Commercial

Financial management
that builds itself.

Unibuild's financial management module is software for UK trades and specialist contractors that runs the money side of every job. Applications for payment are assembled from signed work, retention is carried to release, and CIS deductions close by HMRC tax month.

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Construction finance team reviewing applications for payment in Unibuild

In plain terms

Financial management software for a trade firm runs the money side of every job: measured work, the application for payment, retention, cash received and cost, on one record.

Unibuild’s module does this for trade firms of 5 to 300 people, with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage 50 kept in step. Unlimited users, and a 14-day trial, no card.

Last reviewed November 2026.

Work to cash, end to end

Every stage between doing it
and being paid for it.

Construction financial management software is what sits between the work being done and the money arriving for it. For a UK contractor that means one place holding the measured work, the application for payment raised against it, the retention the client is withholding, the cash that has actually landed, and what the job has cost while all of that was going on. Unibuild holds every stage below against the same job record your site team is already working to, which is why a month end is assembled rather than rebuilt. The commercial manager, the contracts manager and the accounts team read the same position on the same day.

01
Measure it
Signed valuationsVariationsDay works
02
Apply for it
ApplicationWorks scheduleClient QS reference
03
Hold it back
RetentionCertified positionFinal release
04
Collect it
PaymentsAllocationsReceipts
05
Chase it
Aged debtStatementsCorrespondence
06
Check it
Job costingUnbilled workTurnover

Applications for paymentRetentionCertified positionAged debtTurnover by managerStatements of accountPayment allocationReceiptsCustom invoicesDomestic reverse chargeSubcontractor invoicesJob-costed expensesCommitted order valueUnbilled workHousing Grants Act Applications for paymentRetentionCertified positionAged debtTurnover by managerStatements of accountPayment allocationReceiptsCustom invoicesDomestic reverse chargeSubcontractor invoicesJob-costed expensesCommitted order valueUnbilled workHousing Grants Act

See the money side of a job, from the measure to the cash, on one record.

Thirty minutes, live, with you driving. Or a written monthly figure by email, usually the same working day.

Book a 30-minute demo Ask for a quote

Where the cash leaks

The work was done. The money is the hard part.

Cash is the business, and the application is how it arrives. In most firms it is assembled by hand, from four sources, by one person who cannot take the last week of the month off.

Month end, day one

Somebody rebuilds the measure from spreadsheets, a diary and two phone calls to site.

≈ 3 days

Two months later

Extra work was done on a nod. Nobody can prove it was agreed, so it is quietly written off.

Margin gone

Friday, 15:20

Client asks what has been certified to date. Nobody can answer without opening five files.

Credibility

Retention

Held back on a job that finished eighteen months ago. Nobody is chasing the release.

Cash stuck

Invoice run

Domestic reverse charge applied wrongly. The client's accounts team sends it back.

Rework

Final account

The first time anyone knows what the job really cost. Far too late to have acted on it.

Lesson unlearned

The drain Work done and never claimed, retention nobody released Both are visibility problems

The division of labour

What construction financial management software has to do that an accounts package does not.

Two systems, one commercial position. The accounts package keeps the ledgers you file from. This keeps the job: what was measured, what was applied for, what is still owed and what it cost. Where the two meet is worth settling before you buy, not after.

Your accounts package · Keeps the ledgers: The VAT return, the payroll run and the statutory accounts stay where your accountant already works. Unibuild runs the job up to them, and exports payroll and any other data in the system as CSV, XML or JSON.
Unibuild · Runs the job to the point of payment: The estimate, the labour, the work measured and signed on site, the purchase orders, the subcontract accounts including their CIS deductions and statements, and the cost that accrues from all of it. Then the commercial layer on top: the application raised against the job, the retention the client withheld, the receipt banked and split across the applications it covers, and the outstanding position that falls out of the two. None of it is retyped from anywhere, because it was captured once by the people doing the work.
Where the two meet · Live and in daily use: Approved supplier invoices, credit notes and travel orders are emailed into your bookkeeping capture inbox from inside the purchase order record, with the order number, supplier, project and both values already stated in the message. Each one is flagged as sent so nothing goes twice. This is the connection carrying real volume today, and it removes the scanning and forwarding job rather than adding to it.
QuickBooks, Xero and Sage 50 · Synced: Unibuild syncs with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage 50. Any other external system is synced on request during implementation, and all data also leaves as CSV, XML or JSON. Every connection is set out on the integrations page.

Worth asking in the first conversation

Which accounts package you run changes the shape of the implementation, so it belongs in the first conversation rather than the fourth. So does the commercial side of the decision: Unibuild is priced as one flat monthly figure with unlimited users, which is what makes it reasonable to put the quantity surveyor, the contracts managers, the accounts team and the directors on the same commercial position. The module is set up around your own month end, numbering and documents. Anything else you need is built for you, and changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee. More on how Unibuild is built to each firm.

What is in the box

Nine financial management capabilities, one module, built by people who had to get paid.

The oldest and deepest part of the platform, running the commercial side of a UK contracting business since 2016.

Applications
for payment

Apply

Built from two things that already exist: the job's priced sections, and variations your client has already signed on site.

Contract and variation elements
Custom lines where needed
Maintenance shown separately
Formal interim PDF

Inside · Assemble, IssueLive

Retention

Held

Calculated on the application, carried as a cumulative balance, and released at the end with its own flag so it cannot be quietly forgotten.

Percentage on each application
Cumulative balance carried
Final release flagged
Shown separately in ageing

Inside · Hold, ReleaseLive

Certified
position

Maths

Gross value, discount, retention, the previously certified total and the net due this period. The arithmetic nobody should do by hand.

Previous position summed
Net due this period
First application recognised
Valuation date drives reporting

Inside · CalculateLive

Aged
debt

Chase

Outstanding certified value aged into buckets and grouped by the manager responsible for the job, as at any date you choose.

30, 60, 90 and 120-plus days
Grouped by manager
Retention shown separately
Chase notes per job

Inside · Age, ChaseLive

Payments
and allocation

Cash

Amount, date, mode, transaction number and proof of payment, split across the applications it actually covers.

One payment, several applications
Unallocated portion flagged
Retention withheld captured
Formal receipt produced

Inside · Record, AllocateLive

Statements
of account

Recon

Every application and every payment on a job, interleaved in date order, so what was applied for and what arrived reconcile on one page.

Per job, in date order
Applications and payments
Correspondence log
Cash received across the business

Inside · StatementLive

Invoicing
and VAT

VAT

For billing that does not fit the interim application model, with the VAT treatments a UK contractor actually needs.

Standard, reduced, zero-rated
Domestic reverse charge
Totals validated to add up
Branded invoice with bank details

Inside · Invoice, Charge typesLive

Cost
position

Cost

What a job has cost so far, this week, rather than at the final account. Labour, purchasing and expenses land on the job as they happen.

Labour at dated cost rates
Orders at committed value
Expenses as approved
Cost against project value

Inside · Live positionLive

Unbilled
work

Queue

Approved, signed-off work that has never reached an application. The direct measure of work in progress that is ready to bill today.

Approved but not applied for
Cannot be billed twice
Unsigned variations flagged
Worked as a queue

Inside · WIP queueLive

What is actually held

One module.
Six ledgers underneath it.

All of it reads the same job record site is working against, so nothing is re-entered to become an application, a cost or a statement.

Applications

Contract elementVariation elementGross valueDiscountRetentionPrevious positionNet due

Cash

Payments recordedProof of paymentAllocationUnallocated flagReceiptsCorrespondence log

Reporting

Aged applicationsTurnover by managerStatement of accountUnbilled workPayment reportCash received

Invoicing

Custom invoicesStandard rateReduced rateZero ratedDomestic reverse chargeBank detailsVAT number

Cost

Labour at dated ratesCommitted order valueJob-costed expensesSubcontractor invoicesCost against valueEstimate versus actual

Control

Purchase approvalDivision sign-offSupplier invoice matchingMissing invoice flagsHousing Grants Act mechanismAudit trail

Six financial ledgers held inside one Unibuild module

Who reads what

What the money looks like on a Monday morning.

The cost side below assembles itself from work people did for other reasons, so the position is current to the hour rather than to the last month end. What is entered by hand, the application and the receipt, is entered once and then read by everybody, which is why the director, the commercial manager and the accounts team never have to agree a version first.

Director or owner · The whole portfolio: One row per project across the business: manager, client, contract value, hours, labour cost, reimbursements, subcontractor invoices, purchase orders and total cost, sortable on every column and recomputed each time it loads. Contract value is derived from the client purchase orders held against the project rather than typed in by anybody. More on what the platform gives the people running the firm is on the page written for directors and owners.
Accounts and administration · The position as it stood: Every row on the project ledger carries the gross applied and the gross balance as at its own date, so a question about where a job stood in March is answered by reading March rather than by rebuilding it. The ageing behaves the same way and runs as at any date you choose. The office side of the platform is described for office and administration staff.

One month end

Five days, and nobody
rebuilt anything.

A month end assembled rather than rebuilt. Every step below reads work that site had already measured and the client had already signed, which is why none of it starts from a blank page. It is drawn from how the commercial side has run since 2016.

FriAlready done

Site measured the week and the client signed it.

Every week of the month, a supervisor valued the work in your own branded staff app, against that job's own rate card, and the client's representative signed on the screen. Nothing about month end starts from a blank page.

Rate valuations

Mon 09:00Assemble

The application pulls the approved work in.

Contract lines from the job's priced sections, variation lines from the signed valuations. Anything already billed on a previous application is marked so it cannot be claimed twice.

Applications

Mon 11:30Calculate

Retention and the previous position work themselves out.

Gross, discount, retention, the certified total from prior applications, the net due this period. The arithmetic that gets quietly wrong by hand, done the same way every month.

Certified position

Tue 09:15Issue

Formal interim application goes to the client's QS.

A multi-page document following standard UK practice, including the note that it is not a tax invoice, with the schedules of variations behind it. Emailed from the system, and the send is logged.

Document engine

WedChase

Aged debt reviewed by manager, not by job.

Outstanding certified value in 30, 60, 90 and 120-day buckets, grouped by whoever is responsible. Jobs where payments were never fully allocated are flagged explicitly. Chase notes recorded against each.

Aged applications

ThuCash in

Payment lands and is split across what it covers.

Recorded with the amount, date, mode and proof of payment, then allocated across several applications. Anything unallocated is flagged rather than sitting in limbo. A receipt is produced.

Payments + Allocation

FriClose

The unbilled queue is worked before the month closes.

Approved, signed work that has never reached an application, on one screen. Two variations found from a job that finished in March. Applied for in the next cycle instead of never.

Unbilled work

The payment regime

Payment notices, retention
and the dates behind both.

The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, as amended, requires a construction contract to carry an adequate payment mechanism: the date a payment becomes due, the final date for paying it, a payment notice, and a pay less notice where the payer intends to pay less than the notified sum. Below is where that regime meets the platform, on the way out to your supply chain and on the way in from your client, and where the retention sits while both are running.

Going out · The mechanism is printed into the order: Clause 20 of the subcontract conditions printed on page two of every order sets the application date as the due date, the final date for payment as 35 days after it, requires a Payment Notice within 10 days of an application, permits a Pay Less Notice not less than 2 days before the final date, and gives interest at 4% over Bank of England base rate on late payment. Clause 17 provides the adjudication route. Most systems issue a purchase order to a subcontractor. This issues a subcontract, and the 27 conditions on the face of it are set out in full.
Coming in · Numbered, dated and evidenced: Every application is numbered in that project's own sequence and carries its valuation date, the client's quantity surveyor and the client's order number. It is issued as a formal interim document following standard UK practice, including the note that it is not a tax invoice, and it is dated at the point of issue. The send is logged with the time, the recipient and what was attached, which is a materially better answer than a sent items folder when a date is argued over later. How the document is assembled is covered on the applications for payment page.
Notices to your own client · Set up for your contracts: The same mechanism runs up to your own client, set up for each firm's contracts at implementation. It covers the due date, the final date for payment, notice records held against the application and the notified sum. It uses the framework already written into the deed the platform issues to your supply chain.
Retention on a live job · A running figure, not a reconstruction: Retention is recorded as what the client actually withheld, against the receipt it came off, with the amount, the transaction number and the remittance advice alongside it. The cumulative figure held on the project is therefore arithmetic rather than archaeology. It reads as a headline on the project ledger and as a column on every receipt row, and it is shown separately in the aged debt report so a retention balance is never mistaken for a slow payer.
Retention at the final account · Claimed once, and only once: The release is claimed through a dedicated retention application, which picks up the cumulative retention withheld across every receipt on that project, less anything already released, and claims that figure. Once claimed it drops out of the running total, so the same retention cannot be raised twice. Until it is claimed it stays on the ledger as retention held, rather than leaving with the job. What the release is worth chasing, and how the defects period and the final account bear on it, is set out in our guide to retention and the final account.

Asked in every demo

Construction financial management
software questions.

The full list lives at /faqs. These are the ones that come up in every conversation about the money side.

Which firms is Unibuild’s financial management built for?

UK trades and specialist contractors of 5 to 300 people who get paid through applications for payment, retention and CIS. That means M&E, electrical, scaffolding, drylining, groundworks, facilities and the rest, with construction one trade among them. Unibuild is bespoke business software for UK trades and specialist contractors: a platform in daily production since 2016, shaped to the way each firm already works. Users are unlimited, so the QS, the office and the directors read the same position.

Can we see what each client owes, and what each job has cost, without a spreadsheet?

Yes. Four figures sit at the top of every project ledger: total requested, total received, retention held and total outstanding. Outstanding value is aged in 30, 60, 90 and 120-plus day bands, grouped by the manager responsible. The cost position sits on the same job record, so the commercial manager, the contracts manager and the accounts team read the same position on the same day.

What does it cost, and is it priced per user?

One flat monthly figure that covers everything, quoted in writing, sized to the firm when quoted and fixed for three years. It is never per person, so the quantity surveyor, the contracts managers, the accounts team and the directors can all work from the same commercial position. What the figure covers is set out on the pricing page, or ask for your firm’s quote. The trial runs for 14 days on the full platform, with no card.

Can we try it before we commit?

Yes, 14 days of the full platform, no card. Every module is switched on, so the trial runs on your own jobs and your own people. Most firms book a 30-minute demo first and start the trial from there.

How long does it take to go live?

Most firms go live in about two weeks, in phases. Configuration, training and data migration are carried out by Unibuild and included in the monthly fee, so nothing waits on your own team building a system.

How does the application actually get built?

From work that already exists in the system. The contract element comes from the job’s priced estimate sections, so the client sees a billing structure matching the tender. The variation element comes from the rate valuations your site measured and your client signed on the phone. Once a variation is pulled into an application it is marked as billed and cannot be claimed again. The commercial team is assembling, not reconstructing.

What stops work being done and never billed?

The unbilled queue. Approved, signed work that has never reached an application sits on one screen, and variations submitted but never signed are flagged separately. The queue is worked before the month closes, so a variation from a job that finished in March is applied for in the next cycle.

Can we send recurring invoices to clients automatically?

Yes. A recurring invoice is set up once with its client and its frequency: weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. Unibuild emails it on each date, so a maintenance contract is billed on the day. Recurring invoices.

Does it keep track of retention until it is released?

Yes. Retention is recorded as what the client actually withheld, against the receipt it came off, and carried as a cumulative balance. It is shown separately in the aged debt report, so it is never mistaken for a slow payer. The release is claimed once, through its own application. On the subcontract side, percentages are captured on every order, and running balances are set up the same way for your firm.

Can it tell me whether a job is making money?

Yes, while the job is running. Labour flows in at each person’s rate for the day, purchase orders at committed value and expenses as they are approved, all against the job. On jobs priced through a structured estimate, estimated hours and quantities are compared with what site actually used, section by section. Job profitability gives the live margin on every job.

Can we show a client where the account stood at a past date?

Yes. Every row on the project ledger carries the gross applied and the gross balance as at its own date. A question about where a job stood in March is answered by reading March. The statement of account sets every application and payment in date order on one page, and the ageing runs as at any date you choose.

Does it cover the Construction Act payment notices?

Yes, both ways. Every subcontract order you issue prints the payment mechanism in its conditions: due date, final date for payment, payment notice, pay less notice and the adjudication route. Applications to your own client carry the due date, the final date for payment, the notified sum and notice records, set up for your contracts. The send of each application is logged with the time, the recipient and what was attached.

Does it handle the domestic reverse charge properly?

Yes. Charge types include standard, reduced, zero-rated and the domestic reverse charge that applies across much of the construction supply chain. The invoice is produced correctly, and your accounts package files the return from it.

Does it work with our accounts package?

Yes. Your accounts package stays, and Unibuild runs the job up to it, through to the application for payment. Approved supplier invoices are emailed into your bookkeeping capture inbox from the order, which removes the scanning and forwarding job. Unibuild syncs with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage 50, and any other system is synced on request. Every connection is set out on the integrations page.

What software handles CIS deductions and monthly returns for UK contractors?

Unibuild handles CIS in the same system that holds your subcontract orders, invoices and payments, so there is no second version in a spreadsheet. Each subcontractor carries their UTR, verification reference and HMRC-confirmed deduction rate. Deductions are calculated on the labour element only, with materials, third-party plant hire and VAT excluded automatically. Periods run to HMRC tax months, 6th to 5th, and each closes into a complete CIS300 return pack, ready for your accountant to file. The rates are explained in our guide to CIS deductions for UK contractors.

Questions buyers ask

What should construction financial management software in the UK cover?

Applications for payment built from measured work, retention carried to release, and the Construction Act notices and dates. Then CIS deductions by HMRC tax month, the domestic reverse charge on invoices, and the cost of each job against its value. Unibuild holds all of it on the job record and keeps QuickBooks, Xero or Sage 50 in step as the ledger. Construction is one of the trades it serves, alongside M&E, electrical, scaffolding and facilities. Book a 30-minute demo to see a month end run on your own figures.

What does construction payment software have to handle?

The dates. Under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 a contract needs a due date, a final date for payment, a payment notice and a pay less notice. A payment that lands short has to be read against them. Unibuild records all four against each application, logs the send with the time and recipient, holds retention as a running balance and ages what is outstanding by the manager responsible. Book a demo.

Is there subcontractor payment software in Unibuild?

Yes. Each subcontractor carries their UTR, verification reference and HMRC-confirmed deduction rate. Their invoices arrive on the subcontractor portal or by email, and CIS is deducted on the labour element only. Statements are produced, and periods close by HMRC tax month into a CIS300 return pack. The subcontract order carries the payment terms in print, so what is owed and when is on one record. Subcontractor management has the detail, and a 30-minute demo shows a tax month closed.

No card, no lock-in

Bring us your
worst month end.

0114-day free trial: Your real jobs, your real applications, your real numbers.
02Free migration: Open applications, retention balances, live jobs, price lists.
03We run the first one with you: Your first month end on a screen-share, start to finish.
04Cancel by email: One sentence to success@unibuild.co.uk. Done.
05UK data, UK support: UK office, working hours, real phone number.
06Unlimited users: The QS, the office, the directors, the site. Same price.