Field notes · definitions
What is a
field ticket (LEM)?
A field ticket is the daily record of the labour, equipment and materials a contractor supplied on a job site, signed by the contractor's foreman and approved by the client's representative. In oil and gas and mining it is the document that decides whether, and when, a contractor gets paid.
You will also hear it called a LEM (labour, equipment, materials), a work ticket, a daily ticket or a time ticket. Same document.
Anatomy
What goes on a field ticket.
The header
Date and shift. Contractor and client. Location — on a lease, usually the LSD or well name; on a mine, the area or work order. The PO or AFE number the work is charged to, and the client's cost codes if they require them.
Labour
Each person by name and classification, with hours split by rule: regular, overtime, double time, standby, travel. The rate for each comes from the contract or rate sheet, not from the foreman.
Equipment
Each unit by type and ID — dozer, excavator, picker, vac truck, light tower — with hours working and hours on standby, or days if it bills by the day. Rentals and third-party iron are often listed separately.
Materials and third-party
Gravel, fuel, pipe, consumables, subcontractor charges. Quantity, unit and unit price, usually with a markup allowed by the contract.
Description of work
What was actually done, in a sentence or two. This is what the approver reads when deciding whether the hours make sense, and what settles a dispute a year later.
Signatures
The contractor's foreman or field supervisor confirms the ticket is accurate. The client's representative — a company rep, consultant or project manager — approves it. Both signatures, with names and dates, are what make the ticket billable.
Lifecycle
From the shift to the invoice.
Written at the end of the shift
The foreman records who worked, what iron ran, what was used and what was done. On paper this happens from memory at 7pm; in software it starts from yesterday's crew and takes a few minutes.
Confirmed by the contractor
The foreman or field supervisor signs that the ticket is accurate. On a paper book this is a carbon copy; electronically it's a signature captured on a phone with a name, time and a record of exactly what was signed.
Approved by the client
The client's representative reviews and approves. On paper this means finding them on site or faxing a scan; electronically they approve from their own phone by a secure link or in their own account. An approved ticket is a commitment against the PO.
Invoiced
Approved tickets for the period are totalled into an invoice, with GST and any holdback applied, and the signed tickets attached as backup. Most operators and mines will not pay an invoice whose tickets aren't signed and approved — which is why an unsigned ticket is the most common reason a contractor is paid late.
In oil and gas
Field tickets on the lease.
In oil and gas the ticket is written by a service company and approved by the operator: lease and pad construction, well-site and completions services, pipeline and facility construction, vac, water and fluid hauling, rig moves, geotechnical and environmental drilling. The header carries the LSD or well name and the AFE, and the approver is a company rep or consultant who is rarely on the lease when the crew finishes. Here is where it goes wrong on paper, and how Pit & Rig handles it.
The company rep is three leases away
Tickets wait in the truck for a signature that never happens on site. In Pit & Rig Fieldbook the foreman sends the finished ticket to the operator's rep by email or text, and they approve it from their own phone wherever they are — no account, no app to install.
Standby billed at the wrong rate
Overtime, double time, standby, travel and minimum billing live on the PO as rate rules. The line prices itself when the foreman adds it. He never types a rate, so he can't get one wrong.
AFE overrun found at month end
Every approved ticket draws down the PO or AFE allocation the day it's approved. Your client sees their burn as it happens, and so do you — no month-end reconciliation to find out the number was blown two weeks ago.
Invoice disputes over a ticket nobody can find
Each signature is captured on the phone with name, title, timestamp and a hash of exactly what was signed. The PDF is frozen at that moment and carries a QR code that opens a public verification page. Three months later it's one click, not a filing cabinet.
In mining
Shift tickets on the mine site.
On a mine the same ticket is usually called a shift ticket, and the work is a long-term services contract: contract mining and earthworks, drilling and blasting, exploration drilling, site services, water management, road maintenance and reclamation. The same crew bills the same client every shift for a year, so the problems are about accumulation: small pricing errors, rotation confusion and a PO that runs out before anyone notices.
The same ticket, 365 times, with small mistakes
On a year-long contract a 2% pricing error repeats every shift. Rates and rules — overtime, standby, minimum hours — live on the PO and price every line automatically. The foreman never sees or types a rate.
Rotations nobody can keep straight
Give each crew its rotation and shift. Today's crew comes first when a ticket is built, a day off shows as off rather than missing, and nobody is chased for hours on a day they weren't meant to work.
Hours written down three times
Operators check in on site and log their own hours on free accounts. The crew foreman approves them and approved hours move onto the labour ticket in one step, priced off the PO, never billed twice.
Twenty signatures on one clipboard
On the Pro plan, hazard assessments run off a QR code: the crew signs on from their own phones and the roster fills in as they do. The sign-on is linked to the shift ticket, and a mismatch between who signed on and who is billed is flagged before submission.
The PO ran out in month nine
Every approved ticket draws the PO down the day it's approved. You and the mine's project manager look at the same computed balance, so the conversation about a PO extension happens in month seven, not after the invoice bounces.
The light tower nobody sent back
Every rented unit on site shows what it has burned, what it would cost to return today, and what it adds to the PO. The office gets an email before the next rental period starts.
Paper vs electronic
Why the ticket book is dying.
The carbon-copy book
- Rates typed from memory, so a standby line gets billed at the working rate.
- Signature depends on finding the rep on site. Tickets wait in the truck.
- The office re-keys every line into the invoice, then scans and attaches the copies.
- Three months later, the signed copy is in a filing cabinet, a glovebox, or nowhere.
- The client finds out the PO is overrun when the invoice arrives.
The electronic ticket
- Rates and rules come from the contract. The line prices itself.
- The rep approves from their own phone, wherever they are, the same day.
- Approved tickets become the invoice without being re-keyed, backup attached.
- Every signature carries a name, time and a record of exactly what was signed.
- Each approval draws down the PO, so both sides see the balance as it moves.
Where Pit & Rig fits
Field tickets are the whole product.
Pit & Rig Fieldbook is field ticket software built by a mine superintendent in northern Alberta. The foreman writes the ticket on a phone from yesterday's crew, every line prices itself off the PO, the hazard assessment is attached to the ticket it covers, and the client approves by a secure link or a free account. Invoices are built from the approved tickets with GST by province, holdback applied and the signed PDFs attached.
On the client's side, the operator's company rep or the mine's project manager approves from a phone and sees PO burn as it happens. Read the client-side page.
The price is on the website, and the trial is seven days with no card. See how a contractor's day runs in Pit & Rig.
Questions people ask
- What is a field ticket?
- A field ticket is the daily record of the labour, equipment and materials a contractor supplied on a job site, signed by the contractor and approved by the client's representative. It is the backup for the invoice. In Western Canadian oil and gas and mining it is also called a LEM (labour, equipment, materials), a work ticket, a daily ticket, a shift ticket or a time ticket.
- What does LEM stand for?
- Labour, Equipment, Materials: the three sections of a field ticket. A LEM sheet and a field ticket are the same document.
- What is the difference between a field ticket and an invoice?
- A field ticket records one day's (or one shift's) work and is approved by the client's on-site representative. An invoice totals the approved tickets for a period and is what accounts payable processes. The ticket is the evidence; the invoice is the bill.
- Who signs a field ticket?
- Two people. The contractor's foreman or field supervisor confirms it is accurate, and the client's representative — a company rep, consultant, inspector or project manager — approves it. Without the client approval, most operators will not pay the invoice it supports.
- What is an electronic field ticket?
- A field ticket written and signed in software instead of a carbon-copy book. The rates come from the contract rather than being typed, the signature is captured on a phone with a timestamp and a record of what was signed, and the approved ticket flows into the invoice without being re-keyed.
- Why do unsigned field tickets cause late payment?
- Because the operator's accounts payable will not process an invoice whose backup isn't approved. A ticket that waited in the truck for a signature becomes an invoice that waits in a queue for a correction. Getting the approval the same day is the single biggest lever on how fast a contractor is paid.
- Does the operator or mine need to buy anything to approve our tickets?
- No. Reviewing, approving and downloading tickets in Pit & Rig is free for your client, permanently, with unlimited approvers. If they don't want an account, you send each ticket by a one-time link and they sign it in their browser.
- Can it handle AFE and PO drawdown?
- Yes. Tickets are written against a PO, and every approved ticket draws the balance down in real time, for you and for the client. Owners who manage several contractors against one budget can add the Control plan, which holds the AFE and allocates it per contractor without any contractor seeing the total.
- Does it handle crew rotations like 14 and 14?
- Yes. Each crew carries its rotation and shift pattern. Today's crew is offered first when a ticket is built, days off show as off, and attendance and hours follow the rotation.
- Is Pit & Rig a fleet or dispatch system?
- No. Pit & Rig is field ticketing and invoicing for the contractor: the daily record of labour, equipment and materials, the hazard assessment that covers it, the client's approval and the invoice built from it. It does not track haul cycles, dispatch trucks or report production.
- Does it work in a dead zone or underground?
- Ticket capture does, on a phone you've prepared. Open the app while you still have signal so it loads the job and your rates. A ticket written in a dead zone then stays on that phone and uploads when coverage returns. If the rates weren't loaded, it arrives unpriced and the office prices it — nothing is guessed at. The rest of the app needs signal, and we're still improving offline, so try it in your own dead zone during the trial.
- How much does Pit & Rig cost?
- Operations is $1,249 CAD a month with ten full users included, then $40 per additional user. Field crew who only log their own hours are free. Pro adds job margin, equipment economics, and hazard assessments with QR sign-on. Operations and Pro start with a seven-day trial, no card required.
- Where is Pit & Rig used?
- Pit & Rig is built in northern Alberta for contractors working in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. GST and PST handling is per province, and the company is Canadian.
Write your next ticket in software.
Load a real PO and rate sheet and run live tickets through a seven-day trial. No card, and your client approves for free.