In 1980 the excavation began with a recording system borrowed from the Tel Batash excavation and altered constantly but not radically during the first ten campaigns. Starting from the mid-1980s the recording procedures were written down for teaching new staff members, and in 1991 the Dor recording system was described in the Staff Manual (edited by Jeff Zorn, 1991).

When the project was renewed in 2003, its recording system underwent several important modifications. These innovations were preserved in the 2005 edition. For the next two-three season the team was in the process of implementing the concept of paper-less field recording.

The next 'stable' version of the staff manual (2013) includes descriptions of digital recording methods, special processing of finds and registration workflow.

• Staff Manual 1.0 (1991 edition)
• Staff Manual 2.0 (2008 edition)
• Staff Manual 2.1 (2013 edition)