Recording site instructions given and received: the same-day entry for both directions
You clearly remember telling the drywall foreman not to cover the ceiling. The next shift remembers only an inspection discussion. No record connects the direction, the area, the recipient or the later confirmation.
Keep one instruction register for directions you give as well as those you receive. Record each relevant instruction promptly with its time, sender, recipient, subject, location, words or sketch, and response. Give it a sequential reference and link its confirmation. The register records communication; it does not give the speaker technical or commercial authority they did not have.
Record both sides of the direction
- Capture the instruction event. State when and how it was given, who spoke to whom and who else heard it. Quote only wording accurately retained; label a summary or recollection. Reference a sketch, email or document rather than copying fragments that could omit an important limit.
- Locate and check the meaning. Identify the area, task, current drawing revision and intended action. Note questions or uncertainties and the answer received. For a direction you give, ask the recipient to explain the affected task and stopping point back to you; record an unresolved misunderstanding for follow-up.
- Record action and authority status. Write what actually happened and when. Separate received, clarified, authorized, acted on and awaiting confirmation under your chosen register convention. If authority or technical acceptability is uncertain, route the issue to the appropriate person; urgent safety action follows the site's process without waiting for clerical completion.
- Close or carry forward. Link the formal confirmation and any superseding instruction. Keep the original entry and explain the change. Reference open directions in the daily report or shift note so a new foreman can find them, and verify the current status before assigning affected work.
Use the register for retrieval, rather than making it a second unconnected instruction system. A crew should know where the current authorized direction lives. Record that source and its revision, then keep older entries as history. A number in the register helps identify the event but does not prove every recipient understood it or followed it.
Common mistakes
- Recording only instructions received and none you issued.
- Turning a remembered summary into a verbatim quotation.
- Leaving a superseded direction in circulation without identifying the current record.
Checklist
Complete the instruction entry
- Sequential reference and event time.
- Sender, recipient, channel and witnesses.
- Words or linked sketch, with location and revision.
- Response, actual action and confirmation status.
- Current direction and later changes linked.
Check your understanding
Does an instruction number establish the speaker's change authority?
