Three ring note books are your friends.......in one notebook put dividers in for each sub-contractor or trade. In that divider you want the original quote, invoices , copies of payments, etc., etc......starting with the oldest document at the back of the section, each new document is then placed in the front of the section. That way you have the latest and current information right up front. In another notebook same dividers based on equipment and or materials used. Catalogs, warranties, care and maintenance information.....

email updates are better than nothing.....but in my opinion, your builder is doing you a disservice by not filing formal reports with photographs each week. It doesn't take much effort and can actually be put in a Word Document with the photos inserted in a dialogue box with comments. I've been using just such a system for site inspections for decades and they have been the saving grace a couple of times where issues ended up in court.

Thank you! This is great advice!

I suggest the same. Had a binder fir each trade. Kept compete on a spreadsheet on computer. One line for each trade. I suggest you keep the binder as long as possible. We built our home 11 years ago and this passed year we needed warranty information and installation info on our 100 year old roof. Went to the file Read up and found enough info to be able to sew the original installer for costs to fix why at he had not installed properly.
It's a big job helping these records but in the long run well worth it.