UK-built · CDM · CIS · MTD
Unibuild is purchase order software for UK contractors. Every order is raised against the job and approved by a named person before money is committed, and every invoice lands against it.
Purchase order software puts a controlled step between somebody deciding to spend and the money actually being committed. The order is raised, approved by a named person, sent to the supplier, and the invoice that arrives later is matched against it rather than guessed at.
Unibuild's purchase order module is software for UK trades and specialist contractors that takes spend from request to matched invoice. Orders are raised against the job, approved by value band, receipted with a goods received note on delivery and matched to the supplier invoice. Committed cost lands on the job the moment an order is approved, not at the month end.
There is no order, so there is nothing to check the invoice against when it turns up four weeks later.
Nothing is committed to a supplier without a numbered order that carries the job it belongs to. That is the whole mechanism, and everything else on this page follows from it.
Approval goes to a list of people you choose rather than one person who might be on a roof. Every approval carries a name and a time.
An approved order lands on the job immediately, so the commercial position includes money that is spent but not yet invoiced. That is the number a manager actually needs.
A supplier invoice is matched to the order it was raised against rather than coded to whichever project looks most likely four weeks after the fact.
Suppliers are records rather than three versions of the same merchant across a phone, a spreadsheet and somebody's memory, with their compliance documents held against them.
An operative at a trade counter raises the order there, rather than ringing the office. That is the version that survives a Tuesday morning.
Ask what has been committed on your biggest live job today.
Not invoiced. Committed. Most firms can produce the figure a fortnight after the month end, which is a fortnight after it stopped being useful.
Purchase order control fails for behavioural reasons rather than technical ones. These are the six, and what has to be true.
If raising an order means ringing the office, people will buy first and tell somebody later, and the control exists only on paper. Raising it on the phone at the merchant is the difference between a process and a policy nobody follows.
A single approver becomes a bottleneck within a fortnight, and the workaround is somebody approving their own order. So approval is a route agreed at implementation. The smallest orders clear on one approval. Above that band, one member of an approval committee signs it off. Above the top band, it needs two approvals from two different people. Nobody is ever asked to approve an order they raised, and every approval carries a name and a time. The control holds without anybody waiting.
This is the distinction the whole module exists for. Invoiced cost tells you about the past. Committed cost tells you what the job is already going to cost before the paperwork catches up, and it is the only version a manager can still act on.
Returns and refunds that sit in a drawer leave the job carrying its full original cost forever. Handling them on the order is why a job cost that looks right in month two still looks right at final account.
Three versions of the same merchant, across a phone, a spreadsheet and somebody’s head, make spend analysis impossible and account opening careless. One record per supplier, with their compliance documents on it, is what turns buying into something you can negotiate about.
Unibuild controls the commitment and the job costing, and runs the job up to your accounts package. It syncs with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage 50, and any other system is connected on request.
The order is the easy half. The cost position is why you wanted it.
Committed spend against contract value, while the job is still running, is what this feeds. That is worth seeing on real numbers rather than described.The approval bands, the committee and the order document follow how your firm already buys. Anything else you need is built for you, and changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee. That is what bespoke software means here.
| The step | On account | Unibuild |
|---|---|---|
| Committing the spend | A name and a job reference given at the counter | A numbered order against the job, raised at the counter in your own branded staff app |
| Approval | Whoever answers the phone at half past seven | A value-banded route, stamped with who approved it and when |
| The delivery | A docket in the van | A goods received note against the order, with quantity and condition |
| The supplier invoice | Coded weeks later to the likeliest job | Matched to the order and the goods received note |
Trades where buying is a business of its own rather than an errand: thousands of lines a month, part deliveries against one order, and a credit that has to be chased rather than received.
Same platform, same login. These are the modules that price the work, buy for it, measure it, claim it and collect it.
Where job costing breaks, what an hour costs you, and the accounts side of the same question.
Two minutes. A written figure by email, usually the same working day. Unlimited users, so everyone who raises or approves an order is included.
