Published on · by Redazione CantiVera · 1 min read
Declared versus actual: why a progress report is not enough
The progress report says what you promised. The hours say what happened. The margin lives in the gap.
Every progress report is a declaration: this item is at 55%. In most contract businesses that percentage is born the night before the meeting, from a spreadsheet and the site manager’s memory.
The report is not the problem
A progress report is useful and often mandatory. The problem is that it lives alone: nobody compares it with the hours actually worked on that item.
When the two numbers diverge, you find out at commissioning or at final accounts. By then the difference has already left your margin.
What changes when hours attach to items
- Every recorded hour belongs to a report item or a plan task.
- For every item you see the declared percentage next to the hours spent.
- The slipping item surfaces while there is still time to act.
You do not need to change how you write the report. You need to put it next to the data you already produce.