Compared with what you use now

Pit & Rig vs. the spreadsheet.

Most contractors aren't choosing between products. They're choosing between software and the Excel file that's worked for eleven years, plus a filing cabinet of carbon copies. So that's the comparison worth making — including the two rows where the spreadsheet wins. Comparing us with FieldCap or Jobutrax instead?

The job

Spreadsheet & paper

Pit & Rig

Writing the daily ticket

Foreman types every line from memory at 7pm. Names, hours, iron, rates — all keyed by hand, usually from a notebook.

Tap yesterday's crew. Change the hours. Rates come off the PO automatically. Five minutes.

Getting it signed

Print it, find the client rep, get a signature, scan it, file it. Or don't — and chase it in three weeks.

Foreman or field rep signs on their phone before leaving site. Hashed, frozen, attached to the ticket forever.

Pricing a line

Look up the rate. Remember whether standby is 50% or 60% on this PO. Apply overtime after 10 hours or 8? Get it wrong, find out at invoice.

Rules live on the PO. The line prices itself. A foreman never types a rate, so he can't type the wrong one.

Finding last March's signed copy

A binder, a shared drive folder, or someone's phone. Twenty minutes if you're lucky.

Search the ticket number. The signed PDF is attached. Ten seconds.

Knowing what's left on the PO

Whatever the spreadsheet says, which is whatever someone last updated it to. Often wrong, and always behind.

Live. Every approved ticket draws it down. A warning fires before you overrun.

Month-end invoicing

Gather tickets, check each against the rate sheet, total them, calculate GST, attach signed copies, rebuild anything that doesn't match. A week.

Select the approved tickets. Invoice built, tax by province, holdback applied, signed PDFs attached. An afternoon.

A one-off job with a strange rate

Type whatever you like in the cell.

You'll add the rate to the PO first. That's an extra minute, and it's on purpose — but it's an extra minute.

Getting started

Already running. Everyone knows it.

Load one PO and one rate sheet from your existing spreadsheet, and run a week of real tickets. Most crews are self-sufficient by day three.

Proving what was signed

A scan of a signature on a piece of paper. It proves someone drew something.

A hash of exactly what was on screen, a frozen PDF, and a QR code anyone can verify. It proves what they were looking at.

Cost

Free — plus every ticket that never got written, every standby line billed at full rate, and every afternoon spent reconciling.

$1,249 a month. If that's more than the leakage, don't buy it.

Writing the daily ticket

Spreadsheet

Foreman types every line from memory at 7pm. Names, hours, iron, rates — all keyed by hand, usually from a notebook.

Pit & Rig

Tap yesterday's crew. Change the hours. Rates come off the PO automatically. Five minutes.

Getting it signed

Spreadsheet

Print it, find the client rep, get a signature, scan it, file it. Or don't — and chase it in three weeks.

Pit & Rig

Foreman or field rep signs on their phone before leaving site. Hashed, frozen, attached to the ticket forever.

Pricing a line

Spreadsheet

Look up the rate. Remember whether standby is 50% or 60% on this PO. Apply overtime after 10 hours or 8? Get it wrong, find out at invoice.

Pit & Rig

Rules live on the PO. The line prices itself. A foreman never types a rate, so he can't type the wrong one.

Finding last March's signed copy

Spreadsheet

A binder, a shared drive folder, or someone's phone. Twenty minutes if you're lucky.

Pit & Rig

Search the ticket number. The signed PDF is attached. Ten seconds.

Knowing what's left on the PO

Spreadsheet

Whatever the spreadsheet says, which is whatever someone last updated it to. Often wrong, and always behind.

Pit & Rig

Live. Every approved ticket draws it down. A warning fires before you overrun.

Month-end invoicing

Spreadsheet

Gather tickets, check each against the rate sheet, total them, calculate GST, attach signed copies, rebuild anything that doesn't match. A week.

Pit & Rig

Select the approved tickets. Invoice built, tax by province, holdback applied, signed PDFs attached. An afternoon.

A one-off job with a strange rate

Spreadsheet

Type whatever you like in the cell.

Pit & Rig

You'll add the rate to the PO first. That's an extra minute, and it's on purpose — but it's an extra minute.

Getting started

Spreadsheet

Already running. Everyone knows it.

Pit & Rig

Load one PO and one rate sheet from your existing spreadsheet, and run a week of real tickets. Most crews are self-sufficient by day three.

Proving what was signed

Spreadsheet

A scan of a signature on a piece of paper. It proves someone drew something.

Pit & Rig

A hash of exactly what was on screen, a frozen PDF, and a QR code anyone can verify. It proves what they were looking at.

Cost

Spreadsheet

Free — plus every ticket that never got written, every standby line billed at full rate, and every afternoon spent reconciling.

Pit & Rig

$1,249 a month. If that's more than the leakage, don't buy it.

The honest version

The spreadsheet is free and everyone already knows it. It loses because of what it doesn't catch: the ticket nobody wrote, the standby line at full rate, the signed copy nobody can find, and the week at month-end rebuilding numbers that should have been right the first time. If you don't have those problems, keep the spreadsheet. If you do, the trial is seven days and it costs nothing to find out.

Run a real week through it