Labour attendance without the paper register
Attendance is the highest-frequency data in construction and usually the worst recorded. How to move it to the phone without slowing the site down.
Attendance is recorded more often than anything else on a construction project, by the person with the least time and the worst working conditions. Any process that ignores those two facts fails.
Why the paper register survives
Because it is fast, works with no signal, needs no login, and the supervisor already carries it. Any replacement has to match all four or it loses on merit, not on resistance to change.
| Paper wins on | Digital must match | Digital adds |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Under a minute for a full crew | Totals that need no retyping |
| No connectivity | Offline entry, sync later | A record that survives a lost notebook |
| No training | One screen, tap to mark present | Cost per BOQ line, automatically |
| Always to hand | The phone already in the pocket | Photos and notes on the same entry |
The entry that works
- 1
Crew list preloaded
The supervisor opens the project and sees their crew, not a company-wide directory. Marking present is a tap per person, and yesterday defaults forward.
- 2
Rate attached to the worker
Daily rate lives on the worker record, not in the supervisor head, so cost is derived and the supervisor never has to know a number that is not their business.
- 3
Optional line coding
Assign the crew to the BOQ line they worked. One extra tap that converts attendance into labour cost per line.
- 4
Offline first
The entry saves locally and syncs when signal returns. The supervisor never waits for a spinner at a site gate.
Do not add fields in month one. Every extra required field lowers compliance, and a complete record of four fields beats a patchy record of twelve.
What it unlocks
- Payroll from a total instead of a transcription, with the disputes visible before payday rather than after.
- Labour cost per BOQ line, which is what makes a rate variance explainable.
- Productivity you can actually compare: days per unit on the same line across two projects.
- An audit trail for overtime and site visits, dated at the time rather than reconstructed.
The productivity comparison is the sleeper benefit. After two projects you have real rates from your own sites, which makes the next estimate better than the market average you were borrowing.
Questions this raises
What about daily wage workers who change site mid-week?+
Attendance is recorded per project per day, so a worker moving between sites simply gets entries on each. The cost follows the project they actually worked.
Can supervisors edit an earlier day?+
They should be able to, with the edit recorded. Blocking corrections produces a clean-looking record that everyone knows is wrong.