What is t&m tag?
A time and materials tag records the labor, equipment and materials used on work performed outside the original contract scope. Signed on site by the customer representative, it is the evidence underneath a change order request.
Also called
Depending on the trade and the region: T&M ticket, extra work order, field ticket, force account ticket. The document is functionally the same, and the disputes it causes are identical.
What belongs on one
- Date, project and specific location of the work
- Who authorized it, by name, and when
- Labor by classification and hours, not a lump figure
- Equipment by type and hours
- Material by quantity and description
- Photographs of the condition that made the work necessary
- A signature from the customer representative, obtained on site
The signature is the item that matters most and the one most often missing. A tag signed while the superintendent is standing there is evidence. A tag chased down three days later is a negotiation.
Why the written-on-the-tailgate version fails
Tags completed at the end of a shift from memory produce descriptions a general contractor can argue with. “Repair line, 6 hrs, 2 men” does not establish which line, why, or who directed it.
Roughly 97% of specialty contractors still capture this on carbon-copy paper, which is why the failure mode is so consistent across the industry: the tag is written when the crew is tired, the photographs do not exist, and the person who authorized the work has gone home.
From tag to payment
The tag becomes a change order request, which becomes a change order once signed, which flows into the schedule of values and then onto a pay application. Every step depends on the quality of the document at the start, which is why disputes that surface at payment almost always originate at the tailgate.
Going deeper: Change orders and T&M tags