The Contractor Workflow

From bid to report — how Excavata supports every stage of a professional archaeology contract.

Bid Preparation

Desktop

Before the project starts, you need to win the contract. Excavata's Bid Calculator builds your fee proposal from the ground up — labour, direct costs, overheads, margins and contingency — with a live total that updates as you type.

●Define project phases — Desktop Study, Field Survey, Excavation, Lab Analysis, Report Writing, Client Meetings
●Cost labour per phase by role with oncosts auto-applied (superannuation, leave loading, payroll tax)
●Add direct costs — vehicles, accommodation, equipment hire, subcontractors, lab fees
●Set overhead percentage, margin and contingency
●Save standard roles to the Rates Library for reuse across bids
●Export a professional Client Fee Proposal PDF — generated with your company logo, hides internal rates and margins, safe to send directly to the client
●Keep the full internal breakdown separately as CSV or PDF

When your bid is accepted, it automatically becomes your project budget baseline — no double entry, no re-keying numbers.

Outcome: A professional fee proposal submitted to the client. When accepted, the bid price is already set as the contract value for budget tracking.

Project Setup

DesktopMobile

The bid is accepted. Now configure the project in Excavata and get the team ready for the field.

●Create the project with client details and project information
●The accepted bid price is already set as the contract value
●Add team members and assign roles
●Create sites within the project
●Choose recording methodology per site — Context recording for urban or complex stratigraphy, Layer/Spit recording for open area excavation
●Set up GIS layers and import existing spatial data
●Configure custom recording fields if needed
●Send the project to field team mobile devices via Excavata Mobile

Outcome: Project is live, team devices are loaded, sites are configured and ready for excavation.

Budget Tracking

DesktopMobile

While the project runs, track costs against the accepted bid in real time. The project manager monitors the budget on desktop while the field team captures expenses on mobile — everything meets in the Budgeting module.

Desktop Project Manager

●Monitor actual spend vs bid estimate per phase
●Log staff hours and labour costs
●Record invoices and payments as they occur
●Track outstanding balance in real time
●Manage variation orders if scope changes

Mobile Field Team

●Capture expenses in the field the moment they happen
●Photograph receipts immediately — camera, gallery or PDF
●Tax toggle for automatic GST/VAT calculation
●Works offline — syncs when back in range
●Expenses appear in desktop Budgeting automatically

Receipts captured in the field sync to your desktop the moment you're back on the network — ready for export to Xero, MYOB or your university finance system.

Outcome: Real-time visibility of project costs vs budget at all times. No surprises at project end.

Field Data Collection

MobileDesktop

The field team records all excavation data on mobile devices. Excavata supports both major recording methodologies, and all data syncs to desktop for review and QA.

Context Recording

●Record context sheets on mobile with structured forms
●Observed inclusions selection
●Bulk bagged artifact recording
●Supervisor sign-off per context
●GPS location capture
●Photos and measurements linked to contexts

Layer / Spit Recording

●Record layers and spits with depths and elevations
●Inclusions and finds per spit
●Total station integration for precise survey
●Supervisor sign-off
●Nine-point depth grid
●Plan drawing on tablet at the trench edge, or photo capture and register paper maps directly into the project

All field data is captured offline on each device and shared by deliberate transfers over the local Wi-Fi — one device acts as the Project Hub that gathers everyone’s updates. No internet or cloud server is needed, and your project manager can pull the consolidated record onto the desktop whenever the team is back at base.

Outcome: Complete excavation record on desktop, ready for analysis — without a single paper form — unless you want them. Excavata can generate OCR-readable paper forms branded with your company logo, for teams who prefer a paper-based workflow in the field.

Finds & Lab Analysis

Desktop

Back in the lab, specialists catalogue and analyse the finds assemblage. Every record links back to its excavation context, maintaining full provenance from trench to publication.

●Record and catalogue artifacts with full provenance to context or spit
●Bulk bag processing workflow — unprocessed, in progress, complete
●Specialist analysis forms — ceramic, faunal, botanical, isotope, XRF, human remains, soil and flotation, pollen and phytolith, metalwork, residue and use-wear
●Lab processing status tracking across the entire assemblage
●QR label printing for finds and samples
●Photos and figures linked directly to find records
●Export finds data to PAST statistical software for further analysis

Excavata's built-in Statistics Dashboard gives you immediate analytical insight without leaving the app. Run distribution analyses to map where artifact classes cluster across the site, compare ceramic or faunal assemblages between contexts or phases, track recording completeness to identify gaps before you leave the field, and generate frequency charts for finds by period, material or type. Spot patterns — a concentration of burnt bone in a single context, a decline in worked flint across spits, a stratigraphic unit with unusually high ceramic diversity — directly from your project data, ready to feed straight into your report narrative.

Outcome: Complete finds assemblage catalogued and analysed, with full provenance — ready for the report.

Report Generation

Desktop

The fieldwork is done, the finds are analysed. Excavata helps you assemble the report — pulling data, figures, matrices and narratives directly from the project record.

●AI-assisted report narratives — generate draft text for context descriptions, site summaries and project overviews
●Report assembler — build the report structure and pull in recorded data automatically
●Figures and plates — organise site photos into report-ready plates with captions and figure numbers
●Harris Matrix — generate stratigraphic sequence diagrams automatically from recorded relationships
●Tables and charts — auto-generated from recorded data
●Export the complete report package — PDF, figures, data appendices

From context sheet to Harris Matrix — Excavata generates your stratigraphic sequence diagram automatically from your recorded data.

Outcome: Professional report delivered to the client, with figures, matrices, data tables and appendices compiled directly from the excavation record.

Project Close-Out

Desktop

The report is delivered. Close out the project with a clear picture of where the money went and whether it came in on budget.

●Raise the final invoice and track it through to payment
●Budget reconciliation — actual spend vs bid estimate, final profit or loss
●Export financial records to your accounting system — Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, or university finance (SAP Concur, TechnologyOne, Workday)
●Set project status to complete
●Archive all project data — field records, finds, photos, plans, reports
●Export data package for heritage authority submission if required

Outcome: Project closed, financials reconciled, data archived. Ready for the next one.

See Excavata in action

From the first bid to the final report, Excavata keeps your project data, finances and team connected. Get in touch to learn more or request a demo.

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