ACTA DIURNA

ACTA DIURNA

HEAD OFFICE TIME RECORDED DAILY SET IN STONE

Acta Diurna records how head office staff divide their working day between projects. The record is kept daily, is never overwritten, and is confirmed each month, so that the share of head office costs attributed to a project can be substantiated.

In use in-house · Pilot places available

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How it works

  1. I

    A daily entry

    Each morning, staff record how the previous working day was divided between projects, in steps of 10%. It takes less than a minute, prompted by an email reminder.

  2. II

    Corrections, never overwrites

    A change is recorded alongside the original entry, which remains on record with its date and time.

  3. III

    Monthly confirmation

    Each person reviews the month and confirms it as a true account of how their time was spent.

  4. IV

    Evidence when needed

    For any period, the complete record is produced with its correction history, in a form an independent expert can verify and reproduce.

The evidence pack

For any period, a single download contains:

  • A PDF summary of each person’s share of head office time by project, and the share for all persons together.
  • An Excel workbook in which every figure is a formula over the daily records.
  • The complete record, every entry and every correction, in CSV.
  • A short script with which anyone can recheck the fingerprint of every entry, without access to Acta Diurna.

Each download carries a reference number and is logged.

For whom

  • Contractors whose head office overheads may need to be recovered on delayed or disrupted projects.
  • Directors, managers and head office staff, who keep the record.
  • Finance teams allocating overheads to projects.
  • The experts and lawyers who rely on the record in claims and disputes.

Why a daily record

Head office overheads are often claimed on the basis of formulae or estimates prepared long after the event. A record made at the time, by the people whose time it describes, carries more weight than a reconstruction.

Acta Diurna is designed to make that record simple to keep and difficult to dispute.

What it does not do

  • It is not a timesheet. It records shares of the time worked, not hours.
  • It holds no salaries or costs. Shares are unweighted; any weighting is for the expert, applied to the records provided.
  • It is not a performance measure. It records where time went, not how well it was used.

Data and security

  • Data is stored in the European Union (Ireland).
  • Each company’s record is kept separate. No company can see another’s.
  • Staff sign in with a one-time code sent to their work email. There are no passwords.
  • Entries, corrections and confirmations cannot be altered or deleted. The database itself refuses.
  • Each entry carries a fingerprint linked to the one before it, so any later alteration would be evident.
  • Only the name, work email and time zone of each person are held, together with their entries.

Questions

How long does it take each day?
Less than a minute. Round figures are sufficient.
What if someone forgets a day?
It can be recorded later. The record shows when each day was recorded, so timeliness is visible.
Who can see a person’s record?
The person, and those the company designates, such as its finance team or its expert. Not other colleagues.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in the phone’s browser. It can be added to the home screen and opened like an app.
What does it cost?
Pilot terms are available on request.