# T&M ticket template, and the four fields that decide whether you get paid

> A complete time and materials ticket template, field by field, and the four fields that actually decide whether the extra work gets billed. No signup.

Source: https://fieldstub.com/tm-ticket-template/  ·  Updated 2026-08-29

A time and materials ticket records work that was not in the contract, so that somebody can be paid for it later. Most templates you will find are a grid of hours with a signature line at the bottom. That is the easy part, and it is not the part that fails.

Below is the whole template, every field, and a note on which ones matter when the ticket is questioned six months later. Copy it, retype it into your own form, print it. There is nothing to sign up for.

## The template

Four blocks. Header, the work, the cost, the signature.

```
T&M TICKET / EXTRA WORK ORDER              No. ________

Project ______________________  Job no. __________
Date _________________________  Day _____________
Contractor ___________________  Trade ____________

DIRECTED BY
  Name ______________________  Company __________
  Title _____________________  How ______________
                                (verbal / email / RFI / bulletin)

DESCRIPTION OF WORK
  What happened, and why it is not in the contract:
  ______________________________________________
  ______________________________________________
  Reference (drawing / RFI / CO / spec) ___________

LABOR
  Name              Classification    ST hrs   OT hrs
  ________________  ______________    _____    _____
  ________________  ______________    _____    _____

EQUIPMENT
  Description       Operated / bare   Hours
  ________________  ______________    _____

MATERIALS
  Description       Qty      Unit
  ________________  _____    ______

PHOTOS TAKEN   Y / N     How many _______

SIGNED, ON SITE, THE DAY THE WORK HAPPENED
  Name ______________________  Company __________
  Title _____________________  Date _____________
  Signature _________________________________

RECEIVED BY
  Name ______________________  Date _____________
```

## The four fields that decide it

Most of the template is bookkeeping. Four fields are the argument.

| Field | Why it is the one that matters |
|---|---|
| **Directed by, with a name and a title** | Extra work is only extra if somebody with authority asked for it. A ticket that says the work happened but not who directed it is a record of a cost, not a claim. This is the field most often left blank and the one most often argued about. |
| **How it was directed** | Verbal, email, RFI, bulletin. Six months later nobody remembers. One word here is the difference between a claim with a paper trail and one without. |
| **Why it is not in the contract** | Not what the crew did, but why it was not already someone's job. A reviewer who cannot answer that question sends the ticket back, and by then the crew has moved on. |
| **Signed on site, the same day** | A signature collected later is a signature from somebody who was not there. Date and signature together are what makes the rest of the sheet evidence rather than an assertion. |

> If you only tighten one thing about how your tickets are filled in, make it **Directed by**. Hours can be reconstructed from a timesheet. Authority cannot be reconstructed from anything.

## Classification, not just a name

The labor block asks for a classification next to each name for a reason. When the ticket is priced, the rate comes from the classification, and on prevailing wage work it has to. A list of names with hours is a list somebody else gets to interpret.

The same applies to equipment. **Operated or bare** changes the rate, and it is one word.

## What the template cannot fix

The template is not the problem. Here is what actually happens to a good ticket, filled in correctly, by somebody who did everything right:

1. Something out of scope comes up on a Tuesday. Someone says do it, we will sort it out later.
2. It gets written on a carbon-copy pad in a truck.
3. The pad stays in the truck.
4. At closeout, the contractor cannot substantiate the cost, so the contractor eats it.

Steps 1 and 4 are commercial. Nothing on a form changes them. **Steps 2 and 3 are logistics**, and step 3 is where the money goes. The ticket was filled in. It just was not anywhere the office could see it while the job was still open.

That is worth being precise about, because it explains why swapping one paper template for a nicer paper template changes nothing, and why a photo of a ticket texted to a PM only half works: the photo is not attached to a project, a cost code, or anything that adds up.

## The version that does not stay in the truck

Fieldstub is the same four blocks as a link. Somebody scans a code taped inside the gang box, fills in the form on their own phone, signs on the screen, and it is in the office before they have put the phone away.

- No app to install, no login, no account for the person in the field.
- They do not need a Procore seat, and most of the people doing extra work do not have one.
- Photos and the signature ride with the ticket, and the draft saves as they type, so bad signal does not lose it.
- It waits in a queue until somebody in the office approves it line by line. Nothing reaches the financials on its own.

On approval it lands in the general contractor's Procore as a Change Event with the line items on real budget codes, ready to price into a change order.

If you are on Procore and you want the mechanics rather than the pitch, [how extra work gets into Procore](https://fieldstub.com/tm-tickets-in-procore/) covers every option including the ones that are not us.

## Questions

### What should a T&M ticket include?

Project and job number, date, who directed the work and how, a description of why the work is out of contract, labor with names and classifications and straight or overtime hours, equipment with operated or bare hours, materials with quantities, photos, and a signature collected on site the same day.

### What is the difference between a T&M ticket and a change order?

A T&M ticket records what was actually done on a given day. A change order is the commercial agreement to be paid for it. Tickets are the evidence the change order is priced from, which is why the signature and the authorization matter more than the arithmetic.

### Is a T&M ticket the same as a force account?

Close enough in practice. Force account is the term used on public works and by state DOTs for work directed and paid on actual cost, and the record keeping is usually stricter, with equipment summary records required. The fields are the same fields.

### Who signs a T&M ticket?

Whoever directed the work, or their representative on site, on the day. A signature collected at the end of the week is from somebody who was not there, and it is the first thing questioned when the ticket is disputed.

### Do I need software for T&M tickets?

No. Paper works, and it is what most extra work is still captured on. The failure is not the paper, it is that the paper stays in the truck until after the job closes out.

## Related

- https://fieldstub.com/tm-tickets-in-procore.md
- https://fieldstub.com/subcontractor-extra-work-without-procore.md

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Fieldstub captures extra construction work from people with no Procore seat and files it into Procore as a Change Event. https://fieldstub.com/