Reports are an essential part of managing projects in a construction industry. Without the use of reports, handling of tasks seems like a tiresome job causing excess consumption of resources and delay. Right from the planning and scheduling phase maintaining different types of reports helps in keeping the project on schedule. It may seem insignificant, for a beginner in the construction industry to prepare reports of any kind but with time he/she realises that its preparation is an indispensable part of the process. There are several areas in a construction project for which reports can be prepared such as detailed reports, daily reports, cost reports, variance reports, etc. The types of report

that has to be prepared for a particular construction project has to be determined before its initiation.

Some Commonly Used Construction Site Reports

The progress of a construction project is assessed by the reports available with the existing authority.

With the increase in scale of a construction project the construction arena has to be subdivided into more areas that need to be maintained with the help of prerequisite reports.Some of the commonly prepared construction site reports are :

• Detailed Project Report - Detailed Project Reports(DPRs) are prepared after wrapping up the planning and designing phase of a project. DPR is an explicit plan for a project, vividly describing a complete programme, prescribed functions, activities and resources required for the success of the project. More accurately , DPR is the final blueprint of a project prepared before setting off things in motion.It portrays the practical outline for the execution of the project. The complete project schedule included in the DPR estimates the implementation of the project until its final stage.

• Safety Report - As safety of the project and construction workers is a constant priority in an ongoing project, a report has to be maintained which records the inherent dangers on site and the maintenance of safety standards. The report allows the contractors to assess the safety issue and assign means to improve the safety conditions. All construction projects are required to conduct routine safety inspections throughout the project schedule to ensure the safety and health of its employees.It is usually done on weekly, monthly and quarterly basis to track and maintain the safety standards at all given time.

• Daily Project Report - Daily Progress Report of a construction site is the day to day documentation of the progress achieved in an ongoing project usually consisting of staff, material, equipment used and progress evaluation. It is the civil work progress report formatted at the end of a day’s work recording all data involved in the progress of the project. This daily report is done in order to smoothen operations, to track usage of resources and to keep the project on track. All conditions occurring on a construction site in a day should be identified and noted down in the report.

Daily Progress Report acts as a paper trail in identifying the responsible parties in case of any delays or discrepancies.This report can also be prepared on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis according to the requirements of the project schedule.

• Resource Report - Resource reports of a construction project are maintained to keep track of resources required for different tasks and their availability. Proper resource management and its allocation helps to keep the project on track by ensuring that demand is met at the scheduled time. It maximizes the utilization of project resources for all different sites.

• Quality Report - Quality reports such as non-conformance report, inspection test plan are prepared to record several quality processes or its outcomes.The sole purpose of these reports is to carry out quality management and quality control procedures quantitatively as well as qualitatively. The output of procedures ensure that the quality standards are maintained as per the guidelines provided by the clients. Quality reports have to be prepared on regular basis to track the quality of materials being used as per prescribed standards, so they are done on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis as per prerequisite quality tracking schedules.

• Variance Report - Variance Reports are prepared at important intervals during project execution. These reports are maintained to track deviation(if any) from its scheduled progress. This is required to assess the degree of deviation from the actual timeline and take countermeasures to regain control over the project.

According to the current scenario where the construction industry is growing at warp speed, such kind of reports if prepared manually would be quite inconvenient. To match up to the present construction guidelines and requirements these reports can be prepared with the use of softwares and mobile based applications available in abundance at minimal cost or free. Mobile based applications are beneficial given their ease of access from any remote location. PowerPlay is one such application that is free and can help you prepare all kinds of reports related to the construction industry.