SiteBooks: one construction record, from the BOQ to the payment

The records exist. They do not agree.

The bill of quantities is in a spreadsheet. Orders and delivery notes live somewhere else. The foreman has the attendance list and photographs on a phone. The contractor knows work has been done, but producing the evidence for a progress claim means assembling it all again.

SiteBooks is the construction product I build around that gap. Operated by Mjengo Technologies LTD and in production since 2022, it now connects six modules: projects and programme, BOQ and cost control, site diary and photos, casual payroll, procurement and deliveries, and valuations and invoicing.

The contractor gets a working record across their sites. The homeowner, including someone funding a build from abroad, gets a permissioned view of the same job. Their evidence comes from the work being recorded, rather than a separate report prepared when they ask.

Start with the bill you agreed

The BOQ describes the quantities, units and rates that priced the work. It becomes the structure for tracking what has been committed, what has been spent and what remains.

Material orders, wages and supplier bills need to land against that structure. Otherwise the budget is just another spreadsheet to reconcile at the end of the month.

A changed quantity or rate also needs a record. Variations stay connected to the original bill and to the approval behind the change, so an extra cost can be explained rather than appearing as a surprise in a total.

Programme and evidence belong together

A programme says which work follows which, what is due and what a delay puts at risk. The site diary records what actually happened: the work, attendance, weather, instructions and dated photographs.

Those photos are useful when they can be found against the activity they evidence. The same applies to a defect: record it, assign it and keep the evidence of its resolution with the job.

The capture side has to suit the person standing on site. That means a phone, a short update and uploads that queue when the signal drops. A progress record that requires a good connection at the right moment will always have gaps.

Buying something is not the same as receiving it

Procurement connects the requisition, approved order, delivery note and supplier bill. Each step answers a different question: did we need it, did someone authorise it, did it arrive, and is this the amount we should pay?

A short delivery needs to be visible when the material reaches the gate. The person checking a bill later should be able to see what was ordered and what was received, without reconstructing the story from messages.

The muster roll becomes payroll

Casual labour is a daily attendance problem before it is a payment problem. SiteBooks prices the recorded days at each worker’s agreed rate, lets the contractor review and approve the run, and disburses wages to mobile money or bank accounts.

The labour cost belongs against the job’s cost lines. A successful payout is not the end of the record; the budget still needs to show what that labour cost and who approved it.

Claim for work you can show

A valuation starts from recorded progress against the BOQ. The quantities and evidence supporting the claim should already exist when the contractor asks to be paid.

Approved claims can become invoices, with receipts and adjustments kept alongside them. Budget and progress reports then describe the same job from different angles, rather than asking someone to make two spreadsheets agree.

One record, different responsibilities

A foreman, a contractor and a homeowner need different access. Recording a day’s work is different from changing a rate or approving money to leave. Permissions and an audit trail keep those responsibilities visible without turning them into separate records of the project.

That is the engineering constraint I would protect: capture the evidence once, connect it to the cost, and show each person the part they need to act on. It makes the product useful to a contractor running several local sites as well as a homeowner following one build from another country.

Explore SiteBooks to see the connected workflow. If you are building software for work that happens away from a desk, send me a brief.