Solved
Friday afternoon, still chasing timesheets.
Hours arrive from the gate as the week happens. Nothing to chase.
QR code timesheet app
Timesheet software
Timesheet software
with QR code clock-in.
Unibuild is timesheet software for UK trades and contractors. Your operative scans a QR poster at the gate in your own app: three seconds, a photograph and a clock-in time nobody can back-date. The hours reach the office already costed to the job.
Try it
Three people, three gates,
Three people, three gates,
and not a figure typed.
You are holding A. Fenton’s phone at 12:40, between sites. Clock him in at St Aidan’s and his line lands on the office side, counting. Then try to change his 07:42.
A. FentonElectrician
Elmfield
Job 2431 · Gate 1
Clocked in
- Site
- Elmfield, job 2431
- Clock-in time
- 07:42:18
| Operative | Site | Clock in | Clock out | Hours | Pay type | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. Hadley Labourer |
St Aidan's | 07:31:09 | On site | 5 h 09 m | Normal | £15.50 |
| A. Fenton Electrician |
Elmfield | 07:42:18 | 12:03:51 | 4 h 22 m | Normal | £24.00 |
| T. Ashcroft Plumber |
Northgate | 07:55:40 | On site | 4 h 44 m | Normal | £23.00 |
Scroll the lines sideways to reach the cost
- Elmfield4 h 22 m£104.62
- St Aidan's5 h 09 m£79.79
- Northgate4 h 44 m£108.99
What payroll receives
Who did what, and when
- Clock-in, J. Hadley, St Aidan's
- Clock-in, A. Fenton, Elmfield
- Clock-in, T. Ashcroft, Northgate
- Clock-out, A. Fenton, Elmfield, 4 h 22 m
Scan somebody in, or press a time to try changing it.
3Lines from a scanNothing typed by anybody
0Corrected by the officeFlagged, with the original kept
£293.40Costed to the jobs so farAt each person’s rate for the day
- The time is recorded, not typedTaken the moment the code at the gate is scanned. Nothing on the line to type into.
- Costed as it runsHours at the person’s hourly rate, with your overtime rule applied. Here, time and a half after eight hours.
- Corrections are flaggedThe office can correct a forgotten clock-out. The original stays on the line, with who changed it and when.
Problems we solve
Eleven timesheet problems. All eleven solved.
The ones every contractor knows, from the Friday chase to the agency invoice nobody can check.
Solved
Hours written up on Friday from memory.
The clock-in time is recorded at the scan and cannot be back-dated.
Solved
Hours on the wrong job. Margin unknown.
Each scan puts the hours on that site’s job, already costed.
Solved
Overtime and travel worked out in a spreadsheet.
Normal time, time and a half, double time and travel, split for every day.
Solved
Day works queried, and nothing to prove it.
Day works sheets built from the clock-ins, signed by the client on the day.
Solved
Agency invoices paid on trust.
Agency and subcontract hours from the same poster, checked against the invoice.
Solved
Every hour typed into payroll twice.
Approved hours export straight to your payroll software.
Solved
Approved without anybody checking.
Approved on the phone, then locked. Every change is on record.
Solved
Nobody knows who is on site right now.
A live map of who has clocked in, and on which site.
Solved
Twelve-hour days nobody adds up.
Door-to-door hours and rest checked before the next shift.
Solved
The crew will not use another app.
Three seconds at the gate, in your firm’s own app. No tracking.
11/11Solved in one module
Book a demo →
Performance highlights
What changes when timesheets start at the gate.
Drag a dial to rotate it · arrow keys to tilt
-
0%
90% less time chasing timesheets
The time saved on ringing round site managers, reading handwritten sheets, and typing them up before payroll can run.
-
0%
95% faster to prove who was on site
Cut the time it takes to answer a main contractor’s attendance query from a folder and two phone calls down to a search.
-
0%
100% of overtime calculated, not typed
Time and a half, double time and bank holidays come off the scans at the person’s rate for the day. Nobody types an overtime figure in, so there is nothing to mistype.
-
0%
85% faster from the hour worked to the hour on record
The gap between an hour being worked and it being logged, costed, and ready for payroll falls from end-of-week memory to a three-second scan.
The fix
Capture the hours. Keep the proof.
Unibuild turns site scans into timesheets with attendance evidence and labour costs attached. Your office has a record to approve as the week progresses.
- Hours arrive without the chase
- Operatives scan in and out through your app. Their scans build the timesheet, ready for the site manager to approve without collecting paper sheets.
- Attendance comes with evidence
- Every scan keeps the photograph, site and clock-in time together. When a client queries a day's labour, the office can check the record against the job.
- Job costs are calculated for you
- Hours are costed to the job at that person's rate for the day, with overtime applied and travel kept separate. Timesheets and reports use the same sums.
How it actually works
One scan, and the
One scan, and the
timesheet builds itself.
The operative scans your QR poster at the gate. From that one movement, Unibuild records attendance, builds the line for the day and prepares the hours for approval and costing.
Poster
One code per gatePrinted in your brandingSite or plot assignedScanned
In your own appAbout three secondsClock in or outVerified
Photo on the scanChecked as on siteTime recorded at the scanOn the job
Person and site attachedTravel kept separateA line for the dayCosted
That day’s rate appliedOvertime includedJob cost updatedApproved
Manager reviews on phoneCorrections stay visiblePayroll export ready
| The record | Paper or spreadsheet | Unibuild |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival time | An estimate, written up later | A measurement: the time recorded at the scan |
| Proof of attendance | A total and a signature | Photograph, location and site on every clock-in |
| Which job | Allocated by hand in the office | Taken from the poster that was scanned |
| Overtime and rates | Worked out in a spreadsheet | Worked out at the person’s rate for that day |
| Corrections | Overwritten or re-keyed | Flagged, with the original kept |
| Payroll | Typed up once the sheets are in | Approved week exported in a file payroll can open |
Ready to see it on your sites?
Book a 30-minute demo →
See the complete journey in a live demo.
We will show how a scan becomes an approved, costed timesheet for your sites.
What you get
Better hours, fewer arguments, less admin.
Timesheets should give you a clean record of the work, without adding another task to the day. Unibuild captures the hours at the gate and carries them through to attendance, approval and job cost.
Hours as
they happen
AccurateGet the hours as they happen, from the person doing the work. No Friday reconstruction and no guessing what time somebody arrived.
- Clock in and out at the gate
- Clock-in time on every scan
- Hours tied to the right site
- Ready for approval
Benefit · Clear recordsLive
Proof on
every scan
EvidenceA photograph, location and clock-in time sit with every clock-in. When the hours are queried, you can see the record instead of relying on someone’s memory.
- Photo with the attendance record
- Only works on the site
- The time cannot be back-dated
- Every change on record
Benefit · Proof attachedLive
Nothing to
install
SimpleThere is no machine to install and no complicated routine to teach. One poster at the gate and a quick scan in the app is all the site team needs.
- One scan to start
- One re-scan to finish
- Your own branded app
- Works across every site
Benefit · Easy adoptionLive
Know your
real cost
ControlApproved hours go straight to the job cost at the correct rate. Overtime and travel stay visible, so you know what the work is costing before the month closes.
- Cost by person and project
- Overtime applied automatically
- Travel shown separately
- Labour cost as it stands
Benefit · Better decisionsLive
More benefits
The other five things the module does
Support the scan with the controls that keep every hour usable, auditable and ready for payroll.
Travel
time
VansTravel is tracked separately with its own daily limit, so it never gets mixed into worked hours or overtime.
- Separate from worked hours
- Daily ceiling
- Visible to the approver
- Own rate if you want one
Inside · Travel
WhatsApp
alerts
CommsClock-ins, near misses and accidents reach managers by WhatsApp, even when they are away from the app.
- WhatsApp messages to your managers
- To a list of numbers you maintain
- Alongside email and app push alerts
- Every send logged
Inside · Alerts
Approval
flow
Sign-offManagers review and approve timesheets on their phone before payroll. Submitted records stay locked, with any rejection explained.
- Draft, submitted, approved, rejected
- Reject with a reason
- Locked once submitted
- Every change kept
Inside · Approvals
Rates that
hold history
CostingThe rate in force on each workday is saved to that line, so later pay changes never rewrite historic job costs.
- A rate with a start date, per person
- Saved onto each day’s line
- Past job costs never change
- Travel paid at the basic rate
Inside · Dated rates
Three sites,
three rows
JobsHours are assigned per site and day, so work across three sites produces three clear, costed rows.
- One line per site per day
- Goes straight to the job cost
- Holidays and leave shown
- Nothing typed twice
Inside · Day lines
Advanced Fatigue Manager
The same hours also say
The same hours also say
whether somebody is fit
to work tomorrow.
Hours are a safety record before they are a payroll record. Every day’s hours also feed Advanced Fatigue Manager. It counts shift length, travel at both ends, rest between turns, consecutive days and night shifts against the limits you set. It warns the planner and the operative before the shift rather than after it. There is nothing to switch on and nothing to keep fed. It reads the scans you are already taking.
- Nothing extra to run
- No second system, no spreadsheet, nobody keying hours in on a Friday. The fatigue record is built from the same hours the job is costed from, so it is as current as this morning's scan.
- Door to door, not gate to gate
- Travel is already tracked separately on the timesheet. The fatigue count adds it back at both ends. A twelve-hour shift with ninety minutes at each end is a fifteen-hour day, and that is the figure a rail or highways client asks about.
- The warning arrives in time
- Alerts reach the contracts manager and the planner while next week is still being built, and the operative gets a push notification in your own app. That is early enough to move somebody, rather than write it up afterwards.
- The report is already written
- Hours worked, hours door to door, rest taken, consecutive shifts, nights, every warning raised and what was done about it. Per person or per project, any date range, on your letterhead, for the auditor who asks about a week that closed last year.
Attendance
Site sign-in at the gate,
Site sign-in at the gate,
without the signing-in book.
For anybody carrying your app, the scan at the poster is the site sign-in and the attendance record in one movement. The record sits on the job, not in a book that leaves site with the cabin.
The scan is
the sign-in
GateWho, from the sign-in. When, recorded at the scan. Where, checked as on site and kept with the scan. Which site, from the poster. The record sits against the person and the project rather than a page in a book, so it is still there after the cabin has gone.
- Photograph on the record
- Time recorded at the scan
- Site taken from the poster
- Outlives the cabin
Per operativeone scan
Who is on
site now
LiveThe same scans build a live map of who is on which site, each job in its own colour with a headcount on it. A no-show is visible rather than reported. A fire roll call is a separate register in the platform, printed and carried to the muster point.
- Live map, coloured by job
- Headcount per site
- Roll call printed separately
- No-shows visible
Across the firmone map
Inducted before
they arrive
PeopleCards, inductions and training sit on the person’s record in the training matrix, done before they reach the gate, so the gate is a scan rather than a form. Trade attendance by day, the record a client or principal contractor asks for, is written up from the same day.
- Cards and training on the record
- Done before arrival
- The gate is a scan
- Attendance by trade, by day
Per personone record
Across the trades
Six shapes of firm,
Six shapes of firm,
and where each one puts the scan.
The module is the same in every case. What differs is where the poster goes and how the rates are set up, and that is a configuration decision taken with you. Anything else your process needs, Unibuild builds. That is what bespoke software means here, and changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee rather than charged at a day rate.
Housebuilders
and developers
PlotsOne poster per plot, so the hour lands on the plot rather than the site. Every scan has to be made within 100 metres of the site, or closer if you set it, and a scan from further away is refused.
Patternmulti-plot, one site
M&E
contractors
Call-outCall-out work means unpredictable hours. Overtime rates cover normal, time and a half and double time, and travel time is tracked separately from worked hours with its own ceiling.
Patterncall-out · fixed price
Groundworks
and civils
RuralSites spread across a wide area, often with the cabin as the only fixed point. The scan point goes where the gang passes anyway, at the cabin or the gate. The office can enter hours on an operative's behalf, marked as entered by the office, with the same record of who did it.
Patternrural · low-signal
Shopfitting
and refurb
NightsNight shifts and weekend work, where the overtime rate matters and the arrival time is the thing that gets argued about. The time is recorded at the scan, so it is not a claim about when somebody arrived.
Patternnights · weekends
Facilities
management
EstateWork spread across many buildings, where the question is who is actually where. Live presence shows who has clocked in, on which site, on a map coloured by job.
Patterndistributed · large
Main
contractors
MixedMultiple sites, mixed trades and different rates, with one approval route. Hours are recorded per site per day, so somebody who worked three sites in a week produces three costed rows rather than one lump.
Patternmulti-site · mixed
The boring parts, in order
The record has to hold up
The record has to hold up
eighteen months later.
A timesheet ends up in front of an auditor, a client's surveyor or a solicitor. Everything below is about the record surviving that, and each claim is one we can show you on a screen. That is the test for any time and attendance record on site, whether it comes from a scan, a clocking-in machine or a signing-in book.
An audit trail that holds
Every action on a timesheet is logged with who did it, when, and whether it came from the app or the portal. The hour, the location and the photo are stamped against the shift.
who · when · from whereData kept in the UK
Held in UK data centres in London. Data does not leave the UK. No third-party trackers, no analytics brokers.
London · UK onlyEncryption
Encrypted when stored and when it travels. Backup and key management arrangements are set out in the agreement, where they can be held to, rather than summarised on a web page.
stored · in transitCorrections stay visible
A forgotten clock-out is corrected by the office and marked as such on the record, so the change is visible rather than silent. The original and the correction both survive, with the person and the time against each.
Flagged, not overwritten
Asked in every demo
What every director asks
What every director asks
in the first ten minutes.
The full list lives at /faqs. These are the ones we hear in every demo.
What is a good timesheet app for site workers in the UK?
Unibuild is a timesheet app built for UK trades and contractors. The operative scans a QR poster at the gate in your firm’s own app, takes a photograph and confirms, in about three seconds. The time is recorded at the scan, and the scan only works within 100 metres of the site. The hour lands on the job at that person’s rate for the day, with overtime and travel kept separate. Managers approve on the phone, and payroll gets a file it can open. Unlimited users, on one flat monthly fee.
Do our operatives need to download an app?
Yes, and it is your own app. Your staff app is published on the App Store and Google Play under your company’s own name and icon, so your operatives download your app, not ours. How the branded staff app works is set out on its own page. It is built during implementation and included in the monthly figure. Your operative installs the app carrying the name on their payslip, not a stranger’s. After the first sign-in it opens on a four-digit PIN. The app is also what makes the QR work. The code on the poster is not a web address, so a phone camera opens nothing. Only your app can read it, and only for someone signed in.
Can an operative clock in without being on site?
No. A scan only works within 100 metres of the site, a distance you set for each site, and a scan from further away is refused. Each scan takes a photograph. The time is recorded by Unibuild, not taken from the phone, so it cannot be back-dated by changing a phone clock. The office sees the scan at the same instant the operative sees the confirm screen. The photograph and the approver complete the check.
How does a QR code timesheet work on site?
You add your sites in the platform and it generates a numbered QR code poster for each scan point, in your branding. Print it on A4, laminate it, fix it to the site board. An operative opens your own app at the gate, points it at the QR code, takes a photograph and confirms. That takes about three seconds. The hour goes to the job the poster belongs to, at that person’s cost rate for the day. The office sees the scan at the same instant the operative sees the confirm screen. Re-scanning at the end of the shift clocks them out.
What stops one operative scanning the QR code for somebody else?
The scan takes a photograph, so there is a face against the record, and the approver can see where the scan was made. The time is recorded by Unibuild, so it cannot be back-dated by changing a phone clock. And the code cannot simply be photographed and sent to somebody at home: only your app can read it, and only for a person already signed in as themselves.
Can we use one QR code for the whole site, or one for each area?
Either, and the choice decides how precise your job costing is. One code for the whole site is the simplest and puts every hour on the site. One code per plot, floor or sub-site puts the hour on the plot or the floor instead. Housebuilders tend to want that, because it makes the labour cost per plot real rather than apportioned. There is no limit imposed on the number of scan points, and posters can be reprinted whenever the site layout changes. Where the posters go is agreed with you during implementation.
Can subcontractors use the same QR code?
Yes. A subcontractor’s operatives scan the same poster as your own, so who was on site is one record for the job rather than one per employer. Each person still signs in as themselves, so the hours stay with the right firm. That is what QR code contractor management comes down to on a live site.
What about the worker who does not own a smartphone?
Two options. The office enters their hours on their behalf, marked as entered by the office, with the same record of who did it. Or you keep a cheap Android tablet in the site cabin and everybody scans on that. The mobile login takes a PIN as well as a password, which is what makes a shared tablet usable by several people who each sign as themselves.
Is this time and attendance software or timesheet software?
Both, from the same scan. Attendance is who has scanned in, on which site, right now, shown on a live map coloured by job. The timesheet is what the day becomes once the clock-out scan lands: site, start, finish, hours, pay type and travel on one line for the day, costed at that person’s rate. A fire roll call is a separate register in the platform, printed and carried to the muster point. A map on a screen is not the thing you count heads against.
What happens if an operative forgets to scan?
The office enters or corrects the clock-in on their behalf, and the record shows the office did it, so the change is visible rather than silent. The original and the correction both survive, with the person and the time against each. A missed clock-out is handled the same way, as a visible amendment rather than a guessed finish time. The approver can see which hours were scanned and which were typed.
Is QR code clocking in compliant with UK GDPR?
A clock-in records who scanned, when, where, a photograph, and which poster was scanned. That is personal data, so you need a lawful basis for holding it. Your operatives should be told what is kept and why, which is your obligation as the employer. There is no biometric matching: a person looks at the photograph, no machine compares it against a face template. The data is held in London, does not leave the UK, and can be exported at any point. Compliance turns on how you use the record as well as where it is stored, and that stays with you as the employer.
How long does setup take?
The module itself is quick: add your sites, print the QR code posters, laminate them, fix them to the site board, and add your people with their rates. Most firms go live in about two weeks, in phases, with the paper route closed on a named date. Your programme is agreed after scoping.
Does it export timesheets and labour hours to payroll software such as Sage or BrightPay?
Timesheet and payroll data exports as a CSV, or as XML or JSON where a package wants them, which covers most payroll packages including Sage and BrightPay. A direct link into a named package is built on request: tell us what it needs, and we build it. Behind every export is an hour on a project, an overtime rate and a cost rate per person for that day. Accounts gets the approved week in a form they can work from. Each person has a weekly timesheet PDF showing the day, the site, start and finish, hours, adjustment, pay type and travel, with holiday and days off already overlaid. Once the week is approved there is a payslip-style PDF as well. It carries the employee number, the National Insurance number, and the hours and rate for normal, time and a half, double time and travel. It has signature lines for the operative and the manager. The Monthly Analysis screen totals approved hours per person for a calendar month, split the same way. Any other data in the system exports the same way.
Is the data secure? Where does it live?
Held in UK data centres in London, and it does not leave the UK. Encrypted when stored and when it travels. ICO registered, and Cyber Essentials Plus. ISO 27001 certification is in progress. The record behind every clock-in shows who did what and when, and cannot be edited afterwards.
How much does timesheet software cost in the UK?
Unibuild is quoted per firm rather than from a price list. It is one flat monthly figure, sized to your firm when it is quoted and fixed for three years. It covers every module, unlimited users, your branded app, configuration, training, data migration and support. There is no setup fee, no per-operative charge and no minimum term. Ask for a quote and a written figure comes back the same working day. The full model is set out on the pricing page.
Can we cancel? Do we keep our data?
Cancel by email, any time, on a monthly rolling agreement. There is no minimum term and no exit fee. You can export everything, as spreadsheet files and PDFs, at any point during the agreement, not only on the way out. On leaving we hand back a clean dataset within five working days.
What it costs
What timesheet software costs in the UK.
Unibuild is quoted per firm, so this section sets out the shape of the figure. That is where a timesheet system built for site work parts company with a per-seat time tracking app. If all you need today is to add up a week of hours, the free timesheet calculator does that in the browser.
- Never per operative
- One flat monthly figure, sized to your firm when it is quoted rather than to the number of people using it. The site teams, the site managers, the office and the subbies on your books all submit on the same fee. There is no reason to ration logins at the gate.
- What the figure covers
- Every module, unlimited users, your branded app, configuration, training, data migration and support, fixed for three years. Taking on more people never changes the fee. A gang of 12 for eight weeks, another site or another poster changes nothing on the invoice.
- How you get a number
- A short scoping conversation, then a written figure the same working day. There is no setup fee and no minimum term, and the 14-day trial runs without a card. The model is set out in full on the page covering how the flat monthly fee is sized to your firm.
No card, no lock-in
Try it on one gate,
Try it on one gate,
before you commit to anything.
- 14-day free trial
- The full module, your own sites and your own people. No card.
- We set it up with you
- On a screen-share. Your sites, your posters, your rates.
- Free migration
- From paper, spreadsheets or another timesheet app.
- Cancel by email
- One sentence to success@unibuild.co.uk. Done.
- UK data, UK support
- UK office, working hours, real phone number.
- Unlimited users
- The site teams, the office, the subbies. Same price.
The site modules
The rest of what happens on site.
Same platform, same login. These are the modules that plan the work, record it, and hold the evidence it was done properly.
Further reading
What a scan proves, and why a rollout stalls in week three.
- QR codes on construction sites, and what a scan is actually worth A QR code at the gate is cheap to print and easy to oversell. What a scan proves, where the posters go, and the four things that decide whether the record survives a dispute.
- Why field rollouts stall in week three 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.
Next step
Print one poster.
Print one poster.
Try it on one gate.
A 30-minute live demo, then 14 days free on one site gate, with your own poster.
All elevenSolved
- Timesheets chased every Friday
- Hours written from memory
- Hours booked to the wrong job
- Overtime and travel worked out by hand
- Day works disputed
- Agency and subcontract hours unchecked
- Hours retyped into payroll
- Approvals nobody checks
- Who is on site, unknown
- Long hours nobody adds up
- Crews who will not use an app
Ask for a quote
Tell us a little about the firm.
Tell us a little about the firm.
We do the rest.
Two minutes. A written figure by email, usually the same day. Unlimited users, and no charge per operative or per clock-in.