The site meeting report has a common flaw: it is long, it arrives late, and nobody rereads it. Contractors hunt for their line, the client can't tell which parts concern them. When a disagreement comes up three months later, everyone produces their own version, and the document meant to be the reference was read by no one.
For a project manager coordinating several contractors on behalf of a private client, the report is the only document everyone has seen. It is worth keeping short, dated and usable.
A report should take two minutes to read
Keep the same layout from one meeting to the next. Contractors learn where to look, and you can compare week to week.
- Header: the site, the date, the place, who was present, who was absent or excused. Knowing who wasn't there matters as much as knowing who was.
- Progress by trade: one line per contractor, with what is done and what remains. No novel: "plumbing, supply to both bathrooms in place, drainage to finish".
- Decisions made: what was settled, by whom, and what it changes (price, timing, technical choice). This is the part people reopen in a dispute.
- Open points: each one has an owner and a date. A point with no name next to it stays open indefinitely.
- Snags: see below, they deserve their own tracking.
- Next meeting: the date, and what must be ready by then.
Write in the active voice and name people. "The slab sleeve should be checked" commits no one; "The electrician confirms the slab sleeve before Thursday" commits someone.
Who to send it to
To everyone present and every absent person concerned, without exception. An absentee who didn't receive the report can say they weren't aware, and they will be right.
Think of the client too. A private client doesn't speak the language of the site: put at the top, in three lines, what is expected of them (a decision, a choice of material, an answer to a question). The rest of the document they will read if they wish.
Not everyone needs to read everything. Flag for each contractor, at the head of their trade, the lines that concern them. If some information is sensitive (the client's financing, for instance), it has no place in a report circulated to every trade.
Tracking decisions and snags
A decision is noted with its date, the person who made it and its scope. If it changes the quote or the schedule, the report refers to it but does not replace it: the amended quote must be approved separately, see getting a client to approve a works variation.
For snags, keep a separate numbered list and don't bury it in the text. Each snag carries:
- its description and location, with a photo when the text is ambiguous;
- the contractor responsible for clearing it;
- the date it was found, then the date it was cleared;
- its status: open, cleared, disputed.
At each report, reproduce the full list with its current status. A snag that vanishes from the document without a "cleared" note has been forgotten or disputed, and you need to know which. When the client or the contractor says it is cleared, the date of that confirmation is worth more than a recollection.
When to circulate it
The same day or the next, while the exchanges are fresh. Beyond a few days everyone already has their own interpretation, and your report becomes one more dispute.
Also set a comment period: for example, "unless you reply before the next meeting, the report is considered read". Agree the wording with the contractors from the start, in the engagement letter or the contract that binds you to them. A comment is made in writing and attached to the report concerned, not in passing during a phone call.
Finally, don't let a report circulate in several versions. One version is authoritative, with a date: if you correct it, say what changed.
With Kolinea
If you coordinate several contractors for a private client, Kolinea covers part of these habits. The site is a shared folder: the client and each contractor enter through their own link, with no account. You publish the report in the folder, to all participants or only to the contractors you tick, and those who were absent find it in the same place as those who were present.
A participant with limited access reads only the items that name or mention them, what they wrote themselves and the milestones: the neighbouring trade's quote doesn't appear in their thread. Each open point can become a request with a recipient and a deadline, chased automatically before then after. Kolinea doesn't write the report for you: it keeps what you publish and what each person answers, with the date.
The project managers page describes a complete site folder, and participants and team details the access levels.