Buyer's guide · Job management

Job management software for UK trades: what changes at 10 to 300 people.

Job management software for a UK trade firm of 10 to 300 people has to do more than book a job and raise the invoice. It has to pay subcontractors under CIS and apply for payment on the main contractor's dates, plan labour across the sites, and get a RAMS signed before anyone starts. This guide sets out where the job apps written for one van stop, and what a firm of that size needs instead.

Published 8 November 2026 · Last reviewed November 2026

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In plain terms

Job management software runs a job from the enquiry to the invoice: the quote, the booking, who goes to site, what they did and what the customer is charged. For a sole trader with one van, that is the whole business. From about ten people it is one part of it.

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. It is built for trade firms of 5 to 300 people, with unlimited users on every plan and a 14-day trial of the full platform with no card. The field app is published under your firm's own name on the App Store and Google Play.

The edges

Five places a job app stops, usually in the same year.

The job apps sold to the trades are good at the job in front of one engineer. A growing firm finds their edges in a set order, and the order is roughly this.

The bill counts people: Most job apps are priced per user or per licence. At three vans that is a small line. At thirty people, with an office, two supervisors and the subcontractors who need to see a job, it rises with every hire, so logins get rationed. What a per-user meter does to the bill is a guide of its own.
One engineer, one job: A job app assumes one person goes to one job and comes back. Twenty operatives across six sites, moved between them during the week, is a labour run: a plan the office changes daily and every operative needs on their own phone.
No CIS: Paying a subcontractor under the Construction Industry Scheme means verifying them with HMRC, deducting at the rate HMRC confirms and filing the monthly return by the 19th. A job app raises the invoice and stops. The CIS deductions guide sets out the scheme.
No applications for payment: Work for a main contractor is paid by application and certificate under the Construction Act. The contract sets the dates, the payer serves a payment notice or a pay less notice, and retention is usually held back. An invoice at the end of the job is not how that money arrives.
No RAMS signed on the phone: A site that wants a RAMS before anyone starts wants it read and signed by every operative, agency and subcontract labour included. The record has to be there when an auditor asks for it a year later. A job app has a box for notes.

The unit changes. The job is still the unit of work. From about ten people it stops being the unit of the business.

See it run on one of your own jobs.

A labour run, a RAMS signing and an application for payment, in thirty minutes, with you driving. A written figure follows if you want one, usually the same working day.

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The list

Job management software for a firm of 10 to 300 people: what it has to do.

Nine things, each on the same set of records as the others. The links go to the module that does each one in Unibuild.

Quote it, win it, run it as the job

A quotation is priced from the firm's own build-up of materials, labour and preliminaries and goes out on its letterhead. When it is won, it becomes the live project carrying the same reference, and work outside it is recorded as a variation rather than remembered.

Priced from one dated library
Won quote becomes the job
Variations on the record

ModuleQuotations

Hours from the gate, not a Friday phone call

Operatives clock in by scanning the poster at the gate in your own app, with or without signal. The hours arrive against the job at the rate your firm sets, and the approved week exports for payroll, Sage and BrightPay included. Timesheets and QR clock-in.

Scan the poster, clocked in
Works with no signal
Exports for payroll

ModuleTimesheets

The week's labour, planned across every site

Each project has one page with everything about it, and the labour run plans who is where for the week. Each operative sees their own allocation in the app and is told when it changes, and the office sees the planned labour cost per job before the hours are worked.

One page per project
Allocation on the phone
Planned labour cost per job

ModuleProject management

RAMS signed before anyone starts

A RAMS is built from a template, approved, then read and signed on the phone by everyone on site, in their own language. Agency and subcontract workers sign through a link with nothing to install, and the signatures are the last page of the PDF.

Signed on any phone
Read in their own language
Re-signed after a change

ModuleRAMS

Subcontractors checked before they are instructed

Subcontractor management holds each firm's insurances, accreditations and CIS verification with their expiry dates, so a lapsed policy is flagged before anyone instructs them. They invoice against your orders in a portal of their own, with unlimited logins.

Insurances with expiry dates
CIS verified before payment
Invoices against the order

ModuleSubcontractors

Orders against the job, invoices matched to them

A purchase order is raised against the job and its cost code and approved under your rules, from the phone or the office. Every approval carries a name and a time, and the supplier's invoice is matched to the order and the delivery before it is approved.

Every order against a job
Approved on the phone
Invoice matched to the order

ModulePurchase orders

Paid by application, on the contract's dates

An application for payment is built from the measured work and the agreed variations on the job and issued on the dates the contract sets. The payment notice, the pay less notice and the retention are followed on the same record, so month end is a check rather than a reconstruction.

Built from the measured work
Variations carried in
Retention on its own line

ModuleApplications for payment

The margin on every job, while it can still be changed

Cost control holds committed and actual cost by cost code, with labour arriving from the clock-in at the rate your firm sets. Job profitability shows the live margin on every job, split by project manager and department, and the breakdown names why a job is losing money.

Committed and actual cost
Labour costed from the clock-in
Live margin by job

ModuleCost control

Your firm's name on the app

The field app is published under your firm's own name on the App Store and Google Play, included in the monthly figure. A new starter installs your app on day one, and the clock-in poster at the gate carries your branding. The branded staff app.

Your name on the store
Store publishing included
Installed on day one

ModuleBranded app

One set of records. The hours, the RAMS signature, the order and the application sit on the same job. A job app cannot give a firm that once the job is no longer the whole business.

The size question

What changes at 10 to 300 people is the calendar.

A sole trader's week has one deadline, the invoice. A firm of ten or more has a set of them, each with its own paperwork, and the system has to know about all of them.

Friday: Payroll closes on the hours from site. With clock-in at the gate, the week is already costed to the job by the time the office opens the export.
Before the start: The principal contractor wants the RAMS signed before anyone works. The signature page is on the record the morning they ask for it.
The 19th: The CIS monthly return is due to HMRC. The verified subcontractors and the deductions taken are already on the record, by tax month.
Month end: The application for payment goes in on the contract's date, built from the measured work and the variations, with retention shown on its own line.
Every hire: Nothing changes on the bill. Users are unlimited and the figure is fixed for three years, so the new supervisor is a login rather than a line.

Unibuild is sized for trade firms of 5 to 300 people. This guide is about the point, usually around ten, where a job app stops being enough. The signs are familiar: the second supervisor who needs a login, the first main contractor who pays by application, the CIS return done by hand on a Sunday. A five-person firm that already works for main contractors meets that point sooner. Unibuild serves more than thirty trades: electrical, M&E, scaffolding, roofing, glazing, joinery, plant hire, builders merchants, facilities, rail and construction among them. Each firm is configured to its own way of working. Why bespoke explains how one platform fits firms that different.

The figure

One monthly figure per firm, and what it covers.

Unibuild is one monthly figure per firm, quoted in writing, usually the same working day. It is sized to the firm when it is quoted and then fixed for three years. The office, every operative, the supervisors, the directors, subcontractors and clients all log in, and the figure does not move when you hire.

Configuration, training and data migration are included. So are the branded app and its store publishing, the subcontractor and client portals, support from the team on a UK line, and the changes you ask for after go-live. Most firms go live in about two weeks, in phases, with the 14-day trial first.

Why the figure is quoted to each firm rather than printed is set out in why there is no price list. The model in full is on the pricing page.

Client testimonial

SME Building Services,
in their own words.

Niki Scarth, office administrator at SME Building Services, standing in the firm’s Croydon office with the SME Building Services mark on the wall behind her — **Niki Scarth**Office administrator, SME Building Services LtdCroydon · on Unibuild since 2023
Read the SME case study

It has always been a pleasure to work with Darshan and his team to create our completely bespoke system, which I can only describe as brilliant.

The system is constantly growing and improving. Whenever we need something added or changed, whether it's a new form that would work better for us or a new idea to improve the way we work, Darshan works his magic and makes it happen!

It has genuinely changed the way we work for the better, improving our record-keeping, automating processes and standardising practices across the company, saving us both time and money.

It's also improved the service we provide to our clients, who love being able to view their job and asset information live, at the click of a button.

Thank you, Unibuild!

Questions

Asked by firms outgrowing a job app.

What job management software should a UK trade firm of 10 to 300 people look at?

One system that runs the job and the parts around it, priced per firm rather than per user. That means quoting, timesheets from the gate, the labour run, RAMS signed on the phone, subcontractors under CIS, applications for payment and the margin on every job. Unibuild is bespoke business software built for that, in daily production since 2016 and sized for trade firms of 5 to 300 people. A job app written for one van covers the first of those and stops.

What does job management software cost for a trade firm?

One monthly figure, quoted in writing, fixed for three years, unlimited users. No per-user charge. Most job apps are priced per user, so their cost rises with every hire and every subcontractor who needs a login; a per-firm figure does not. Unibuild's figure is sized to the firm when it is quoted, and there is no setup fee. The pricing page sets out what it covers.

Is there a free trial?

Yes, 14 days of the full platform, no card. Every module is switched on for the trial. A 30-minute demo first is the quicker route, because it is built around one of your own jobs, and what you saw in the demo carries on as the trial.

How long does it take to go live?

Most firms go live in about two weeks, in phases. Timesheets are a common first phase, then RAMS, then the money. Configuration, data migration and training are done for you, with a sandbox to try things in first. Your part is telling the team how the firm runs and checking the sandbox. How implementation works sets out each phase.

Is Unibuild job management software?

Yes. Jobs, quotations, who went to site, what they did and what the client is charged are all in it, and the won quotation becomes the live job. It also carries the parts a job app leaves out: the labour run across several sites, timesheets from the gate and RAMS signed on the phone. Subcontractors under CIS, applications for payment and the live margin on every job sit on the same record. The job is one unit inside a system that runs the firm.

Is there job management software for subcontractors working for main contractors?

Yes. A subcontractor is paid by application and certificate, and has CIS deducted by the contractor above while deducting it from the firms below. It also has to produce a signed RAMS before the start. Unibuild runs all three on the same record. Construction software for subcontractors is the guide for a firm whose work is mostly for main contractors.

Does it work for electrical, plumbing and heating, or glazing firms?

Yes. Unibuild serves more than thirty trades, and each firm is configured to its own way of working. An electrical contractor issues its certificates on its letterhead, a glazing firm's survey becomes the order, and a heating firm keeps its service visits and Gas Safe records. Construction is one of those trades, alongside M&E, scaffolding, roofing, plant hire, facilities and builders merchants. The trade pages set out how each one runs on it.

What happens to the bill when we take on more people?

Nothing. The figure is sized to the firm once, when it is quoted in writing, and then fixed for three years. Users are unlimited, so a new supervisor, ten more operatives for a job in March or a client who wants the portal are logins, not lines on the bill.

Does it replace our accounts package?

No. Your accounts package stays, and Unibuild runs the job up to it, as far as the application for payment and the invoice. It syncs with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage 50, CIS works to HMRC tax months, and the approved week exports as CSV, XML or JSON for payroll.

Can our staff have the app under our own name?

Yes. The field app is published under your firm's own name on the App Store and Google Play, included in the monthly figure. Your operatives download your app rather than ours. The branded staff app sets out how the listing is published and kept published.

Three related guides. The broad version is the buyer's guide to construction management software. For a firm of five to fifty people, read construction software for small contractors; for what a per-user meter does to the bill, construction software with unlimited users. Corrections to success@unibuild.co.uk.

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