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For landscaping and grounds maintenance contractors

Every site on its season,
every crew on its record.

Landscaping contractor software for the commercial firm. Landscaping packages valued and applied for, grounds maintenance sites planned on their seasonal schedule, and every visit photographed. Pesticide certificates, spray records, vibration exposure and the mowers, trailers and vans all kept in date.

Book a 30-minute demo → Ask for a quote
A grounds maintenance crew in high-visibility workwear strimming planting outside an office building
The office side

From the planting plan to
the twentieth cut of the season.

Hard and soft landscaping on a housing development, grounds maintenance across a council's estates, or both from the same yard: the work differs, the office side does not.

  1. Laying a patio or keeping a verge tidy is the part a landscaping firm already does well. The office side is where it gets heavy. Two kinds of contract run on two tax treatments, crews cover a dozen sites a day, and the machinery carries its own health regime.

  2. Unibuild is bespoke construction management software for UK contractors: a platform in daily production since 2016, shaped to the way each firm already works. One account carries the labour run, site schedules and visits, plant and vehicles, competence, measured valuations, CIS and applications for payment.

Built for landscaping

What landscaping and grounds work requires,
and what Unibuild provides.

A landscaping firm is a construction subcontractor in spring and a maintenance contractor all year. Each requirement is followed by what the platform does about it.

One firm, two tax treatments

Landscaping a development is construction, cutting grass is not

HMRC treats landscaping carried out as part of a construction project as a construction operation within CIS. Routine landscaping, gardening and tree surgery outside a wider project are not.

  • Soft landscaping on a new estate is inside CIS
  • Tree felling as site clearance is inside CIS
  • A grounds maintenance contract is outside it
  • The same crew can do both in one week
Each job carries its own treatment

Development work runs as projects with measured valuations and applications, and maintenance runs as contracts on a schedule. Financial management takes CIS deductions at the verified rate on the labour element, by HMRC tax month.

Runs onRate valuationsFinancial management
A season, not a date

A maintenance contract is a schedule per site

Grass cuts through the growing season, hedges twice a year, shrub beds, litter picks and leaf clearance in autumn. Every site has its own pattern, and the client wants proof each visit happened.

  • A specification per site, with frequencies by task
  • Weather moves the week, the contract does not
  • A missed cut is noticed by residents before the office
  • The renewal is argued on the visit record
Each site on its pattern, each visit photographed

Maintained assets holds each site or feature with a twelve month pattern, so the seasonal tasks are planned by month. Visits are recorded on the phone with photographs, and the client sees its own sites read only through the client portal.

Runs onMaintained assets and PPMThe client portal
A certificate per sprayer

Pesticide use needs a certified operator and a record

Nobody applies a plant protection product professionally without a recognised certificate or direct supervision by someone who holds one. Every application is recorded, and the records are kept for at least three years.

  • Certificates per method, such as knapsack or boom sprayer
  • Product, rate, area, date and operator on each record
  • A COSHH assessment for each product used
  • Amenity sites near schools and paths bring their own controls
The certificate on the matrix, the record on the site

The training matrix holds each spraying certificate against the person with its own date. The application record is completed on the phone as your own form against the site, and COSHH assessments are held as controlled documents.

Runs onTraining and competenceHealth and safety
The highest vibration on site

Strimmers, hedge cutters and breakers add up

Brush cutters, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, plate compactors and breakers put some of the highest hand arm vibration of any trade into a crew's day. Exposure is assessed and controlled, with health surveillance for those at risk.

  • Each tool carries a vibration value
  • Chainsaw work needs a recognised competence per task
  • Noise exposure runs alongside vibration
  • A crew that swaps tools all day swaps exposure too
Health surveillance and tickets, dated and watched

HAVS and other health assessments are held per person with their dates, and they appear on the expiry page with every other watched register. Chainsaw, spraying and plant tickets sit on the training matrix beside them.

Runs onReminders and expiryPeople and HR records
A fleet that tows

Mowers, trailers and vans move every day

Ride-on mowers, mini excavators, dumpers and chippers go out on trailers behind vans to several sites a day. Each has a service interval, and each van has its MOT, service and daily check.

  • Plant serviced by hours, vans by miles and dates
  • Trailers checked before every tow
  • Driving licences checked for the vehicles each person drives
  • Small plant goes missing between sites
Plant and vehicles on dated registers

Assets and inventory holds each machine with its serial, service history and inspection record. Vehicles and fleet counts down MOT and service dates a month ahead and puts the daily walk-round on the phone.

Runs onAssets and inventoryVehicles and fleet
Arisings leave site

Green waste is controlled waste

Grass cuttings, hedge arisings and soil taken from a client's site are carried under the duty of care. The firm is a registered waste carrier, and each transfer is documented and kept.

  • A waste transfer note for each transfer or season ticket
  • Notes kept for at least two years
  • Hedge cutting in nesting season has legal limits of its own
  • The tip ticket is the evidence the load went where it should
Duty of care from the site to the tip

Waste transfer notes and tip tickets are uploaded from the phone at the point of transfer, stored with the user, the date and the time. They are retrieved by site rather than by whoever filed them.

Runs onWaste transfer notesThe field app
The week

An ordinary week in a landscaping firm,
and the record it leaves.

Six entries from a landscaping contractor's day book, each ending in a record rather than a reminder.

Tracked excavators standing on a site among mature trees
Monday, the planner

This week's cuts, hedge work and the development's planting go on the labour run. Rain on Tuesday moves two sites to Thursday without losing either.

Crews on the grid
Tuesday, the estate

A crew cuts four sites. Each visit is closed on the phone with before and after photographs, against the site the client will check.

Visit on the record
Wednesday, the sprayer

Weed control on hard surfaces. The operator's certificate is in date on the matrix, and product, rate, area and time go on the application record against the site.

Sprayed and recorded
Thursday, the development

Turf and planting on six plots are measured on the phone, priced from the contract rates and signed by the site manager.

Measured and signed
Friday, the yard

A ride-on mower's service is due on the plant register and goes in before the next cut. The week's green waste notes are already filed against each site.

Serviced on time
Renewal, the next spring

The council asks what was delivered on its estates. The office sends every visit, photograph and spray record for the year, filtered by site.

Renewed on the evidence
Your system, your app

Shaped to your firm,
published under your name

Anything a firm needs is built for it, and changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee. See how bespoke construction software works at Unibuild.

  • Your site specificationsYour site schedules, your visit sheet and your spray record are set up the way your supervisors and crews already work. Nobody relearns the job to suit the software.
  • A working startThe build starts from a working platform rather than an empty screen. A firm gets the fit of a bespoke system without the cost, the timescale or the risk of commissioning one from scratch.
  • Your app on the storesYour staff app is published on the App Store and Google Play under your company's own name and icon. The crew on the verge opens your firm's app, not ours. How the branded staff app works.
  • Your letterheadThe office portal carries your name, logo and colours, and fifty-eight document types generate on your own letterhead, from the visit report to the application for payment.
The stores

What a landscaping and grounds
maintenance firm holds

The yard, the trailers and the sites you look after, and the quirk in each line that breaks ordinary inventory software.

What a UK landscaping and grounds maintenance contractor holds, and the tracking quirk in each line
CategoryTypical itemsThe tracking quirk
Mowing plantRide-on and cylinder mowers, pedestrian mowers, flails, compact tractorsServiced by hours run rather than by date, and moved between sites on a trailer every day
Handheld toolsBrush cutters, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, blowersEach has a vibration value that feeds a person's daily exposure, and the smallest ones go missing first
Construction plantMini excavators, dumpers, plate compactors, breakers, chippersOwned or hired, with service and inspection dates, and a chipper brings its own guarding and training record
ChemicalsHerbicides, fertilisers, fuel, two stroke oilStored in a secure store, used under a certificate and recorded per application, so a stock count is not the record that matters
MaterialsTurf, topsoil, bark, plants, paving, kerbs, aggregatesDelivered to the site rather than the yard, and plants that fail in the first season are replaced at your cost
Vehicles and trailersTipper vans, crew cabs, plant trailersMOT, service and a check before every tow, and the licence of whoever drives it on the day
Sites you maintainCouncil estates, housing sites, business parks, schoolsNot your land, but your record, and every site has a season whether the weather cooperates or not
Regulations

The regimes a landscaping and
grounds maintenance firm works under

Tax, chemicals, vibration, waste and wildlife. The reference version, kept factual.

What each regime asks of a landscaping and grounds maintenance contractor
RegimeWhat it requires
Construction Industry SchemeLandscaping a housing or industrial estate as a finishing operation, landscaping after demolition, and tree felling as site clearance are construction operations. Routine landscaping, gardening, forestry and tree surgery outside a wider project are not.
Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012Professional users of pesticides hold a recognised certificate or work under the direct supervision of someone who does. Records of every application are kept for at least three years.
COSHH 2002Each hazardous substance, from herbicide to fuel, is assessed and controlled, with the assessment available to the people using it.
Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005Hand arm vibration is assessed against the exposure action and limit values and reduced, with health surveillance for those at risk. Noise is covered by its own regulations on the same pattern.
PUWER 1998Mowers, chippers and other work equipment are suitable, maintained and guarded, and the people using them are trained. Chainsaw use needs recognised training for the task.
Waste duty of careGreen waste and soil removed from a client's site are controlled waste. The carrier is registered, and waste transfer notes are kept for at least two years.
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981Damaging or destroying an active wild bird's nest is an offence, which shapes when hedges are cut and trees are worked on.
On the record

Questions landscaping and
grounds maintenance firms ask

The questions commercial landscaping contractors raise on a demonstration, answered on the record.

The marketWhat is the best software for a UK commercial landscaping contractor?
The right system runs development work and maintenance contracts on one account, with crews, plant, pesticide records and CIS alongside. Unibuild does that. Landscaping packages are measured and applied for, maintenance sites run on a seasonal pattern with photographed visits, and certificates and plant dates are watched.
ContractsCan it run grounds maintenance contracts with a schedule per site?
Yes. Each site or feature carries a twelve month pattern, so cuts, hedge work and seasonal tasks are planned by month. Every visit is recorded on the phone with photographs, and the client opens its own sites read only through the client portal.
PesticidesCan it keep pesticide application records and spraying certificates?
Yes. Each spraying certificate sits against the operator on the training matrix. The application record is completed on the phone as your own form, against the site. It carries the product, rate, area, date and operator, and it is kept for as long as you need it.
CISDoes it handle CIS when only some of our work is construction?
Yes. Development work runs as projects and maintenance as contracts, so the two stay separate. For subcontractors on construction work, deductions are taken at the verified rate on the labour element, and each HMRC tax month closes into a return pack for your accountant.
PricingHow is it priced, and do you charge per operative?
No. One monthly figure covers everything, with unlimited users on every plan, and it is quoted in writing, usually the same working day. It is sized to the firm when quoted and fixed for three years, and taking on seasonal staff never changes the fee.
Neighbouring tradesWe also do groundworks and drainage. Which page is ours?
This page is landscaping and grounds maintenance. Excavation, drainage and muck away sit on groundworks contractors, and firms that do both run them on one account. Estate wide planned maintenance is also covered on facilities management.
Other trades

Not quite your
line of work?

The same platform, written for the trade that runs it.
Each of these is a different set of modules
switched on rather than a different product.
Every one is shaped to the firm's own process,
with its own app under its own name.

Other trades
Return slip

Half an hour, on your own sites.

Bring one maintenance specification and one development package. We will set up a site on its season and value a week of planting in front of you on the call.

Book a 30-minute demo → Ask for a quote See maintained assets
Bring
One site specification and one package
Takes
30 minutes
Phone, UK hours
+44 7587 557546
Email
success@unibuild.co.uk
Another trade
Groundworks contractors
Electrical & Mechanical Services (UK) Ltd In practice Not a landscaping firm, but the same shape of problem: plant moving between dozens of live sites, competence that expires whether anyone is watching or not, and work priced on the day it happens. Temporary site services, London. Over 200 people, on Unibuild since 2016. Read the EMS case study