Unibuild was written in 2016 for a UK provider of temporary power, site electrics, water and welfare, and it has run that business every working day since. Rates held per job. The measure captured on site in the week the work was done, and signed there. Stock picked against the serial numbers you actually hold. Isolation permits, chlorination certificates and applications built from work already approved.
Temporary power, water and welfare, or permanent mechanical and electrical: the work differs, and the shape of the record does not.
A services contractor works on somebody else's site, on somebody else's programme, and gets paid for what somebody agrees was done. The margin is decided at tender, on rates, before anyone turns up. Everything after that is measurement: what went out, what was installed, what was actually done that week, what came back, and what state it came back in. Lose any one of those records and the money quietly goes with it.
Unibuild is construction management software for UK 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.
The fit
What site services and M&E work require, and what Unibuild provides.
This is the one trade on this site where the answer is not that the platform adapts well. Advanced estimating, the rate valuations, the bin locations, the signed delivery and collection notes, the damage recharge and the retention engine all exist because a temporary site services business asked for them, one problem at a time, over a decade. Each requirement below is followed by what the platform does about it.
The tradeThe platform
Priced before anyone turns up
You tender on rates, so the margin is set at the estimate rather than on site. If the price file behind it was last reviewed two years ago, nobody finds out until the job is finished and the numbers are history.
Sectional build ups price from your own catalogues and price lists, with kits that price a whole assembly on one line. The markup is snapshotted onto the estimate when it is created, so a later rate change cannot alter a tender already issued, and per line locking leaves negotiated rates alone during a bulk reprice.
Work gets measured in a van, on paper that does not make it back before Friday. What is not written down in the week it happened is either argued down at the valuation or never billed at all.
The measure is captured on site, in the week the work was done, by the person who did it, priced from that contract's own rate card. The client's representative signs on the screen before anybody leaves, with a typed name, the date and room for a remark, and photographs attach to the claim.
A supervisor claims more hours than the section was priced for. Nobody notices until the client's surveyor does, and by then it is an argument about your credibility rather than about the hours.
On jobs that came from an estimate, claimable hours per section are capped at the estimated allowance less whatever has already been approved. The cap applies in the app at the point of entry, so a claim inside the allowance can approve itself and one that exceeds it is refused before it becomes a conversation.
A tower or a distribution board is on two sites at once according to the spreadsheet and on neither of them in reality, so it gets bought again. Something comes back broken and nobody can say which site it came from.
Picking runs against the actual bin quantities and the actual serial numbers held, splitting across bins and refusing to over allocate. The receiver signs on handover, confirming the note moves both the stock and the asset location, and site to site transfers happen without a pointless return trip to the yard.
The principal contractor asks for the certificate for the supply you installed last month, or the chlorination results for the system you put into service, and wants them today. Two hours go looking for them.
Certificates are produced in the platform on your own letterhead and held with the job, the labour, the client and site record, the isolation permit, the instrument that was used and its calibration status. Disinfection certificates carry the readings as individual pass or fail results with the contact time and the standard worked to.
The valuation is reassembled at month end from a diary, a folder and somebody's memory, then disputed, because nothing was signed at the time. Retention sits somewhere nobody is watching and half of it never comes back.
The application is assembled from work already measured and already approved, so the measure signed on site is the measure on the application. Retention is held as a running figure, the previously certified position is calculated, aged debt is bucketed by manager, and approved work never claimed surfaces as a queue rather than as a loss.
Written in 2016 for a UK provider of temporary power, site electrics, water and welfare, and running that business every working day since. A second business in construction contracting now runs on the same platform using a different half of it.
Temporary power
Site electrics and distribution
Site lighting
Temporary water
Welfare and hygiene
Mechanical installation
Electrical installation
Maintenance and callout
The week
An ordinary week in a site services firm, and the record it leaves.
Six entries from a site services day book. Every one of them is a record that either gets made where the work happens or does not get made at all, and the difference shows up in the valuation rather than on site.
Monday, at the store
A distribution board, four festoon runs and a transformer are picked for a new site against the serial numbers actually on the shelf. The pick splits across two bins and cannot over allocate, and the driver leaves with a note the receiver will sign.
Picked on serials
Tuesday, on site
The supply goes in and the certificate is produced on the phone, branded to your firm, with the instrument that tested it and its calibration status on the same record.
Issued the same day
Wednesday
An engineer needs to work on a live board. The permit runs the four part structure he will recognise as the real thing, authorise, accept, sign off and cancel, naming the points of isolation, the points of earthing and where the danger signs went.
Made dead, on the record
Thursday, before he leaves
The week's measure goes in against that contract's own rate card, capped at what the section was priced for. The site manager signs it on the screen having just watched the work, with his typed name and a remark.
Signed where it happened
A job finishing
The standing view of jobs finishing with equipment still allocated to them puts three items on the collection list. One comes back damaged, flagged against the site it came from and recharged rather than absorbed.
Back into stock
Month end
The application is assembled from measures already signed and already approved. Retention runs as a figure rather than as a hope, and approved work nobody claimed sits in a queue instead of disappearing.
Nothing rebuilt
The test
Eight things site services software has to do.
In a van, at a store hatch, on a live site with a client's man waiting. A system that cannot meet these eight gets abandoned inside a month, and that is a failure of design rather than of discipline. Unibuild is around thirty modules on one account, and a services contractor turns on a handful.
A rate card per job, not per company
Every job carries its own labour rate card across all rate types, its own markup and its own assigned price list. Two jobs running the same week value the same hours differently, correctly, without anybody having to remember which is which. On this trade that is the normal case rather than the exception, which is why it is the first thing on the list.
The measure taken where the work was done
Rate valuations capture the measure on site, in the week, by the person who did it, priced from that contract's rate card. The client signs on the screen before anyone leaves, and photographs attach to the claim. A measure taken in the van on Friday is a different document in every way that matters.
Over claiming prevented, not corrected
Claimable hours for each section are capped at the estimated allowance less what has already been approved, and the cap applies in the app at the point of entry. A claim inside the allowance can approve automatically. One that exceeds it is refused before it reaches your client's surveyor, which is the only point at which refusing it is cheap.
Stock picked on the serial, not on a number
Assets and inventory picks against real bin quantities and real serial numbers, splitting across bins and refusing to over allocate. The receiver signs on handover, and confirming the note moves the stock and the asset location together. The movement and the record are one action rather than two, which is the whole difference from a spreadsheet.
Collections before the kit is written off
There is a standing view of jobs finishing with equipment still allocated to them. It is a working list the store goes through rather than a notification nobody reads. Damage is flagged against the site it came back from and recharged, which turns a category of quiet loss into a line somebody has to answer for.
Isolation permits your engineers recognise
The safe isolation permit runs the four part structure of the real thing: authorise, accept, sign off, cancel. Points of isolation and points of earthing are identified, switching schedules cover sequenced isolations, the questions are configurable from the office, and limitation of access forms sit alongside. This is what health and safety looks like when it was written by people who had to use it.
Certificates produced, not filed
The EIC, the EICR and the Minor Works Certificate are produced in the platform, branded to your firm. Chlorination certificates record free chlorine, total chlorine and turbidity before and after, the contact time and the standard worked to, with tester and acceptor both signing. Documents and certificates issues 58 document types on your own letterhead.
Priced per business, not per engineer
Users are unlimited on every plan. Engineers, drivers, the store, the estimator, the surveyor and the directors all sit on the same price, so a summer of extra labour does not change the bill. Pricing is set against the size and shape of the business rather than published as a rate card, and the pricing page explains how that is worked out.
Governing clauseThe measure signed on site is the measure on the application
The store
What a site services and M&E firm holds
The store, the yard and whatever is currently standing on somebody else's site, and the quirk in each line that breaks ordinary inventory software. Written for the trade rather than for any one firm. Most services contractors will recognise seven or eight of these lines and ignore the rest.
What a UK site services, electrical and mechanical contractor holds, and the tracking quirk in each line
MOT, service, insurance and driver licence checks on four different clocks, and the van is also a store location nobody counts
Regulations
The regimes a site services firm works under
Temporary electrical and temporary water each carry their own compliance estate, and a firm doing both carries both. Unibuild records, evidences and prompts. It does not make anybody compliant, and the duty stays exactly where it always was. This is the reference version, kept factual.
What each regime asks of a site services, electrical and mechanical contractor
Regime
What it requires
Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
Regulations 12 and 13 require suitable means of cutting off the supply and isolating equipment, with adequate precautions against equipment made dead becoming charged. In practice the permit is the record: a declaration that the equipment was made dead, isolated and earthed, identifying the specific points of isolation, the specific points of earthing and where the danger signs were placed.
BS 7671
The wiring regulations govern installation, inspection and testing, and the certificate is the deliverable rather than a by-product. The EIC, the EICR and the Minor Works Certificate are produced in the platform, branded to your firm, and held with the job, the labour, the client and site record, the isolation permit, the instrument used and the audit trail.
ACOP L8 and HSG274
The water hygiene and legionella regime. A written scheme produces monitoring dates, and those dates are held per client, per project and per named location, assigned to a person, warned thirty days ahead and turning red once late. The risk assessment and the written scheme itself remain the work of your competent person.
BS 8558 and BS EN 806-4
Disinfection before a system is put into service. The chlorination certificate names the standard worked to, records the contact time, and holds the before and after readings as individual pass or fail results, with the bacterial sample taken after flushing and both tester and acceptor signing.
PUWER 1998
Work equipment must be suitable, maintained in efficient working order and inspected where safety depends on its condition. For a services contractor that covers generators, transformers, pumps, jetting kit and every power tool, each held as an individual record with its own service history and repair history.
LOLER 1998
Where you hold lifting accessories such as slings or chain blocks, the movement record identifies which physical unit was on which site and when, and thorough examination reports are held against the unit as attachments. Read the honest limit on a dedicated examination register below.
Gas and refrigerant, on the mechanical side
A firm carrying mechanical work sits under Gas Safe registration and the annual check under regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and under the retained UK F-Gas Regulation with refrigerant type, charge weight and calculated carbon dioxide equivalent held per asset, with leak checks on a frequency band you set. See M&E and building services for the detail.
CDM 2015
You are a contractor on somebody else's site, which shapes almost everything. Project records carry the F10 notification flag, method statements and construction phase plans are held against the job, and permits, toolbox talks and site records attach to the same project. See the CDM 2015 guide for the duty holder detail.
Calibration traceability
Every test instrument carries its make, model, serial number, the engineer holding it and its calibration expiry, warned thirty days out and coloured red once passed. The calibration house's certificate attaches to the record that carries the date, so the instrument and its evidence are the same object.
On the record
Questions site services firms ask
The questions site services, electrical and mechanical firms actually raise on a demonstration, answered on the record. Open one to read the response.
The marketWhat software do UK site services contractors use?+
Most run a hire management package for the kit, an accounts package behind it, and spreadsheets for rates, measures and applications, with the measure itself living on paper until Friday. Hire software handles the asset and not the measured work. Job management apps handle the visit and not the rate card. What is unusual about Unibuild here is that it was not adapted to this trade from something else: it was written for a temporary power, water and welfare business in 2016 and has run one every day since.
RatesOur rates differ from job to job. Does that work?+
That is the normal case here rather than the exception. Every job carries its own labour rate card across all rate types, its own markup and its own assigned price list. Two jobs running in the same week value the same hours differently, correctly, without anybody having to remember which is which. It is the single most common reason a general job management product fails in this trade.
ClaimsWhat stops a supervisor claiming more than was priced?+
On jobs that came from an estimate, the claimable hours for each section are capped at the estimated allowance less whatever has already been approved. A claim inside the allowance can approve automatically. One that exceeds it is refused in the app at the point of entry, before it becomes an argument with your client's surveyor. Over claiming is prevented rather than corrected, which is a different thing entirely.
SignaturesOur clients will not sign on a phone.+
Some will not, and the valuation still works without a signature. In practice most site representatives sign readily when they are being shown exactly what is being claimed, for work they have just watched being done. The signature is captured with their typed name, the date and space for a remark, so it reads as a considered acceptance rather than a scrawl on a pad.
CollectionsHow do we stop plant being left on finished jobs?+
There is a standing view of jobs that are finishing with equipment still allocated to them. It is a working list the store goes through rather than a notification. That is usually enough, because the problem was never that people did not care, it was that nobody could see what was still out. Damage on return is flagged against the site it came from and recharged rather than absorbed.
StoresWe already have a stores spreadsheet. What does this add?+
A spreadsheet records what somebody remembered to type. This records what physically moved, because the movement and the record are the same action: the picker selects the serial number, the receiver signs, and the ledger posts. It also tells you which bin the stock came out of, which no spreadsheet does, and a pick can split across bins without over allocating.
CertificatesDoes it produce electrical and water certificates?+
Yes. The EIC, the EICR and the Minor Works Certificate are produced in the platform, branded to your firm, alongside installation sign off and a company handover document. Chlorination certificates record free chlorine, total chlorine and turbidity before and after, the contact time and the standard worked to, with tester and acceptor both signing. Around each certificate sits the rest of the job: the labour, the client, the site, the permit and the instrument.
Price fileHow much of our price file do we have to load?+
This is the part of an implementation that takes real client effort, and any supplier telling you otherwise is selling. Your existing file is mapped to categories, units and suppliers, imported, and then reviewed. The platform then measures the result for you: a page counts every item still missing a fit time, a price or a rate, so completeness is a number you can chase rather than a feeling.
FitIs this really built for our sector, or adapted to it?+
Built for it, and this is the one page on the site where that claim is not a figure of speech. Advanced estimating, the rate valuations, the bin locations, the signed delivery and collection notes, the damage recharge and the retention engine all exist because a temporary site services business needed them and asked for them, one problem at a time, over a decade. A second business in construction contracting now runs on the same platform using a different half of it, which is the evidence that it adapts as well as it fits.
RolloutDo we have to move everything across at once?+
No, and it is usually a poor idea. Most services firms start with whichever end is costing most, commonly the measure and the valuation, or the store and its collections, and add the rest once the first is habit. Your rates, jobs, store and open applications are brought across for you. Trying to load and verify the whole price file before anybody uses the system is the most reliable way to stall the project.
Four things a services contractor asks for that are not in the platform as it stands. Unibuild is bespoke, so each one is a scoping conversation rather than a dead end: customer specific modules, fields, rules and reports are written on request and included in the monthly fee.
The written scheme itselfMonitoring dates are held per location, assigned and warned. The legionella risk assessment and the written scheme remain the work of your competent person.
A LOLER examination registerMovement and service history are held per unit and examination reports attach to it, but a dedicated thorough examination register is scoped work rather than a shipped feature.
Hire billed by the periodWelfare and plant sit against the job they are on, but there is no recurring hire billing engine. Invoicing runs from the job rather than from a standing clock.
Telemetry from generators and unitsNo fuel level, runtime or remote monitoring feed, so hours and readings are entered or attached rather than measured.
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.
Return slip
Come and try it on your own rates.
Half an hour, on your own rate card and your own store. Bring one live job and last month's valuation, and we will set it up in front of you. Unlimited users, never per seat, and fourteen days to try it without a card.
