The site logbook and service orders in Argentina: the record that decides arguments
Last reviewed: Regulations change: the text is checked against the official source at each review.
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.
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