Guide · Reporting

What is a manpower report in construction?

A manpower report is a daily record of how many workers each company had on a project, by trade or craft, and the hours they worked, usually with the work they were doing. General contractors and owners ask subcontractors for it to compare staffing with the schedule. It lists counts and hours, not wages, which separates it from certified payroll.

Last updated October 29, 2026By ZeroBadge

What is a manpower report?

A manpower report is a short daily record of who was on the job: how many people, in which trade or craft, for how many hours, doing what. It is often one section of a larger daily report. It answers a staffing question the schedule cannot: were enough people here today to do the work planned for today?

Owners publish their own forms. One example is a university owner's contractor quality control daily report, which lists for each activity the contractor or subcontractor, the equipment, the trade or craft, the number of workers and the total hours worked, and then totals the day's hours across every craft (University of Washington, CPD Form 01 45 00). It has no column for a worker's name or wage rate.

Your contract or the project specifications say whether you owe one and in what format. The words differ from job to job: manpower report, labor report, daily log, crew count. Read the general conditions before you assume it is optional.

Who asks for a manpower report and what do they do with it?

The general contractor or construction manager asks most often, and the owner and sometimes a lender read it. Each uses it to answer a different question, and knowing which one is asking tells you how much detail the report needs.

Who reads the daily manpower report and why
Reader	Question it answers	What they look for
General contractor or superintendent	Is each sub staffed for today's work, and is the look-ahead realistic?	Counts by trade against the schedule, and a sub that is short
Owner or owner's representative	Is the contractor putting the labor on the job it said it would?	Total hours, trends week over week
Your own project manager	Is the labor on this job tracking the estimate?	Hours by code and by day, behind the report
Anyone reconstructing a delay later	What was the staffing on a given date?	A dated, signed record that was written at the time

The last row is why a report written on the day carries more weight than one rebuilt weeks later from memory.

What fields does a manpower report carry?

At minimum it carries the date, the project and area, the company, the trade or craft, the number of workers and the hours worked. Forms add the activity, equipment and a signature. Most of these are already in your timesheet record, which is what makes the report a copy job and not a second data entry.

Typical fields and where a subcontractor gets each one
Field	Why it is asked	Where it comes from in your records
Date and project	To tie the report to the schedule	The day's timesheets, filtered to the jobsite
Company and tier	To separate subs and their sub-tiers	Your own roster
Trade or craft	To compare against the look-ahead by trade	Worker classification: foreman, journeyman, apprentice
Number of workers	Headcount on this site today	Attendance by jobsite for the day
Hours worked	To total labor and compare to the estimate	On-site hours by jobsite from the timesheet
Work in progress	To tie the labor to an activity	The foreman's note or the cost code
Equipment	Some forms ask for it	Dispatch or the foreman
Notes and delays	To record weather, waiting and access issues	The foreman, written the same day
Signature	To make the report a record someone stands behind	The foreman or superintendent

Do you report headcount or hours?

Report both, counted per jobsite, and write down how you count a worker who moved. A headcount says how many people were present, hours say how much work they gave this site, and neither alone describes the day. The trap is the worker who splits a day between two sites: he is present at both, so site lines add up to more people than you employ.

A mechanical subcontractor's Tuesday on two sites, Site A by trade (illustrative)
Trade or craft	People at Site A	Hours at Site A
Foreman	1	8.5
Journeyman (4 all day, 1 who left for Site B after 5.0 h)	5	39.0
Apprentice	2	17.0
Site A total	8	64.5

Reconciling two site reports to the paid shift (illustrative)

Site A, from the table above: 8 people, 64.5 h
Site B: one journeyman all day (8.5 h), the one who moved (3.0 h), one apprentice (8.5 h): 3 people, 20.0 h
Site lines added together: 11 people, 84.5 h
Drive between sites, belonging to neither site: 0.5 h
Roster for the day: 1 foreman, 6 journeymen, 3 apprentices: 10 people
Paid shift: 10 workers × 8.5 h: 85.0 h
Hours: 84.5 + 0.5 = 85.0. People: 11 lines, 10 workers: One person counted at both sites

The 11 is correct for each site's report and the 10 is correct for your payroll. Put a footnote on the report so nobody reads the difference as an error.

Some forms ask for full-time equivalents instead, which is hours divided by the length of a full day. Site A's 64.5 hours is 7.6 equivalents at 8.5 hours and 8.1 at 8.0. Ask which day length the GC means before you divide.

How is a daily manpower report different from weekly and certified payroll reports?

The daily report is a staffing count, the weekly summary rolls the same counts up to hours, and certified payroll is a wage record that names each worker. They answer different questions and are produced for different readers, so one does not replace another.

Three reports that sound alike
	Daily manpower report	Weekly manpower summary	Certified payroll
Cadence	Every working day	Once a week	Every week on covered work
Lists	Headcount and hours by trade	Hours by trade and day, headcount trend	Each worker by name, classification, daily and weekly hours, rates and deductions
Names workers?	No	No	Yes, with a partial identifier
Wages?	No	No	Yes
Required by	Your contract or the owner's spec	Your contract or the GC	Federal or federally assisted construction contracts under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
Signed	Usually by the foreman or superintendent	Usually the project manager	A Statement of Compliance accompanies each one

The DOL describes certified payroll, and WH-347 as an optional form for it, on its WH-347 page. For public works see certified payroll explained.

How does a subcontractor produce a manpower report without double entry?

Take the counts and hours from the same record that feeds payroll, check them against the foreman's own count, and send the report at the same time each day. A manpower report that is typed from a separate notebook is the version that disagrees with the timesheet at the end of the week.

1
Decide the cutoff
A report due at 3:00 PM needs a record that is current at 3:00 PM. A record that only completes after the shift cannot feed it.
2
Pull counts and hours by jobsite
Per trade, per site. Use on-site hours, and show drive time separately so it does not inflate either site.
3
Have the foreman compare it with his own count
Differences of one head are normal. A difference of three means a worker is on the wrong site in the record or the foreman has someone not in it.
4
Sign and send it
Same format, same time. A report that arrives at a different hour every day gets read at a different quality.
5
Keep a copy with the week's records
You will want it when the week is approved and, occasionally, a year later.

What makes a manpower report wrong?

Common errors and the fix
Error	What it does	Fix
Counting the scheduled crew, not the present crew	Overstates labor on days people are out	Count from attendance, not the schedule
Counting a worker once when he split a day	Understates each site's staffing	Count him at each site he worked, with the hours he gave it
Folding drive time into a site	Inflates one site's hours	Show transit separately or by your stated rule
Mixing in sub-tier labor	Double counts people the GC also counts	Report your own crew and your sub-tiers on separate lines
Rounding every worker to eight hours	Hides short days and overtime	Report the recorded hours
Writing it from memory the next morning	Weakens it as a record	Send it the same day from the record

How ZeroBadge handles this

ZeroBadge supplies the counts and hours: every minute of a shift is classified on site, in transit or other and allocated to a jobsite, so attendance and on-site hours by jobsite come from the shift record and not from a separate notebook. A worker who moves is counted at each site with the hours given to it, and transit shows on its own line. ZeroBadge does not fill in a GC's form. You copy the counts onto the form the project requires. See jobsite attendance tracking.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a manpower report and certified payroll?

A manpower report counts workers and hours by trade, daily, for staffing. Certified payroll is a weekly wage record for covered public works that names each worker, with classification, hours, rates and deductions, and a signed Statement of Compliance (DOL WH-347 page).

Is a manpower report the same as a daily report?

Not exactly. The manpower report is usually one section of a daily report, which also covers work in progress, inspections, tests and weather. Some owners' forms combine them, as in the University of Washington example, and some GCs ask for the labor count alone.

Do I count a worker who was on site for one hour?

Count anyone who was present on that site, with the hours they gave it, unless your contract says otherwise. Hours make a short visit visible, so the count does not overstate the labor.

Who has to submit a manpower report?

Your contract or the project specifications decide. General contractors commonly require it from subcontractors, and owners can require it from the prime. Read the general conditions and the daily reporting section of the spec.

How should a worker who splits a day between two sites be reported?

At both sites, with the hours worked at each. The site reports will add up to one more person than you employ, which is correct. Add a footnote so the difference is not read as an error.

Sources

1.Contractor Quality Control Daily Report, CPD Form 01 45 00 (rev. 07/05/17) · University of Washington, Capital Planning and Development
2.Form WH-347, Payroll (For Contractor's Optional Use) · U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division