Construction software for subcontractors: a UK buyer's guide.
A UK subcontractor needs software that gets the application out on time, carries CIS in both directions, and proves who was on site. Unibuild is bespoke construction management software for UK contractors: a platform in daily production since 2016, shaped to the way each firm already works. The fee is one flat figure per firm that covers everything, and taking on more people never changes it.
Published · Vendor facts read from each vendor's own website on
A subcontractor's system faces three ways.
Most construction software is described from the main contractor's chair. A subcontractor sits in the middle of the chain, and its system has to answer up, down and sideways.
Upward, to the main contractor. You apply for payment against a contract, under the Construction Act timetable, with retention held back on every application. Your invoices carry the domestic reverse charge, and CIS is deducted before the money reaches you.
Downward, to your own supply chain. Many subcontractors engage labour-only gangs or specialist firms of their own. Now you are the contractor for CIS: verifying, deducting, issuing statements and filing the monthly return.
Sideways, onto somebody else's site. Your operatives work under a principal contractor's rules. When that contractor asks who was on site on a day last spring, your own record has to answer, not theirs.
A main contractor's system holds what it needs about you on its project. Your hours, costs, CIS and applications across every main contractor belong in yours.
Seven questions for a subcontractor's shortlist.
Put each one to every vendor in writing. The third column is Unibuild's answer, so the page is not a checklist with a gap where the vendor should be.
| Ask | Why it matters to a subcontractor | Unibuild |
|---|---|---|
| Is the application built from work already measured? | An application rebuilt from last month's spreadsheet invites a short payment and a variation that never gets claimed | Built from the tendered sections and the valuations your site captured. Retention is recorded against each receipt and released through its own application |
| Are the Construction Act dates worked from a record? | A pay less notice served after the deadline is no notice at all. Showing that depends on the date your application went in | Applications are numbered and dated against the project. The payment timetable calculator gives the due date, notice deadlines and final date |
| Does CIS run in both directions? | You suffer deductions on your sales and make them on your own supply chain | CIS suffered is recorded on your sales invoices. CIS deducted runs to HMRC tax months and closes into a CIS300 return pack |
| Is the reverse charge on the invoice itself? | Sales to a VAT and CIS registered main contractor usually fall under it | A VAT treatment on the invoice, alongside standard, reduced and zero-rated |
| Can it evidence your people on another firm's site? | Principal contractors ask for attendance, RAMS and cards, often months later | QR clock-in with a photograph, server time and a site geofence. RAMS, toolbox talks and the training matrix sit on the same person |
| What does a peak cost? | A package can double the gang for ten weeks | Nothing extra. One flat monthly fee per firm, never per person or per seat |
| Whose name is on the app, and are changes included? | Your operatives install it on your instruction, and your process is not the vendor's | Both answered in full below |
The detail behind the first row is on applications for payment and retention. Recovering deductions that were taken wrongly is covered in reclaiming CIS deductions.
The six options, judged from the subcontractor's side.
The same six categories any contractor weighs, read against a subcontractor's week rather than a main contractor's.
| Option | What it does for a subcontractor | What to weigh |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets, paper and WhatsApp | Costs nothing and matches the way the office already thinks | No dated trail when an application is disputed, and CIS is rekeyed each month |
| Off-the-shelf job management | Good at jobs, dispatch and invoices for reactive work | Applications, retention and CIS on your own supply chain often sit outside it |
| Project and document platforms | Shares drawings and documents on large projects | Usually the main contractor's tool, holding what it needs about you rather than your own position |
| Accounting-led construction suites | Strong on the ledger, CIS and VAT | The site half, where your hours and evidence start, has to be won over |
| Bespoke, built from scratch | Fits your process exactly, once built | Months of specification and a build cost out of proportion to most subcontractors |
| A bespoke platform, like Unibuild | Applications, CIS both ways, clock-in and compliance on one set of records, fitted to your process | Configured around your firm and live in about two weeks, in phases |
Built to how your firm already works.
Every main contractor runs its own paperwork, and you already adapt to theirs. Your own system should not ask for more of the same. Unibuild is shaped to your valuation method, your subcontract terms and your approval route.
When a firm needs something new, Unibuild builds it. Changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee rather than charged at a day rate. A new main contractor's application format is a change like any other.
The build starts from a working platform rather than an empty screen. A firm gets the fit of a bespoke system without the cost, the timescale or the risk of commissioning one from scratch. See how bespoke construction software is built on the Unibuild platform.
Your operatives open your app, on anybody's site.
Your staff app is published on the App Store and Google Play under your company's own name and icon, included in the monthly fee at no extra cost. Your operatives download your app, not ours.
On a principal contractor's site, that app is how your firm shows up. The operative scans your numbered poster at the gate, printed in your branding, and the photograph and the time land on your record. Your own subcontractors' people scan the same poster, so who was on site is one record for the job.
The office portal carries your name, logo and colours, and your documents generate on your own letterhead. How the listing is set up is on the branded staff app page.
What each vendor's bill scales with.
For a subcontractor whose headcount moves with every package, the meter matters more than the monthly figure. Each name opens the full comparison.
| System | What the bill scales with | Who it suits | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unibuild | The firm. Never per person or per seat. Unlimited users on every plan | UK contractors and subcontractors running site and office on one system | Facts at a glance |
| Joblogic | Named users, field engineers included | Field service and maintenance firms billing by job | Vendor's website, read 20 September 2026 |
| Procore | Annual construction volume | Large main contractors running many projects at scale | Vendor's website, read 20 September 2026 |
| BigChange | Licences | Mobile workforces where vehicle tracking is the point | Vendor's website, read 20 September 2026 |
| Eque2 | Not published | Firms whose centre of gravity is Sage and the ledger | Vendor's website, read 20 September 2026 |
| Causeway | Not published | Large contractors, highways, infrastructure and local authorities | Vendor's website, read 23 September 2026 |
| COINS | Per user licence | Contractors and homebuilders wanting one ERP with the ledger inside | Vendor's website, read 23 September 2026 |
| Autodesk Construction Cloud | User, project or account, by product | Model-led projects needing a common data environment | Vendor's website, read 23 September 2026 |
| Commusoft | A licence per office user, manager and engineer | Heating, plumbing and electrical service firms | Vendor's website, read 23 September 2026 |
| PlanRadar | Named users, with subcontractors and watchers free | Firms whose work is defects, inspections and handover records | Vendor's website, read 23 September 2026 |
| Fieldwire | Named users, with unlimited-user options on custom contracts | Teams coordinating field tasks against drawings | Vendor's website, read 23 September 2026 |
The full set, with the reasoning, is on the comparison hub.