Big Dog Mining

Reporting Chain Cost, Shift Report to Invoice

What it costs your office to get the numbers from the shift report to the invoice: typing them in, building the client reports, and doing the invoicing. Surface or underground, drilling or development. It runs on your numbers only. There is no industry average on this page, because nobody publishes one worth trusting for office time.

Step 1 - How many shift reports

The numbers already in the boxes are an example, not a standard: 2 rigs on 2 shifts, 22 days a month, 25 minutes a report, 5 hours a week compiling, $35 an hour. Replace every one with yours.

Rigs or crews ?

Each one that sends in its own report. Example: 2.

Shifts a day ?per day Working days ?days/month

Step 2 - The office time

Only you know these. If you have to guess, the answer is a guess too. Timing five reports with a phone stopwatch beats any guess.

Minutes to type in one shift report ?min

Start to finish, including chasing a number you cannot read.

Times the same numbers get typed by hand ?

1 if they are typed in once. Client reports and invoices go in their own boxes below.

Building client or contract reports ?h/week

Weekly and monthly reports for the client. Example: 5.

Invoicing and checking it against the reports ?h/month

The example leaves this at 0. Put in yours.

Office rate ?per hour Currency ?

office cost a year

office hours a month

shift reports a month

each extra retype, a month

Step	Value	Where it comes from

Office hours a month, by stage

What each extra retype adds

What this does not count. It counts office time and nothing else. It does not count the driller's time filling in the report, a wrong meter that reaches an invoice and costs you a credit note, an invoice that goes out a week late and gets paid a week late, or a disputed variation you cannot back up because the numbers are in three places. Those can cost more than the typing. They are left out because this page will not put a number on something you did not give it.

Want those hours back?

We build the reporting and admin automation for mining contractors, so the shift report feeds the client report and the invoice without anybody typing it again.

Book a 20 min call

Worked example

Worked with the values this page loads with, so the method can be checked by hand, line by line without entering anything. Change any input above and the calculator recomputes; the numbers below stay as a fixed reference case.

$24,500
58.3 h
88
+36.7 h

Rigs or crews	2	your input
× shifts a day	2	your input
× working days a month	22	your input
= shift reports a month (2 × 2 × 22)	88	reports to type in
Typing in: 88 reports × 25 min ÷ 60	36.7 h	your minutes per report, 60 min an hour
× times the same numbers get typed	× 1	your input
= typing-in hours a month	36.7 h	stage 1
Client reports: 5.0 h a week × 52 ÷ 12	21.7 h	stage 2, 52 weeks and 12 months a year
Invoicing and checking	0.0 h	stage 3, your input
= office hours a month	58.3 h	stage 1 + stage 2 + stage 3
Typing in a year: 440 h × $35	$15,400	your rate
Client reports a year: 260 h × $35	$9,100	your rate
Invoicing a year: 0 h × $35	$0	your rate
= the reporting chain, a year	$24,500	the headline number

See all the calculators

Estimating aid only. The answer is only as good as the times you put in. It is not an accounting figure and not a quote. Check it against your own timesheets. Full terms and disclaimer.