Daywork sheet template (free) — and how to fill one in so you actually get paid

Most disputed dayworks aren't disputed because the work didn't happen. They're disputed because the sheet was thin.

No signature. No date. "Various works, 2 men, 8 hours." Six months later the QS is looking at that and asking what exactly two men did for eight hours, nobody can answer, and it doesn't get paid.

This page has a free daywork sheet you can print or download and use tomorrow, plus the bits that actually decide whether it gets paid.

What a daywork sheet is for

Daywork is how you get paid for work that can't sensibly be measured or priced in advance. Something turns up that isn't in the contract, isn't in the bill, and needs doing now — so you record the actual labour, plant and materials it took, and you get paid on that basis.

That's the whole point: it's paid on record, not on price. Which means the record is the thing. A weak record isn't a weak claim, it's no claim.

You'll hear it called a daywork sheet, a daywork record, a labour sheet or a variation record depending on who you work for. Same document.

When to use one — and when not to

Use a daywork sheet when:

• You've been instructed to do something outside the contract or the agreed scope
• The work can't be measured properly, or nobody can price it up front
• You're standing around because of someone else's problem and someone's told you to wait
• You've been asked to help another trade
• You're doing something out of sequence at someone else's request

Don't use one when: the work is measurable and priced. If it's in the bill, it goes through the normal valuation. Trying to daywork measurable work is the fastest way to get a sheet thrown back at you.

And the big one: you generally need an instruction before you start. Turning up at the end of the week with a sheet for work nobody asked for is a hard argument to win. If the instruction was verbal, write it down that day — who said it, when, and what they said.

What has to be on the sheet

This is the list that decides whether you get paid. Miss the ones in bold and you've got a problem.

Header:

• Date the work was done — the actual date, not the date you filled the sheet in
• Project name and address
• Your company name
• Sheet number — sequential, so nothing goes missing
• The instruction — who instructed it, when, and reference number if there is one

Labour:

• Each operative by name and trade — not "2 men"
• Hours worked, start and finish — not just a total
• Normal hours and overtime separated
• Hourly rate if your contract states one

Plant:

• Each item of plant, described properly
• Hours on site and hours actually working — these are different and it matters
• Whether it was hired in or your own

Materials:

• Quantity, description, unit
• Where they came from, and reference the delivery ticket
• Attach the ticket

The description:

• What was actually done, in plain specific language, with the location
• Not "various works." "Cut out and made good 4no. holes in blockwork, Level 3 Core B, for M&E penetrations following late services coordination."

Sign-off:

• Signature of the client's or main contractor's representative on site, on the day
• Their printed name and position
• Date signed

The signature is the whole ballgame

An unsigned daywork sheet is a piece of paper with your opinion on it.

Get it signed on the day, on site, by someone with the authority to sign it. Not next week. Not by whoever's nearest. The person who signs should be the site manager, the PM or the QS — someone whose signature the commercial team will accept.

If they won't sign, that isn't the end of it. Write on the sheet that it was presented and refused, note the date and who refused it, and send it in by email the same day so there's a timestamped record that they had it. A sheet they declined to sign but demonstrably received is far stronger than a sheet nobody ever saw.

Never leave site with an unsigned sheet in your pocket and no email sent.

Rates: know before you start

Most UK building contracts price daywork by reference to a published schedule of prime cost rather than leaving it open. In practice that means the labour cost is defined, and a percentage addition covers overheads and profit.

Find out which basis your contract uses, and what the percentage addition is, before you submit your first sheet. If you don't know, ask the QS in writing. Two minutes now saves an argument later, and their written answer becomes the thing you both work from.

The template

Here's the sheet. Print a pad of them and keep them in the van — the best daywork sheet is the one that gets filled in before you leave site.

Five reasons daywork sheets don't get paid

1. No signature. Covered above. It's the number one reason.
2. Vague description. "Various works" tells a QS nothing and invites him to pay nothing.
3. No instruction referenced. If nobody can point to who asked for it, it becomes a favour you did for free.
4. Filled in later. A sheet written on Friday for Monday's work reads as a reconstruction, because it is one. Contemporaneous means the same day.
5. No photos. Nothing kills an argument faster than a dated photo of the thing you're describing. Nothing loses one faster than not having it.

The photo is the bit most people miss

That last one is worth its own section, because it's the cheapest win on this page.

A signed sheet says two men spent eight hours cutting holes in blockwork. A signed sheet plus four dated, located photos of the blockwork before, during and after says the same thing in a way nobody can argue with. When a claim gets assessed six months later by someone who was never on site, the photos are what turn a description into a fact.

Take them. Before, during, after. Every time.

Where this gets easier

Full disclosure: I'm a working senior construction manager and I built an app called Site Pal, so I've got skin in this.

Site Pal doesn't sign your daywork sheet — it hasn't got digital signatures, so the sheet above still gets signed by hand or in whatever system your contractor uses. What it does is the evidence behind it.

Photograph the works and the AI writes the record — what the activity was, how many operatives, the conditions, with GPS, weather and a timestamp attached. Or start Walkthrough Mode, walk the area and talk through what happened; it turns into a dated PDF report you can attach straight to the sheet. It also keeps a commercial delays register against your uploaded programme, so if the daywork came out of a delay, the delay itself is recorded against the actual programme date.

The sheet gets you paid this month. The record is what wins the argument next year.

£19 a month, 14-day trial, no card. It runs in your browser — nothing to download.

If you want to see how the apps in this space compare on price and features, I've written an honest comparison of site diary apps for solo UK contractors.

This page is general guidance from one site manager to another, not legal or contractual advice. Your contract governs. If there's money in dispute, get proper commercial advice.

Changelog

• 6 August 2026 — first published