Handbook
Record every construction day – and hold evidence that stands up in a dispute
Step-by-step instructions for admins, site managers and foremen. This is how you keep the construction log in Jobilino: capture daily site reports with weather, crew, work performed and photos – on site in the app or at the desk –, adopt suggestions from your own time tracking, scheduling and warehouse withdrawals, close the day and freeze it as a PDF, turn an obstruction into a formal obstruction notice under VOB/B § 6, and hand the report to the client – including plausibility check, version history and a verification code printed on the document.
How the construction log works
everyone
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One report per site and day
The construction log is the collection of all daily site reports for a project. A daily report belongs to exactly one project and exactly one calendar day – a second report for the same day is not possible, and a report for tomorrow is not either.
Tipp: Think in sites, not in companies: what is a project in Jobilino is the site on the ground. If you run several sites for the same client, each keeps its own construction log.
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Closing the day turns a draft into evidence
While the report is a draft, you keep working freely. With “Close day” it becomes immutable, the PDF is archived and carries a version number. From then on, a change is only possible by reopening it.
Tipp: A draft carries the watermark “DRAFT” in the PDF. So nobody ever hands out half a construction day by accident.
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Corrections never overwrite anything
If a closed report is reopened and closed again, a NEW PDF version is created. The previous version remains fully intact, and the new document itself states which version it replaces.
Tipp: That is the difference from a Word file on a shared drive: what makes a construction log persuasive is not immutability alone, but the gapless traceability of every change.
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Jobilino suggests what it already knows
When you record a day, Jobilino offers to adopt crew from time tracking and dispatch planning, equipment from trips and shifts, and material from that day’s warehouse withdrawals.
Tipp: This is the real advantage over a standalone construction-diary app: the figures come from your own operational data, not from someone’s memory after hours.
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The suggestions are a one-way street
The construction log READS time tracking, scheduling, trips and the warehouse – it never writes back. Correcting the report changes no clock-in and no stock movement.
Tipp: The reverse also holds: nothing about the construction log blocks operations. A missing daily report stops nobody from clocking in, and the plausibility check never holds up a close.
Set up the module and grant permissions
admins
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Have the module activated
The construction log is an optional module and is not active by default. Talk to us if you want to use it.
Tipp: Sign out and back in once after activation so that menu items and permissions are loaded fresh.
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Switch the construction log on per project
Open “Project” → “Settings” and enable the “Construction log” switch. Only then does the “Construction log” tab appear on the project and daily reports become possible there.
Tipp: Only switch it on for real construction sites. A construction log on every project produces evening reminders for days nobody intends to report on.
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Switching off never deletes anything
If the switch is disabled again, all reports, photos and archived PDFs are kept. They are back unchanged as soon as you set it again.
Tipp: If the module is not activated for your account, the switch is locked and shows a note – but the stored value is preserved and takes effect immediately once the module is activated.
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Set permissions in the user group
Open “Administration” → “User groups” and tick the boxes in the “Construction log” block: “May keep the construction log” (site managers and foremen – create, edit, close), “May view the construction log” (read only, including version history and exports) and “May reopen closed daily reports”.
Tipp: “Keep” implies viewing – you do not need to tick the read permission on top.
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Grant reopening narrowly
What works in practice: the foreman and the site manager may keep the log, commercial management may view it, and only a handful of people may reopen closed reports.
Tipp: Reopening is the only way to change a frozen record. It always requires a reason and is logged – but the fewer people who can do it, the more robust your construction log is.
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Access ends at project membership
On top of the permission, you need access to the project itself. And when recording crew, only those employees are offered whom the person recording is allowed to see at all.
Tipp: If a foreman cannot find a colleague in the crew picker, what is missing is not the construction-log permission but visibility of that person – you control that through teams and the role.
Record a daily site report
employee
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Create the day
Open the project, switch to “Construction log” and click “Record day”. The list shows one month; use the arrows to page back.
Tipp: A date in the future is rejected, and so is a day that already has a report. To add to an existing day, open it from the list instead of creating a new one.
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Adopt the suggestions
A suggestion banner appears at the top with what Jobilino found for that day. Adopt crew, material and equipment with one click each – every group separately.
Tipp: Adopting means pre-filling, not asserting: check and correct the rows afterwards. The report is your statement, not the system’s.
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Enter weather and working hours
Select the weather (sunny, cloudy, rain, snow, storm, frost, heat or changeable), enter min/max temperature and a precipitation note, and set the start and end of work.
Tipp: The weather is the entry that matters in a later claim for an extension of time. In the note field, write one sentence too many rather than too few (“constant rain from 14:00, concrete pour abandoned”).
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Record the crew
Add per row either one of your own “Employees” or a “Subcontractor” with a company name, plus trade/function and the hours. For outside firms, also enter the number of people.
Tipp: Both in one row is deliberately impossible: your own employees count by name as one person, outside firms as a gang with a headcount. That is exactly the split anyone later recalculating the hours will expect.
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Create report entries by kind
Record the day in the given sections: Work performed, Material (with quantity and unit), Equipment/machinery (with vehicle), Daywork, Inspections/acceptances, Obstructions, Interruptions (each with a from–to time), Defects, Instructions and Special incidents.
Tipp: Classify properly instead of collecting everything under “Work performed”. Only an obstruction or an interruption can later produce an obstruction notice – a stoppage disguised as a work description is legally worthless.
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Add photos
Upload photos for the day. They appear in the PDF and remain part of the archived report.
Tipp: In the Jobilino app the image is captured with the camera and marked as such. That distinction is what gives it evidential weight later – photograph on site rather than uploading something in the evening.
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Progress and notes
Use the “Construction progress” field to record where the site stands today, and “General notes” for everything that belongs to no single entry – visits, agreements, access problems.
Tipp: This is the place for the context nobody will remember in six months. It costs you two sentences and settles arguments later.
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Represent non-working days honestly
If the site was closed or the day was lost to the weather, set the switch “No work was performed on this day”. Only with this switch can a day without entries be closed.
Tipp: Documenting lost days matters more than leaving them out: a gap in the construction log reads as negligence, a documented rain day reads as an argument.
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Save as you go
“Save” stores the state as a draft so you can continue later. A draft stays open for as long as you like.
Tipp: On large sites, save after each section – the day is rarely recorded in one sitting.
Close the day
employee
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Have it checked first
With “Check”, Jobilino compares your draft against that day’s operational data before you close. The findings appear immediately and block nothing.
Tipp: Use the button while correcting is still easy. After the close, the same finding is frozen and visible in the PDF.
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What gets checked
The plausibility check reports, for example: the day is marked “no work” although people clocked in; people clocked in but are missing from the report; people are listed without matching time entries; reported and clocked hours differ; clocking started before the stated start or ended after the stated end; material withdrawals or vehicles for this site are missing from the report.
Tipp: These are findings, not accusations. They are printed in the report – whoever checks their own report sees the same anomalies an expert witness would see later.
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Trigger the close
Click “Save & close day” and confirm. The report needs at least one entry for this – or the “no work performed” switch.
Tipp: The confirmation tells you how many findings the plausibility check produced. Read them – you may still close, but do it deliberately.
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What the close triggers
The report is closed, the check result frozen and the PDF archived with a version number. From that moment on, every download returns exactly that archived file.
Tipp: The document is not recalculated on each opening. Two printouts of the same version are therefore guaranteed identical – verifiable via the document hash.
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Close on the same day
Close the report on the construction day itself if at all possible, at the latest on the following day.
Tipp: Timeliness is the criterion the evidential weight of a construction log hangs on. A report written three weeks later is a reconstruction – and the other side will treat it as one.
Correcting and countersigning
admins
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Reopen a report
If a closed report has to be corrected, reopen it via “Reopen” – with a mandatory reason. This requires the dedicated permission.
Tipp: Write a real reason (“Hours for Meier Ltd corrected against the delivery note”), not a platitude. It goes into the audit record and gets read precisely when things become uncomfortable.
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Close again after correcting
A reopened report is a draft. The next close archives a new PDF version; all previous versions are kept.
Tipp: The version is stated on the PDF itself, along with the version it replaces. Anyone holding two printouts sees immediately which one applies.
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Countersigning by site management
A closed report can be countersigned once – name and timestamp are recorded and a new PDF version is archived. People with the permission to keep the construction log may do this.
Tipp: This is the internal second pair of eyes – the foreman records, the site manager countersigns. For the client’s confirmation, use the client link two sections down.
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Deleting is only possible while it is a draft
A closed daily report cannot be deleted. Drafts can.
Tipp: That is deliberate. A record you can delete is not a record – and every court knows it.
Obstruction notice under VOB/B § 6
admins
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Check first: does the VOB/B apply at all?
The VOB/B is not a statute but a set of standard contract terms. It applies only where the parties agreed to it in the construction contract – with public clients that is the norm, with private clients not necessarily. Without such an agreement, German statutory construction contract law (BGB) applies, and in Austria the ABGB plus ÖNORM B 2110 where agreed.
Tipp: Settle this once per client and record it. It determines which deadlines and formal requirements govern your notice – not which form you happen to be used to.
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When you have to give notice
Where the VOB/B is agreed, the contractor must notify the client of an obstruction without delay and in writing under § 6 para. 1 VOB/B – without delay meaning without culpable hesitation, so the same or the next working day.
Tipp: If notification is omitted, the rights under § 6 survive only insofar as the obstructing circumstances were obviously known to the client (§ 6 para. 1 sentence 2 VOB/B). Never rely on that exception – proving it is harder than writing the notice.
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Create the notice from the report
Open the closed daily report. For every entry of the kind “Obstructions” or “Interruptions” you can produce a separate letter via “Create obstruction notice” – with recipient, cause and expected effect on the construction schedule.
Tipp: Only those two entry kinds qualify. If while recording you notice that something is disrupting the schedule, enter it as an obstruction straight away – not as a note.
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What the document delivers
The notice receives a consecutive number, refers to that day’s daily report as evidence and is issued as a separate PDF under § 6 para. 1 VOB/B, reserving claims under § 6 para. 2 and para. 6.
Tipp: The text is frozen at issue. A later correction of the report entry therefore never changes the letter you have already sent – exactly as it must be.
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What the notice builds on
The extension of construction periods under § 6 para. 2 VOB/B and any claim for damages under § 6 para. 6 VOB/B rest on this notice. Where the VOB/B does not apply, other legal bases come into play – in Germany, for example, § 642 BGB where the client fails to cooperate.
Tipp: The notice itself quantifies no costs. It records THAT and WHY the work is obstructed – the claim for additional costs is a separate, later step that builds on exactly this documentation.
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Sending remains your job
Jobilino produces the document; you take care of sending it to the client – ideally in a provable way.
Tipp: Whether an email satisfies a contractual written-form requirement depends on the construction contract. When in doubt, send hard copy with proof of receipt as well: the finest PDF is worthless if receipt is disputed.
Handing the report out
admins
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A single day as PDF
Open the report and use “PDF preview” or “Download PDF”. For closed reports this is always the archived version.
Tipp: For a draft the PDF is rendered live – recognisable by the “DRAFT” watermark. Never let something like that leave the house.
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Export a month
From the month list you export the period as PDF or Excel – that is the actual construction log as a collection.
Tipp: Only CLOSED reports are exported. If a day is missing from the export, it is still a draft – a good month-end check.
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Create a client link
If the feature is activated for your installation, generate a time-limited link on the closed report. The client opens it without signing in, reads the report, downloads the PDF and confirms receipt with their name – the note appears on the document.
Tipp: A new link invalidates the old one immediately – that is exactly how you devalue a link passed on by mistake. Every link expires after a set period anyway.
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Know the limits of the acknowledgement
The confirmation records the name and the time and proves that the client has seen the report. It is not a qualified electronic signature within the meaning of the eIDAS Regulation and replaces neither formal acceptance nor a contractually agreed written-form requirement.
Tipp: For formal acceptance the signed printout remains the way – the PDF contains signature blocks for site management and the client for exactly that.
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Verification code on the document
Every closed report carries a verification code and the document hash (SHA-256). Using the address printed on the PDF, any recipient can check without signing in whether their copy matches the archived original – and whether it has since been superseded by a newer version.
Tipp: The verification page deliberately shows only verification data, never content. A code can be confirmed with it, but nobody can browse other people’s reports through it.
Automatic draft and reminder
admins
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The evening draft
In the early evening, Jobilino prepares a draft daily report from the recorded data for every site with activity and notifies those responsible.
Tipp: An automatic draft is explicitly marked “not yet reviewed and confirmed by a person” – in the PDF as well. Only once somebody saves it does the report count as written by a human.
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What the draft never does
It overwrites no existing report, never closes one and invents no work performed. Crew, equipment and material come exclusively from your own data.
Tipp: No automation can write the description of the work performed for you. That is precisely what the report is for – the rest is preparation.
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Reminder for missing days
If work was done on a site but no daily report was closed, Jobilino reminds those responsible in the evening – in the inbox and as a push notification.
Tipp: The reminder arrives once per day and site, not continuously. If you get it regularly for the same project, either responsibility is unclear or the construction log simply is not needed there.
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Optional extras
Depending on your installation, automatic weather data (from the weather archive for the project’s location pin, with source attribution) and a qualified timestamp from a timestamping authority on the closed PDF can be enabled.
Tipp: Automatic weather data never overwrites an entry a human made. And none of these features can prevent a close – a daily report must remain closable at 17:30 with one bar of signal.
On site with the app
employee
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Open the construction log
In the Jobilino app you find the construction log in the side menu – deliberately not next to the running time entry, because the site manager writing the report is often not clocked in on that site at all.
Tipp: Only sites with an active construction log are offered. If yours is missing, the switch on the project has not been set yet.
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Record and close the day
Choose the site, then the month and the day. You record weather, working hours, crew, entries, notes and photos exactly as on the web – including the suggestions – and close the day right there on site.
Tipp: A closed day opens in the app as a read-only view with the PDF. So nobody can accidentally keep writing in a report that has already been handed out.
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Corrections go through the web
Reopening, countersigning, obstruction notices and the monthly export are deliberately only available in the web interface.
Tipp: Anyone holding the reopen permission gets a corresponding note in the app instead of a missing button – correcting a record belongs at a desk.
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Take photos directly
Images taken in the app are marked as camera captures.
Tipp: Photograph the obstruction at the moment it is visible. A picture from the site on the same day is evidence; a picture supplied later is an assertion with an attachment.
What the construction log does not do
everyone
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It blocks nothing
Neither a missing daily report nor a plausibility finding stops anybody from clocking in, booking stock or closing the day.
Tipp: All checks are advisory. That is a deliberate decision: a documentation tool that holds up operations gets bypassed – and then it documents nothing at all.
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It does not replace time tracking
The hours in the report are your statement about the construction day. For payroll and invoicing, time tracking remains authoritative.
Tipp: That is exactly why the plausibility check is useful: it shows where the two pictures diverge – before somebody else notices.
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It does not replace legal advice
Jobilino provides the documentation and the forms. Whether the VOB/B, the BGB or ÖNORM B 2110 governs your contract, which deadlines are running and which claims exist is for your lawyer to assess – not the software.
Tipp: Clarify once in principle what your standard contracts look like and train your site managers on it. After that, the construction log is pure routine.
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Reports are never deleted automatically
Daily reports, photos and archived PDFs are evidence and are removed by no clean-up routine.
Tipp: So do not plan for automatic housekeeping. What you record here will still be available after liability for defects expires – and that is exactly when you will need it.
Still have questions? We are happy to help.
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