Facility Documentation Index Preparation Checklist

Walk the facility and write down every element that would have arrived with paperwork of its own, such as the surface, fencing, gates, lighting and anything with a power supply.

Starting from what is physically there produces a far more complete list than starting from what happens to be in the folder already.

Note the documents you have heard mentioned but never actually seen, and record who mentioned them.

These are usually the items that stayed with whoever placed the order, and they are recoverable while the conversation is still recent.

Ask the contractor which documents were produced for this facility and who each was issued to, whether or not it reached you.

What documentation a project is required to produce is established by the contractor, the relevant professionals and the local authority, not assumed by an owner.

Write down anything installed below ground or inside a structure, since the only record of it may be a drawing nobody thought to hand over.

Hidden elements are invisible until somebody proposes digging or opening up, at which point a missing drawing turns a straightforward job into a disruptive one.

Note the items brought in after the main works by somebody other than the original contractor, and where their paperwork went.

Later additions sit outside the handover pack almost every time, because nobody was assembling a pack by then.

Record which parts of the facility existed before this project, because their paperwork sits with whoever was running it at the time.

An index that begins at the most recent works quietly loses everything older, including things still very much in use.

Decide what each entry records — what the document is, what it covers, who produced it, what form it is in and where it is kept.

Entries written to different shapes cannot be scanned quickly, and an index nobody can scan is used once and then abandoned.

Write down which part of the facility each document relates to, rather than filing everything under the project as a whole.

Questions arrive about one gate, one pump or one surface, and an index organised by project cannot answer them.

Note whether an entry refers to an original or a copy, and where the original sits if it is not with you.

This becomes important the first occasion somebody asks to see an original, which is rarely the occasion you expect.

Record whatever date appears on the face of the document, and note plainly where a document carries no date at all.

An undated document is worth flagging as undated rather than being silently filed as though it were current.

Decide how the index shows an entry that is a placeholder for something you expect but do not yet hold.

A gap recorded as a gap keeps being chased, while a gap left blank simply disappears from view.

Keep the wording of each entry in plain language that somebody who has never seen the document would understand.

Entries written in the shorthand of whoever filed them stop working the moment that person is no longer available to translate.

Record where every document sits by naming the room, cupboard, account or folder rather than the person who deals with it.

Locations tied to a person move when that person does, and are lost entirely when they stop being involved.

Note which items exist in one place only, and decide deliberately whether you are content with that.

Most collections contain a handful of single copies that nobody has ever consciously accepted the risk of losing.

Write down who can reach each store, and what happens to that access when they step back from the facility.

Access arrangements are set up informally and almost never revisited, which is how a folder becomes unreachable without anybody noticing.

Note which documents sit in a personal mailbox or private folder rather than in a store the facility itself owns, and list each one as a gap to close.

Records held personally are outside the facility whatever anybody intends, and they leave with the individual.

Record which documents are held by somebody outside your organisation, such as a contractor, a landowner or the local authority, and how they would be asked for.

Where a record is held by an authority or a professional, ask them directly what they hold and how it is requested rather than relying on recollection.

Note where paper is being kept in conditions that will not preserve it, such as a damp store or an unheated outbuilding.

Instructions stored beside the equipment they describe are convenient right up until the point they are unreadable.

Agree a naming pattern before filing anything, since renaming a collection afterwards is a job nobody ever gets round to.

The pattern matters less than having one, because consistency is what makes a list scannable.

Avoid names that only make sense to whoever filed the document, such as the initials of the person who sent it.

Private shorthand is invisible to its author and impenetrable to everybody else, which is exactly the wrong combination.

Note which items would be looked for by the name of the equipment rather than the name of the document, and include both.

People search for the gate or the pump, not for the title a supplier printed at the top of a sheet.

Decide how reissued documents are distinguished from the versions they replace, without deleting the earlier one.

Knowing what was previously stated often matters as much as knowing what is stated now.

Record the words a supplier uses for something you call by a different name, so a search finds it either way.

Trade vocabulary and owner vocabulary rarely match, and the mismatch is where searches quietly fail.

Keep the index itself somewhere separate from the documents, or at least in a form that survives losing the store.

An index kept only inside the cupboard it describes offers no help on the occasion the cupboard is the problem.

Compare what you hold against what the specification or written brief said would be provided, and list the difference plainly.

This comparison is the fastest way to turn a vague sense of incompleteness into a list somebody can respond to.

Ask the contractor for everything on that list before the site team disperses to other work.

A request for missing paperwork is an enquiry, not a determination about whether the work itself was properly carried out.

Note whether you hold written instructions for every item with moving parts, controls or a power supply, and chase each absence separately.

These are the documents most often assumed to have been handed over and most often never issued to the operator at all.

Ask suppliers whether documents were issued to whoever placed the order rather than to the person now running the facility.

Paperwork follows the purchase, so it frequently sits with a builder, an agent or a former committee member.

Note which documents refer to other documents you do not have, and add each of those to the gap list.

Cross-references are the cheapest way to discover what should exist, because they name it for you.

Write down what is still missing after you have asked, together with who you asked and what they said.

Where paperwork cannot be produced, ask a suitably qualified professional and the local authority what that means for the facility rather than deciding yourself.

Decide where records that accumulate over time are kept, and give the index an entry pointing to them rather than copying their contents in.

Copying a growing record into an index leaves the two versions disagreeing with each other, usually at the worst moment.

Note which of these records are created by somebody else, such as a report left in a cupboard after a servicing visit.

Records left behind by visitors are the ones most easily thrown away by whoever tidies the store.

Agree who adds an entry when a new document arrives, so the index does not quietly stop matching what is actually held.

An index without an owner drifts out of date within a very short run of arrivals and nobody notices until it fails.

Record what prompts a review of the index, such as a change of equipment or a change in the people running the facility.

Reviews attached to events actually happen, whereas reviews attached to good intentions rarely do.

Note anything that supersedes an earlier document, and keep the earlier one rather than replacing it silently.

The history of what changed is often what a professional asks about first.

Decide how somebody borrowing a paper original records that they have taken it, if originals leave the store at all.

Documents removed for a meeting and never returned are one of the commonest ways a collection loses items.

Write a short note at the front explaining how the index is arranged, in words aimed at somebody who has never seen it.

Arrangements that feel self-evident to their author are the ones a successor most often misreads.

Note which entries need explaining in person rather than in writing, and make sure that conversation actually happens.

There are usually only a handful of these, which is exactly why they are forgotten.

Decide who else holds a copy of the index, so losing it is not the same as losing everything it describes.

The index is the one item whose loss makes every other item harder to find.

Note who produced each document and how they would be reached, without treating the index as a substitute for a proper contact record.

The producer of a document is usually the only person who can reissue or explain it later.

Ask anybody stepping back from the facility what they hold personally, before they leave rather than afterwards.

People rarely think of themselves as holding facility records until they are asked the question directly.

Note what a professional or an authority has previously asked you to produce, and make those items the easiest to retrieve.

Questions about what your cover requires you to hold or produce belong with your insurer or broker rather than with a preparation checklist.