# The site logbook and service orders in Argentina: the record that decides arguments > In Argentina the site record is built from the inspection's service orders and the contractor's request notes. How the circuit works and why it decides disputes. - Author: Felipe Arancibia — Sr. Product Designer - Published: 2026-09-02 - Original: https://usepaladio.com/en/blog/libro-de-obra-argentina/ - Site logbook --- The site logbook is the record where the relevant events of a construction contract's execution are entered. In Argentine practice, especially on public works, the record is usually structured in two complementary instruments: the service orders (órdenes de servicio) issued by the works inspection, and the request notes (notas de pedido) issued by the contractor. That back-and-forth circuit is what distinguishes it from a simple diary: it is not a notebook where one writes what one sees — it is a formal exchange between two parties, with effects. > **Note:** site-logbook requirements vary by jurisdiction, client and contract. Check the tender documents and the contract that apply. ## The circuit **Service order.** The inspection instructs, observes or requires something of the contractor. It is entered, numbered and notified. **Request note.** The contractor queries, requests, informs or leaves record of something before the inspection. Same treatment. **Answer.** Each instrument usually requires an answer or acknowledgement from the counterparty, with a deadline. What makes this scheme valuable is that **it forces things to be in writing with an identified author**. A verbal instruction that did not become a service order does not formally exist. A query not made through a request note does not either. ## The rule that is hardest to ignore Many contractors use request notes only when there is a conflict. It is a strategic mistake. **The request note is the tool with which your position is built throughout the whole project**, not the weapon drawn at the end. A contractor who queries by request note routinely — about a missing drawing, a front not handed over, an interference — arrives at the final discussion with a file. One who only writes when there is already a problem arrives with a claim and no backing. And there is a second-order effect: when the inspection knows everything will be entered, things get resolved sooner. ## What to enter The usual criterion: if it affects schedule, price or scope, it goes in the record. - Handover and receipt of work fronts, with dates - Pending or contradictory technical documentation - Instructions received, and from whom - Suspensions and their causes - Conditions different from those foreseen - Client-supplied materials that do not arrive - Interference from third parties hired by the client - Days lost to weather, with the condition recorded - Test results - Safety incidents And what almost nobody enters, which is worth the most at the end: **what the counterparty did not do, at the moment it did not do it.** ## Its connection to schedule and price In Argentina, this record does not only sustain schedule extensions. It also affects price. Under the price-redetermination regime, if a delay is attributable to the contractor, the settlement may be made at the prices corresponding to the date the works should have been completed. That is: **the cost of inflation during your own delay is absorbed by the contractor.** That turns the site record into an economic instrument, not only an administrative one. Every day of delay you can prove was not attributable to you is a day that does not move the price-settlement date against you. In contexts of significant inflation, that difference can far exceed the amount of any quantity dispute. ## The four mistakes **Entering late.** An entry with a slipped date loses most of its value. **Entering without the measured effect.** "The front was not handed over" is half of it. The other half is how many people stood idle and which activities were pushed. **Not answering service orders.** The contractor's silence before an instruction is usually read as conformity. If you disagree, enter it. **Using the record only in conflict.** Already explained — the most expensive strategic mistake. ## When there is disagreement It is not advisable to refuse to acknowledge a service order. What corresponds is **to acknowledge it while leaving express record of the disagreement**, with technical grounds and without emotional charge. The difference matters: refusing is usually read against you; recording the discrepancy leaves evidence that there were two positions and which one was yours. That record is exactly what later sustains a claim. ## Frequently asked questions **Can the site logbook be digital?** It depends on what the tender documents, the contract and the jurisdiction require. Where it is admitted, what matters is that the date is verifiable, the content cannot be altered without a trace and authorship is attributable. **What is the difference between a service order and a request note?** The direction. The service order goes from the inspection to the contractor; the request note, from the contractor to the inspection. Both are numbered, notified and usually require an answer. **How long do I have to answer a service order?** The tender documents or the contract set it. It is among the first things to locate at the start of the project, because silence has effects. **Is the site logbook useful on private projects?** It is, and there it exists only if the contract provides for it. Without the clause, neither party has anything to sustain its version when an argument appears. **How long must it be kept?** For the whole period of contractual liability and warranty, which on construction can extend several years past final acceptance.