Job sheet
A job sheet is the record of what was actually done on a job: the work carried out, the materials used, the hours worked, and the customer's signature confirming it. It is completed on site, at the time, and becomes the evidence behind the invoice.
In practice for trades
The job sheet is the difference between invoicing what you did and invoicing what you remember. Written up on site it takes two minutes. Reconstructed on a Sunday evening a fortnight later it is a guess, and the parts that get forgotten are always the chargeable ones.
Three things make a job sheet worth filling in. It backs the invoice, so a customer querying a bill is answered with a dated record rather than an argument. It feeds job costing, because the hours and materials on it are the actual cost of that job. And the signature closes the door on "I never asked for that", which is where most small disputes start.
Keep it separate in your head from the work order. A work order authorises work before it starts. A job sheet records it after. The same job usually has both, and on variations the job sheet is what proves the extra work happened.
The one field trades leave blank is the customer signature. An unsigned job sheet is still useful internally, but it stops being evidence.
Worked example
An engineer records 6.5 hours on site, £84 of materials, and a replaced part not on the original quote. At a £57 charge-out rate the sheet supports £370.50 of labour plus materials, and the unquoted part becomes a priced variation rather than a write-off.
Related terms
- Work order: the instruction that authorises the work before it starts
- Site diary: the day-by-day record across a whole project
- Delivery note: proof of what materials actually arrived
Do it in FieldHive
Produce a job sheet with work carried out, materials, time and customer sign-off using the Job Sheet Generator.
Job Sheet Generator→
