How to get T&M tickets back from the field
Capture the signature while the work's still fresh, price the ticket against your own rate sheet automatically, and send it straight into the billing queue. That's the whole fix for a ticket that dies in a truck.
Answered in short
4 things that decide this
- 01You get a T&M ticket back from the field by capturing it digitally on site, with a signature from the owner's rep or foreman while the work is still fresh in everyone's memory.
- 02Pricing applies automatically from your own labour, equipment and material rate sheet, so the ticket doesn't sit waiting for someone in the office to look up a number.
- 03The priced, signed ticket routes straight into your billing queue, ready for a pay app or a standalone invoice, instead of waiting for a super to remember it at the end of the week.
- 04Your PM still approves anything unusual, and a change order gets drafted from the ticket and any related RFI, with PM sign-off before it goes to the owner.
The truck is where T&M work goes to disappear
You've probably lived through this exact pattern before. Your super handles an unplanned scope change on site, work that's genuinely T&M, and writes it up on a paper ticket or scribbles it in a notebook. That ticket rides in the truck for a few days. By the time it reaches your office, nobody remembers the exact hours. The owner's rep who was supposed to sign it has moved to another job, and the work quietly becomes unbillable.
This isn't a discipline problem you can fix by asking supers to try harder. It's really a distance problem between two people. Whoever did the work sits far from whoever bills for it, and paper doesn't travel well across that gap. Every day your ticket waits is a day it's more likely never to get billed at all.
You fix it by closing that distance at the point the work happens, not by adding another form for someone to fill out later.
Three things happen on site, not in the office
First, your ticket gets captured on a phone or tablet while the crew is still there. Labour hours, equipment time and materials used all get entered against the job, with photos if the scope needs them.
Second, the signature happens right there on site. Your owner's rep or foreman signs digitally before they leave, while the work is fresh and nobody's arguing about what happened. That signature is worth far more than one you'd collect days later from memory.
Third, pricing applies automatically from your rate sheet: labour rates by classification, equipment rates by hour, material markup by your own rules. Nobody has to look anything up. Your priced ticket is ready to bill the moment it's signed.
- 01Field capture, offline-capable, so a dead zone on site doesn't stall the ticket.
- 02Signature captured on site, from the person who's actually there.
- 03Pricing applied from your own rate sheet automatically, not looked up later.
- 04The ticket routes into your billing queue the same day, not the same week.
- Work happensUnplanned scope, T&M by agreement
- Captured on siteHours, equipment, materials, on a phone
- Signed on siteOwner's rep or foreman, same day
- Priced automaticallyYour labour, equipment and material rates
- Billing queueReady for a pay app or invoice
- Change order draftedPM approval before it reaches the owner
Every station before "billing queue" happens the same day the work does. That's the whole difference from a ticket riding in a truck.
Some of the systems we have shipped
Related questions
01Does a T&M ticket app replace paper entirely?+
For crews who adopt it, yes, and that's the point. A phone-captured ticket with a signature and photos attached beats paper as a record, and it can't ride in a truck for a week the way a paper form can.
02How does pricing stay accurate if rates change?+
Your rate sheet, labour by classification, equipment by hour, material markup, lives in one place and updates there. Every new ticket prices against the current version, so you don't update a rate change in twenty different spreadsheets.
03What happens if the owner's rep disputes a ticket after signing?+
Your signed ticket, with photos and a timestamp, is the record of what was agreed on site. A dispute still goes to your PM to resolve, but you're arguing from a signed, dated record instead of a memory from two weeks ago.
04Does a T&M ticket automatically become a change order?+
Not automatically, no. It becomes a change-order draft, built from your ticket and any related RFI, and your PM approves it before it goes to the owner. Your ticket just makes the draft accurate. Approval always stays a person's decision.
05Does this work with Procore, Buildertrend or whatever we run?+
It's built to write the priced ticket into your billing queue in Procore, Buildertrend, Sage, Foundation or whatever system you run, to the depth your account exposes. We confirm exactly what that is during the audit.
Related
- Field-to-office automation →The full daily-report and T&M ticket service this answer belongs to.
- How to automate AIA billing and pay apps →Where a priced T&M ticket ends up: the pay app.
- How to turn daily reports into job cost →The other field record that has to reach the office the same way.
- Construction software development →What we build for contractors beyond a single workflow.
