How Construction Teams Use E-Signatures to Avoid Disputes
Emman Velos
Last update on:
July 10, 2025 10:43 AM
Published on:
When the job is done and your team’s already off-site, the last thing you expect is for problems to follow you. But then you start receiving some unwanted calls. It could be a disgruntled client, claiming “We never saw your crew,” or an employee complaining “That’s not how many hours I worked.”
In construction, these kinds of disputes happen more often than they should. When employees have conflicting opinions about the hours their team worked or you question the completion of a project, conflicts can quickly escalate into payroll errors and legal headaches.
When things go sideways, handwritten notes or memory alone won’t cut it. You need proof you can trust — clear records that show exactly what happened and when. For this, electronic signatures (e-signatures) can help.
From the field to the office — sign anywhere.
Digital signatures keep your crew connected and compliant.
Practical use cases for e-signatures in construction
On a busy construction site, disagreements are bound to happen. When you've got crews swapping out, tasks changing daily, and a million other things to juggle, an e-signature attached to reliable time records can keep those small confusions from turning into major headaches.
There are several everyday scenarios in construction where e-signatures can protect both your business and employees:
Timecard approvals
In construction, mistakes happen, especially after a long day. It could be something small like jotting down the wrong clock-out time or forgetting to log an extra hour of overtime. These minor mistakes may seem harmless, but little mistakes can turn into big headaches when it comes time to run payroll.
Picture this: your roofing crew just wrapped up a 10-hour shift. Everyone’s tired, the truck’s getting loaded, and the foreman’s juggling a dozen things at once. That’s usually when things slip through the cracks — someone writes the wrong clock-out time or forgets to complete their timecard.
This is where e-signatures can make a difference in construction job verification. They add a layer of accountability by asking employees to review and confirm their hours before the day is done.
With Timeero, your crew can just open the app, double-check their hours, and sign off right there on their phone before heading out. That way, there’s no debate at payroll time about “I was on the roof until 7” versus “the timecard says 5.”
Mileage reimbursements
Imagine you’re overseeing a crew of electricians or plumbers who spend their week hopping from site to site. By Friday, exact details about mileage and driving routes start to get fuzzy.
With digital signatures, field workers can confirm their mileage at the end of each workday while they are still on site. When workers sign off on daily timecards, they confirm that the mileage tracked and hours recorded are true and accurate.
Electronic signatures eliminate mileage reimbursement disputes since workers can’t claim that they “drove 50 miles on Monday” when the record they signed proves otherwise.
Job completion sign-offs
Final inspections of job sites can be a point of friction between work crews and clients. Without a formal sign-off, it’s your word against theirs. Even if your crew finished a project on time and followed the design plans, the client may still say the quality is sub-par or comment that elements are missing.
As frustrating as this may be, it's important you address your client's areas of complaint and document any steps you took to resolve the issues.
During the final walkthrough, your client can acknowledge improvements and approve the build by signing a job completion form via mobile device. The client's signature becomes part of the project record, protecting your crew from fault if the client later claims, “the crew never finished the job”.
Change orders or scope changes
During a tenant improvement job, the building owner suddenly decides to upgrade traditional standard doors to a reinforced model. A few weeks later, the owner receives the invoice from your company which shows extra hours and increased costs, he pushes back angrily, “Wait, I never agreed to this, no one told me this would cost extra!”.
These things happen all the time in construction. The smartest thing you can do? Get those changes in writing the moment they happen and have your client sign off right then and there.
That way, if questions pop up later (and they usually do), you’re not relying on memory or a paper trail that’s gone missing. You’ve got their signature, the time it was signed, and any notes from the job all saved and ready to back you up.
Break attestations in regulated states
If you’re running a construction team in a state like California, you already know how strict meal and rest break laws can be — and how expensive mistakes can get. But keeping track of breaks can be an even bigger challenge when you’ve got a crew on-site working long shifts.
Consider the example of a concrete team working a long pour schedule on a freeway barrier project in Southern California. The work is continuous, the timeline is tight, and stopping for a break could throw the entire process off.
But the law doesn’t care about how urgent the job is. If employees miss their breaks, and you can’t prove otherwise, your company could be exposed to wage claims, premium pay liabilities, or even PAGA lawsuits.
To ensure compliance, you can pair e-signatures with digital break attestation forms. These forms create a verifiable record that confirms each employee was provided with a break. They can then respond, confirming that they took their breaks at the scheduled times, or provide a valid reason for missing them, certified with their digital signature.
How do Timeero’s e-signatures verify work hours and job completion?
When the only proof you have of employee work hours is a scribbled timesheet with initials, you’re opening the door to costly mistakes and disputes that can spiral into legal liabilities.
Timeero’s e-signature feature is built for construction teams who need to document work in the field and resolve time tracking disputes quickly while keeping operations running smoothly.
Let’s explore how your business can leverage Timeero’s e-signatures as clear, defensible records.
In-app time and mileage verification
When your crews are finished with work for the day, all they need to do is open the Timeero mobile app, double check hours and mileage records for accuracy and then sign their timecard electronically all from their mobile device.
Employees’ signatures are attached to each time entry.
Employees’ digital signatures are attached automatically to their timesheet, making it easy for your office team or supervisors to approve time logs for payroll.
Clients are also given the ability to add their signatures to employee timecards. When your company finishes up a large-scale project, clients can sign directly on the screen to confirm the job has been completed to their satisfaction. A client’s recorded signature is automatically stored in Timeero, and links directly to the employee’s timesheet that displays project details.
Back in the office, staff can access client signatures in real-time from the web portal by navigating to the “Time & Mileage” section. You can pull up a list of signatures for any project, preview them, and see exactly who signed and when. If there’s a client dispute later on, you have clear evidence right at your fingertips to resolve it.
Time-stamped signatures for record validity
Timeero automatically records the exact date and time every signature was added to the timesheet, as well as the type (employee or client) and the signer’s identity. Even if a supervisor edits the timesheet later to fix a mistake, Timeero preserves the original signature timestamp and keeps a detailed history of changes made.
Each signature is timestamped with the exact date and time it was added.
A detailed signature history can be found right in the timesheet record, making it easy to cross-check clock-out times, mileage edits, or miscellaneous updates without any need for manual recordkeeping.
Real-time project tracking to avoid disputes and miscommunication
Requiring signatures at clock-out helps you avoid spending countless hours chasing employees down to sign their timecards. By weaving signatures directly into your daily workflows, you no longer have to decipher handwritten timecards or rely on word-of-mouth approvals.
With Timeero, employees sign off from their mobile device, clients confirm the job was finished, and managers view signed records instantly in the cloud. The real-time, transparent recordkeeping Timeero provides gives you an ironclad backup against time tracking disputes, client arguments, and payroll errors.
Best practices for using Timeero’s E-signature
Timeero’s e-signature feature gives you more than just a digital “OK” on a form — it gives you proof that can hold up when things get messy. But here’s the truth: a signature only helps if your crew actually uses it the right way.
If your crew skips steps, workers forget to ask clients for digital signatures, or supervisors aren’t checking reports, your digital paper trail won’t hold up when it counts. The key is to make thorough documentation a habit — something your team does automatically, every day.
Here are some practical guidelines to get the most out of Timeero’s Electronic Signature feature:
Have employees sign off at the end of each shift
The best time to sign off a timesheet? Right after clocking out — not three hours later, not the next morning. Signing timesheets on-site, while the day is still fresh in your mind, makes all the difference.
To sign a time card before clocking out, just tap Signature on the time clock.
It’s a small step that takes less than a minute. But it adds up to fewer mistakes, cleaner records, and way less back-and-forth later if questions come up.
Train field crews on when and how to sign
Your crews already deal with enough — shifting schedules, equipment delays, clients checking in mid-task. The last thing they need is a confusing process tacked on at the end of a long day.
That’s why it’s on you to make the e-signatures process crystal clear.
Make sure field teams understand whenthey are expected to sign:
After clocking out, to confirm their digital timesheets
Whenever they edit or adjust their timesheet, to validate the updated entry
Following mileage-heavy days, to verify travel distances
Immediately after a job is completed, to collect client sign-off
After inspections or safety walkthroughs, to acknowledge any findings or fixes
Whenever a change order is approved, to lock in new agreements
On break attestation forms in regulated states, to confirm legal compliance
Make sure your field teams understand howto add their signatures at clock-out:
From the Timeero app, navigate to the “Time Entries” tab
Ask employees to scan through their shift details
If they forgot to add a break or log a site note, they can tap the pencil icon to fix it
Attach their personal digital signature to confirm the accuracy of the timecard
The easier you make the process, the more likely your team will follow it.
Review signature logs weekly
Supervisors or office admins should build a habit of reviewing Timeero’s signature reports at least once a week, and more often if you have a high volume of jobs. This proactive step makes it much easier to fix gaps before payday rather than scrambling when a wage dispute or client complaint arises.
While in the Time & Mileage window, choose Signatures as the filter to find all time entries with an attached signature.
When you review the logs, make sure to look beyond whether a signature exists. You should also double-check:
The date and timestamp of the signature to confirm if it aligns with the recorded work hours or mileage
The signer’s name to ensure it’s the correct employee or authorized client
Any edits made to the timesheet or mileage log after the signature was captured to spot inconsistencies
Job details such as site location, work performed, and any related notes to confirm everything aligns with project specifications
To find each of the details listed above, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Time and Mileage section from the web portal
Select the relevant timesheet
Click on the signature icon near the top right to preview the attached signatures and their details
Collect customer signatures when jobs are completed
Even when your crew executes the job to perfection, it’s not unusual to get a call later from a client saying something wasn’t done. Maybe they’re missing a repair they swore was part of the scope, or maybe they just forgot that they signed off on a change order in the middle of a busy week.
It happens. But when it does, the last thing you want is to be stuck relying on someone’s memory for construction job verification.
Client signatures are attached to each time card to support all findings within that time period.
That’s why it’s a good habit to get clients to verify work completion via e-signature before your crew packs up for the day.
Use digital break attestation forms
States like California have strict labor laws that require meal and rest breaks be given to all employees. Every construction worker, whether they’re behind a desk or knee-deep in rebar on a 12-hour pour, are required to take their mandated breaks.
California employees sign break attestation forms to demonstrate legal compliance with meal and rest break laws.
While making sure those breaks are available is one thing, it’s just as important to be able to prove they actually happened. If you can’t show evidence that employees took their breaks, you could be on the hook — even if you did everything right.
With Timeero’s California Break Attestation form, employees are required to document whether or not they took their legally required breaks. If they did not take their break, they are asked to provide a reason. This prevents you from being held liable for penalty pay and holds your employees accountable.
Enable California Break Policy in Timeero’s Company Settings to activate employee break attestations.
To enable break attestation, follow these steps:
From the Timeero web portal, navigate to Company Settings
Find the California Break Policy line
Toggle the button to the “on”
Once enabled, Timero will automatically prompt the appropriate employees to complete and sign the form when they clock out at the end of their shift.
You can access California Break Policy reports at any time through the Reports > Daily Sign-Offs section in the web portal.
Build proof into every project with Timeero
In construction, the word of your employees should be enough, but too often it’s not. Without reliable tracking methods there’s no way to prove that your workers showed up to work on time or stayed the entirety of their shift
Timeero’s e-signature feature gives you the proof to protect your business. From job completion forms to digital time cards and mileage logs, every signature is securely stored, time-stamped, and easily accessible when questions arise.
Safeguard your business and increase employee accountability with Timeero.
Emman is a passionate writer with more than 6 years of digital marketing experience under his belt. As a licensed chemical engineer with a passion for writing, he marries the technical with the creative to create engaging copy that converts. He is also a certified #girldad who spends most of his day playing with his three girls when he's not busy writing.
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