The T&M ticket graveyard
The crew did the extra work. The ticket rode in a truck for a week, unsigned. Billing wrote off what it could not prove.
Key takeaways
4 things that decide this
- 01AGC's technology surveys keep finding daily reports, timecards, and T&M tickets still on paper at mid-size contractors, while spending on field tech rises around them.
- 02An unsigned ticket ages badly: the client's superintendent who saw the work moves on, and the claim becomes a negotiation.
- 03Contractor reviews of the big platforms complain that field crews will not adopt heavy tools, which is why the paper survives.
- 04The record has to be created and signed at the point of work, in a flow a foreman accepts. That is a design constraint, not a training problem.
Proof decays faster than paperwork moves
Extra work happens in the moment. A buried obstruction, a design change, two crew members for an afternoon. The foreman fills out a T&M ticket and means to get it signed. The client's superintendent is busy, the ticket goes on the dashboard, and the week ends.
By the time the office sees it, the work is buried, literally. The person who could have signed has rotated to another site. What would have been a routine billing line at the moment of work is now a dispute the contractor often settles by eating it.
Field crews reject tools built for the office
Contractors have bought software for this before. Reviews of the major construction platforms repeat one complaint: the field will not use them. A foreman closing out a twelve-hour day does not open a module with nine tabs. The paper ticket wins because it takes thirty seconds.
AGC's surveys show the same split: investment in construction tech keeps climbing while daily reports and timecards stay on paper at many mid-size firms. The tools exist. The adoption does not, and adoption is the entire product.
Thirty seconds, a photo, a signature
A T&M capture that survives the field is as fast as the paper it replaces. The foreman photographs the work, taps the labor and equipment, and hands the phone over for a signature while the client's superintendent is still standing there. The record lands in the office the same minute, priced and attached to the job.
The same capture-first pattern covers daily reports and timecards, feeding job costing instead of a filing cabinet. This does not require replacing your project platform. It requires a field layer your crews accept, wired into the systems the office already trusts.
Field records that hold up
TankAware replaced paper inspection logs across hundreds of fuel sites with records captured where the work happens. A T&M ticket needs the same standard: created at the point of work, signed on the spot, and in the office before the truck leaves the site.
What contractors ask
01How much T&M work goes unbilled?+
Few contractors know, which is the tell. Audit one quarter: compare extra-work tickets written against extra-work lines invoiced, and count disputes settled by credit. The gap is usually large enough to fund the fix.
02Why not use our project management platform's forms?+
Use them if your field crews actually do. The graveyard exists because heavy platforms lose the foreman at the end of a long day. A capture flow that takes under a minute, offline included, is what changes behavior.
03Does a signed digital ticket hold up in a dispute?+
A timestamped record with photos and an on-site signature is exactly the evidence a dispute needs. It moves the conversation from recollection to record, which is why the signature has to happen at the moment of work.
04What about daily reports and timecards?+
Same pattern, same build. Capture at the point of work, sync to the office, feed job costing automatically. T&M tickets are the sharpest pain, so they are usually the right place to start.
