A day in the site diary can say that no work was carried out on it, and why: rained off, a bank holiday, a shutdown, no access, no labour. It is part of the Site Diary (see the “site_diary” topic), on both the mobile app and the web app.
Why it matters: A blank day in a diary proves nothing, because “rained off” and “nobody wrote it up” look the same. In a delay claim a run of empty days is the first thing the other side points at. A day recorded as closed, with the reason and the weather frozen onto it, is evidence of a lost day, and “how many days did we lose to the weather this year” becomes something the diary can count.
When the diary asks: On a working day when nobody checked in, no visitor signed in and nothing was written, the day opens with a box asking “Was the site closed?” and a button to answer it. On today it asks “Is the site closed today?”, since a rained-off morning is the best time to say so.
- Non-working days are not asked about. That means weekends under the project’s Working week (Monday to Friday by default), and any Extra days off an admin listed in Project Settings (bank holidays, shutdowns). You can still record one by hand
- An RFI raised in the office, or a delivery booked for next week, does not stop the question. Only somebody on site, a visitor, or something written in the day does
- Needs you, on the Home page and on the phone’s Home screen, asks an admin the same question about the most recent working day like that in the last week: “Mark Monday as closed, or write it up”. It only asks once the diary has been kept on an earlier day that week, so a team that does not use the diary is not asked about every day, and a job is not asked about the days before anybody started recording it
How to record one:
- Open the day and press Record no work carried out. On a day that does not ask (a weekend, a day somebody already wrote “rained off” in, a day somebody checked in only to make the site safe), use Record no work next to Print in a browser, or Site closed? Record no work carried out under the date on the phone
- Pick why: Weather (rain, wind, frost or heat), Holiday (a bank holiday or a planned break), Shutdown (a planned closure, such as a crane lift or a road closure), No access, Materials (waiting on a delivery), Plant (a machine unavailable or broken down), Labour (nobody available to work), Information (waiting on drawings or an answer), Instruction (told to stop by the client or an inspector) or Other
- Add a note if you want one, for example “heavy rain from 06:00, the pour called off”. It is needed for Other, and on any day somebody checked in
- Press Save
It is a list rather than a box so every closed day falls into one category. The same causes are planned for recording delays and stoppages, so both will one day total into the same figures.
A day somebody checked in on: It is not refused. A foreman who came in to make the site safe was on site, but that is not work carried out, and refusing would push people into recording nothing at all. Instead the sheet says how many people checked in and asks what they were doing, and the record on the day says how many checked in, so a reader can see both.
What the day shows afterwards:
- No work carried out, first of all, with the reason, the note, and who recorded it and when
- Filed late when it was recorded after the day (“filed 2 days later”), the same as a late entry, because a record made at the time carries more weight. A day recorded on a phone with no signal is judged by when it was recorded, not by when it reached the diary, and says “received …” beside it
- The weather, frozen when it was recorded, exactly as it is frozen when the first entry of a day is written, so “site closed, frozen ground” cannot drift away from the weather beside it
It sits above the day rather than in the feed, so View and People cannot hide it, and it prints with the day in a browser.
Changing or taking it off: Press Change on the record. Changing it records it again under your name. To take it off, press Change, then Remove, and confirm, and the day reads as a blank one again.
Who can record one: Members and admins, the same people who can write in the diary. Followers cannot see the diary at all. On a project whose subscription has lapsed it is read only, like the rest of what is written. On the phone it works with or without signal: a day recorded with none is kept on the phone and reaches the diary when it next connects, and shows when it was recorded as well as when it arrived, on the phone and in a browser.
Days that have not happened yet: A diary records what happened, so a future day cannot be recorded as closed. A bank holiday next week is recorded on the day. For something to plan around, use a task or a reminder.
Asking SiteBot: SiteBot reads these records, so “was the site closed on the 14th?” or “how many days did we lose to the weather last week?” is answered from the diary. A day with nothing on it and no closure recorded is a gap in the record, and SiteBot says so rather than guessing either way.