Solved
Slings out of examination since April, still in use.
Examination dates on each item, flagged 30 days before they fall due.
Assets and inventory
Know what you own.
Know what you own.
And where it is right now.
Unibuild tracks plant, tools and stores for UK contractors on one register. Every item carries what it cost, what it is worth and which job it is standing on. Signed for on handover, and back off the job before anyone forgets.
Problems we solve
Eleven plant and stores problems. All eleven solved.
From the slings that missed their examination to the pallet bought twice.
Solved
Failed its test on Friday. Back on site Monday.
Out of service the moment a repair is raised, until it passes.
Solved
Van broken into. The insurer wants serial numbers.
The schedule the insurer asks for exists before the break-in.
Solved
The tester ran out of calibration in November.
Every instrument on one register, amber inside 30 days, red once expired.
Solved
Finished in March. Still paying for the hired generator.
Hired kit held against its job, with finished jobs still carrying it listed.
Solved
Nobody can say which site has the core drill.
Signed out to a job, and listed for collection before it ends.
Solved
Materials from the van, never charged to the job.
Stores and van stock booked to the job on the day it moves.
Solved
Invoiced for eight radiators. Six came off the lorry.
The invoice is checked against the order and what was received.
Solved
Bought again. Half a pallet was in the unit.
Stock on the shelf is checked before any order is approved.
Solved
Came back broken. Nobody knows which job.
Damage photographed and costed on the phone, where it was found.
Solved
Year end. The accountant wants the fixed asset list.
Each item holds its cost and depreciation, so the list is a report.
11/11Solved in one module
Book a demo →
Yard to site and back
Every stage of a thing leaving your store.
Hold it
Asset registerCatalogueBin locationsAsk for it
RequestsKitsApprovalPick it
Serial numbersLive bin stockNo over-allocationSign it out
Delivery noteSignatureStock ledgerGet it back
CollectionsSite to siteDamage flagFix it
RepairsDamage reportsRecharge
Where the value leaks
Everything you own is on a list. Nobody trusts the list.
Materials and plant are a large slice of the money and the least visible. The stock figure was right in January. The plant register is a spreadsheet somebody kept until they left.
Monday, goods in
Materials arrive at the yard. Nobody books them in against the order, so the order stays open for a month.
Stock drift
Job completes
Tower scaffold and two dryers still standing on a finished site. Nobody is tracking what is out.
Plant walks
Stores, 07:40
Delivery promised from stock that is not actually on the shelf. The van leaves half empty.
Lost morning
Back at the yard
Something comes back broken. No record of which site it was on, or who was using it.
Cost absorbed
Insurance renewal
Broker asks for a schedule of plant with values. Someone rebuilds it from memory over a day.
A day gone
Purchasing
The same consumable ordered again, because nobody could see there was a pallet of it already.
Double spend
| The question | Spreadsheet | Unibuild |
|---|---|---|
| How much is on the shelf | The last figure somebody typed | Quantities held per named bin |
| Where the plant is | Whoever last updated the sheet | The job it was signed out to |
| What left the store | A note, if anybody wrote one | A delivery note with serials and a signature |
| What is still on site | Found months later | Listed for every job that is finishing |
| What came back broken | No record of the job | A damage report with photographs and a cost |
| Value at a date | Rebuilt from memory | Reproduced from the stock ledger |
What is in the box
Nine capabilities, one module, built around the store, not the spreadsheet.
Running a stores operation since 2016, feeding a central yard out to dozens of live sites and getting it all back again. Unibuild is bespoke construction software, so the module is shaped to your own stores process. Changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee.
Asset
register
PlantEvery item of plant and access equipment serialised, valued and located. The catalogue doubles as the schedule your insurer asks for.
- Serial and plant number
- Purchase and hire value
- Residual value and life
- Current job or store
Inside · Register, ValuesLive
Stock
ledger
LedgerA continuous record that is only ever added to, never overwritten. Every movement, whatever caused it, in one history.
- Goods in, deliveries out
- Collections and returns
- Repairs and corrections
- Running balance per item
Inside · Movements, HistoryLive
Bin
locations
ShelfQuantities held per named bin, so the number on screen is the number on the shelf. Picks can split across bins and can never over-allocate.
- Per-bin quantities
- Split a pick across bins
- Out-of-stock warning
- Comes back to the same bin
Inside · Bins, BalancesLive
Kits
BundleA named bundle of materials, plant and access equipment you always issue together, with its own labour allowance. Requested and issued as one line.
- One line, whole bundle
- Labour allowance built in
- Shared with estimating
- Consistent every time
Inside · Kit builderLive
Delivery
notes
OutThe picker walks each line, choosing the serial number going out and the bin it comes from. Signed for on receipt.
- Real serials, real bins
- Partial dispatch handled
- Receiver name and signature
- Closes itself when filled
Inside · Pick, DispatchLive
Collections
and transfers
BackBring it back to the store, or move it straight to the next job without a pointless round trip. Damage can be flagged on the line as it is picked up.
- Store or site to site
- Damage flag at collection
- Signed collection note
- Stock credited back
Inside · Collect, TransferLive
Repairs
FixRaised against a specific item, which logs it out of active service so it cannot be issued while broken. Closed only when a test result is recorded.
- Out of service on raise
- Parts and hours consumed
- Pass or fail test result
- History per asset
Inside · Fault, TestLive
Damage
reports
EvidenceCaptured on the phone where the damage was found, with the job, the parts and a cost from a maintained spares list.
- Photographs and video
- Itemised damaged parts
- Estimated cost on the spot
- Signature captured
Inside · Report, RechargeLive
QR
labelling
ScanScan the label on the machine and its register entry, service history and certificates open on the phone.
- Asset and project codes
- Weatherproof when laminated
- Opens the full history
- Same code for everyone
Inside · Labels, PostersLive
What is actually tracked
One module.
One module.
Six registers underneath it.
Each is a real register that records who did what and when, all reading one catalogue, so an item means the same thing everywhere.
Stock
MaterialsConsumablesUnits of measureBin locationsStock ledgerKits
Plant & access
Serial numbersPlant numbersPurchase valueHire rateResidual valueExpected lifeDepreciationCurrent location
Movement
Delivery requestsDelivery notesCollection requestsCollection notesGoods receivedSupplier returnsSite transfers
Condition
Damage reportsRepairsSpare parts listTest resultRepair historyOut of service
Compliance
PAT testingCalibrationMaintained assetsPPM schedulesService historyCertificates
Evidence
PhotographsVideoOn-screen signatureQR labelsWho did what and whenBranded PDFs
A Tuesday in the stores
One day, and the register
One day, and the register
never went out of date.
A central yard feeding live jobs, which is the shape this half of the platform was built for. Every event below moves the stock figure, the location or the condition record as it happens, rather than at a stock take in March.
06:50Request
Supervisor asks for tomorrow's kit from site.
Raised on the phone against the job: materials, two items of plant and a whole kit. It reaches the store before the yard has opened.
Delivery requests
08:15Approved
Store approves it, and the request locks.
Free to edit while it was a draft. Once picking starts it locks, so what has already gone out is protected from a late change.
Approval flow
09:30Picked
Picker chooses the actual serials, splits the materials.
The screen offers the in-stock serial numbers to pick from, and shows every bin holding the material with its quantity. It cannot over-allocate.
Bins + Serials
11:05Signed
Delivered to site, signed for on the phone.
Receiver's name and signature captured. The plant reassigns to that job, the materials come off the ledger and out of the bins they were picked from. No posting step to forget.
Delivery notes
14:20Damage
Operative photographs a damaged unit where it happened.
Job, location, the damaged part, a recommended repair and an estimated cost from the spares list. Photographs, video and a signature attached at the moment of discovery.
Damage reports
16:00Repair
Item raised for repair and taken out of service.
Logged out of active service the instant the repair is raised, so it cannot be issued to the next job while it is broken. It returns when a test result says it passed.
Repairs
17:30Close
Store manager works the upcoming collections list.
Every job finishing this fortnight with equipment still allocated to it, on one screen. Two pickups booked. Nothing left behind to discover in six months.
Upcoming collections
No card, no lock-in
Bring us the list
Bring us the list
you cannot trust.
- 14-day free trial
- Your real yard, your real plant, your real sites.
- Free migration
- From your spreadsheet, your paper cards, your old system.
- We label the yard with you
- QR labels generated, printed and applied on a screen-share. How a label differs from the clock-in poster, and what a scan of either proves, is in QR codes on construction sites.
- Cancel by email
- One sentence to success@unibuild.co.uk. Done.
- UK data, UK support
- UK office, working hours, real phone number.
- Unlimited users
- The yard, the site, the office, the directors. Same price.
Asked in every demo
What a stores manager
What a stores manager
asks in the first ten minutes.
The full list lives at /faqs. These come up in every conversation about plant and stock.
We already have a stores spreadsheet. What does this actually add?
A spreadsheet records what somebody remembered to type. This records what physically moved, because the movement and the record are the same action: the picker selects the serial number, the receiver signs, the ledger posts. It also tells you which bin the stock came out of, which no spreadsheet does, and it will refuse to promise materials that are not on the shelf.
Can site staff request materials themselves?
Yes, and that is the intended route. Requests are raised on the phone by the people who know what they need, then approved and picked by the store. They raise them in your firm’s own staff app, published on the App Store and Google Play under your company’s name and icon. It removes the phone call and the guess about what was meant. On jobs that came from a priced estimate, the request can pull from what was actually quoted, so what is sent lines up with what was priced.
How does it stop plant being left on finished jobs?
There is a standing view of every job that is finishing with equipment still allocated to it, as a working list the store goes through. The problem was never that people did not care. It was that nobody could see what was still out there.
What happens when something comes back broken?
It can be flagged as damaged on the collection line at the point it is picked up, which feeds straight into the damage and repair process. The report carries the job, the location, photographs, video, the itemised parts and an estimated cost, captured where the damage was found. That is what a recharge conversation or an insurance claim needs, and it is almost never what firms actually have.
Does it handle partial deliveries?
Properly, yes. Each line tracks received quantity against requested quantity, one request can be filled across several notes, and the request marks itself delivered once every line is complete. There is no manual completion step for somebody to forget, which is where most stock systems start drifting.
We move kit straight between sites. Does that work?
Yes. A collection can transfer directly to another site rather than returning to the central store. Equipment does not make a pointless round trip to be booked in and straight back out again. The asset reassigns to the receiving job and the signed note records the handover either way.
Can we put a value on the stock we are holding?
Yes. Every item carries a purchase value and, where it applies, a hire rate and a residual value, so an inventory valuation is a report rather than a weekend. The figure follows the ledger, which is only ever added to and never overwritten, so a valuation at a given date can be reproduced rather than recalled.
How do UK contractors track LOLER thorough examinations and plant inspections?
Against the item of plant itself, rather than in a diary or a box of certificates. In Unibuild each asset holds its examination and inspection dates, test results, calibration, certificates and repair history, and the QR label on the machine opens that record on site. Pre-use checks and defects are recorded on the phone with photographs. An examination falling due is flagged 30 days out, and an item out of test is flagged before somebody signs it out. The LOLER and PUWER registers sit in the health and safety module.
What software tracks plant and stores across construction sites?
Unibuild’s assets and inventory module, built for a central yard feeding live sites. Every item of plant carries its serial number, value and current job, and stores are held per bin, so the figure on screen is the figure on the shelf. Site staff request materials and plant on the phone, the store picks against real serials and bins, and the receiver signs on delivery. Collections, site-to-site transfers and repairs all post to the same stock ledger.
What stock control software should a UK building contractor use?
Software that moves the stock figure when the stock moves, and books it to the job. Unibuild does that. Goods received against an order add to the ledger, delivery notes picked by bin and serial take stock off, and collections credit it back. Picks cannot over-allocate, kits issue a whole bundle as one line, and the ledger is only ever added to. So a stock valuation at any date is a report you can reproduce, not a weekend of counting.
By trade
Who leans on this hardest?
Stock and plant behave differently by trade. Scaffold stock lives on other people’s sites, demolition attachments move between machines, and groundworks plant is charged by the day whether it moves or not.
Assets and compliance
The rest of the register.
Same platform, same login. These are the modules that track what you own, when it is next due, and the certificate that proves it.
One level down
The plant is somewhere.
The plant is somewhere.
The stock is somewhere else.
On kit, on the materials in the unit and the vans, on what arrives at the door, and on the charges that keep going after the work stops.
Stock control for a contractor: the unit, the vans and the jobsWhere a contractor’s materials actually go, what the record has to hold, and why booking them to the job is the part that pays.
→
Goods received notes, and why stock should arrive on an orderWhat a goods received note is for, and how it gives the supplier invoice two documents to be checked against instead of a memory.
→
Knowing what plant you own and where it isWhat an asset register has to record to be useful, and how to prove ownership when something is stolen.
→
Off-hire, and the charges that keep runningWhat an off-hire reference is, why it matters, and the process that stops kit sitting on hire in a compound.
→
Next step
Bring us the list
Bring us the list
you cannot trust.
A 30-minute live demo: the register, a delivery signed for on the phone, and the kit brought back.
All elevenSolved
- Lifting gear out of examination
- Faulty tools issued again
- Stolen kit, claims settled short
- Testers out of calibration
- Hire charges running on
- Kit lost between sites
- Stock not charged to the job
- Invoices for goods not received
- Buying what you already hold
- Damage nobody can recharge
- Asset register rebuilt at year end
Ask for a quote
Tell us a little about the firm.
Tell us a little about the firm.
We do the rest.
Two minutes. A written figure by email, usually the same working day. Unlimited users, and no charge per item on the register.