes too long, people put it off. Start with what you actually need.
Use the hours to improve your next job
Afterwards, review which tasks took longer than expected. Was the surface in worse condition, were materials missing, or was the allowance too tight? Use that to improve your estimate. Simply adding up someone’s hours won’t explain why the job overran.