---
id: KB-CN-021
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/construction/the-one-who-takes-delivery-and-installs-it
idioma: en
categoria: sector-construccion
subcategoria: albanileria
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CN-020, KB-CN-019]
citadoPor: [KB-CN-023, KB-CN-024, KB-CN-030]
---

# The one who takes delivery and installs it

_You sign a delivery note at seven in the morning with the lorry double-parked. That slip is all that will remain of the consignment._

**Responde a:** what to check when taking delivery on site · site delivery notes and material certificates · asked for documentation on material i installed · how to record what was installed where

You are the one on site when the lorry arrives, the one who decides whether it gets unloaded and the one who installs it. **Yours is the only position that physically sees the material**, and it is also the one with least time to look at it: there is a lorry waiting, a crew standing idle and an unloading to sort out now. The site's entire documentary system rests on a minute that nobody has.

## What gets decided at unloading without anyone calling it a decision

| What happens | What it means | Cost of fixing it later |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The note is signed | Whatever arrived is accepted | Hard: it is already unloaded |
| No documentation arrives | It is installed anyway | High: it must be chased from the supplier |
| A different reference arrives | It may serve or it may not | Very high once it is installed |
| **Where it went is not recorded** | **Nobody will know later** | **It cannot be reconstructed** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Recording where each thing was installed is worth more than any certificate, and it is the only thing only you can do.** The supplier can reissue a document; the site manager can ask for it again; nobody can know, six months on, whether those panels went on the north façade or the inner courtyard. That information exists only on the day it is installed, in the head of whoever installed it.

## The minimum, and it fits inside the unloading

1. **A photo of the delivery note as you sign it** — Before it gets wet, lost, or left in the site hut folder.
2. **What was unloaded and which area it is for** — Even one line. It is the data nobody else holds.
3. **If documentation is missing, say so the same day** — By tomorrow the supplier is on another site and another matter.
4. **And keep it somewhere that is not one phone** — The foreman's handset is not the site archive.

> [!WARNING]
> The real cost of this position is not paid at unloading, it is paid at certification: **when the site demands documentation for what you installed and all you hold are delivery notes**. That starts a negotiation where you are at a disadvantage, because the work is done, part-paid and covered by other trades. What takes thirty seconds on delivery day becomes weeks of email once the material sits behind a wall.

> [!NOTE]
> What must be checked on receiving materials, what documentation should be required for each delivery and who answers for what is installed **is settled by each project's supervising team and your adviser**, and changes with the type of work. Here we cover the practical part: what to record in the minute available and how not to lose it between the site hut and the office.

**Can I refuse to unload if no documentation arrives?**

Your contract and the site supervision decide that. What you can always do is put it on record.

**Is a photo of the delivery note enough?**

It is worth far more than the original, because the original gets lost.

**What if the material goes to several areas?**

Record the split. That is precisely the case nobody remembers later.

## Ejemplos

**The delivery note is signed in a rush and ends up soaked in the site hut.**

- Captures the document from a phone at the moment of signing

→ The paper stops being the only copy.

**Six months later nobody knows which material went to which area.**

- Records what was unloaded and where it was installed

→ The question is answered from the record, not from memory.

**A consignment arrives with no documentation and is installed anyway.**

- Puts on record what is missing the same day

→ The claim to the supplier goes out while it is still easy.

**The site demands documentation for what was installed months ago.**

- Keeps each delivery with its date and destination

→ You answer without negotiating over work already covered up.

**Everything is on the foreman's phone and he is off that day.**

- Stores what was captured in the project file

→ The information stops depending on one person.

**A different reference to the one ordered arrives and is unloaded anyway.**

- Records the discrepancy at the moment of receipt

→ It is resolved before it is hidden from view.