Subcontractor Daily Report Template (Free)

If you're a subcontractor, the daily report isn't the general contractor's paperwork — it's your protection. It's the record that proves your crew showed up, how many hours they worked, and every time someone else's delay left them standing around. When the GC questions your invoice or a project slides into a dispute, your daily reports are what get you paid. This guide gives you a free subcontractor daily report template and explains the fields that matter most for a sub.

Why subs need their own daily report

General contractors keep a master daily log, but it's written from their perspective — and it won't always capture the delay that cost you two crew-hours. Your own report does three things the GC's won't:

It documents your hours independently, so a billing dispute comes down to your record versus theirs — not their word alone. It captures delays caused by others: the GC, another trade, a late delivery, a missing inspection. And it backs up your pay applications with a day-by-day account of exactly what your crew did.

The subcontractor daily report template

Header: your company, the project, GC name, date, day, and who prepared it.

Your crew: every worker on site by name or ID, trade, and hours. This is your labour record — keep it accurate.

Work performed: what your crew completed, tied to specific areas or work packages. Be specific enough that it maps to your scope and your pay app.

Materials & equipment: what you supplied, delivered, or used.

Delays & disruptions caused by others: the most important field for a sub. Log the time, the cause, who caused it, and the impact on your crew — "8:00–10:30, our 4-man crew idle awaiting GC layout, grid C." Every one of these is a potential backcharge or claim.

Instructions received: any verbal direction, change, or extra work the GC asked for. Verbal change orders you documented the same day are far easier to get paid for.

Photos: your work, your deliveries, and the conditions behind any delay.

Signature.

The fields that protect your money

Two sections earn their place every day. The delay/disruption log turns "we lost time" into a dated, timed, attributable record — the difference between eating the cost and backcharging it. And the instructions received log captures extra work before it becomes a "you never told us to do that" argument. Subs who document these two things consistently get paid for far more of what they actually do.

Filing it right

Give a copy to the GC daily and keep your own. Same-day filing matters: a report written the day it happened carries weight; one reconstructed at invoice time looks like you're building a case after the fact. Consistency matters just as much — daily reports every day, not only on bad days.

A faster way for busy subs

Subs are stretched thin, and a daily report done by hand at the end of a long day is the first thing to slide. The fix is to make it fast enough to finish before you leave the site.

BuildLog is built for that. Log your crew and hours in seconds, capture a delay with a timestamp and photo the moment it happens, note any verbal instruction on the spot, and export a branded PDF to send the GC before you're off site. It works fully offline and keeps every report in one place so your pay applications are backed by a clean record. There's a free tier, so protecting your hours costs nothing to start.

Frequently asked questions

Should subcontractors keep their own daily reports? Yes. Relying only on the GC's log leaves your hours and delays undocumented from your perspective. Your own daily report is your independent record for billing and disputes.

What's the most important field for a subcontractor? The delay/disruption log — time, cause, responsible party, and impact on your crew. It's what turns lost time into a defensible backcharge or claim.

How do I document a verbal change from the GC? Record it the same day in an "instructions received" section with the time, who gave it, and what was asked. A same-day note is far stronger than a later recollection.

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