T&M tag — why the owner signature is everything

A Time and Materials (T&M) tag documents extra work performed on a daily basis when there's no executed change order yet. It's the foundation of your recovery for changes — and an unsigned tag is functionally worthless.

What a T&M tag captures

• Date of the extra work
• Reason / direction — who told you to do it, in what form (verbal, RFI response, sketch)
• Labor — names, classifications, hours
• Material — quantities, units, vendor
• Equipment — owned or rented, hours of use
• Other — subcontractor labor, freight, dump fees
• Signatures — your foreman AND the owner's representative on site

Why the owner signature matters

Without a signed acknowledgment from the owner's rep that the work was performed as described, you have:

• No contemporaneous evidence the owner knew about the work
• A weaker position when the change is later negotiated as a CO
• A near-impossible time pursuing recovery in mediation or litigation if the owner disputes the change

The signature does not mean the owner agrees the work is extra — that's negotiated in the change order. The signature only means "yes, you did this work on this day with this crew." Even that admission is gold.

When the owner won't sign

It happens. Foreman shows the tag, owner's rep won't put pen to paper. STrOp's T&M tag entry has an "Owner refused signature" checkbox that:

1. Records the refusal with a timestamp
2. Captures the rep's name and the reason given (free text)
3. Prompts you to send the tag by email immediately — the system mails it to the project contact list under your contract on file

A documented refusal + same-day email is the next-best evidence. Use both. Always.

STrOp's flow

• Foreman enters the tag from the mobile field view.
• Hours and material auto-pull from the day's timecard and any project deliveries.
• Foreman captures owner signature on-device (touch or stylus) before leaving the site.
• Tag is locked at signature and routed into the Change Events queue for the PM to roll into a PCO.

Common failures

• Editing after signature. The tag is locked the moment the owner signs. If you need to correct it, the system creates a supplementary tag with a reference back to the original — never an edit-in-place.
• Forgetting the equipment column. A welder running 4 hours but billed at zero costs you the recovery.
• Submitting weeks late. Many GC contracts require T&M tags within 24–72 hours of the work. Past that window, the GC may deny the change altogether.

See also

• RFI vs Change Event
• PCO vs CO