For a mid-tier miner and its contractors, the site-signed docket or daily drilling report is the real billing record. Hours, metres, plant and consumables are agreed on that piece of paper or screen, and everything after it (the invoice, the purchase order receipt, the month-end accrual and the contractor's own payroll and job cost) should come from it. Most month-end pain in contractor management comes from those records being retyped in several places, signed late, or kept apart from the compliance records in tools such as Rapid Global or Cm3. This article explains where it goes wrong and how to keep one approved record flowing through.
The signed docket is the billing record
On most small and mid-tier mine sites, work by a contractor is recorded shift by shift:
- Daily dockets for plant hire, earthmoving and labour: who, which machine, hours worked, standby, breakdowns.
- Daily drilling reports (often called plods) for drilling contractors: metres drilled by hole, rig hours, standby, consumables, crew.
- Timesheets for people on hourly or day rates, often with site allowances.
A site supervisor or the miner's representative signs each one. That signature is what makes it billable. When the invoice arrives at the end of the month, the miner's accounts team checks it against the dockets. The contractor's office uses the same dockets to run payroll and work out what each job really cost.
So one record feeds at least four jobs: the contractor's invoice and payroll, and the miner's purchase order receipt and month-end accrual. Captured once and passed along, those jobs are routine. Typed in again at each step, they drift apart.
Paper plods and late signatures
Paper is still common. A docket written at the end of a long shift is easy to misread in the office, and signatures get chased days later. Digital plod and docket apps fix the capture end. They don't, by themselves, get the approved numbers into the miner's purchasing system or the contractor's accounts.
Hours versus measured quantities
The most common argument isn't about whether the work happened. It's about which number is the right one to pay on.
- The contractor bills on hours: the docket says the excavator ran ten hours and the supervisor signed it.
- The miner later looks at measured quantities: the pit survey shows fewer tonnes moved than the hours suggest.
Both numbers are real. The trouble starts when the contract doesn't say which one governs the invoice, or the reconciliation happens months after the dockets were signed. Queensland's Supreme Court dealt with this kind of dispute in Coleman v Prentice [2015] QSC 118, where an earthmoving contractor had billed hourly from day dockets checked by the miner's site supervisor and the other side argued the invoices were subject to a later survey reconciliation. The contractor won, largely because the signed dockets and the way the work was directed supported its case.
The practical lesson for both sides: decide up front what is measured, who signs it and when, and keep the signed record somewhere you can find it quickly.
Why this matters more for Queensland mining contractors
Queensland building contractors can make payment claims under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (the BIF Act). Section 65(3)(b) of that Act says construction work does not include "the extraction, whether by underground or surface working, of minerals, including tunnelling or boring, or constructing underground works, for that purpose". Courts have read that exclusion in different ways, so whether it applies to your contract is a question for your lawyer. But many mining contractors can't count on the statutory payment claim process, which makes clean, signed, easy-to-produce dockets even more important to getting paid. Check the current Act on legislation.qld.gov.au and get legal advice on your own contracts.
Month-end: accruing contractor costs before the invoices arrive
On the miner's side, the finance team has a different problem. Month-end closes before most contractor invoices arrive. To report an honest cost for the month, finance has to accrue the work that was done but not yet billed.
Without approved docket data, the accrual is usually one of these:
- last month's invoice rolled forward;
- a number phoned in by the site or contract manager;
- the purchase order value spread evenly across the months.
Each can be well off, and the difference only shows when the invoice turns up. If approved dockets go into a register by contract and cost centre, the accrual becomes a sum of signed work at contract rates. When the invoice arrives, the accrual reverses and the invoice is checked against the same dockets.
Matching invoices to dockets and POs
A sensible match on the miner's side checks three things:
- The PO: is there an open order for this contract, and is there enough left on it?
- The receipt: have the approved dockets been receipted against the PO?
- The invoice: does it agree with the receipted quantities and rates?
Larger miners enforce this match through supplier portals; our article on Ariba and Coupa invoice rejections for contractors covers how those portals reject invoices that don't line up. Mid-tier miners often run the same checks by email and spreadsheet, which works until the volume grows.
Rapid Global, Cm3 and other contractor management tools do a different job
Contractor management platforms such as Rapid Global, Cm3, Avetta and INX handle prequalification, inductions, insurances, licences and training records. They decide whether a contractor and their people are allowed on site. They are compliance tools, not billing tools. They don't produce invoices or month-end accruals, and nor should they.
The gap is keeping them in step with who is actually working:
- A person appears on dockets but their induction in the compliance platform has lapsed.
- A contractor is cleared in the platform but has no open purchase order.
- Insurance certificates are current in the platform but the purchasing system still shows the old expiry date.
Each platform does its own job well. The checks that join them (is everyone on today's dockets cleared to be on site? does every active contractor have a PO?) are usually done by hand, if at all. Ask your platform what it can export.
Getting one approved record to feed everything
The pattern we use, for either side, is the same:
- Capture once. Dockets, plods and timesheets go into one place, digital or scanned and keyed once, with the supervisor's approval recorded against them.
- Use it everywhere. The approved record feeds the invoice and payroll (contractor), and the PO receipt and accrual (miner).
- Check against compliance. Names and companies on the dockets are compared with the compliance platform, and anything out of step is flagged.
- Report by cost centre. Approved work rolls up by contract, pit, rig or machine, so cost is visible during the month, not after it.
Sometimes a single app is enough: a small drilling contractor with one client may be well served by a digital plod app with an accounting export. The joining work matters when there are several clients or sites, an accounting system that doesn't talk to the docket app, or accruals rebuilt in Excel every month. Our business process automation work and our mining services page describe how we approach this.
The technical side (for whoever looks after your systems)
Most docket and plod apps export approved records as files or through an API, and ERPs and accounting systems (MYOB Acumatica, Pronto, Business Central, Xero, MYOB) accept receipts, journals and bills through imports or APIs. The joining layer is usually a small scheduled job that pulls approved records, checks them against open POs and the compliance extract, and posts receipts or journals, sending exceptions to a person.
Frequently asked questions
Is Rapid Global or Cm3 a contractor billing system?
No. Rapid Global, Cm3, Avetta and INX manage contractor compliance: prequalification, inductions, insurances and training. Billing comes from your dockets, timesheets and purchase orders. The useful link is checking that the people on your dockets are cleared in the compliance platform.
What should a daily drilling report include for billing?
At a minimum: date and shift, rig, hole ID, metres drilled, rig hours split into drilling, standby and breakdown, consumables, crew, and the client representative's sign-off. Check your contract, because the agreed rates and standby rules decide which fields actually get paid.
How do we accrue contractor costs at month-end without invoices?
Use approved dockets for the month, priced at contract rates, by contract and cost centre. Reverse the accrual when the invoice arrives and check the invoice against the same dockets. Talk to your accountant about how this fits your month-end policy.
Does the Queensland security of payment law cover mining contractors?
Not always. Section 65(3)(b) of the BIF Act excludes mineral extraction work, including tunnelling or boring for that purpose, from construction work, and courts have applied it differently. Get legal advice on your own contracts.
If month-end is waiting on dockets, or invoices keep getting queried, book a free initial chat. We'll look at how your dockets, compliance records and accounts fit together today and give you a fixed quote for the work. You can also read more on our mining services page.