Field note 01 · Heavy civil operations · Admin & workflow automation
From paper timesheets to a digital workflow handling about 90 a day
Paper timesheets were collected, checked, copied and filed by hand. A digital form, a Power Automate flow and a PDF template replaced the handling.
Built by RootN’s founder as an engineer inside a Western Canadian heavy-civil contractor’s equipment operation. The employer and its systems are not named.
- 60,000+
- timesheets processed, over more than two years
- ~90
- timesheets a day
- 3 roles
- of manual processing no longer needed
- ~$300k
- a year in manual admin labour
The situation
About 90 timesheets a day arrived on paper. They were collected, checked, copied and filed by hand, which took the equivalent of three full-time roles and left no searchable digital record.
What was built
A digital timesheet form in Microsoft Forms, connected to Power Automate. Each submission produces a standard PDF through a document-generation connector, and the record is saved and filed automatically with no handling in between. It was designed to cope with the daily swings in volume.
The result
More than 60,000 timesheets processed, at roughly 90 a day. The manual processing, work equal to three full-time roles and about $300k a year in admin labour, is no longer needed.
What’s still manual
Approved hours are still keyed into the construction ERP. Sending them in through the ERP’s API is the planned next step.
What this means for you
Where the same pattern applies
If your crews still hand in paper (timesheets, field tickets, inspections), the same pattern applies, and it usually runs on Microsoft 365 licences you already have.