When you record people and equipment working on your site, allocating their hours against specific activities provides critical visibility into how resources are being utilised. This practice enables you to:
Track actual costs for both people and equipment against budgeted estimates
Identify productivity trends and areas for improvement
Create accurate records for client billing and cost verification
Forecast resource needs for upcoming work phases
Demonstrate compliance with contractual requirements
Generate meaningful reports on crew efficiency and project progress
Monitor equipment utilisation and operating costs
By capturing this data consistently each day, you build a reliable foundation for project controls and informed decision-making.
Your Shift Record is more than just a daily log; it's a legal record and a critical project document. Accurate hours allocation transforms your Shift Record from a simple narrative into a powerful project management tool by:
Creating defensible documentation for claims, disputes, or audits
Linking labour hours to specific work activities, not just generic daily totals
Enabling cost-to-complete analysis by comparing planned vs. actual hours
Supporting payroll verification and labour compliance reporting
Providing granular data that can be aggregated for executive reporting
Without proper hours allocation, you lose the connection between work performed and resources consumed, making it difficult to understand true project performance.
When recording your daily Shift Record, there are two primary methods for allocating hours to activities. It's essential to understand that activity duration and resource hours are two different measurements.
Activity duration measures how long the activity itself progressed today: the span of time during which work on that activity took place.
Resource hours measure the total time each person or piece of equipment spent working on that activity.
These are not always the same. The resources required to deliver an activity might work for longer (or shorter) than the activity's duration itself.
In this approach, you record how many hours each person or piece of equipment worked on an activity, independently from how long the activity itself progressed that day.
How it works:
You record which people and equipment worked on an activity today
For each resource, you specify exactly how many hours they spent on that activity
These hours are recorded separately from the activity's duration or progress
Example:
Activity: Install precast concrete panels
Activity duration: 4 hours (actual installation time)
Resources and hours:
Crane operator: 6 hours (includes setup and demobilisation)
2 installers: 5 hours each (includes preparation and cleanup)
Crane: 6 hours
Total resource hours: 22 hours for a 4-hour activity
This method captures the reality that setup, cleanup, and different levels of involvement mean resource hours often differ from activity duration.
In this approach, hours are calculated automatically based on how long the activity ran and which resources were assigned to it.
How it works:
You assign people and equipment to an activity
You record how long the activity ran today (the duration)
The system calculates hours for each resource based on that duration—everyone gets the same hours
Example:
Activity: Frame interior walls
Activity duration: 6 hours
Assigned resources:
2 carpenters
1 labourer
1 nail gun
Calculated hours: Each person and piece of equipment automatically gets 6 hours allocated
This method assumes all resources work for exactly the same duration as the activity itself.
Gather uses Option A: independent hours allocation.
You record how many hours each person or piece of equipment worked on an activity, separately from the activity's duration.
We recognise that in real-world construction:
Setup and pack-down time often extends beyond the core activity
Resources have different levels of involvement throughout the day
Equipment may operate for different durations than labour
Supervision and support may be partial or intermittent
Accurate cost tracking requires knowing exactly how long each resource worked
By keeping these measurements separate, Gather gives you:
Accurate progress measurement through activity durations
Precise cost tracking through individual resource hours
True productivity analysis by comparing the two
Flexible recording that matches how work actually happens on site
When completing your daily Shift Record in Gather:
Record the activity duration: how long did you work on this activity progress today?
Allocate resource hours: for each person and piece of equipment, how many hours did they spend on this activity?
The totals may differ: and that's exactly as it should be
Best Practices:
Record both measurements accurately: don't assume they're the same
Include all resource time: setup, breaks, cleanup, travel between activities
Be specific with partial allocations: if someone worked 2 hours on one activity and 6 on another, record both
Account for equipment separately: machinery often runs different hours than operators
Review before submitting: check that the total hours for each person match their working day
Q: Should resource hours always be more than activity duration?
Not necessarily. Sometimes they're equal, sometimes more, occasionally less (if someone only supervised part of an activity). Record what actually happened.
Q: What if I have 10 people on one activity; do I enter hours for each?
Yes. This gives you accurate cost data and shows exactly who worked on what. Gather makes this quick and straightforward using our mass allocation function.
Q: Can equipment hours differ from the operator's hours?
Absolutely. An excavator might run for 6 hours whilst the operator works an 8-hour day (breaks, paperwork, etc.). Record both accurately.
If you have questions about recording hours in Gather or want guidance on best practices for your specific project type, contact our support team.
