A glovebox full of timesheets
Your operators drive excavators, cranes and dozers on customers' sites on operated hire. Each fills in a paper timesheet for the week, and gets it signed by the site manager, supervisor or whoever is nearest on Friday. The timesheets come back to the office on Monday, some on Tuesday, one the following week because it was left in the cab. Some aren't signed. Some have hours that don't match what the customer thinks.
Invoicing for operated hire waits until the paperwork is complete, and payroll waits for the same sheets.
Why operated hire paperwork is slow
Operated hire combines a machine hire and a labour charge, and the timesheet is the evidence for both. It has to be accurate, signed by the right person and back in the office quickly.
- Timesheets are filled in at the end of the week from memory.
- Signatures are collected from whoever is available, not always someone authorised.
- Sheets travel back to the office in cabs and vans.
- Breaks, standing time and travel are recorded differently by different operators.
- The office retypes each sheet into the hire system and the payroll.
What the delay costs
Operated hire invoices go out late, which delays payment on some of your most valuable work. Disputes over hours are hard to settle when the timesheet was signed a week after the fact. Payroll depends on the same sheets, so operators are paid late or on estimates. And office staff spend time retyping and chasing.
Operators feel it too. A timesheet lost in a cab means an argument about their pay, and an operator who has to ask a busy site manager for a signature at the end of a long Friday is being put in an awkward spot. Good operators are hard to find, and paperwork that makes their week harder doesn't help you keep them.
Digital timesheets signed on site
- Each operator has the timesheet app on their phone, showing their current hire, site and machine.
- At the end of each shift they record start, finish, breaks, standing time and any travel, using the categories your rates use.
- The customer's authorised site contact signs on the phone, or receives a link to approve, daily or weekly as the customer prefers.
- The customer's list of authorised signatories is held per site, so signatures from anyone else are flagged.
- Approved hours flow to the hire contract for invoicing and to your payroll system in the format it takes.
- Unsigned or disputed timesheets are listed for the office to follow up the same week.
| Step | Paper | Digital |
|---|---|---|
| Recording hours | End of week from memory | Daily, at the end of each shift |
| Signature | Whoever is nearby | Authorised contact, on the phone or by link |
| Getting back to the office | Days, sometimes longer | Immediate |
| Invoicing | Retyped | Fed from approved hours |
| Payroll | Retyped again | Exported from the same record |
What the office sees now
Timesheets are in and approved by Monday morning. Operated hire invoices go out on time with signed hours attached. Payroll uses the same approved record. Disputes are rare because the customer approved the hours daily, and those that do happen are specific.
Is this your operated hire paperwork?
- Operator timesheets are on paper.
- Timesheets arrive in the office days after the week ends.
- Customers dispute hours signed by someone they don't recognise.
- Operated hire invoices wait for paperwork.
- The office retypes timesheets into two systems.