One task, several trades, one honest cost
An hour on the excavator and an hour of brush clearing do not cost the same. Give every trade an hourly rate: Sentinel prices the time your crews log in the field and hands back the real cost of each task, each project and each season.
What is a work role in Sentinel?
A work role is a trade with an hourly rate attached to it: excavator operator, foreman, labourer, volunteer. Each team member can carry one, and the time they log on a task is priced at that rate. A single task can therefore hold hours at $60 and hours at $25, and come out with its real cost instead of one undifferentiated hour count.
- Replaces
- A task's hour total, multiplied from memory by an average rate in a spreadsheet, months after the work was done.
- Where it happens
- Roles and rates are created on the web, under Organization. Time is logged on mobile in the field, or on the web from the task page.
One berm, several trades, one honest cost
Rented excavator, crew leader, volunteers: on Marc and Jean's worksite, every trade has its role and its hourly rate. 
At the end of the day, Marc logs the whole worksite in one entry: machine hours and manual hours, each at its rate. 
At the village café, Marie reads the cost by role: enough to justify the rented excavator and show what volunteers bring.
The rate lives on the role, the role lives on the member
You create one role per kind of work and give it its hourly cost to the organization — benefits included. Then you place each member in the right column by dragging them from one role to another. That is all: nobody has to type a rate while working, and nobody needs to know anyone else's.
- As many roles as you have trades — a role can also carry no cost at all, like volunteering
- The members board is reorganized by drag and drop, with no form to fill
- Changing a role's rate applies from then on: hours already recorded keep theirs
One entry for the whole crew, each at their own rate
The crew lead opens the task on their phone, sets the length of the day and adds who was there. Every participant arrives with their role and their rate, and a duration can be adjusted in two taps when someone left early. Machine hours and manual hours go into the same entry — and are counted separately.
- People without an account — a contractor, a day labourer, a rented machine — are logged by their role, at the role's rate
- The total at the bottom of the screen gives the hours, and the cost for anyone with the Amounts right
- Logging works with no signal and syncs on its own once the connection is back
Labour cost, without the end-of-season spreadsheet
The dashboard adds it up as you go: the cost for the period, how it moved against the previous one, and how it splits across work roles. Timesheets give the same cost by member, role, project or task, and the Excel export carries it to payroll or a grant application.
- A cost per task, in its list of time entries: enough to compare two repair methods
- A cost per project, in timesheets grouped by project: enough to build next year's quote
- A cost per role: enough to justify a machinery rental, or to show what volunteering brings in
The safeguards that make the figure reliable
A time entry's cost is computed the moment it is recorded, at that day's role rate, then kept as is: a raise in July does not rewrite what May's work cost. On every task, time reads by role, with its hours and its cost.
- The Amounts right is granted on its own: a field crew logs its time without ever seeing a rate or a cost
- Removing a role does not destroy history: hours already recorded keep their role and their cost
- A member who changes role is priced at the new rate from their next entry only
See it in action
Work roles
Track the labour cost of your trail maintenance.
Before you put a cost on your hours
How do you separate machine hours from manual hours on the same task?
By giving every participant in the entry a work role. A day of excavator work is logged as a single entry: the operator at their rate, the labourers at theirs, each with their own duration. The task comes out with its total hours, but also with its cost split by role. It is the same entry as before, with one more column.
What about people without a Sentinel account — contractors, day labourers?
They are logged by their role rather than by their name: you add "Labourer" as a "Without an account" participant, with its duration, and the role's rate applies. On the web, add one line per person; on the phone, a given role is added once per entry. The hours and the cost are counted like a member's, without creating an account for someone who will never open the app.
What happens when a rate goes up, or when someone changes role?
Nothing retroactive. A time entry's cost is computed the moment it is recorded, then kept as is: a raise in July does not rewrite what May's work cost. A member who changes role is priced at the new rate from their next entry onward. That is what keeps last year's totals still true next year.
Does the whole team see rates and costs?
No. The right to see amounts is granted separately from the right to log time. A field crew can record its hours without ever seeing an hourly rate or a cost, while management sees both. The roles themselves stay visible to everyone — it is their price that does not.
Which plans include work roles?
In the Community, Standard and Pro plans, along with time tracking. The Field plan covers tasks and the mobile app, without time tracking.
How it's done, step by step
The documentation articles covering this feature, written for the person who uses it.
The craft behind the tool
Guides from our blog on the work itself, built on agency and federation manuals.
Tracking trail volunteer hours: what to record, and what it's for
Grants, insurance, the value of donated work, recognition: what volunteer hours can get you, what funders and insurers ask you to record, and the questions to settle before the first work day. Drawn from the US Forest Service, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Independent Sector, Quebec's workers' compensation board and France's accounting standards body.
16 min · 17 sources
16 min
17 sources
Trail management: a practical guide for clubs and parks
Describing each trail, designing for water, inspecting, deciding what to fix first, funding the work and writing it into a plan. What the US Forest Service, IMBA Canada, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Québec and Swiss hiking federations recommend.
8 min · 14 sources
8 min
14 sources
Stop guessing what your work costs
Your crews already log the time. All that is missing is one rate per trade for every task to hand back its cost.