Site instruction record template
Updated October 22, 2026
Fill this in on your iPhone, on site, with Sitewise.
Get the appA site instruction record is the written note of an instruction given on site: who gave it, who received it, what was asked, when, and whether anyone thinks it changes the work. Write it the same day. An instruction that exists only in two people's memories will be remembered two different ways by the time anyone has to pay for it.
Most instructions are spoken, and spoken ones are the problem
The formal kind arrives as a numbered document from the architect's office. Those are fine. The trouble is the other kind: "move that outlet to the other side of the door", said on a walk round, acted on that afternoon, and argued about at the final account.
Nobody is acting in bad faith. The person who gave it remembers a small tweak. The person who did it remembers a day of rework. Neither can prove anything, because nothing was written down.
A site instruction record turns the walk-round sentence into a document with a number, a date, two names and a photo, written while both people still remember it.
The fields worth having
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| SI number | Sequential across the job, never reused |
| Date and time given | When it was said, not when it was typed |
| Given by | Name, company and role |
| Given to | Name, company and role |
| How given | Verbally on site, by phone, by text, by marked-up drawing |
| Location | Level, room or grid, precise enough to walk to |
| Instruction | What has to be done, as an action, see below |
| Reason | One line, if one was given |
| Drawings affected | Numbers and revisions, or "none" |
| Change to the work | Yes, no, or disputed, see below |
| Photos | Before the work, and after if it is done the same day |
| Acknowledged | How and when the other party confirmed it |
That is twelve fields, and most entries fill them in under five minutes. The ones people skip are "How given" and "Acknowledged". Those are the two a dispute turns on.
Write the instruction as an action with a finish line
"Sort out the outlet by the door" is not an instruction anyone can close. "Relocate the double socket on the east wall of Room 2.14 from the left of the door to the right, same height, 300mm from the frame" can be done, checked and photographed.
Three tests for the wording. Could someone who was not there do it from this sentence alone? Can someone else tell when it is finished? Is there a measurement wherever a measurement would settle an argument?
Instructions to stop work need the same care. "Stop work on the parapet" leaves open which parapet, for how long, and what restarts it. "Stop work on the north parapet, grid 1 to 4, until the engineer has reviewed the fixing at the corner" has an end.
Say whether it changes the work, and leave the price out
The record should state whether the instruction is a change to the contract. One word is enough: yes, no, or disputed.
"Yes" means both sides agree the work was not in the original scope. "No" means it is the contractor doing what the drawings always showed. "Disputed" means they disagree, and writing that down on the day is far better than discovering it at the final account.
Leave the money out of this document. The price of a change is settled through the contract's own variation process, and a figure on the site instruction record mixes a fact with a negotiation. The record only has to establish what was asked, by whom and when.
Get it acknowledged the same day
Send the record to the other party before the end of the day, usually as a PDF by email, and file the reply with it.
"Received, will action tomorrow" is an acknowledgement. So is a reply disputing the scope. Silence is worth recording too: "Sent 16:40, no reply by 09:00 next day" tells a later reader something. Some standard contracts set out exactly how a verbal instruction gets confirmed and what happens if nobody objects within a set number of days. Find that clause in your contract before the job starts, not after the first argument.
A filled example, from a job that does not exist
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| SI number | SI-034 |
| Date and time given | October 22, 2026, 10:15 |
| Given by | A. Novak, project architect, Novak Studio |
| Given to | P. Reyes, electrical supervisor, Reyes Electrical |
| How given | Verbally, on the level 2 walk round |
| Location | Level 2, Room 2.14, east wall at the door |
| Instruction | Relocate the double socket from the left of the door to the right, same mounting height, 300mm from the frame. Make good the old position. |
| Reason | Door swing changed on drawing A-210 rev E |
| Drawings affected | A-210 rev E, E-201 rev B |
| Change to the work | Disputed: contractor says change, architect says shown on rev E |
| Photos | 3 before, socket and door marked up; after photos to follow |
| Acknowledged | Emailed 11:02, P. Reyes replied 11:40: "Will relocate tomorrow, cost to follow under the variation process" |
The "Disputed" line is the useful one. Both people know on day one that they disagree about who pays, the work goes ahead anyway, and when the variation is priced there is a dated document to argue from.
Keep a register of every instruction
Each record is one page. The register is one line per instruction: number, date, who gave it, a few words of description, change or not, and whether it is closed. A register of forty instructions shows a pattern a pile of forty pages hides, such as one trade receiving most of the instructions, or a run of them following one drawing revision.
The register also catches gaps. If SI-033 and SI-035 exist and nobody can find SI-034, that is worth knowing in week twelve, not at the final account.
Capturing it on site
Sitewise handles the capture on iPhone and iPad. You photograph the location and mark it up with a sketch, dictate the instruction as it was said, and the voice note transcribes on the device. Each capture carries its time and, with location on, a GPS pin, which settles "when was this said" without anyone's word for it. It works with no signal and syncs later. The record exports as a PDF or DOCX you can email before you leave the floor.
It does not run the variation process, price changes, or collect signatures, and there is no Android or web version. The acknowledgement comes back the ordinary way, by reply.
For the daily record the instruction sits inside, the site diary template and the daily construction report template cover the rest of the day.
Questions people ask
- What is a site instruction?
- It is a direction given on site by someone with authority over the work, such as the architect, engineer, contract administrator or main contractor, telling a contractor or subcontractor to do something, stop something or do it differently. Many are given verbally during a walk round. The site instruction record is the written version, made the same day, so the instruction still exists when somebody asks about it later.
- Who should write the site instruction record?
- Whoever gave it should issue it, because the authority sits with them. In practice the person who received it often writes it down first and sends it back for confirmation, which works as long as the record is sent the same day and the reply, or the lack of one, is filed with it. Some standard contracts set out how a verbal instruction gets confirmed in writing and how long the other side has to object, so check yours.
- Does a site instruction mean the contractor gets paid more?
- Not by itself. An instruction may or may not be a change to the contract, and the record should say which side thinks it is. The price, if there is one, is agreed through the contract's variation process. What the record does is fix the facts that process relies on: what was asked, by whom, on what date.
Related guides
- Site diary template
A site diary template for the record someone reads in a dispute: the header fields that settle a delay, one dated entry per day, and a filled example.
- Daily construction report template
A daily construction report template written for the delay claim that comes later: manpower counts, weather, work by area, delays with times, and an example.
Write this report on site, not in the truck.
Sitewise turns photos, voice notes, sketches, and typed observations into a PDF or DOCX before you leave. iPhone and iPad, iOS 26 or later.
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