NDT Timesheets for Inspection Technicians

Technician hours per job, feeding payroll and client invoicing. Request a demo. Affordable. Accessible. Fully customizable. Quote on request.

Why NDT timesheets are harder than they look

For an office business, a timesheet is a record of hours. For an NDT company it is the basis of the invoice, the evidence of who did what on a client's site, and often the only record of the standby hours the client agreed to pay for. Get it wrong and you either under-bill or end up in an argument with the client's accounts team.

The usual setup is paper or spreadsheets. Technicians fill in sheets on site, sometimes countersigned by the client's representative, then photograph them and send them in at the end of the week or the end of the job. The office re-keys them into payroll and billing. Travel days get lumped in with inspection days. Standby while the client sorts out a permit is noted in the margin, if at all. Nobody records which flaw detector or crawler was on the job, so equipment charges are guessed. And nobody checks, at the moment the hours are logged, whether the technician's cert was actually valid.

The Timesheets app in Atlantis NDT ERP is set up for exactly this work. Each entry records the work type (inspection, travel, standby or setup), the method, whether it is billable, a rate multiplier, the site, the client, the equipment serial and an approval, and the system warns if the technician's certificate is not valid. Billable hours feed billing.

Atlantis NDT ERP is, pre-configured for inspection companies and deployed by our team. It is affordable, accessible and fully customizable, and pricing is quote on request.

What an NDT timesheet entry holds

Every line a technician or supervisor logs carries the detail an NDT business needs to bill and to prove the work:

That is more than generic timesheet software asks for, but each field removes a question later. The accounts team no longer asks the crew lead which days were travel. The client's reviewer can see that standby was logged as standby, not hidden in inspection. The QA manager can see which method each technician worked on, on which site.

Hours are logged against the job in the Project app, so the timesheet, the job's client PO and contract, and its scope all line up. When the invoice is raised, the hours are already tied to the right PO.

How entries are made in practice, whether by each technician, by the crew lead for the whole crew, or by the office from client-signed sheets during a transition period, is agreed during implementation.

Work types: inspection, travel, standby and setup

NDT contracts rarely pay one flat rate for every hour. Separating time by work type is what lets you bill each kind of hour correctly and see where the day actually went.

Inspection

Hands-on testing: scanning welds, shooting radiographs, applying penetrant, taking thickness readings. This is the core billable time and the hours clients expect to see.

Travel

Mobilising to site, driving between sites, flights to remote jobs. Many contracts treat travel differently from inspection time, and some do not pay for it at all. Logging it separately means you bill it where the contract allows and still see what it costs you where it does not.

Standby

The crew is on site and ready, but the permit has not been issued, the scaffolding is not up, or the client's operations team has not released the line. Standby is one of the easiest sources of revenue for an NDT company to lose, because it is easy to forget and awkward to raise at invoice time. Recording it as it happens, with the site and client, gives you the record you need to charge it where your contract allows.

Setup

Instrument checks on site, PAUT setup and focal law checks, film preparation, surface preparation. Setup is real work that is often under-reported because technicians see it as part of the job rather than as time.

With the four types separated, the operations manager can also see patterns: a client whose jobs always carry heavy standby, or a site where travel eats half the week. That is useful information when you next quote the same client.

Billable flag and rate multiplier

Not every hour is billable, and not every billable hour is billed at the same rate. Atlantis NDT ERP handles both on the timesheet line itself.

The billable flag says whether the client pays for this time. Internal training, workshop maintenance, a re-inspection caused by your own error, or travel the contract does not cover can all be logged but marked non-billable. The hours still count for payroll and for understanding cost; they just do not appear on the invoice.

The rate multiplier covers time that is billable at a different rate. Typical NDT examples, depending on your contract terms, are overtime beyond a standard day, weekend or public holiday work, and night shifts during a shutdown. The multiplier is recorded on the line, so billing applies it instead of an accounts clerk trying to work it out from a handwritten note.

This matters most during turnarounds and shutdowns. Crews work long, irregular hours; days blur together; and at the end the client receives a large invoice they will check line by line. If the hours, work types and multipliers are recorded as the work happens and approved by your supervisor, the invoice is easier to defend and quicker to get paid.

The actual multiplier values and the rules for when each applies come from your contracts and are set up with you during implementation. The ERP does not decide your commercial terms; it records them consistently so they are applied the same way every time.

Certificate validity warnings: no unqualified hours slip through

One of the most uncomfortable discoveries in NDT is finding, after the job, that a technician's certification for the method they were working on had expired. The work may need repeating, the reports may be questioned, and the client's trust takes a hit.

Atlantis NDT ERP connects Timesheets to the Certificates app. When hours are logged, the system warns if the technician's certificate is not valid. The Certificates app holds each technician's scheme (SNT-TC-1A, CP-189, ISO 9712, PCN, CSWIP or other), level, method, certifying body and issue, expiry and renewal dates, and works out the status automatically: active, expiring soon within 90 days, expired or revoked.

The timesheet warning is the last line of defence. The earlier ones are:

• Daily checks that create warning tasks 90 days before a cert or vision test expires.
• Configurable email alerts to the people you choose, with look-ahead days and resend intervals.
• Expiring Soon and Expired menus for the QA manager or Level III.
• Dashboard counts of certs expiring and expired.

With those in place, a warning at the timesheet stage should be rare. When it does appear, it appears while the job is still live, which is when you can do something about it: swap the technician, reassign the method, or correct the cert record if it was simply out of date.

For the Level III, this is practical evidence that the company's written practice is being applied in the field, not only in the QA office.

Equipment serial numbers on the timesheet

NDT equipment is expensive and often billed to clients as a separate line: a PAUT set, a TOFD scanner, a crawler, an eddy current instrument. Yet many companies have no reliable record of which instrument was used on which job on which day.

The equipment serial field on each timesheet entry closes that gap. When a technician logs hours of UT on a site, the entry records the serial number of the flaw detector used. That does three useful things:

1. Billing. Equipment charges can be based on recorded use rather than a guess. NDT invoice lines in the Invoicing app can carry the equipment serial, technician, method, rate type and days or hours, with subtotals for labour, equipment and consumables.
2. Traceability. If a calibration check later shows that an instrument was out of tolerance, you can filter timesheets by its serial to find the jobs it was used on and the reports that may need review.
3. Usage history. Over time, you build a record of which instruments are used heavily and which sit in stores, which helps when deciding whether to buy, rent or retire kit.

The equipment itself is managed in Asset Management: serial number, type, assigned person, condition, lifecycle state, calibration records and certificate register, and issue and return with approvals. Team Assignments blocks double-booking of the same serial and warns if an assigned instrument is out of calibration. The timesheet adds the day-by-day record of actual use.

Approval before anything is billed

Timesheets feed the invoice and payroll, so they need checking before they leave the building. Each entry in Atlantis NDT ERP carries an approval, so a supervisor or crew lead confirms the hours before they are used.

A typical approval routine in an NDT company looks like this:

1. Technicians or the crew lead log hours daily against the job and task, with work type, method, site, equipment serial and billable flag.
2. The crew lead or site supervisor reviews the entries, checking work types and standby against the site diary and any client-signed sheet.
3. The operations manager approves, paying attention to rate multipliers and any cert warnings.
4. Approved billable hours go to billing; non-billable hours stay visible for cost and payroll.

Approving daily or weekly, rather than at the end of a long job, catches mistakes while people still remember what happened. It also means the invoice is ready soon after the job closes, instead of waiting for a pile of paper sheets to be collected and typed.

Some clients require their own representative to sign timesheets on site. That remains your process with the client; the ERP holds your approved record, and the client-signed sheets can be attached to the job for reference. Who approves at each level is set during implementation to match your structure.

From timesheet to invoice and dashboard

The reason to capture all this detail is what happens next. In Atlantis NDT ERP, billable timesheet hours, with their billable flag and rate multiplier, feed billing in the Invoicing app.

NDT invoices carry the project, job or PO number, site, invoice type and industry sector, and split subtotals for labour, equipment and consumables. Lines can show cost centre, method, equipment serial, technician, rate type and days or hours. That is the level of detail large operators and EPCs tend to ask for, and it comes straight from the timesheet rather than being rebuilt by hand. Taxes are configured per country during implementation, and payments and reminders use standard Atlantis ERP features.

The same data flows into the financial dashboard: revenue, cost of sales, gross margin, operating expenses, EBITDA, outstanding invoices, bills and expenses, with a 12-month view. When timesheets are complete and approved on time, those figures are current rather than a month behind.

Timesheets also connect to the rest of the field picture. Team Assignments shows each technician's utilisation and next available date. Time Off feeds the availability calendar. Expenses captures per diems and field costs that can be re-billed to jobs. Reports themselves are produced in the NDT Reports app, and if your clients want results on a 3D model of their asset, our companion product Digital Twin Reporting Software works alongside the ERP.

The effect is one chain from the hour worked on site to the line on the client's invoice, without anybody re-typing it along the way.

Who uses Timesheets

• Technicians log their hours, method, work type and equipment against the job, and see a warning if their cert is not valid.
• Crew leads and site supervisors check entries against the site diary and approve them.
• Operations managers review standby, travel and multipliers, and see which jobs are running over.
• QA manager or Level III watch for cert warnings and use method records as evidence of the written practice working in the field.
• Accounts invoice from approved hours instead of paper sheets, and use non-billable hours for cost and payroll.
• Owners see the result in the financial dashboard and in the balance of billable against non-billable time.

Access rights, so that technicians see their own entries while supervisors see their crews, are set up during implementation.

Setting up Timesheets

Atlantis NDT deploys and configures the ERP. For Timesheets, the main work is:

1. Work types and methods. Confirm the work types and the methods your company offers.
2. Rate multipliers. Map your contract terms for overtime, weekends and night work to multiplier values.
3. Approval chain. Decide who logs hours, who checks them and who approves.
4. Certificates and equipment. Load technician certs and instrument serial numbers so warnings and equipment fields work from day one.
5. Billing link. Configure how approved hours flow into invoices, including taxes for your country.
6. Training. Short sessions for technicians, supervisors and accounts.

Timesheets usually goes live together with Project, Certificates and Invoicing. See all ERP apps to plan your rollout, or book a Timesheets demo to see NDT timesheet entries, warnings and billing in action.

Frequently asked questions

What work types can technicians log?

Inspection, travel, standby and setup. Each entry also records method, billable flag, rate multiplier, site, client, equipment serial and approval.

Does the system stop a technician with an expired cert from logging hours?

It warns when the technician's certificate is not valid, so the supervisor can act while the job is live. Earlier warnings come from daily expiry checks, email alerts and the Certificates app's Expiring Soon and Expired menus.

Can we bill standby and overtime?

Yes, where your contract allows. Standby is a work type of its own, and a rate multiplier on each line handles overtime, weekend or night rates as you define them.

How do timesheet hours reach the invoice?

Billable hours feed billing in the Invoicing app, where lines can show method, technician, equipment serial, rate type and days or hours.

Can the crew lead log hours for the whole crew?

Yes, if that suits your company. Who logs and who approves is agreed during implementation.

Can we still use client-signed paper timesheets?

Yes. Many clients require them. Your approved ERP record sits alongside, and the signed sheet can be attached to the job for reference.

How is Timesheets priced?

Atlantis NDT ERP is quote on request, based on the apps and customization you need, and designed to be affordable for NDT companies of any size.

Bill every hour you worked, and prove who worked it

If your timesheets arrive as photos of paper at the end of a job, if standby goes unbilled and if nobody checks certs when hours are logged, the Timesheets app fixes all three in the same step. Your technicians log once; billing, compliance and your dashboard all use the same record.

Request a quote for Atlantis NDT ERP or book a demo and we will walk through your current timesheet process with you.

Works with

• Team Assignments: Assign qualified technicians and crews to jobs by method, level and availability.
• Project: Inspection projects, tasks and milestones from award to final report.
• Asset Management: NDT equipment by serial number: issue and return, reservations, calibration and maintenance history.
• Maintenance: Preventive and corrective maintenance requests for instruments, vehicles and site equipment.
• Fleet: Vehicles, drivers and service records for field crews.
• Calendar: Shared schedules for jobs, audits and client meetings.
• To-do: Personal and team task lists linked to jobs and records.

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