Lost in Transaction: How to Save Hours and Sanity in Drilling Cost Reconciliation

Is this how you typically run your operations?

Month after month, your desk becomes a battleground of paperwork: invoices for contractor hours, bulk consumable prices, and a tangled web of individual third-party bills demanding painstaking comparisons. This data now needs to be entered into a usable format for cost reconciliation.

And how does this data get in? Often it’s a junior geo with a penchant for spreadsheets dropping the data in, there’s an entire internal team dedicated to the task, or maybe you’ve outsourced it to an external agency. More often than not, we hear that you (the exploration manager or geologist) end up doing it yourself because it’s quicker and easier done right the first time.

Or maybe your raw data gets sent to a database management company who convert the data into a CSV. The CSV comes back to your team, gets loaded into your information management system, and then requires a manual refresh of a PowerBI dashboard to pull the information from those imports. Anything not in the contract can cause errors, and you find yourself back in your system to modify the data, turning what should be a simple import into a painstaking fix-up job.

And then there's the kicker: If your go-to data person is out, data that's fresh onsite can age for weeks or months before it lands in your hands. This process, bogged down by manual detours and waiting games, isn't just slow - it feels inefficient.

The cost conundrum

Drilling costs are a significant portion of any exploration budget. If you're like many exploration managers, you may often find yourself knee-deep in spreadsheets, drowning in a sea of numbers, formulas, and cells.

Your task? To reconcile your drilling costs from the previous month. However, instead of finding clarity, you might be experiencing chaos.

We're talking about:

Lost productivity: Spreadsheets require time - lots of it. Hours slip by as you input data, cross-reference columns, and double-check formulas. Meanwhile, your core tasks (analysing that juicy geological data, optimising your drilling strategies, and making informed decisions) have to take a backseat. Suddenly, lost productivity becomes the norm.
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So imagine this: You're swamped and haven't had a sec to check on production and progress. Halfway through the month, you've only hit 30% of your target, but 65% of the budget is already gone. You're drowning in spreadsheets and old data, missing the chance to make important decisions - like realising you could've ditched and found another rig. Stuff you love doing (like analysing geological data or tweaking your drilling strategy) gets pushed aside, and productivity and project progress take a huge hit.

Inaccuracies creep in: Manual data entry is error-prone. A misplaced decimal point here, a mistyped figure there - it all adds up. Inaccurate cost tracking leads to budget discrepancies. Suddenly, you find yourself well over budget, and the culprit? A tiny cell in your master spreadsheet.

And it happens. You're going about your day and bam! Your drilling supervisor makes a mistake in reading the driller’s chicken-scratch handwriting and suddenly a '6' becomes a '9,' and all the plods get approved. Low and behold, payments get done and to your abject horror, your invoice is now three times what you thought it was. This little slip-up, just one wrong number in an sea of cells, has just cost you half a million dollars. Yikes! It just goes to show how quickly mistakes can sneak into your cost tracking and turn your financial planning on its head.

Endless email chains: Communication breakdowns plague cost reconciliation in drilling. Emails and WhatsApp messages fly back and forth: "Did you update the spreadsheet?" "Which version are we using?" Your inbox suddenly becomes a labyrinth, and those important messages vanish into the digital abyss.
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Version control nightmares: Don't even get us started. Multiple team members, multiple versions of the same spreadsheet. Chaos ensues. "Is this the latest version?" "Well, I thought we'd agreed on those revised numbers?" Version control becomes a Herculean task, and your sanity is hanging by a thread.
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Data silos and fragmented insights: Spreadsheets isolate data. Finance has one sheet, your geo has another, and drilling contractors yet another. This means your insights are getting fragmented. And now you can't see the big picture because it's scattered across countless tabs. With critical information buried in outdated reports and disparate spreadsheets, the inability to see the 'big picture' in real-time leads to poor decision making. The realisation that your rig was totally unsuitable for that ground - something that could have been acted on way earlier - can cost you big time and just goes to show the consequences of acting in silos.
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The frustration factor: Frustration is mounting. You're an exploration manager, not an accountant, yet you're wrestling with cells and macros. That promise of efficiency? Shattered. The reality? A headache-inducing maze of cells and conditional formatting.

Imagine a world where:

Drilling data entry into your spreadsheets is automated;
Everyone accesses and collaborates on the same drill rig utilisation metrics; and
You don't have to review outdated drilling reports and think, ‘We blew it again.’

Purpose-built drilling software can streamline your drilling cost management, allowing you to focus on what matters: exploration, innovation, and results.

How to save yourself hours in cost reconciliation with drilling software

1. Automated plod importer: Managing drilling logs (plods) can be a tedious task. Drilling software streamlines this process, whether your plods arrive in paper format or as digital files. Say goodbye to deciphering messy spreadsheets or hunting down that missing data. With the right software, every metre drilled is accounted for.

2. Real-time visibility: Waiting for weekly updates or sifting through outdated spreadsheets is a thing of the past. Drilling software provides real-time visibility into costs. Track expenses as they occur, make informed decisions, and avoid last-minute surprises at month-end.

3. Streamlined communication: Collaboration is essential. Drilling software fosters seamless communication among team members. Contractors, geologists, and finance teams can access the same data in one centralised place. No more silos or missed cost information—everyone stays on the same page.

4. Find a cost-effective solution: Cost reconciliation features can save you time and money. You’ll reduce manual labour, eliminate errors, and optimise your drilling budget. The ROI? You've improved your efficiency, have accurate financial reporting, and peace of mind. Ahh.

Whether you’re digitising drill plods or running end-to-end workflows from the cloud, there’s a digital solution tailored to your business needs. Don’t let drilling cost reconciliation become a headache.

Consider software like CorePlan to regain control over your exploration finances. Your bottom line—and sanity—will thank you!

So what are you waiting for? Keep reading to learn more about digital drill software and how it can make your next drill program a success on our exploration blog.

Or, cut to the chase, and see it for yourself as a free demo.

Lost in Transaction: How to Save Hours and Sanity in Drilling Cost Reconciliation

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