Plant comes off hire the day the job ends. Day works are priced where they happen, with a signature on them. Muck away tickets land against the job rather than in a cab. Permits, cable avoidance certificates and operator tickets are at the gate before a bucket moves. Thirty-plus modules on one account, and a groundworks firm turns on the handful it needs.
Muck shift, drainage, foundations or hard landscaping: the ground differs, the office side does not.
The dig is the part a groundworks firm already has right. It is what the job leaves behind that decides the margin: what the ground actually turned out to be, which loads went out, what the team built that nobody priced, and whether any of it can be proved four weeks later when the valuation lands.
Unibuild is bespoke business software for UK trades and specialist contractors, built inside a contracting business rather than sold into one. One account carries the labour run, plant and equipment registers, materials and stock, certification and training records, documents, day works, variations and applications for payment.
Built for groundworks
What groundworks requires, and what Unibuild provides.
A fit-out job and a groundworks job look alike in a database. They stop looking alike in the trench, at the weighbridge, and in the valuation four weeks later. Each requirement below is followed by what the platform does about it.
The tradeThe platform
Priced in February, dug in June
You price a drawing and dig the real ground
A site investigation is a handful of holes and an opinion. What the machine finds decides the job, and it decides it after the price is fixed.
Rock turns a dig into breaking, and the hire clock keeps running
Water turns a trench into a pump, a sump and a support problem
Trees on clay push foundations deeper under NHBC, and the concrete doubles
A thin investigation forces either a five to ten per cent contingency or a low price that lives on variations
Variations raised where the ground is
A variation is raised on the phone in the trench, with photographs, levels and a signature against the job, at the moment the ground stops matching the drawing. The valuation then argues with a dated record rather than with somebody's recollection of June.
Hired plant is charged by the day whether it turns a track or not, and the most expensive machine on any site is the one that is waiting.
A standing machine costs roughly £350 to £500 a day and produces nothing
An open ended hire stays over the weekend by default, and that is two days
Owned plant still carries recovery, servicing, insurance and examination
The off hire reference, not the phone call, is what stops the charge
Hire that stops when the job does
Hired plant is held against the job it stands on, and there is a standing view of jobs finishing with equipment still allocated to them. The cost is visible before the invoice arrives.
Excavated material bulks as it is dug, so the lorry count is never the volume on the drawing, and the tip ticket is the only receipt you are going to get.
Bulking runs roughly fifteen to thirty per cent depending on the material
Wet clay and peat weigh more, so the same hole costs more trips
Contamination can treble a disposal rate overnight
Transfer notes have to be kept two years, and three for hazardous
Every load ticketed to the job
Muck away is booked as a movement against the job as the wagon leaves, so fourteen loads are fourteen records rather than tickets in two cabs and a jacket pocket. The volume that gets invoiced is the volume that can be evidenced.
Trench support, propping and battering are engineered temporary works under BS 5975, and they carry a paper trail most job software has nowhere to put.
A written design brief before anything is dug
An independent design check sized to the risk
A register carrying every item, whoever on site owns it
Permits to load and to dismantle, and a named coordinator
A register, not a folder
Temporary works designs, permits to dig and cable avoidance certificates sit against the excavation they belong to, with the version that was actually issued and who accepted it. The duty stays with the temporary works coordinator; what changes is that the paperwork is retrievable at the gate.
Drainage runs, ducts, reinforcement and formation levels stop being inspectable the moment the backfill goes in. After that the photograph is the asset.
Pre backfill photographs are the only surviving evidence
Inverts and formation levels are checkable once, then never again
A defect found in year two is argued from records or from memory
The ganger who knows is often the one who has moved on
Photographed before the backfill
Dated photographs of bedding, surround, levels and connections attach to the job on the phone before anything is covered. Two years later the question of what went in the trench is answered from the record rather than from the team who dug it.
The card in the operator's pocket and the examination on the machine are two separate expiry problems, and a principal contractor will ask for both at the gate.
CPCS and NPORS operator cards, checked before anyone starts
EUSR certification sitting behind the cable avoidance kit
LOLER only when the machine lifts, PUWER whichever it does
A quick hitch moved between machines is examined twice as often
Cards and machines on one grid
CPCS and NPORS cards sit on the training matrix and turn amber before they lapse, while LOLER examinations and PUWER inspections sit on the machine itself. The two registers the gate asks about are produced from one page.
Counted in the deployment Unibuild was built on, July 2026: one expiry page carrying 376 assets, 141 subcontractor certificates, 84 accreditations, 80 health assessments, 55 instruments and 9 vehicles.
Excavation and dig
Trench support
Aggregates and fill
Drainage
Concrete and reinforcement
Plant and attachments
Survey and setting out
Site setup
The week
An ordinary week in a groundworks firm, and the record it leaves.
Six entries from a groundworks firm's day book. Nothing here asks anybody to remember something at five o'clock on a Friday.
Monday, first dig
The investigation said firm clay and it is running sand below 1.2 metres. The variation is raised in the trench with photographs and levels on it, before the team goes any further.
Priced as found
In the yard
The thirteen tonne machine is held against the job it came off, and the list of jobs finishing with plant still allocated is on one page on the Friday.
Off hired on time
Muck away
Fourteen loads go out and fourteen movements are booked against the job as the wagons leave, so the weighbridge and the valuation agree.
Volume provable
Wednesday
The drainage layout is revised. The extra run is raised as a variation on site, signed, and priced before the team builds it.
Built and paid for
At the gate
The principal contractor wants the permit to dig, the cable avoidance certificates and the operator tickets. They come off the phone at the gate, in date.
Bucket moves
The valuation
The quantity surveyor asks what the day works were. Each one is a dated record with a signature and photographs against the job.
Agreed first time
The test
Eight things groundworks software has to do.
Written from what actually costs a groundworks firm money, rather than from a feature list. Unibuild is thirty-plus modules on one account, and a groundworks firm turns on a handful of them.
Every machine, and whether it is still on hire
Assets and inventory holds each machine as its own record with a serial, a QR label, a purchase or hire status, a current location resolved from the last movement and a full service history. There is a standing list of jobs that are finishing with plant still allocated to them, which is the list that catches a machine nobody has thought about since the dig closed. The mechanism and the money are explained in off hire plant charges.
The change priced when it happens, not at the valuation
Onsite quotes and variations price the extra work where it happens, on the phone, by the person who found it. Rate valuations are measured on site, capped against the contract rates and signed by the client, and they feed applications for payment with retention and ageing already attached. The revised drainage run becomes a priced variation on Wednesday rather than an argument in six weeks.
The photograph taken before the backfill
Project and site management holds the site diary, the drawings and dated photographs against the job itself. A photograph of an invert level or a duct run taken from the phone before the backfill stays attached to that job, with the date and the person who took it. This is the single cheapest habit in groundworks and the one most consistently skipped.
Day works a quantity surveyor will accept
Day works are recorded against the job as they happen, with the labour, the plant and the materials on the same record and the site diary entry beside them. Documents and certificates then issues the sheet on your own letterhead. What changes is not the argument, it is that you turn up to it with a dated record rather than a recollection. Related reading: day rate against fixed price.
Operator tickets in date, at the gate
The training matrix holds every card and course per person and turns it red before it lapses rather than after. CPCS and NPORS categories, EUSR cable avoidance, confined space, first aid and the rest sit on one grid, and the person whose card expires next month is visible this month.
Examinations in date on the machine
Reminders and expiry watches twelve registers on one page, and inspection, service and test dates sit on the item itself in compliance and certification, so the machine and its evidence are the same object. Scanning the label on a breaker returns its history without anybody opening a filing cabinet.
The permit and the RAMS signed by the person digging
RAMS are signed on the phone at the gate against a frozen version, by the operative doing the work rather than by a supervisor on their behalf. Health and safety carries permits, COSHH assessments and near miss reporting, and toolbox talks are signed in the room by the people who were in it. See also permits to work.
The week replanned when the ground stops you
The labour run planner puts every person against every site, weeks ahead and colour coded by project, so a flooded dig moves two teams in one view instead of nine phone calls. Where is everybody then shows who has actually scanned in, on a live map, which on a scattered civils job is a different question from where they were sent.
Governing clauseA record made while the trench is still open, beats ten made afterwards.
The yard
What a groundworks firm holds
Written for the trade rather than for any one firm. Most groundworks contractors will recognise seven or eight of these lines and ignore the rest.
What a UK groundworks contractor holds, and the tracking quirk in each line
Key
Category
Typical items
The tracking quirk
Excavators
360s from 1.5 to 30 tonne, mini and midi machines, buckets, quick hitches
LOLER only when the machine lifts, PUWER whichever it does. A quick hitch moved between machines is an accessory and is examined twice as often
Preliminaries that accumulate quietly for every week the programme runs long
Regulations
The regimes a groundworks firm works under
Buried services and unsupported excavations are the two that cause the fatalities, and both are judged on paperwork that existed before the bucket went in. Kept factual.
What each regime asks of a groundworks contractor
Regime
What it requires
HSG47 and the permit to dig
Three stages: plan the work, locate and identify the services, then dig safely. A permit that relies only on record drawings is not compliant, because a physical sweep with a cable avoidance tool and a signal generator is required even where records exist. Routes are marked on the surface and hand digging applies within 500mm of a marked service. One measured programme recorded a 45 per cent fall in strikes once the generator was made mandatory alongside the locator rather than optional.
Temporary works, BS 5975-1:2024
Excavation support, propping, falsework and façade retention are temporary works. The standard expects a written design brief, an independent design check sized to the risk, permits to load and to dismantle, and a register maintained by a named temporary works coordinator. The register is meant to be the one list the site works from, carrying every item regardless of which contractor owns it. See the temporary works register guide.
LOLER 1998 and PUWER 1998
Worth being precise, because it is widely got wrong. An excavator that only ever digs is not lifting equipment and sits under PUWER, with an inspection and maintenance regime rather than a thorough examination. Used for lifting, it needs a thorough examination at least every twelve months. A quick hitch permanently attached is examined with the machine; moved between machines it is an accessory and the interval halves to six. Detail in the LOLER guide.
Operator competence: CPCS, NPORS and EUSR
CPCS and NPORS are both approved under the CSCS Alliance and carry the logo on the red and blue card routes, so a principal contractor will accept either. The cable avoidance kit sits behind its own EUSR certification, which is separate from the machine ticket and expires on its own timetable. A lapsed card removes an operator from the gate, not from the payroll, which is the expensive part.
Waste duty of care, Environmental Protection Act 1990
Describe the waste accurately, transfer it only to a registered carrier, satisfy yourself the destination holds the right permit, and keep the transfer note for two years, or three years for a hazardous consignment note. The duty sits with the producer, which on a muck away job is usually you rather than the haulier. Failure to produce the records is a fixed penalty or a prosecution. See waste transfer notes.
CDM 2015 and RIDDOR 2013
On most work a groundworks firm is a contractor under CDM, with duties around planning, the construction phase plan and cooperation with the principal contractor. Under RIDDOR, the collapse of an excavation and a strike on a buried service are both reportable dangerous occurrences whether or not anybody was hurt, which catches firms out because nothing visible happened. The CDM 2015 guide carries the duty holder detail.
COSHH and respirable crystalline silica
Cutting kerbs, blocks, paving and concrete releases silica dust, which is the reason a cut off saw is a health control problem rather than a noise one. It brings assessments, water suppression or on tool extraction, face fit testing for the masks actually issued, and health surveillance for the people regularly exposed.
Confined spaces
Deep chambers, manholes, attenuation tanks and some headings meet the definition, and the risk is atmosphere rather than depth. It brings a specific risk assessment, a safe system of work, trained operatives, gas monitoring and rehearsed emergency arrangements, and it is a permit activity rather than a briefing.
On the record
Questions groundworks firms ask
The questions groundworks firms actually raise on a demonstration, answered on the record. Open one to read the response.
VariationsThe ground is not what we priced. Can the variation be raised in the trench?+
Yes. A variation is raised on the phone in the trench, with photographs, levels and a signature against the job, at the moment the ground stops matching the drawing. A revised drainage run is priced and signed before the team builds it. The valuation then works from a dated record rather than somebody's recollection of June.
Day worksHow does it handle day works so a QS will accept them?+
The labour, the plant and the materials are recorded against the job on the day, with the site diary entry and any photographs beside them. The sheet is issued on your own letterhead. You arrive at the valuation with a dated record made by the person who was there, rather than a foreman's notebook four weeks later.
Plant hireCan it stop plant sitting on hire after the job has finished?+
Yes. Hired items are held against the job they stand on, and there is a standing list of jobs finishing with plant still allocated to them. The machine nobody has thought about since the dig closed appears on a working list on the Friday, not on next month's invoice. Off hire plant charges explains the money.
Muck awayDoes it record muck away, loads and tip tickets?+
Yes. Each load is booked as a movement against the job as the wagon leaves, and tip tickets are photographed on the phone and attached to it. Fourteen loads are fourteen records in one place with a date, so the weighbridge and the valuation agree.
PhotographsCan we prove what went in the trench after the backfill?+
Yes. Dated photographs of bedding, surround, levels and connections attach to the job on the phone before anything is covered, with the person who took them. Two years later the question of what went in the trench is answered from the record rather than from the team who dug it.
Temporary worksAre temporary works and permits to dig held against the excavation?+
Yes. Temporary works designs, design briefs, check certificates, permits to dig and cable avoidance certificates sit against the excavation they belong to, with the version issued and who accepted it. The duty stays with your temporary works coordinator, and the record comes off the phone at the gate.
TicketsCan it keep CPCS and NPORS cards in date?+
Yes. Every card and course sits on one grid per person on the training matrix, turning red before it lapses, with the categories held rather than just the card. The EUSR certification behind the cable avoidance kit expires on its own timetable and sits on the same grid. LOLER examinations and PUWER inspections sit on the machine itself.
SignalWhat happens with no signal, at the bottom of a trench?+
It keeps working. Clock-ins are stored on the phone and synced with the office the moment it is back in signal, so nothing is lost and nothing is re-entered. The field app is built for patchy coverage, which on rural sites and below ground work is the normal condition.
AdoptionWill the operatives use it?+
Yes, because what you ask of them is small. Grant each operative three things on the phone: QR clock in, the RAMS signature, and photographs against the job. Everything else stays with the office and the foreman, and permissions are set per person.
EstimatingCan it price measured work and handle remeasure?+
Yes. Estimating holds your materials, plant, labour and fit times in one dated library, so a whole price list can be uplifted from a single box. Rate valuations are measured on site, capped against the contract rates and signed by the client. You bring the quantities and the library prices them.
The marketWhat software do UK groundworks contractors use?+
Most run a combination: a spreadsheet for the plant list, WhatsApp for the day to day, a wallet of tip tickets, and an accounts package. Plant trackers handle machines but not the job, and estimating packages price the work but do not run the site. Unibuild does both, with modules switched on as you need them rather than in one go.
PricingHow is it priced, and do you charge per operative?+
No charge per operative. Users are unlimited, and taking on more people never changes the fee, which matters in a trade that flexes with the programme and the weather. The fee is one figure that covers everything, quoted in writing and fixed for three years. There is a 14-day free trial first, and migration of your plant list and people records is done for you.
Half an hour, on your own jobs and your own plant list. Bring a live site and we will set it up in front of you. Unlimited users, never per seat, and fourteen days to try it without a card.
