Abstract:
The invention relates to systems, methods, and devices for automatically reconciling information among multiple records. Systems and methods of the invention are operable to automatically reconcile differences among a gatelog, a shift ticket, and an activity report by applying rules. Since the invention is able to automate and standardize the reconciliation, the results are rapid and predictable and conform to expectations.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/591,496, filed Jan. 27, 2012, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The invention generally relates to the reconciliation of time records. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Many contractors go to customer facilities to perform services. For example, customers in the refinery, petrochemical, paper, steel, pharmaceutical, food, and automotive industries often contract with an outside firm for the contractor to come perform maintenance, repairs, construction, inspection, and related services at facilities such as factories, plants, oil fields, or other installations. Typically, a contract may identify certain amounts of time or materials that the contractor may expend performing the service. A contract may even specify allowed times or materials for a specific contractor. For example, a given contractor may be allowed to bill out up to 4 hours for a given pipe cleaning and to use up to 50′ of hose at the customer&#39;s expense. After the service visit, the contractor will send an invoice billing for the expended time and materials. Some customers track these values in their own internal contract management programs. 
         [0004]    Contractor firms may send their invoice from administrative offices that are not necessarily located near the site of service. For the administrator to prepare the invoice, he typically relies on the technician who performed the service to report the amounts of materials and time spent at the facility. For example, a technician may write up a shift ticket recording that a particular pipe-cleaning job required five hours and 100′ of hose. 
         [0005]    Problems arise at multiple levels. Technicians do not always accurately record their time. Obviously, this can damage the relationship between customer and contractor if, for example, a technician overbills. If the technician spends an hour on-site, and the bill is for two hours, the contractor may end up spending more time resolving the dispute than the entire service visit was worth. But more subtly, if the quantities on the shift ticket do not conform to the expectations of the parties, they may be handled inconsistently. Some administrators may write the bills down to an approved quantity, not knowing that overtime is approved. Some technicians may habitually round their time to the nearest hour, even if the result is that they consistently round down (e.g., every 8.5 hour day is written down as an 8 hour day). At another level, administrators introduce human error when they manually reconcile the shift tickets with reports from the customer&#39;s software. For a contractor to track services accurately and prepare invoices that conform with policies of the contractor and the customer requires administrative personnel to spend large amounts of time carefully inspecting all of the incoming information. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    The invention provides systems and methods for using information from a gatelog to reconcile information from shift tickets and contract management reports. Where conflicting values are found, such as difference exceeding some threshold, one or more rules are applied to determine a value that conforms with intents or expectations. When a technician uses a security device such as an electronic badge to go in or out of a customer&#39;s facility a gatelog is produced that contains a record of “badge-in” and “badge-out” times. Systems and methods of the invention integrate this customer document into a contractor&#39;s reconciliation process along with any report from the customer&#39;s contract management software. The contractor&#39;s computer system can then reconcile the gatelog and customer reports against the shift tickets or any other records. Problematic entries can be flagged as “exceptions” and can be resolved automatically within the system by the application of rules. Exceptions that meet some criterion can be flagged for human review as desired. Not only are time exceptions reconciled or resolved by an administrator (e.g., overtime approved, quantities adjusted, explanatory notes added), contract items (e.g., labor, equipment, materials) may be so allocated to produce a report containing amounts of materials and time that conform to contract expectations. The conforming report may be used in billing and may be automatically transmitted into the customer&#39;s contract management software. 
         [0007]    Since manual reconciliation of the gatelog with the shift tickets and customer report is avoided, labor costs are minimized. Additionally, human error—which causes potential lost revenue, overbilling, or damage to customer relations—is avoided. Further, since default rules are used for reconciling exceptions, inconsistencies (some rounded up, some rounded down) or unwarranted actions (ignoring or deleting an odd-seeming entry from a bill) are avoided. 
         [0008]    In certain aspects, the invention provides a method for reconciling invoice data. The method includes receiving, at a computer system, an activity report comprising an approved time for billing, a shift ticket comprising a reported billable time, and a gatelog comprising a badge-in time and a badge-out time. The badge-in time and the badge-out time are preferably generated by a person activating a security device at a facility entrance. A work duration is automatically determined based on the badge-in time and the badge-out time and a difference among the approved time for billing, the reported billable time, and the work duration is identified. A rule is applied to the difference to determine a conforming billable time and a conforming report comprising the conforming billable time is produced. In some embodiments, the rule provides that if the reported billable time equals the work duration then the conforming billable time is the reported billable time. Alternatively or additionally, the rule may provide that if the work duration is less than the reported billable time by a pre-determined amount, then the conforming billable time is determined by prompting for user input. The rule may provide that the approved time for billing is the conforming billable time unless the work duration is less than the approved time for billing by a preset threshold (e.g., zero, five minutes, six minutes, ten minutes, quarter of an hour, etc.). Any rule may be employed. For example, the rule could provide that the conforming billable time will be the higher of the approved time for billing and the reported billable time except that in no case will the conforming billable time exceed the work duration. 
         [0009]    Preferably, the activity report and the gatelog is received automatically from an independent customer computer system. The method can further include transmitting the conforming report to the independent customer computer system (e.g., as an invoice). 
         [0010]    In certain embodiments, systems and methods of invention reconcile items as well as time. For example, the activity report may include an approved equipment list and the shift ticket may include a list of equipment used. Application of the method can make a comparison between the list of equipment used and the approved equipment list and apply a rule to the comparison to determine a final equipment list. The conforming report may include the final equipment list. 
         [0011]    In related aspects, the invention provides a computer system for reconciling invoice data. The system is operable to receive an activity report that includes an approved time for billing, a shift ticket comprising a reported billable time, and a gatelog. The system can automatically determine a work duration based on the badge-in time and the badge-out time; automatically identify a difference among the approved time for billing, the reported billable time, and the work duration; apply a rule to the difference to determine a conforming billable time; and produce a conforming report comprising the conforming billable time. Generally, the computer system will operate by means of a processor operably coupled to a tangible, non-transitory memory. In some embodiments, the system will include a network communication device operable to automatically receive the activity report and the gatelog from an independent customer computer system, to transmit the conforming report to the independent customer computer system, or both. The system may receive material generated by a tracking computer program running on the independent customer computer system. 
         [0012]    In certain embodiments, the activity report will include an approved equipment list and the shift ticket will include a list of equipment used. The system may make a comparison between the list of equipment used and the approved equipment list. Further, the system may apply a rule to the comparison to determine a final equipment list. This can be done so that the system will produce a conforming report that includes the final equipment list. 
         [0013]    In certain aspects, the invention provides a method of reconciling time using an electronic computer device that includes receiving a first and a second time value, comparing the first time value to the second time value to identify an exception, and applying a rule to determine an output time value. Any values can be written to a file. The time values can come from a gatelog, a shift ticket, manual input, or another source. In some embodiments, an exception is identified if a difference between a first time value and a second time value is greater than a preset criterion (e.g., 1 minute, 6 minutes, 7 minutes, 14 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour, a day, etc.). The output time can be obtained by choosing the larger of the first and second time values; choosing the smaller of the first and second time values; calculating the average of the first and second time values; choosing the first or the second time value based on an external criterion; or simply choosing the first time value. 
         [0014]    In certain embodiments, the system receives information from a contract (i.e., “consults a contract”, which can mean looking up data in a table in a database, the data in the table relating to a contract). After creating the output value, the data in the table or any other contract file or data may be updated. For example, a pre-set number of hours in a contract may be getting “billed out” over time. 
         [0015]    In certain aspects, the invention provides an apparatus for electronic time reconciliation comprising an input device, an output device, and a memory coupled to a processor. The apparatus can receive data comprising a first and second time value, compare them to identify an exception, and apply a rule to determine an output time value. The apparatus can then write a file containing the output time value. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  diagrams work information from a customer perspective. 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  shows information flow from a contractor perspective. 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  depicts documents that provide information. 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  presents a diagram of a contractor system. 
           [0020]      FIG. 5  charts the flow of methods according to some embodiments. 
           [0021]      FIG. 6  illustrates components of systems of the inventions of certain embodiments. 
           [0022]      FIG. 7  represents a display for accessing modules of the invention. 
           [0023]      FIG. 8  gives an information flow result. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0024]    The invention generally relates to systems and methods for reconciling reports of time and materials used in performing services. Embodiments of the invention are discussed in terms of a customer and a contractor. It will be recognized that these labels are illustrative of possible roles and are not limiting. Steps and operations as well as systems discussed herein may be attributable to one or more parties of any description. In some embodiments, a contractor is a firm that sends a technician to a facility, or site, of a customer to perform a service, such as cleaning, repair, building, maintenance, or inspection. The technician generally performs a service at the facility as described in a contract. The facility will generally have an entrance, such as a door or gate, that features a security device operable to record a technician&#39;s entrance or exit times. 
         [0025]      FIG. 1  shows how information may flow from the customer&#39;s perspective. A customer may decide to manage and administer a contract  101  through the use of a customer system  105 , which can run software used for contract management. Contract management software can include office productivity software such as word processor or spreadsheets. In some embodiments, contract management software is provided by a purpose-built program such as the contract management software sold under the trademark ARIBA by Ariba, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) or that sold under the trademark EMPTORIS by IBM Corporation (Armonk, NY). In certain embodiments, customer system  105  uses the software sold under the trademark TRACK by Track Software (Houston, Tex.). 
         [0026]    A customer contracts for service to be performed at a facility at which there is a gate  109  with a security device. Typically, a customer will issue a badge to a technician, and the technician can use the badge to activate the security device and pass through gate  109 . When a technician activates the security device to enter the facility via gate  109 , this is deemed a “badge-in” event. Leaving the facility in this manner is deemed a “badge-out” event. Logging such events is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,261,319 to Libin, the contents of which are incorporated by reference. The security device includes hardware that recognizes the presence of the technician at gate  109  and records badge-in and badge-out events. The security device can operate by RFID, GPS, biometric devices, or a computer kiosk that requires a PIN, password, or other data-based interaction. In certain embodiments, a badge is a device such as a plastic card that includes a readable-tag, such as an RFID chip. The security device can include a card reader. For example, security device  111  can include the card reader sold under the trademark DOORKING 1838 PC Programmable Access Controller by Hoover Fence Co. (Newton Falls, OH). Security device  111  can include the card reader sold under the name CGMCARD-IK by Cincinnati Gate Systems, Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio). Security device  111  may optionally include a computer such as, for example, a desktop PC, running security software. In some embodiments, software functionality of security device  111  is provided by one or more software modules operable in customer system  105 . Security device  111  produces gatelog  113 , a document comprising a record of one or more badge-in or badge-out events. 
         [0027]    Customer system  105  additionally may contain information related to the contents of contract  101 . For example, for a given contractor, customer system  105  may contain information about certain jobs, materials, technicians, scheduled times, amounts of time, administrative rules (e.g., relating to the approval of overtime or after-hours service), other information, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, system  105  is operable to provide report relating to a scheduled service. The report may be provided in the form of an activity report and may be provided, for example, in advance of, simultaneous with, or after the schedule service. For example, if contract  101  includes that a service is to be performed on a certain day, then system  105  can generate a report for that day reporting that the service is scheduled to be performed. Additionally, the report can include information about technicians (e.g., identities of, numbers of, or both), materials, activities, or similar to be involved in the scheduled service. Such a report may be prepared, stored, used, or transmitted by the contract management software (e.g., TRACK) on system  105 . In some embodiments, such a report is transmitted in the form of an activity report from system  105  to the contractor, for example, to be received by a computer system of the contractor. 
         [0028]      FIG. 2  relates how information may flow from the perspective of the contractors. For any given service event, the contractor may receive an activity report  111 , a gatelog  113 , or both. Preferably, the contractor uses a data system  129  to receive these reports. In some embodiments, contractor system  129  automatically retrieves this information from customer system  105 . The contractor may additionally or alternatively make use of a work order  125  that provides information about technicians (e.g., identities of, numbers of, or both), materials, activities, or similar to be involved in the scheduled service. 
         [0029]    When a technician performs a service at a customer&#39;s facility, they may submit information about the work performed. This information has uses in billing, payroll, record-keeping, other functions, or combinations thereof. This submission of information may be referred to as a shift ticket  121 . In some embodiments, a technician submits shift ticket  121  to document a number of hours that were worked under contract  101 . The contractor may then invoice the customer for this labor. Shift ticket  121  can be received via the contractor data system  129 . For example, where shift ticket  121  is an electronic submission, information from shift ticket  121  can be transferred into the contractor&#39;s billing software and can be listed on a bill that the billing software provides to the customer. In some embodiments, a shift ticket contains a technician&#39;s reported billable time. For example, if the technician works for two hours, the technician may enter two hours&#39; worth of reported billable time into shift ticket  121 . 
         [0030]    In some embodiments, systems and methods of the invention use a computer device  119  for tracking information. A technician may carry computer device  119  to the facility. When the technician performs the scheduled service, the technician may record hours worked, materials used, services performed, comments and notes, diagnoses, recommendations, other information, or a combination thereof into a shift ticket  121  for the scheduled service in computer device  119 . Device  119  may be any suitable PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, purpose-built device. In some embodiments, device  119  is the rugged tablet PC sold under the trademark TR3000 by Hewlett-Packard Company (Palo Alto, Calif.) or the rugged laptop sold under the trademark LATITUDE E6430 ATG by Dell Inc. (Round Rock, Tex.). Device  119  may be provided by the tablet computer sold under the trademark IPAD by Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.) or by any other computer such as that sold under the trademark PORTEGE R835-P56x by Toshiba Corporation (Tokyo, Japan). Device  119  can be a handheld device as described, for example, in U.S. Pub. 2012/0158607 to Burns, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes. Within computer device  119 , shift ticket  121  may have any suitable form such as, for example, a word processing document or spreadsheet. In some embodiments, shift ticket  121  is a database record with a format specific to software on contractor data system  129 . The technician enters information (e.g., via a keyboard, touch screen, stylus, or other mechanism) to fill shift ticket  121 . Then, shift ticket information is transferred to data system  129  (e.g., via wireless internet, a cellular data connection, or a data connection). 
         [0031]    As a result, the contractor will have received at data system  129 , shift ticket  121  and gatelog  113  and optionally activity report  111  (gatelog  113  may be contained within or as part of activity report  111 , they may be separately transmitted digital material, or they may have some other—e.g., hybrid—format). With shift ticket  121 , gatelog  113 , and activity report  111  collected for one or a plurality of scheduled services, system  129  can analyze any contents, identify differences, and apply rules to determine values that conform to the expectations of the customer, contract  101 , business principles, or the judgment of an administrative personnel. Customer system  105  can provide activity report  111  or other reports in a comma-separated value format or Excel spreadsheet format. These examples are non-limiting. For example, data can also be output as HTML, plain text, data-normal format, or XML. 
         [0032]      FIG. 3  depicts three exemplary activity reports  111   a,    111   b,  and  111   c;  shift tickets  121   a ,  121   b,  and  121   c;  as well as gatelogs  113   a,    113   b,  and  113   c.  As shown in  FIG. 3 , series “a” relates to a “tank clean” service activity. Activity report  111   a  shows 30 minutes of approved time for billing. Shift ticket  121   a  shows 2 hours of reported billable time. Gatelog  113   a  shows a work duration of one hour and twenty-four minutes. 
         [0033]    Series “b” relates to a “roll off sep” service activity. Activity report  111   b  shows 4 hours of approved time for billing. Shift ticket  121   b  shows 4 hours of reported billable time. Gatelog  113   b  shows a six hour work duration. 
         [0034]    Series “c” relates to a “860 sewers” service activity. Activity report  111   c  shows 8 hours approved for billing. Shift ticket  121   c  shows 8 hours billable. Gatelog  113   c  shows 8 hours and 6 minutes&#39; work duration. 
         [0035]    Under prior art methods, series “a” in  FIG. 3  may require manual reconciliation due to the fact that a technician appears to have submitted 2 hours while having spent less than 1.5 hours on-site. Under the prior art, series “b” may be problematic, as a technician appears to have spent two hours on-site outside of the scope of contract work. Under the prior art, series “c” may be problematic because all of the times are congruent and conforming but to determine this requires manual human examination, which is time-consuming. As discussed herein, the invention provides systems and methods for addressing these differences among the reports. Particularly, as discussed below, systems and methods of the invention are operable to (for each series) automatically determining a work duration based on the badge-in time and the badge-out time; automatically identifying a difference among the approved time for billing, the reported billable time, and the work duration; automatically arrive at a value for those times that is congruent with contract or expectations; flag certain cases for manual review; generate reports; or a combination thereof. 
         [0036]    In certain embodiments, the invention provides systems and methods to automatically track activities of a technician, time, and materials used. The invention provides systems and methods for approval of exception reconciliation, allocation of contract items, billing, payment, financial management, payroll. Further, these functions can be performed within contractor system  129 , using customer system  105  (e.g., through appropriate secure connections), or a combination thereof. Methods for time tracking or billing (e.g., for implement or using shift ticket  121  in contractor system  129 ) are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,209,243 to Smith; U.S. Pat. No. 7,623,985 to Finch; and U.S. Pub. 2007/0094110 to McCrea, the contents of each of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
         [0037]    Contractor system  129  can accept gatelog  113  from contractor system  105  (e.g., as sent by contract management software) in the form of a ASCII delimited file (.csv) or Excel or XML or similar electronic format, which can be imported into contractor system  129 . System  129  can be set to automatically access one or more of shift ticket  121 , work order  125 , or a combination thereof, as needed. 
         [0038]      FIG. 4  gives an overview of application data flow. As shown in  FIG. 4 , customer data system  105  (e.g., operating contract management software) may transmit data to contractor data system  129 . Within data system  129 , tracking module  133  may perform billing, payroll, or both functions. Integration module  137  identifies when some variable has differing values among ones of a shift ticket  121 , gatelog  113 , and activity report  111  within a set related to a single service event. A difference can be flagged as an “exception”, indicating that it does not conform to a required standard (e.g., that durations indicated by a gatelog are not less than a technician&#39;s reported billable time). System  129  uses a reconcile module  141  to automatically resolve an exception, to flag an exception for human intervention, or to otherwise address exceptions (e.g., suspend activity on those records, hold that record for billing, etc.). In some embodiments, reconcile module  141  reconciles an exception by applying one or more rules to reconcile any difference that has been identified and to determine a conforming value for the variable that is differently represented within the set. 
         [0039]    In some embodiments, reconciliation is a periodic process (e.g., daily). Once the gatelogs  113  and activity reports  111  for a particular day have been acquired, system  129  will fire the reconciliation rules and automatically flag any exceptions. Exceptions can be assigned to specific individuals to be resolved. Shift tickets  121  without exceptions can be immediately exported into a standard reporting method for feedback to the customer system  105 . 
         [0040]    In certain embodiments, exceptions are identified automatically and some or all of the exceptions are resolved automatically. Automatic generally means without any human intervention between the last specified human step and the next step that necessarily requires human intervention. To illustrate, a human technician may enter data for shift ticket  121  into device  119 . After that, every step discussed herein may be performed automatically by systems of the invention until a bill is sent from contractor system  129  to customer system  105 . 
         [0041]      FIG. 5  charts the flow of methods according to some embodiments. Systems and methods of the invention are operable to identify  201  an exception. Generally, an exception is identified when there is disagreement between two corresponding entries in reports, the disagreement exceeding some pre-set tolerance limit. For example, if billing is in tenths of an hour, a first report identifies that someone was present for 41 minutes, and a second report indicates they were present for 51 minutes, an exception is identified. The exception will proceed to resolution  205 . Exception resolution  205  includes selecting one or more rules applicable to the exception (e.g., “rounding rule”, always round time up). User-defined rules will be fired  209 . Here, fired indicates that system  129  executes program instructions that produce a conforming value for a variable according to logical criteria that have been established. 
         [0042]    Rules can be any logical construct for providing a conforming value to be used for the disagreeing entries from the reports. Rules can embody industry-accepted practices (e.g., overtime is billed at time-and-a-half), logical inferences (reported billable time from shift ticket  121  is wrong if it exceeds work duration from gatelog  113 ), business agreements (each pipe cleaning event can have 2 hours&#39; labor billed), simple defaults (approved time for billing from activity report  111  gets billed regardless of gatelog  113 ), others, or a combination thereof. Rules can include complex logical structures in which determinative operations are applied sequentially or conditionally. For example, sequential application could involve first use higher of approved time and reported billable time, and then limit to amount remaining to be billed in contract pool. A conditional application could involve using the approved time on the condition that reported billable time does not exceed work duration from gatelog. 
         [0043]    In some embodiments, contract  101  includes values for totals for some item. For example, a contract can include that a series of service events can each include a labor item for, for example, pipe cleaning, up to the point that 100 hours (or any value) have been billed (e.g., within the course of a year). In an alternative illustrative example, a contract may specify that some material (e.g., reinforced hose) is to be used from the customer&#39;s supply to an extent before being billed by the contractor (or, to give another example, first 500 cubic feet of cement must be billed at zero). In such cases, a rule can involve applying the contract pool to the corresponding value in the shift ticket (e.g., technician has billed hours 89-115 where the pool was 100 hours total and thus the conforming value is 11 hours, or technician used 602 cubic feet of cement where the un-billed pool was 500 and thus the conforming value is 102). Allocations for material or labor adaptable for pools are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,064 to Smith, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
         [0044]    Both contractor and customer derive benefit from consistent execution of user-defined rules. Rules can operate through software deployed for example in reconcile module  141 . By executing rules, the invention provides methods of reconciling exceptions between or among time, inventory, labor, gatelog, activity, payroll, and billing data records or databases. Reconciliation methods adaptable for use with the invention are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,321,313 to Livesay and U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,318 to Olson, the contents of each of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes. 
         [0045]    Systems and methods of the invention are particularly valuable in that they resolve exceptions that are associated with transfer of data from gate  109  to contractor system  129 . By integrating data records from a gate  109  at a customer facility with shift tickets  121  via integration module  137  a contractor is afforded the opportunity to discover and resolve exceptions with previously unavailable precision and accuracy. Additionally, since rules employed by reconcile module  141  can resolve exceptions to report a result that conforms to a standard (e.g., as embodied in contract  101 ), reconciliation according to the invention give the contractor and the customer greater satisfaction in the execution of contract  101 . As diagrammed in  FIG. 5 , once a rule has been fired  209 , system  129  can determine  213  if more exception are present. Once the exceptions have been resolved, system  129  can export allocations—i.e., values for time, materials, services, etc., for use in conforming reports  149 . Methods described herein may be performed by computer systems that include one or more devices. 
         [0046]      FIG. 6  shows devices of a system  301  for performing methods of the invention. Contractor system  129  may optionally be coupled to digital storage system  305 . Contractor system  129  receives information from device  119  and from customer&#39;s facility  311  (e.g., from gate  109 ) via communication network  321 . System  301  may include a computer  309  for use by administrative personnel (e.g., of the contractor). Computer  309  may provide a display  325  that includes information allowing the administrator to work with system  129  to, for example, resolve any exceptions that are flagged for manual resolution. 
         [0047]    Server  129  could include a rack-mounted computing device such as the server sold under the trademark BLADE by Hitachi (Santa Clara, Calif.). Computer  309  could be a computer device such as the PC sold under the trademark SERIES 9 by Samsung (Seoul, South Korea), a notebook or desktop computer sold by Apple (Cupertino, Calif.) or a desktop, laptop, or similar PC-compatible computer such as a Dell Latitude E6520 PC laptop available from Dell Inc. (Round Rock, Tex.). Such a computer will typically include a suitable operating system such as, for example, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows XP, all from Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.), OS X from Apple (Cupertino, Calif.), or Ubuntu Linux from Canonical Group Limited (London, UK). 
         [0048]    Any of server  129 , device  119 , or computer  309  will generally contain a memory operably coupled to a processor and an input/output mechanism. 
         [0049]    Suitable memory may include, for example, one or more of a hard disk drive, solid state drive (SSD), an optical disc, flash memory, zip disk, tape drive, “cloud” storage location, or a combination thereof. Preferably, memory includes a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium. Storing information (e.g., shift ticket  121 , gatelog  113 , activity report  111  in memory of system  129 ) involves transforming the tangible, non-transitory memory, for example, by adding, removing, or rearranging particles (e.g., with a net charge or dipole moment into patterns of magnetization by read/write heads), the patterns then newly representing objective physical phenomena (e.g., a physical arrangement of particles that indicates that a technician has entered a specific gate  109  at a particular time). In some embodiments, writing a file includes transforming a flash memory device and storing information by transforming physical elements in an array of memory cells made from floating-gate transistors. 
         [0050]    A processor may be provided by one or more processors including, for example, one or more of a single core or multi-core processor (e.g., AMD Phenom II X2, Intel Core Duo, AMD Phenom II X4, Intel Core i5, Intel Core i&amp; Extreme Edition 980X, or Intel Xeon E7-2820). 
         [0051]    Input/output mechanism may include one or more of a video display unit (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse, touchpad, trackpad), a disk drive unit, a signal generation device (e.g., a speaker), a touchscreen, an accelerometer, a microphone, a cellular radio frequency antenna, and a network interface device, which can be, for example, a network interface card (NIC), Wi-Fi card, cellular modem, monitor, keyboard, mouse, data jack (e.g., Ethernet port, modem jack, HDMI port, mini-HDMI port, USB port), microphone, light (e.g., LED), light/image projection device, or a combination thereof. 
         [0052]    In some embodiments, either of consumer computer  309 , device  119 , or server  1291  may be a tablet or smart-phone form factor device and a processor can be provided by, for example, an ARM-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor such as the 1.2 GHz dual-core Exynos SoC processor from Samsung Electronics, (Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea). 
         [0053]    Systems and methods of the invention can include instructions written in any suitable programming language known in the art, including, without limitation, C, C++, Perl, Java, ActiveX, HTML5, Python, Ruby on Rails, Visual Basic, or JavaScript. Programming in Java is discussed in Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive (8th Edition), Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2011) and in Poo, et al., Object-Oriented Programming and Java, Springer Singapore, Singapore, 322 p. (2008). A computer program may be developed in a development environment such as Ruby on Rails or Groovy and Grails. See, e.g., Metz, Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer, Addison-Wesley (2012). Additional methods relating to work durations or labor services that may be adapted for use with the invention are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,121,912 to Pappas and U.S. Pub. 2003/0033167 to Arroyo, the contents of each of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes. 
         [0054]    Server  129  may use storage  305  to house and operate a database. Any development environment, database, or language known in the art may be used to implement embodiments of the invention. In some embodiments, an object-oriented development language, database structure, or development environment is used. Exemplary languages, systems, and development environments for development and operation of a database include Perl, C++, Python, Ruby on Rails, JAVA, Groovy and Grails, Visual Basic .NET, Smalltalk, Objective C, and SQL. 
         [0055]    In certain embodiments, systems and methods of the invention are implemented through the use of a mobile app (e.g., for generating shift ticket  121  on device  119 ). As used herein, mobile app generally refers to a standalone program capable of being installed or run on a smartphone platform such as Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows 8, Windows Mobile, etc. 
         [0056]      FIG. 7  shows an exemplary display  325  that lists scheduled service events (i.e., grouped as shift tickets  121 ) along with information from gatelog  113  as well as information about any exceptions identified in connection with those events. Shift tickets  121  that are flagged with exceptions can easily be identified because display  325  shows the user the total number of exceptions at the job, shift ticket or employee day entry level. In addition to the exception summary, system  129  can also show details (e.g., via display  325 ) for each type of exception encountered (e.g., revealed by clicking Edit under Action). 
         [0057]    For each exception, the administrator may provide corrections which then override the exception once they have taken steps to resolve the issue. For example, if an overtime exception was identified, the administrator could either specify that overtime was approved or acknowledge that the employee worked more hours than the contract specified, but that these were non-billable hours. 
         [0058]      FIG. 8  depicts transmission of conforming report  149  to customer system  105 . Preferably once any or all of the exceptions are resolved, system  129  produces and exports conforming report  149  to customer system  105 . The report can be printed and mailed (e.g., by the administrator). Preferably, the report is transmitted electronically over network  321 . 
         [0059]    Systems of the invention eliminate the manual entry and manual reconciliation that prior art methods required to be performed daily. Systems and methods of the invention can reduce a formerly 4-12 hour process to under 2 hours, preferably to mere moments (e.g., fewer than five minutes or under a minute). Additionally, the invention eliminates key-stroke errors that may take place during manual entry back into the customer&#39;s control system and increases billing efficiencies dramatically. 
         [0060]    System  129  can assist any contractor in automating and improving the reconciliation and reporting process to the customer&#39;s control system, thereby reducing time involved in reconciliation via automation; consistently applying rules for reconciliation; and improving accuracy in the entire reporting and payment process. 
       INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE 
       [0061]    References and citations to other documents, such as patents, patent applications, patent publications, journals, books, papers, web contents, have been made throughout this disclosure. All such documents are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes. 
       EQUIVALENTS 
       [0062]    Various modifications of the invention and many further embodiments thereof, in addition to those shown and described herein, will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the full contents of this document, including references to the scientific and patent literature cited herein. The subject matter herein contains important information, exemplification and guidance that can be adapted to the practice of this invention in its various embodiments and equivalents thereof.