---
id: KB-CN-020
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/construction/the-one-supplying-materials-to-the-site
idioma: en
categoria: sector-construccion
subcategoria: materiales
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CN-018, KB-IU-014]
citadoPor: [KB-CN-021, KB-CN-022]
---

# The one supplying materials to the site

_You deliver a hundred consignments a month to twelve sites. Everyone remembers the lorry; nobody remembers the paperwork until the end._

**Responde a:** documentation accompanying construction materials · asked for certificates on deliveries from months ago · what paperwork goes with each consignment · contractor asking for material documentation

Your product reaches the site on a lorry, someone in a hurry unloads it and signs a delivery note. That moment is the only real contact between what you supply and whoever uses it — and **it is also the only moment when that consignment's documentation could have travelled with it at no cost**. It almost never does, which is why the same consignment comes back months later as an urgent request.

## The two lives of a delivery

| Moment | What changes hands | What is missing afterwards |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unloading | Material and delivery note | Everything else |
| The invoice | Amount and reference | The specific consignment |
| Weeks later | A phone call | Knowing which batch went to which site |
| **End of the project** | **One request for everything** | **Months of deliveries at once** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **What you will be asked for at the end is not «your documentation»: it is the documentation for ONE consignment delivered on ONE date to ONE site.** That difference is everything. A generic product certificate is found in a minute and does not answer the question; what answers it is knowing which batch left on 14 March for the site on such-and-such street. If that was not recorded when the lorry left, it cannot be deduced later.

## What changes the outcome, and happens at delivery

1. **Record which batch goes in each delivery** — One line on the delivery note beats the whole archive at the end.
2. **Attach the document to the delivery, not to the reference** — Same information, different questions answered.
3. **Keep the version current on that day** — Product sheets get updated and today's does not cover March.
4. **Know who on site it was handed to** — Whoever signed for the unloading is rarely whoever asks at the end.

> [!WARNING]
> The scenario repeated on every project: **the request does not arrive consignment by consignment, it arrives whole and with a deadline**. Someone is closing out the project documentation, discovers eight months of materials missing, and asks for all of it on the same day for Friday. Whoever recorded batches at delivery clears it in an afternoon; whoever did not spends a week reconstructing from delivery notes and memory, and hands over what they can evidence, which is almost never everything.

> [!NOTE]
> What documentation must accompany each type of construction product, who may require it and what declarations or markings apply **depends on the product and the country, and is settled by your adviser or the relevant body**. Here we cover what decides whether you can hand it over: what gets recorded at delivery and how a specific delivery's paperwork is found months later.

**Is the general product certificate not enough?**

To trade, yes; to evidence a consignment delivered on a date, no.

**Do I have to record batches for everything?**

For whatever you will be asked about. And you will be asked about what stays on site.

**What if they ask for everything at once at the end?**

That is the normal case. It is prepared at delivery, because at the end there is no time.

## Ejemplos

**At project close-out, eight months of delivery documentation is requested at once.**

- Keeps each document tied to its delivery and date

→ The handover is prepared in an afternoon rather than a week.

**Nobody knows which batch went to which site on 14 March.**

- Records batch, date and destination on every delivery

→ The question about a specific consignment has an answer.

**The product sheet is updated and the previous one disappears.**

- Stores versions with their dates instead of replacing them

→ What was delivered can be evidenced with what applied then.

**Twelve sites request the same documentation in different formats.**

- Serves every request from one file kept current

→ The work is not redone twelve times.

**Whoever signed for the unloading is not whoever chases at the end.**

- Records who each consignment was handed to on site

→ The chase is resolved without reconstructing who was there.

**The final request arrives with a deadline and nobody saw it coming.**

- Shows what documentation is missing before it is asked for

→ The gap closes without the site waiting.