It’s Monday morning. Your dispatcher is juggling calls, trying to assign three crews to five different well sites. Your newest foreman hasn’t been trained on how to properly fill out tickets in the operator’s portal. And your controller just told you they’re still waiting on approvals from last week before they can invoice $127,000 in completed work.
You log into your customer’s system, the one they require you to use, and realize something:
This system wasn’t built to help you run your business. It was built to help them control theirs.
There’s a fundamental difference between software that operators mandate (to serve their needs) and software that service companies choose (to run their operations). If you’re trying to run your entire field operation through systems designed for your customers’ accounts payable departments, you’re leaving money, efficiency, and control on the table.
What Do Operator-Mandated Systems Actually Do?
Here’s what’s happening across the oilfield services industry.
Operators are mandating systems. Whether it’s Enverus OpenTicket/OpenInvoice, SAP Fieldglass, IronSight, Ariba, Cortex, or operator-specific portals, major producers increasingly require suppliers to submit work through their chosen platforms.
These systems serve real purposes:
- Validate tickets against approved price books
- Automate approval workflows for operator AP departments
- Process invoices into operator ERP systems likeSAP, Oracle, etc.
- Track compliance to prevent unauthorized or overpriced work
- Manage payment processing according to operator timelines
This is valuable for what it does. If your operator requires a specific portal, using it efficiently gets your tickets validated and your invoices approved.
But operator validation portals are often missing the capabilities service companies need to actually run their business:
- Dispatch and crew scheduling
- Equipment tracking and utilization
- Job costing and profitability analysis
- Quoting and estimating
- Real-time field-to-office visibility
- Safety and compliance management
- Multi-customer invoice customization
- Comprehensive operational workflows
This business model tells you everything. Operators pay for these systems because they solve operator problems: faster AP processing, price compliance, unauthorized work prevention and ERP integration. Service companies get access because operators require it to do business with them.
The Five Operational Gaps That Cost You Money
If you’re relying solely on operator-mandated portals to manage your field operations, you’re facing critical gaps where revenue slips out:
1. No Dispatch, Scheduling, or Crew Management
Operator portals document work after it’s completed. They do nothing for the decisions happening before the ticket.
Which crew goes to which location tomorrow? Which truck needs to be at the XTO pad at 6 AM? Who’s available when Chevron calls at 2 PM with an urgent job?
Without dispatch tools, you’re managing via whiteboards, group texts, and hoping nobody forgets their assignment. Wasted drive time, underutilized equipment, and duplicate mobilizations typically add 3-7% to operational costs.
What Aimsio provides:
- Visual dispatch board showing all jobs, crews, and equipment
- Drag-and-drop scheduling with conflict detection
- Automated crew notifications
- Equipment utilization tracking
- Task management for maintenance and inspections
2. No Visibility Into Job Profitability
Operator portals validate tickets against contracted prices. They don’t tell you whether the job made money. Real-time profitability tracking, crew efficiency against quoted hours, margin analysis on materials… None of those exist in a validation tool.
Companies often find out weeks after invoicing that a “profitable” job actually lost money. By then it’s too late to recover.
What Aimsio provides:
- Real-time job cost tracking as work happens
- Instant profitability visibility when jobs go over budget
- Historical profitability by customer and job type
- Margin analysis before invoicing
- Scope creep tracking
3. No Tools to Quote and Win New Work
Operator portals document work you’ve already won, but they don’t help you win new work.
When an operator sends an RFQ, a validation tool can’t help you pull historical data on similar jobs, calculate accurate labor and equipment costs, or analyze which job types are actually worth bidding.
Without that data, you’re estimating based on gut feel. You’re either leaving money on the table or losing bids you should have won.
What Aimsio provides:
- Historical job data instantly accessible
- Job type profitability analysis
- Quote templates from successful past projects
- Win/loss tracking by customer
- Automated cost calculations
4. No Integration With Your Financial Systems
Even when portals offer data exports, you’re still re-entering ticket data into payroll, managing project details in a separate system, and manually reconciling numbers at month-end.
One full-time admin position, typically $65,000 or more annually, is often dedicated to bridging that gap. Companies that run unified field-to-finance platforms operate at 40:1 field-to-office ratios. Traditional operations run at 10:1. That’s not a productivity argument. It’s a headcount argument.
What Aimsio provides:
- Direct QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite, ViewPoint integration
- Automated payroll exports
- Equipment cost tracking tied to jobs
- Task management for equipment service
- Complete field-to-invoice-to-accounting workflow
- Custom GL mapping
5. No Foundation to Scale
Operator portals work the same whether you have 5 employees or 500. They don’t help you standardize workflows across growing crews, build institutional knowledge into systems, or maintain consistency as you add new foremen and new regions.
Growth creates chaos because the workflows aren’t built to scale with it, and it prevents you from pursuing larger projects.
What Aimsio provides:
- Standardized workflows across crews
- Faster onboarding for new hires
- Performance metrics by crew and region
- Multi-location management
- Operational foundation to scale
The Multi-Customer Invoice Challenge
Here’s a complexity mandated portals can’t solve: most service companies work for multiple operators, and each wants invoices formatted differently.
You might submit through OpenTicket for ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. Fieldglass for other operators. Ariba or Cortex for others. Email for smaller operators. Even when multiple customers use the same portal network, each has different invoice format requirements, approval workflows, price books, and submission policies.
The result is what one pipeline construction accounting team described as: “It could mean entering information into Open Invoice, Ariba, and/or Cortex, as well as an in-house system for internal accounting. These additional demands on an accounting department become truly overwhelming if invoices from subcontractors are arriving in a coffee-stained stack of handwritten, generic invoices torn out of a book.”
How Aimsio Solves This
The fix isn’t a better portal. You need a system that lets you:
- Capture field data once in your system
- Generate invoice formats customized to each customer
- Submit through whatever portal they require
- Handle customers on ANY system (or no system at all)
That’s what “built for service companies” actually means: tools that recognize you serve multiple customers with different requirements, and give you one source of truth to manage all of it.
What’s the Difference Between Software Built FOR Service Companies vs. BY Operators?
| Systems Mandated BY Operators | Systems Built FOR Service Companies (Like Aimsio) | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary user | Operators AP and procurement departments | Field crews, dispatchers, operations managers, owners |
| Core function | Ticket validation and approval | Complete operations management, quote to invoice |
| Who pays | Operators pay; suppliers get access as required | Service companies pay for operational value |
| Design priority | Operator cost control | Service company revenue capture, efficiency, profitability |
| What it optimizes | Operator efficiency and payment accuracy | YOUR bottom line and operational efficiency |
| Required or chosen | Service companies must use to do business | You implement because it makes YOUR business profitable |
The critical distinction: Mandated portals get tickets to your customers. Your own field service management platform helps you run your entire operation profitably. These aren’t competing. For most service companies, the right answer is both.
What Does the Right Workflow Actually Look Like?
You don’t choose between customer portals and your own system. You need both. Operators mandate what submission system you use. But nobody mandates what system you use internally.
Here’s a workflow that works:
Dispatch in Aimsio: Assign Crew #3 to Diamondback pad with the right equipment and job instructions. Done in under 60 seconds.
Field crew works in Aimsio: The foreman captures hours, equipment, and materials in real time. The mobile app works offline, so no cell service isn’t a barrier.
Office reviews in Aimsio: Back-office verifies pricing and checks job costs against budget before anything goes out the door.
Submit to operator portal: Export to OpenTicket, Fieldglass, or whatever portal the customer requires.
Operator approves: They validate through their system. That’s what it’s there for.
Invoice in Aimsio: Generate invoice customized to their requirements, sync to QuickBooks, Sage, or Netsuite.
Get paid.
You used your system to run the operation profitably. You used their portal to meet their requirements. Both did exactly what they were designed to do. And for customers not on mandated portals, Aimsio handles everything end-to-end.
What Changes When You Have Your Own System?
Preferred Energy eliminated a full-time admin position after moving to Aimsio. Dispatch time dropped from over 30 minutes to under 60 seconds. President Danton Moorhead put it plainly: “I don’t know how we’d function without Aimsio.”
Poor field operations management has a real price tag. See how it adds up and how to eliminate it in the Hidden Cost of Chaos.
That outcome isn’t about a portal submission going smoother. It’s about running the whole operation differently.
Using only customer-mandated systems feels convenient because you don’t invest in another platform. But it’s a false convenience.
You’re trading short-term ease for long-term control over your profitability, operational efficiency, ability to scale, and financial visibility.
The question every contractor should be asking is not “which portal does my customer require?” That’s already answered for you. The question is: “Am I running my business with tools built to help me succeed, or tools built to help my customers control costs?”
If the answer is the latter, it’s time to invest in software that works for you.
See what this looks like in practice
Talk to someone who knows field ops and can walk through field ticketing, dispatch, job costing, customer portals, accounting integrations, and reporting tailored to your operation.
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We’ll walk through your specific challenges and calculate ROI based on YOUR numbers, not industry averages.
Disclaimer: This article discusses various operator-mandated software systems including those from Enverus, SAP, and other vendors. All product names are trademarks of their respective owners. This article represents Aimsio’s analysis and opinions based on publicly available information, user reports, and industry research. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any mentioned companies. All product comparisons are based on the author’s understanding of publicly documented features and are intended for informational purposes.
Aimsio is a field operations management platform purpose-built for oilfield services, construction, and heavy industrial companies. We serve companies who have processed over $10 billion in field work through our platform.
Unlike systems built for operators, Aimsio was designed by people who’ve experienced field operations firsthand. We built it to solve problems that matter to service companies: capturing revenue, controlling costs, eliminating admin waste, and growing profitably.
Because better field operations means better business. And better business starts with having your own system.
Frequently Asked Question
What is operator-mandated software?
Operator-mandated software refers to ticket validation and invoice submission portals that operators require their service company suppliers to use. Common examples include Enverus OpenTicket/OpenInvoice, SAP Fieldglass, IronSight, Ariba, and Cortex. These systems are designed primarily for operator accounts payable departments to validate, approve, and process supplier invoices according to price books and approval workflows.
Do I have to use OpenTicket or other operator portals?
If your operator customers require you to submit tickets through specific portals like OpenTicket, Fieldglass, or Ariba, then yes, you need to use those systems to do business with those customers. However, you don’t have to use these operator-facing systems to run your entire field operation. Most successful service companies use both: operator portals for submission (when required) and their own field operations management system (like Aimsio) to run their business internally.
What's the difference between field operations software and operator validation portals?
Operator validation portals (like OpenTicket, Fieldglass, Ariba) are designed for ticket submission, price validation, and invoice approval workflows that serve the operator’s accounts payable needs. Field operations management software (like Aimsio) is designed for service companies to manage dispatch, crew scheduling, equipment tracking, job costing, profitability analysis, estimating, and complete field-to-finance workflows. Validation portals solve “how do I get paid by this customer?” while operations software solves “how do I run my business profitably?”
Can Aimsio work with OpenTicket, Fieldglass, and other operator portals?
Yes. Aimsio is designed to coexist with operator-mandated portals. The typical workflow is: (1) Manage dispatch, crew scheduling, and field work capture in Aimsio, (2) Review job costs and profitability in Aimsio, (3) Export or enter ticket data into the operator’s required portal (OpenTicket, Fieldglass, etc.), (4) Generate customized invoices in Aimsio and sync to your accounting system. You use Aimsio to run your business efficiently and operator portals to meet specific customer submission requirements.
What problems do operator validation systems NOT solve?
Operator validation portals typically don’t provide: dispatch and crew scheduling tools, equipment utilization tracking, real-time job profitability analysis, estimating and quoting capabilities, multi-customer invoice customization, comprehensive financial system integration (beyond basic exports), safety and compliance workflows, or operational performance metrics. These systems are built for ticket validation and approval, not for running your field operations.
How much does poor dispatch and scheduling cost oilfield service companies?
Service companies without proper dispatch and crew management tools typically lose 3-7% of operational costs to wasted drive time, underutilized equipment, duplicate mobilizations, and crews showing up to wrong locations. Additionally, companies lose 3-7% of potential profit to revenue leakage from uncaptured work, lost tickets, and unbilled scope changes when they lack real-time job costing visibility.
What is the typical field-to-office ratio for oilfield service companies?
Traditional oilfield service companies operate at approximately 10:1 to 15:1 field-to-office ratios (10-15 field employees per administrative staff member). Companies using comprehensive field operations management platforms like Aimsio achieve 40:1 ratios or better. For example, Federation Construction operates 200+ field staff with only 5 administrative roles, representing $650,000-$975,000 in annual overhead savings compared to traditional operations.
Can I use Aimsio if my customers are on different invoice submission systems?
Yes, this is exactly the multi-customer challenge Aimsio solves. Service companies typically work with operators using different systems: some on OpenTicket/OpenInvoice, others on Fieldglass, Ariba, Cortex, operator-specific portals, or simple email submission. Aimsio lets you capture field data once, then generate customized invoice formats for each customer and submit through whatever portal they require. This eliminates the need to re-enter data multiple times across different systems.
What accounting systems does Aimsio integrate with?
Aimsio provides direct integration with QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, ViewPoint, Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, and other major accounting platforms. These integrations enable automated data flow from field tickets to invoices to your accounting system, eliminating manual re-entry and reducing administrative overhead.
How long does it take to implement field operations management software?
Implementation timelines vary based on company size and complexity. Most oilfield service companies are fully operational on Aimsio within 4-8 weeks. This includes data migration, user training, mobile app deployment to field crews, accounting system integration setup, and customization of invoice templates for different customers.
What is the ROI of field operations management software for service companies?
ROI varies by company size and operational maturity, but common benefits include: 3-7% revenue capture improvement (from eliminated leakage and lost tickets), 30-40% reduction in administrative overhead, improved field-to-office ratios (from 10:1 to 40:1), reduced Days Sales Outstanding (from 45-60 days to 28-35 days), and elimination of full-time administrative positions. For a detailed financial analysis with specific cost breakdowns, see the Cost of Chaos article.
Do field operations management systems work offline?
Yes, Aimsio’s mobile apps (iOS and Android) work fully offline. Field crews can capture tickets, hours, equipment usage, materials, photos, and signatures without cell service. All data automatically syncs to the office when the device reconnects to the internet, ensuring no work is lost even at remote job sites.
What is the difference between software built FOR service companies vs. BY operators?
Software built BY operators (like validation portals) is designed with the operator’s needs as the primary focus: controlling costs, preventing unauthorized work, streamlining their accounts payable processes. The operator pays for it and decides which features matter. Software built FOR service companies (like Aimsio) is designed with the service company’s needs as the primary focus: maximizing revenue capture, improving operational efficiency, reducing administrative waste, and increasing profitability. The service company chooses it because it makes their business more profitable.
How do I know if I need field operations management software?
Consider field operations management software if: you can’t dispatch a crew in under 60 seconds, you don’t know which jobs are profitable until weeks after completion, you’re manually re-entering ticket data into multiple systems, your field-to-office ratio is worse than 15:1, your Days Sales Outstanding exceeds 35 days, you’re losing billable work to lost tickets or uncaptured scope changes, you can’t produce Work on Hand reports for bonding, or you’re unable to pursue larger projects due to operational constraints.
