T&M ticket

A T&M ticket (or daily ticket) is the field record of hours worked and materials used on a time-and-materials task, signed by the client or GC's representative on-site the same day.

The ticket is the only thing standing between billable work and a favor. It lists the date, the task, labor hours by worker, materials consumed, and a signature from whoever on-site can authorize the cost. Without that signature, the ticket is just a memory of what happened.

Crews under deadline pressure routinely skip the sign-off — the work gets done, the foreman means to get it signed later, and 'later' becomes a text message sent two weeks after the fact that the GC has no obligation to honor.

Example

A carpentry crew spends three hours reframing an opening the architect resized mid-project. The foreman writes up a ticket on-site — hours, two sheets of plywood, a box of screws — and gets the PM's signature before the crew leaves for the day, not after the invoice goes out.

Related terms

Time and materials (T&M)Time-and-materials (T&M) is a billing method where a contractor charges for actual labor hours and material cost plus markup, instead of a fixed price agreed in advance.Change orderA change order is a signed, priced amendment to a construction contract that adds, removes, or modifies scope, cost, or schedule after work is already under contract.Back-chargeA back-charge is a deduction one party makes from another's payment to cover the cost of correcting deficient work, cleanup, or damage — without a signed change order authorizing it.

Used in

Change order template for subcontractorsSubcontractors who need a formal change order memo the same day the field asks for extra work.Change order template for foremenForemen who need to turn a field change into a documented change order without leaving the site.Unbilled T&M work for foremenForemen and the crews they run, whose field changes turn into T&M work that never gets billed.Unbilled T&M work for electrical subcontractorsElectrical subs who suspect field changes and service calls aren't all making it onto an invoice.Change order audit for specialty subsSpecialty subs who need to know how much dispute exposure is sitting in their change order documentation.

Next step

Where this shows up in Datumel:

T&M Leak Audit$1,499 one-time

Where unbilled time-and-materials work leaks through your field documentation. Built for subs and foremen eating field changes that should be billed.

Open →