Why reconcile equipment hours before paying the invoice?
Hired plant is usually paid by the hour, the day or the month, often with a minimum number of hours per day. The invoice is built from the hours on the timesheet, so every hour that is written down but not worked is paid for.
This equipment timesheet template puts three numbers side by side for each machine and day: the working hours on the site report, the hour meter, and the active hours recorded by the tracker. When they agree, the engineer approves the day. When they do not, the row is flagged before it reaches the invoice.
Which billing rule does the template use?
You choose the rule on Settings to match your hire contract. Breakdown hours are never billable under any rule.
| Rule | Billable hours per day |
|---|---|
| Working hours | Working hours only |
| Working + standby | Working hours + standby caused by the client |
| Minimum per day or working + standby | The larger of (daily minimum − breakdown hours) and (working + standby) |
Overtime is billable hours above the machine's normal hours per day, charged at the overtime rate when the contract has one. VAT is a setting: the example is 15% for Saudi Arabia, and the UAE rate is 5%; check the current rate with your tax authority.
How to use the equipment timesheet
- Set the month and the billing rule on Settings, and the variance tolerance you accept.
- List every machine on Equipment and rates with its rate type, rate, minimum hours and overtime rate from the hire contract.
- Add one row per machine per day from the site report: start, end, hour meter, breakdown, standby and working hours.
- Paste tracker active hours from your tracking system's equipment activity report, if your machines have trackers.
- Clear every Check before the engineer approves the day: correct the entry or write the reason in Remarks.
- At month end type each supplier invoice amount on Monthly billing check and follow up on every Invoice higher.
How are variance and the invoice amount calculated?
The tolerances (0.5 h, 10% and an invoice tolerance of 50) are examples on Settings. Utilization = working hours ÷ (days on site × available hours per day).
Worked example: one month, six machines
October 2026, rule "Minimum per day or working + standby", VAT 15%, amounts in USD.
- EX-03 excavator, hourly at 180: on 8 October the site report shows 9.5 working hours, the meter 9.5, the tracker 8.1. The variance of 1.4 h is above the larger of 0.5 h and 0.81 h, so the row shows Check against tracker. On 15 October it works 11.5 h, 1.5 h of overtime at 220. Month: 193.5 billable hours, amount 34,890, total with VAT 40,123.5. Invoice 40,124: Matches.
- WL-01 loader, daily at 1,400: 21 days with billable hours give 29,400, or 33,810 with VAT. The invoice is 35,420, 1,610 higher: exactly one more day with VAT. Ask the supplier which day.
- DT-07 dump truck, hourly at 120: it broke down for 6 hours on 13 and 14 October. Those 12 hours are not billable, so the amount is 24,909 with VAT. The invoice of 26,565 is 1,656 higher: the 12 breakdown hours at 120 plus VAT.
- MC-02 crane, monthly at 42,000: on hire from 5 October, so 27 of 31 days: 36,581 before VAT. On 20 to 22 October the tracker shows 2.5 hours less each day; the monthly variance is 7.5%, within 10%, but the daily rows are flagged for review.
Common mistakes in equipment timesheets
- Counting breakdown as standby. Standby is time the machine waits because of the client. A machine that cannot work is breakdown.
- Copying the planned shift as working hours. Write the hours the machine actually worked.
- Signing the timesheet days later. The engineer approves the same day, while the site still remembers what happened.
- Forgetting the demobilization date. Monthly hire keeps running until the machine leaves site.
- Treating the tracker as the final word. A gap between working and tracker hours is a question to answer, not an automatic deduction. Your contract decides what is paid.
Limits of the template
The template is a checking tool. It does not replace the hire contract, which sets rates, minimums, overtime and VAT. It assumes one row per machine per day and one shift per row; split a double shift into two rows for the same day only if your contract bills them separately. For the full cost of an owned machine per productive hour, use the Equipment Hourly Cost Calculator, and for the pre-start check use the Heavy Equipment Daily Inspection Checklist.