Software for contractors and builders

New build, conversion, refurbishment and maintenance contracting. You work in phases. The budget has to be watched while the work runs. Variations are agreed on site and interim invoices have to go out on time. Platrom puts budget and actual side by side, on the day itself and per phase.

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Where it goes wrong today

Four things we hear back in nearly every conversation. If none of them sound familiar, you probably do not need this system.

The margin only shows at final account

The estimate is in one spreadsheet and the hours are in another. Purchase invoices arrive two months later. Halfway through you have no reliable picture. At the end it turns out the margin went somewhere around week seven.

Variations go missing on the way

It was agreed on site and confirmed in a message. Three weeks later it cannot be found. The client remembers it differently. What you cannot point at, you write off as cost.

The progress statement is an estimate

Somebody fills in a percentage by feel. The real picture is spread across job sheets, timesheets and somebody’s head. At the first argument with the client you are empty-handed.

Retention and the G-account cost a correction every time

Retention is calculated on the amount excluding VAT. The G-account on the amount including it. That is a small difference with large consequences. It goes wrong on every construction invoice and your bookkeeper picks it up. Or does not.

What Platrom does about it

With the module named, because a solution without a name is a promise. Everything below is in the system and can be seen in a demo.

From estimate to quote to job, with no retyping

The estimate works with assemblies and preliminaries. Margin and risk sit per line instead of as one blanket uplift over everything. Out of that comes the quote with sections, provisional sums and optional items. On online approval the work is waiting as a job, with the budget that sat underneath it.

Budget against actual, per phase

Hours and materials come off the job sheet, purchasing off the order. The forecast final cost says how sure it is. On a project where one phase is running, it says so. What has been ordered but not yet invoiced is also shown separately. That is the amount that quietly keeps a project result looking rosy.

Variations signed on site

The site manager puts it on the job sheet and the client signs on the screen. After that it sits on the project with a date and a signature. That is the difference between turnover and an argument you lose.

Interim invoices, retention and G-account come out right

Interim invoices with a progress statement that follows from what has actually been done. Retention on the amount excluding VAT and G-account on the amount including it are built in. You do not work it out again every time.

A roof refurbishment in four phases

From estimate to final account. With the point at which you see it going wrong, before it goes wrong.

week 1
The estimate comes out at € 135,100. The uplift sits per line: little on the strip-out and more on the roof covering. The quote comes out with two provisional sums and one optional item. The client signs it online.
week 2
The work is waiting as a job in four phases, with the budget per cost category underneath it. Scheduling cuts it into weeks and puts the crews on it.
week 5
Phase two overruns. Strip-out and disposal comes to € 31,240 against € 28,600 budgeted. That is there on the day itself and not in the monthly report. There is still time to set phase three up differently.
week 6
The client wants the rainwater goods included. The site manager puts it on the job sheet as a variation and the clerk of works signs on the spot. € 1,240 that would otherwise have evaporated.
week 9
The third interim invoice goes out. The progress statement follows from actual progress. Retention is calculated on the amount excluding VAT and shown separately.

Questions from this trade

Can we keep using our own estimating method?

The estimate works with assemblies. One line combines materials, labour and plant, so a 200 m² roof area is not rebuilt from scratch every time. Margin and risk sit per line, with the uplift for the whole estimate as the fallback. Leave a line empty and it follows the estimate. Fill it in and that line keeps its own percentage.

How does the progress statement work?

It follows from what has actually been done per phase. Hours and materials come off the job sheets. Not from a percentage somebody typed in. That means you can defend an interim invoice the moment the client asks about it.

We work with subcontractors. Can that go in?

Subcontractors sit as contacts with a role of their own. Their work runs through purchasing: order, approval, receipt and the purchase invoice checked against the order. What has been ordered but not yet invoiced sits separately in the project result.

Questions about price, notice period, integrations and where your data is held are on the pricing page and on Data and security.

Do you work in another trade?

Any technical company with people out in the field and an invoice it has to be able to explain fits here. These are the other four.

Installation companies

Heating, plumbing, electrical, ventilation, cooling and heat pumps.

Roofing, façades and insulation

Roofers, dormers, window frames and façade elements, glazing, solar shading and insulation.

Fit-out and finishing

Plasterers, floor layers, carpentry and interior fit-out, painters and property maintenance.

Service and maintenance

Maintenance contracts, call-out service, fire safety and inspections, doors and access, drainage and pipework.

Half an hour, on your own work

Bring one of your own projects. A breakdown, a refurbishment or a contract. We walk it through the system, from enquiry to invoice line.

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