What actually counts as a field note
A field note is the written residue of being physically present. Roof pitch and square count. The rotted fascia behind the gutter. The customer saying they want it done before their daughter's wedding. The panel that turned out to be sixty amps, not a hundred. None of that exists anywhere in your system unless somebody writes it down while standing there.
The test is simple: could the office learn this from any other record? If the answer is yes — an invoice total, an appointment time, a signature — it is not a note, it is data that belongs in its own field. Notes carry the part of reality that has no field.
Why notes decay so fast
A note written in the driveway is specific. The same note written at nine that night is a summary. Written the next morning, it is a vague impression, and half the numbers are gone. Nothing about the job changed — the person's memory did.
This is the entire argument for capturing on site rather than at the office. It is not about typing speed. It is about capturing the version of the observation that still has detail in it.
What a useful note contains
- The specific thing observed, named plainly rather than described vaguely.
- Any number that will end up in an estimate: measurements, counts, sizes, ages.
- Anything the customer asked for or agreed to, in their words where possible.
- Conditions that change the price or the schedule: access, damage, code issues.
- What you told the customer would happen next.
What a note is not
- It is not a message — nobody is expected to reply to it.
- It is not a task — it does not assign work or carry a due date.
- It is not a document — it has no version, signature or file.
- It is not an audit record — it captures observation, not system change.