https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/ Practical writing for UK contractors on getting paid, pricing work, CIS and tax, health and safety compliance, and choosing site software. Published by Unibuild. en-GB Unibuild Technologies Limited success@unibuild.co.uk (Darshan Parmar) success@unibuild.co.uk (Darshan Parmar) Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT 720 https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/judging-software-support-before-you-buy/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/judging-software-support-before-you-buy/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software It is scored last on most selection matrices, it is the only criterion you cannot test before signing, and it is what decides whether anybody is still using the system in week three. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/why-there-is-no-price-list/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/why-there-is-no-price-list/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software A rate card looks like transparency, and for plenty of products it is. For software that has to fit a five-person firm and a hundred-person one, a single published figure is a decision about which of the two it was written for. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/site-welfare-facilities/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/site-welfare-facilities/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Site services Toilets, washing, drinking water, somewhere to change and somewhere to sit down. The list is short, it is legally specific, and "so far as is reasonably practicable" does not apply to most of it. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/temporary-electrical-supply-on-site/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/temporary-electrical-supply-on-site/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Site services Why site power runs at 110 volts, what has to be inspected every three months, and why the isolation permit is the document that decides whether anybody is allowed to work on it. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/temporary-water-supply-on-site/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/temporary-water-supply-on-site/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Site services The cost splits three ways, and only one of the three is the water. The connection is quoted, the consumption is metered, and the compliance is the part that gets left out of the price. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/main-contractor-administration/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/main-contractor-administration/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Reducing risk What to do in the first seven days, where you rank, and the three things worth securing before anybody tells you to stop. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/warning-signs-contractor-in-trouble/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/warning-signs-contractor-in-trouble/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Reducing risk The accounts tell you eighteen months late. What tells you now is behaviour: valuations shaved without explanation, payment slipping a week at a time, and the commercial team turning over. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/cis-gross-payment-status/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/cis-gross-payment-status/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS Three tests, and the one that catches firms out is the compliance test, which now looks at VAT as well. What qualifying takes, and what a single late return costs you. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/verifying-a-subcontractor-cis/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/verifying-a-subcontractor-cis/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS The step that decides the rate you deduct at, and the one firms do after paying rather than before. What verification returns, how long it lasts, and who carries the cost of getting it wrong. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/what-an-employee-costs/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/what-an-employee-costs/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial Salary is about four fifths of it. Employer National Insurance at 15% above a £5,000 threshold, the pension, and the on-costs of putting somebody on a site make up the rest. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/subcontractor-or-employee/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/subcontractor-or-employee/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial Paying somebody through CIS does not make them self-employed. The tests that decide it, the arrangements that fail them, and the declaration you sign every month saying you have considered it. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/finding-reliable-subcontractors/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/finding-reliable-subcontractors/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Subcontractors It is treated as a hiring problem and it is a retention problem. The firms that get the good trades are the ones that are straightforward to work for. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/knowing-what-plant-you-own/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/knowing-what-plant-you-own/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Plant and assets The losses are quiet: kit that walks between sites, kit hired because nobody could find the one you have, and kit written off that is still in a container. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/off-hire-plant-charges/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/off-hire-plant-charges/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Plant and assets Hire runs until the item is off-hired, not until you finish with it. A preventable loss that every contractor recognises and almost nobody has a process for. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/building-safety-act-gateway-2/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/building-safety-act-gateway-2/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety Approval has to be granted before construction starts, and the wait has improved sharply: a median of 22 weeks at June 2026 against 43 a year earlier. What that means if you are not the applicant. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/public-sector-tendering/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/public-sector-tendering/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Winning work The Procurement Act 2023 changed how this works in February 2025, and one requirement is absolute: register on the Central Digital Platform or you cannot be awarded a contract at all. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/where-office-hours-go/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/where-office-hours-go/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software Not in the work. In assembling positions from four places, retyping what site already recorded, and chasing paperwork that exists but cannot be found. How to measure your own before deciding anything. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/how-to-price-a-construction-job/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/how-to-price-a-construction-job/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial A method rather than a feeling: measure, build the rate, add the site costs that carry the job, recover overhead, then decide margin. The order matters. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/are-you-underpricing/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/are-you-underpricing/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial You will not find it in the jobs that went wrong, but in the ones that went fine and returned less than they should. A test you can run in an afternoon. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/day-rate-vs-fixed-price/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/day-rate-vs-fixed-price/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial Not a preference. A decision about who carries the risk of the unknown, and there is a right answer for most jobs once you are honest about what you do not know. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/materials-price-rise-after-quoting/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/materials-price-rise-after-quoting/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial The average tells you nothing. Structural steel rose 13.1% in the year to May 2026 while cement fell 5.0%. A quote is only exposed to what it is built from. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/pricing-preliminaries/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/pricing-preliminaries/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial Everything that makes the job possible and appears on no drawing: supervision, welfare, access, plant standing, insurance, and the time before and after. Why it gets under-priced and how to stop. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/getting-on-an-approved-list/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/getting-on-an-approved-list/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Winning work The application is the easy half. What decides it is the evidence pack behind it, and what gets a firm quietly dropped afterwards is rarely the work. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/ssip-chas-constructionline/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/ssip-chas-constructionline/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Winning work An acronym map with the money attached. Which schemes are health and safety only, which are full pre-qualification, what mutual recognition actually saves you, and why PAS 91 is no longer the answer. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/what-counts-as-construction-work-cis/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/what-counts-as-construction-work-cis/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS The included list is wider than most firms assume and the excluded list catches out exactly the trades that read it. Plus the mixed contract rule, which decides more cases than either list. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/cis-monthly-returns/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/cis-monthly-returns/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS The nineteenth, every month, whether or not you paid anybody. What the penalty ladder actually looks like, and the declaration on the return that carries more weight than the figures. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/end-user-statements/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/end-user-statements/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS It has to be in writing, it comes from your customer rather than from you, and without it the reverse charge applies by default. What the statement says and where it belongs. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/expiring-certificates/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/expiring-certificates/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety Insurance, cards, plant inspections, training and first aid all run out on different dates, and nothing about your file changes on the day one of them does. What has to watch them. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/hse-inspection-what-happens/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/hse-inspection-what-happens/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety What they can do, what they ask to see and in what order, what a Notification of Contravention means, and what the visit can cost you at £188 an hour. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/riddor-reporting/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/riddor-reporting/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety Three different clocks run on three different categories, and the one firms miss is the fifteen days, which counts from the accident rather than from the day you realised. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/f10-notification/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/f10-notification/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety Two thresholds, either of which triggers it, and a duty that sits with the client rather than with you. How to work out whether your job crosses them. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/which-cscs-card/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/which-cscs-card/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety Seven colours, different qualifications behind each, and a five year clock on most of them. What each card is for, and why it is not a legal requirement but still stops you at the gate. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/whatsapp-as-a-site-record/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/whatsapp-as-a-site-record/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software It is the system most sites actually run on, and it works right up until somebody asks a question about March. Six specific failures, and the one that arrives when a person leaves. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/spreadsheet-job-costing-breaks/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/spreadsheet-job-costing-breaks/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software Not when it gets complicated. When two people open it, when committed cost is not in it, and when the true position is a week old by the time anybody has assembled it. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/choosing-construction-management-software/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/choosing-construction-management-software/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software Every product demos well. A buyer's checklist written to be useful even if you buy from somebody else, including the five questions vendors answer badly. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/xero-for-contractors/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/xero-for-contractors/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software It handles CIS properly and it is a good ledger. What it is not built to hold is the job: the measured schedule, the valuation, the retention and committed cost. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/document-control-on-site/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/document-control-on-site/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software Building to a superseded drawing is expensive, common, and almost never anybody being careless. What has to be true for the right revision to reach the person holding the tool. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/application-for-payment-that-holds-up/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/application-for-payment-that-holds-up/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid Four reasons account for most rejections, and none of them is the price. What the document has to contain, what has to sit behind it, and the date that matters more than the total. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/getting-paid-for-variations/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/getting-paid-for-variations/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid The entitlement is rarely the problem. The evidence is. What stands up when the instruction was verbal, and the one email that changes the argument. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/smash-and-grab-adjudication/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/smash-and-grab-adjudication/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid An adjudication that asks nothing about what the work was worth, only whether the notices were served. What it wins, and the second adjudication that usually follows it. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/suspending-work-for-non-payment/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/suspending-work-for-non-payment/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid A statutory right with narrow conditions and real leverage. What has to be true before you can use it, what the notice must say, and what walking off without one costs. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/interest-on-late-payment/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/interest-on-late-payment/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid Statutory interest runs at eight per cent above base, and a fixed compensation sum sits on top of it that almost nobody asks for. Both are automatic entitlements rather than favours. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/construction-act-explained/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/construction-act-explained/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid Six rights that apply whether or not your contract mentions them, and whether or not anything was ever signed. What each one is, and where it stops. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/vetting-a-subcontractor/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/vetting-a-subcontractor/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Subcontractors Nine checks, what each one is actually protecting you from, and the two that firms skip and then discover matter. Most of it is twenty minutes and free. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/credit-check-a-contractor/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/credit-check-a-contractor/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Reducing risk Everything you need is public and none of it costs anything. Filing history, charges, director record, county court judgments, and the payment data large firms must publish. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/quote-vs-estimate/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/quote-vs-estimate/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial One becomes a fixed price the moment it is accepted. The other is an informed guess. The word at the top of the page is not what decides which you sent. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/when-you-become-principal-contractor/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/when-you-become-principal-contractor/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety The duty attaches to a role, not to the size of the firm, and a second contractor arriving on site is enough to trigger it. What lands on you, and when. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/what-construction-software-costs/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/what-construction-software-costs/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Choosing software The monthly figure is the part everyone compares and the smallest part of the bill. Setup, migration, the annual uplift, and the licences you ration because they are charged per person. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/vat-reverse-charge/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/vat-reverse-charge/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS Five years in and it still catches firms out on every second invoice. When it applies, when it does not, the written statement that switches it off, and the wording your invoice has to carry. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/reclaiming-cis-deductions/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/reclaiming-cis-deductions/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Tax and CIS A limited company gets its deductions back through payroll rather than its Corporation Tax return, and only if somebody files the right submission every month. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/the-construction-cash-gap/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/the-construction-cash-gap/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial Wages go out weekly, materials at thirty days, and the money comes back at sixty. Why a job that made a profit can still run a firm out of cash. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/main-contractor-will-not-pay/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/main-contractor-will-not-pay/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid The remedies run in a fixed order and each one costs more than the last. What to do first, what every step is worth, and the rung most disputes never get past. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/pay-less-notices/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/pay-less-notices/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid Four dates govern every interim payment in UK construction, and statute sets them rather than goodwill. What each one is, and what a late notice costs. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/pay-when-paid/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/pay-when-paid/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Getting paid Making your money conditional on somebody else being paid has been ineffective in UK construction since 1998. The clause is still written, and still quoted down the phone. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/rams-that-hold-up/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/rams-that-hold-up/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Health and safety What an inspector is actually looking for in a risk assessment and method statement, and the difference between a document that exists and one that is doing its job. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/retention-and-the-final-account/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/retention-and-the-final-account/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Commercial Where cash quietly disappears between the last valuation and the release of the second half of retention, and the four dates that decide whether you ever see it. https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/field-app-adoption/ https://unibuild.co.uk/insights/field-app-adoption/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Darshan Parmar Implementation Most site software is not rejected. It is quietly outlived by the paper route nobody switched off. What the firms that got it to stick did differently.