# The site logbook in Colombia: what to record and why it decides disputes > In Colombia the site logbook is mainly a contractual requirement. What to record, who signs and why it is the document that decides disputes at settlement. - Author: Carlos Pérez (Comandos) — CEO of Paladio - Published: 2026-09-02 - Original: https://usepaladio.com/en/blog/bitacora-de-obra-colombia/ - Site logbook --- The site logbook is the chronological record of the relevant events that occur during the execution of a construction contract: instructions, queries, incidents, conditions and anything that affects scope, schedule or cost. In Colombia its enforceability is mainly contractual, and that detail breeds an expensive misunderstanding: many treat it as an internal formality, when it is the document that decides most disputes at settlement — and by the time it is needed, it can no longer be built. > **Note:** logbook requirements vary by entity and by contract. Check the tender documents and the contract that apply to your project. ## What makes it enforceable Three sources, worth reviewing at the start of every contract: **The tender documents and the contract.** They usually establish the obligation, the format and who signs. **The entity's supervision and interventoría manual.** Every public entity has its own, and the detail of what gets recorded and how often usually lives there. **The interventoría's own obligations.** Since the interventoría answers for its follow-up, its own interest drives it to demand records. An interventoría that cannot prove what it did is exposed. On private projects the logbook exists if the contract provides for it. Without the clause it does not exist, and when a dispute appears neither party has anything to sustain its version. ## What to record The criterion that sums it all up: **if it affects scope, schedule or cost, it goes in the logbook.** Concretely: - Weather conditions and effective working hours - Personnel and equipment on site - Work fronts handed over and received, with dates - Instructions from the interventoría or supervision, and from whom - The contractor's queries and their answers - Suspensions and their causes - Findings and conditions different from those foreseen - Tests and quality-control results - Safety incidents - Visits by the entity, authorities or third parties - Materials received, and shortages that stopped work And what almost nobody records, which is worth the most: **what the counterparty did not do.** The front that was not handed over, the design that did not arrive, the answer that was not given. That is exactly the record that sustains an extension or a higher amount. ## The four mistakes **Recording only your own side.** The contractor logs its progress diligently and systematically omits the counterparty's breaches. Later there is nothing to claim with. **Recording with emotional charge.** A record full of reproaches reads as a partial version. Neutral description is more credible and more effective. **Recording days later.** An entry with a slipped date loses most of its value. **Recording without the measured effect.** "The front was not handed over" is half of it. The other half is how many man-hours stood idle and which activities were pushed. ## Why it decides the settlement The settlement of a works contract is where the accounts are squared: pending quantities, higher amounts, extensions, penalties, balances either way. It is a conversation resolved with documents. And a familiar pattern appears. During the project the relationship works, nobody wants to over-document, everything is resolved by talking. At settlement the frame changes: the parties are no longer building together, they are closing numbers. What is remembered is useless. What is written is not. **The contractor who arrives at settlement with a complete logbook, with contemporaneous record of every event that affected it, negotiates from another position.** Not by being aggressive — by being able to prove what it says. ## How to keep it well **Record the same day.** It is the only rule that matters. Everything else is format. **Get the interventoría to sign often.** A logbook without the counterparty's conformity is a unilateral record. With frequent signatures, it is a bilateral instrument. **Keep continuity.** An uninterrupted daily series is credible. A lone entry about the disputed event raises the suspicion of having been made for the occasion. **Keep it findable.** A logbook nobody can locate when needed is a logbook that does not exist. It is one of the strongest arguments for the digital format. ## Frequently asked questions **Can the logbook be digital?** Yes, if the contract or the entity's manual does not require a physical format. What matters is that the date is verifiable, that it cannot be altered without a trace, and that authorship is attributable. An editable file in a shared folder meets none of the three. **Who must sign each entry?** At minimum, whoever makes it. The interventoría's or supervision's conformity on the relevant entries is what gives it a bilateral character, and what later avoids the argument over whether the event happened. **What weight does the logbook carry in a dispute?** In general, that of a contractual document between the parties. Its strength depends on the continuity of the record, how contemporaneous the entries are and the counterparty's conformity. It is not full proof by itself; in practice, it is the most consulted document. **How long must it be kept?** For the whole period of contractual liability, warranty and structural stability, which can extend several years past settlement. **Is the logbook useful if the interventoría never signs it?** Less useful — and the missing signature is itself a recordable fact. Leave record of the unanswered signature requests: it turns a weakness into a documented precedent.