1. Spreadsheets

Great for a quick running log. But the evidence (photos, dockets, emails) lives somewhere else, the dates are whatever someone typed — not verifiable — and entries can be backfilled or overwritten without a trace. Add a few copies floating around and nobody knows which version is right. At claim time you can't prove *when* an entry was actually made.

2. Email

A timestamped trail is genuinely useful — until you try to assemble a claim from it. Delay information ends up buried across threads, inboxes and people, attachments scatter, and there's no single timeline. Rebuilding the story means digging through months of mail and hoping nothing was deleted.

3. Shared drives (Dropbox / SharePoint / Google Drive)

Good for storing photos and documents. But a drive is a pile of files, not a record — nothing links a photo to the delay event, the cause, or the cost. Folder structures vary by person, and finding the one photo that proves your point three months later is slow and error-prone.

4. WhatsApp and group chats

Fast and in-the-moment, with photos as they happen — that part's good. But messages are unstructured and easy to lose, photos get stripped of their detail, nothing ties to a programme or a cost, and chats disappear when a phone is lost or someone leaves. A chat export is not a claim.

5. Pen and paper (and paper site diaries)

Captured on the spot, which matters. But paper isn't searchable, isn't backed up, and is easily lost, soaked or left in a ute. It's hard to share, and you can't quantify a cost from it. A photo of a notebook page is still not structured evidence.

What a delay claim actually needs

  • A single, chronological timeline of the delay
  • Every entry dated and time-stamped so it's verifiable
  • Cause, affected works and resources captured together
  • Photos and documents attached to the event — not scattered
  • The cost impact (idle plant, standing labour) quantified
  • Everything exportable in a form the head contractor accepts

See the delay records every subcontractor should keep and how to make a construction delay claim.

Where purpose-built records come in

The common thread above: every method works fine until you need to *prove* something. That's the gap DelaySolve fills — a structured delay record built as events happen, with cause, evidence, labour and plant on one dated timeline you can export. Start with the free DelaySolve tools, or see how DelaySolve keeps the whole record in one place.

FAQs

What's the best way for a subcontractor to record site delays?

One dated, chronological record where the cause, affected works, evidence and cost sit together and can be exported — not spread across a spreadsheet, inbox, drive and group chat.

Can I use a spreadsheet for delay claims?

You can log delays in a spreadsheet, but it won't prove *when* entries were made, and the supporting evidence lives elsewhere — both weaknesses a head contractor can challenge.

Are WhatsApp messages enough evidence for a delay claim?

Rarely on their own. They're useful in the moment, but they're unstructured, easily lost, and not tied to a programme or cost — so they need to be pulled into a proper record.

Why isn't a shared drive enough?

A drive stores files but doesn't connect them — nothing links a photo to the delay event, cause or cost, so it's slow to turn into a claim.