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How can contractors prevent T&M billing disputes?
Most T&M disputes are missing evidence, not missing work. Agree the rate sheet before the extra starts, write a complete ticket the day the work happens, and get a signature while people still remember the shift.
Agree the rates before the hours
A ticket without classes and charge-out rates is an invitation to renegotiate. Lock labor, equipment, overtime, standby, and materials rules on a signed rate sheet. Public ranges in Rates by SubTrack are a sanity check. They are not the contract.
Write the ticket the same day
Memory fades. Pads get wet. Photos of a pad lose the second page. Same-day tickets with labor, equipment, and materials on one document are harder to argue with than a reconstructed spreadsheet two weeks later.
Keep the signature with the lines
A signed PDF that does not match the billable lines is still a dispute. The approval should sit on the same ticket the crew wrote, including revisions. If a line is rejected, it should stay visible instead of disappearing into email.
Separate extras from base contract work
When overtime on an owner-directed extra lands on a base-contract cost code, the extra vanishes in job cost. Scope breaks keep the extra on its own ticket path so the office is not reconstructing intent at invoice time.
FAQ
What causes most T&M billing disputes?
Incomplete tickets, unsigned extras, rate drift off the sheet, and mixing extra work with base-contract hours.
Can software prevent every T&M dispute?
No. Unsigned verbal extras still fail. Software stops lost pads, re-keying, and rate drift when crews actually write the ticket.
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