That’s the (Streamlined) Field Ticket!

Faster T&M Billing Through an Integrated Field Ticketing Solution

The construction industry’s productivity gap, relative to other industries is well documented. For many contractors, there is a noticeable disconnect between the jobsite and the back office when it comes to collecting data and effectively processing it in a timely manner. Despite most contractors now utilizing software to power back-office functions, there is still a heavy reliance on manual processes to collect data in the field. In fact, in a recent quarterly report on construction, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported survey responses such as “…only 11% of contractors consider jobsites to be very efficient.”

Billing for time and materials (T&M), often reliant on spreadsheets and non-integrated field ticketing software, is low lying fruit for efficiency gains due to the sheer volume of field tickets that have to be captured, consolidated and produced. These processes, when done manually or via field ticketing software that isn’t integrated with the ERP, often lead to incorrect tickets or missing information. That means T&M contractors frequently struggle with getting paid quickly or leave valuable dollars on the table due to missed tickets.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Replacing outdated, disconnected software and manual processes with a real-time, mobile field management solution will streamline contractors’ field ticketing and T&M billing processes, ensuring contractors are generating the cash flow they’re actually earning.

Viewpoint customer, Great Basin Industrial, a Utah- and Texas-based civil contractor in the oil and gas industry, was able to reduce its time spent to produce a field ticket from 30 days to one day with the integrated field ticketing capabilities of Viewpoint Field Management. Additionally, cash flow was improved with a 50% reduction in work-to-billed-to-paid time.

“Viewpoint enables us to account for a lot of T&M dollars that would otherwise not have been identified, let alone billed,” said Craig Lundskog, finance director for Great Basin Industrial.

Data capture in the field is streamlined with a unified mobile screen to capture labor time, equipment time, materials and production. The back office gets data instantly and the consolidation and production of field tickets is automated. “Because of Viewpoint Field Management’s T&M ticketing capabilities, the number of heads we have dedicated to billing has been halved, while the volume of projects we bill doubled,” Lundskog said.

In addition to vast productivity improvements, real-time over/under productivity data is used by field supervisors to keep projects on schedule. Also, project managers benefit from daily job cost information at their fingertips to compare work completed to estimates and identify and capture profit fade before it takes hold.

The ability to accurately capture and control data at the field level is paramount to contractors’ success. Unfortunately, far too many still rely on manual processes like paper and multiple, non-integrated software solutions to process field data. This can increase time spent trying to consolidate and manage field tickets, and ultimately short-change contractors’ bottom lines.

The integrated software and dedicated field ticketing functionality that Viewpoint provides not only automates the field ticketing method, but reduces risk by capturing and storing digital signatures and creating audit trails for time and material accounting. Once contractors put automated field ticketing in action, they’re not just realizing additional dollars for the work they’ve completed, they’re also realizing untapped potential for growth.

Lundskog noted that after implementing Viewpoint Field Management, the efficiencies gained helped elevate the company to a preferred vendor status on projects, “…which we expect will double our business in the next 12 months.”

Check out this video for a quick look at how Viewpoint Field Management helps streamline the field ticketing process: