Plant, stores and equipment

Know what you own,
and where it is right now.

A UK contractor running its own plant and stores needs every item held with its value and location, and every movement signed for. Unibuild is bespoke construction management software built for that shape of firm: a serialised asset register, signed deliveries and collections, a continuous stock ledger and bin locations.

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Plant, stores and equipment tracked with value and location in Unibuild

Your week

You bought materials that were
already on the shelf, because
nobody could see the shelf.

A tower is allocated to two jobs at once. Equipment is still on a site that completed in March and nobody has noticed. And when the insurer asks for a schedule of what you hold and what it is worth, somebody spends a day building it.

Tuesday morning

An operative drives forty miles for a transformer already sitting in another of your vans.

A morning

The spreadsheet

Last properly updated eighteen months ago, by somebody who has since left. Two people keep private copies.

Nobody trusts it

Since March

Kit is still on a completed site. The job closed, everyone moved on, nobody rang anybody.

Hire running on

Back at the yard

Something comes back damaged. No evidence of where it happened, so the cost is yours.

Absorbed

Friday night

A van is broken into. The insurer wants makes, models and serial numbers by Monday.

Settled short

Year end

The accountant asks for a fixed asset listing. There is no physical register to reconcile against.

A number from the ledger

The pattern Every one of these is a movement that was never recorded Not a person who lost something

Serialised plantBin locationsKitsStock ledgerDelivery requestsSigned delivery notesCollection requestsSite to site transfersUpcoming collectionsDamage reportsRepairsOut of serviceRechargeQR labellingInsurance schedule Serialised plantBin locationsKitsStock ledgerDelivery requestsSigned delivery notesCollection requestsSite to site transfersUpcoming collectionsDamage reportsRepairsOut of serviceRechargeQR labellingInsurance schedule

What matters most to you

Six things, and this is the deepest
logistics capability in the platform.

All six were built for a business whose working capital sits on a shelf and moves every day, and they have been running that business since 2016.

A live asset
register

Every plant and access equipment item serialised, as a record of its own rather than a quantity on a line.

Purchase value, retail value, supplier and purchase date
Expected life and residual value held on the item
Current location resolved from the last movement
A QR label on the item opens its full history

A thing with a historyLive

Deliveries and
collections

Picking against the actual serial numbers and the actual bin quantities on the shelf, with a signature on handover.

A pick can split across bins and cannot over allocate
Partial dispatch tracked per line
Receiver's name and signature on the note
Site to site transfers without a pointless return trip

Signed chain of custodyLive

A continuous
stock ledger

Append only, never overwritten. Goods received, deliveries out, collections back, repairs, returns and corrections, with per bin quantities underneath.

Stock moves when items physically move
Confirming the note posts the ledger
Bin locations with their own available quantities
No separate posting step to forget

The shelf and the system agreeLive

Upcoming
collections

A standing list of jobs that are finishing with equipment still allocated to them, so kit comes home before it is forgotten.

A working list the store goes through
Idle plant becomes available again
Collection requests raised from site
Damage flagged at the point of pick up

The cheapest loss to stopLive

Repairs and
damage

Captured on the phone where the damage was found, with the evidence a recharge conversation actually needs.

Photographs, video, location, time and a signature
Itemised by damaged part, costed from a parts list
Raising a repair logs the asset out of service
Completion records the parts, the hours and a test result

Fault to test resultLive

Kits

A repeatable bundle issued as one unit, shared between estimating and stores, so a kit built once serves both pricing and picking.

Materials, plant, sundries and a labour allowance
A running fit time total as you build it
Per line markup inside the kit
Priced on one line at tender stage

Built once, used twiceLive

One item, one round trip

Out of the bin, onto the job,
back to the shelf, all signed.

One plant item tracked from bin to job and back in Unibuild

01
Requested
From siteOr from the officeApproved or refused
02
Picked
Real serialReal binCannot over allocate
03
Delivered
Receiver signsNote producedLedger posts
04
On the job
Location knownHeld by a personScan for history
05
Collected
Upcoming listDamage flaggedOr straight to next site
06
Back in stock
Ledger creditedRepair if neededOut of service until tested

The mechanism The movement and the record are the same action Not two jobs, one of which gets skipped

The regimes you live under

Stock control is a commercial
discipline. The regulatory
interest is narrow and specific.

Nobody is prosecuted for a stock count that does not match.
What matters is the condition of the equipment you issue,
and being able to say who was holding it.

01PUWER 1998, regulations 4, 5 and 6: Work equipment must be suitable, maintained in an efficient state and in good repair, and inspected where safety depends on installation or deterioration, with the inspection recorded. The register identifies each item individually and holds a dated maintenance record per item with comments and attached evidence. The movement record supplies the other half: who took a specific item to which project and on what date. When equipment is found defective, that is how you establish where else it has been.
02Electricity at Work Regulations 1989: Portable appliance test records held against the individual item with the full readings, so the tool and its evidence are the same object in the system. Scanning the label on a transformer returns its complete test history on the engineer's phone.
03LOLER 1998: Where you hold lifting accessories, the serial level movement record identifies which physical unit was on which site and when. The module records movement, repair and the reports you hold against each item. For a business holding slings, chain blocks or a vehicle mounted crane, the thorough examination register holds each item’s examination dates and reports. It follows the same pattern as the PAT and calibration registers.
04Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 12: Ladders, step ladders, trestles, towers and fall arrest harnesses are held individually with a service date, a next service due date and a service history with attachments. Where equipment leaves your undertaking, the movement record establishes where it went and when.
05Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005: Hand arm vibration magnitude is a field on the power tool record, so your exposure assessments reference the tool the operative is actually holding rather than a generic figure from a manufacturer's website.
06Companies Act 2006, section 386: Records sufficient to show and explain transactions and disclose the financial position with reasonable accuracy. A continuous, append only ledger movement for every dispatch and return, tied to bins and serial numbers, with the purchase price, supplier and purchase date on the item.
07Insurance schedules and claims: The register is the schedule, and it is maintained as a by-product of daily work rather than as an annual exercise. After a break in it already exists, with categories, identification numbers, serial numbers, photographs and last known locations. It evidences what was held and where.

Questions from your sector

Asked by businesses whose
capital sits on a shelf.

What software do UK contractors use to track plant, tools and stores?

Software where the movement and the record are the same action, so the register cannot drift from the shelf. Unibuild is bespoke construction management software for UK contractors holding their own plant: a serialised asset register, signed deliveries and collections, a stock ledger and damage records. It is a platform in daily production since 2016, shaped to the way each firm already works. 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. See how bespoke construction software is delivered.

We already have a stores spreadsheet. What does this 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, and the ledger posts. It also tells you which bin the stock came out of, which no spreadsheet does. And it keeps working the week the person who built it is on holiday.

Does it track each item individually, or just count them?

Individually, for the categories where it matters. Plant, access equipment, power tools, store equipment and fire equipment are one record per physical item, each with its own record page, its own code and its own test and service history. Materials, uniform and personal protective equipment are held as quantities by item and size, because numbering every pair of gloves is not a sensible use of anyone's time.

How do we stop plant being left on finished jobs?

There is a standing view of jobs that are finishing with equipment still allocated to them. It is a working list the store goes through rather than a notification. That is usually enough, because the problem was never that people did not care, it was that nobody could see what was still out. A collection request can also transfer an item straight to the next site rather than bringing it back to be booked in and straight out again.

Will this give my accountant a fixed asset register?

Yes. The register holds every item you own with its own branded QR label, its purchase price, purchase date, supplier, residual value, expected life and current location, which is the substance of what an accountant asks for. Depreciation and net book value are carried in the platform as well, for firms that want them there rather than only in the ledger.

Can we recharge damage to a client or a subcontractor?

The platform gives you the evidence to make that case: the job, the location, the time, the photographs and video, the itemised damaged parts and the estimated cost, with a signature, captured at the moment of discovery. The operative records it on the phone in your own staff app, published on the App Store and Google Play under your company's name and icon. Whether the recharge succeeds is a commercial conversation, but it becomes a conversation about a documented incident rather than a recollection. That is almost never what firms actually have.

How do we stop a broken tool going back out?

Raising the repair logs a movement that takes the item out of active service, so it is not offered as available. It comes back into service when the repair is completed and a test result is recorded against it. The mechanism is the movement record rather than a note on a whiteboard.

Can we import our supplier price files?

Yes. For a business with large merchant catalogues, the import is set up during implementation. Prices are then maintained inside the platform, which is what keeps them yours rather than a merchant's.

No card, no lock-in

If the first honest count of
your own store is not worth
the exercise, do not pay us.

0114-day free trial: Your real plant, your real bins, your real sites.
02Free migration: Item lists, serial numbers, purchase details, current locations.
03Demonstrated where it runs: Shown on the deployment that has kept a store honest since 2016.
04Cancel by email: One sentence to success@unibuild.co.uk. Done.
05UK data, UK support: UK office, working hours, a real phone number.
06Unlimited users: Storemen, drivers, site, office, directors. Same price.