Most locating arguments start with the report, not the locate. The paint was in the right place and the excavator operator did their job, but three weeks later someone asks what was actually found, how it was found, and what the locator said they couldn’t find. If the report only says “services marked on site”, nobody can answer.
This template draws on the quality levels in Australian Standard AS 5488, the Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) Best Practice Guide, and published guidance on utility locating surveys from the United States Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Adapt it to each client’s specification. It isn’t legal advice, and it doesn’t reproduce the standard.
Why the report matters
BYDA’s Best Practice Guide says a certified locator should provide results, maps and information on located services to AS 5488, and that recorded measurements of buried services should carry the correct quality level: A, B, C or D. A report that sets out each service with its level tells the next person how far they can rely on it. The FHWA guidance says a locating report should cover site conditions, the methods and equipment used, the limits of that equipment, physical limits on site, and the locator’s interpretation, with a drawing of what was found.
Records matter after the job too. The New South Wales Excavation Work Code of Practice explains that under the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Regulation, the person managing an excavation must make underground services information available to workers and contractors, and keep it until the excavation is finished, or for two years after a notifiable incident. Your report is part of that file.
The template
Copy these nine headings into your own report.
1. Job and client - Client, site contact, site address, purchase order (PO) number and your job number. - The BYDA enquiry reference and the date the plans were issued. - Date and time on site, the locator’s name and their certification.
2. Scope - The area located, marked on a site plan or aerial image. - What was asked for: which services, to which quality level. - What was out of scope.
3. Sources reviewed - Each asset owner on the BYDA confirmation, and whether they responded. - Client records, as-built drawings and anything else used.
4. Methods and equipment - Electromagnetic locating by direct connection, induction or clamp; sonde tracing; ground-penetrating radar (GPR); potholing by hand or vacuum. - The equipment used and the date it was last calibrated or checked.
5. Services found For each service: - Type, and the asset owner if known. - Quality level, and the method that reached it. - Depth where measured, and how it was measured. - How it is marked on the ground: paint, pegs or flags. - Photo references.
6. Services not found or not confirmed - Services on the plans that couldn’t be detected, recorded at the level shown, usually Quality Level D. - Signals that couldn’t be traced to an owner.
7. Limitations - Site conditions: clay or wet ground that limits radar, areas you couldn’t reach, parked cars, locked pits. - Method limits: plastic pipes with no tracer wire, a signal coupling between services in a shared trench, a power cable carrying no current at the time. - The date. Quality levels apply at the date the information was obtained.
8. Plans and photos - A site sketch or drawing with every service, its quality level and offsets to fixed features. - The relevant BYDA plans, attached. - Photos of the markings and of any exposed services.
9. Sign-off - Locator and date, plus the client’s sign-off on site where the job calls for it. - Your standard disclaimer, written once and used every time.
Gaps that come back to bite
- One quality level for the whole site, when different services reached different levels.
- No record of which asset owners responded.
- A depth with no method beside it.
- Limitations left out because they look bad. They are what protects you.
- Photos left in a phone’s camera roll instead of in the report.
The cable with no current is worth a line of its own. The FHWA guidance points out that a passive locate picks up the current flowing in a power cable, not its voltage, so a live cable with its load switched off may not show up at all, and is still dangerous to hit.
Writing it on site, not at night
A report rebuilt at night from photos, notes and a sketch goes out late, and a locate that reaches the client after the excavator is worth less to them. The fix is capturing the report in this structure while the locator is still on site.
How OpsChase builds the report
In OpsChase’s utility locating software, the locator fills in a structured record for each service on their phone: type, colour, method, depth, quality level, geotagged photos and a sketch. It is the same record on every job, whichever locator is out. One tap produces a branded report grouped by quality level, with methods, limitations, photos and plans. The invoice is built from the same job and both go to the client together, and clients can download reports and plans from their own portal.
AS 5488 is published by Standards Australia. OpsChase is independent and isn’t affiliated with Standards Australia or BYDA.
Where to start
Hold your last report against the nine headings and note what is missing. Read quality levels explained or the radar survey report template, see pricing, or book a demo.