Systems that run construction and property businesses
Contractors, plant hire yards and managing agents run on systems built for one commercial office, one hire desk or one portfolio, usually years ago and usually by someone who knew the trade. Solve With Software takes those systems over and modernises them in stages, so the surveyors, the hire desk and the property managers keep the screens they know while the sites, the customers and the leaseholders get connected to them, and AI reads the invoices, timesheets and certificates that arrive every day. Each page below describes one kind of system in both its generations, and what modernising it brings.
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Where you find these systems
Contractors, plant hire companies, specialist subcontractors and managing agents across the UK run on systems like these. Nearer home that means the groundworks and civils contractors along the A12 corridor between Colchester and Chelmsford, the plant yards outside Ipswich and the managing agents looking after blocks across Essex and the London fringe. Each has a system at its centre that was built for the way that one business works: a job costing database, a hire desk program, a rates library, a timesheet app, a block management system with a portal bolted on. And each has the same question about it: how to move it forward without missing a month end, a quarter day or a pay run.
We work from Colchester and take on systems for businesses anywhere in the UK, remotely as a rule and on-site across Essex, Suffolk and London when the work needs it. The regional page says how the local side works.
Built in the 2000s, or built since 2016
The Old Guard was written between the early 2000s and about 2013 by a contractor who had sat in the office it was for, or by an employee who knew Access and stayed late. The job costing ledger is Access forms over SQL Server with Crystal Reports for the applications; the hire desk is Visual Basic 6 with a .NET yard screen bolted on; the rates library is a VB6 program driving an Excel workbook; the block management system is Access with a Classic ASP portal beside it.
The New Legacy is the same system built from about 2016 by an agency or a freelancer, in a browser with a site or driver app, or in Power Apps because the licences were already paid for. The site diary app is often this generation on top of the older one. Since 2023 some offices have tried again with an AI builder and stalled at the part with the money in it.
Contractors and managing agents who run a bought package often have a homegrown system beside it for the rules the package does not hold, and that is the same kind of work.
What modernising them tends to bring
The sites get a phone that writes into the system: a diary with photos, a delivery with a signature, an off-hire with a number, a repair report with a picture. The office gets its numbers on the day rather than at month end: cost to date on a live contract, utilisation by category, every unit's demand previewed before it goes out. The rules the business runs on, retention percentages, minimum hire periods, waste allowances, apportionment schedules, come out of the code into tables the office can see and change. And the whole thing comes off the server in the corner, onto a supported database with a backup that has been restored on purpose, before the Windows Server 2016 date in January 2027 catches the ones still on it. After the first stage, with the system safe to change, AI can take the keying off the desk too: supplier invoices coded to the contract, photographed timesheets read into hours, contractors' certificates filed against the block, the client's bill matched to the rates library. Each system page works out the time that gives back for a typical office of its kind.
None of it needs the old system switched off. Each piece is added beside it, on the same data, and the office moves a screen at a time.
Systems in construction and property
One page per kind of system: the Old Guard version, the New Legacy version, what modernising it brings and where AI helps.
The job costing and valuations system behind your month end
- The Old Guard
- Written 2004 to 2012 by a contractor or an employee who knew Access: Access forms over SQL Server, Crystal Reports and a Sage export, on the office server.
- The New Legacy
- Rebuilt 2016 to 2022 by a small agency or a freelancer as a browser system in PHP, .NET Core or React, or in Zoho Creator or Power Apps by the office.
- Where AI helps
- Supplier invoices read and coded on arrival: at 60 to 80 a day, typically an hour and a half back for the ledger clerk on a normal day.
The plant hire system that knows where every machine is
- The Old Guard
- A VB6 hire desk written 2001 to 2006 by a contractor who had run one, .NET yard screens added around 2010, one database on the depot server.
- The New Legacy
- Rebuilt 2016 to 2022 by an agency or a freelancer in React or .NET Core with a React Native driver app, or in Power Apps on licences already paid for.
- Where AI helps
- Hire requests read from the inbox and drafted as contracts: typically between one and two hours back across the desk each day.
The site diary and timesheet system your sites fill in each day
- The Old Guard
- An Excel timesheet moved into Access around 2008 by someone in the office, a PhoneGap app added 2014 to 2016, all on the office server and shared drive.
- The New Legacy
- Rebuilt 2019 to 2022 by an agency or a freelancer as a browser system with an Ionic or React Native site app, or put together in Power Apps by the office.
- Where AI helps
- Photographed paper timesheets read into draft lines: typically half an hour to an hour back for the payroll clerk each day before Thursday.
The estimating system and rates library your tenders come from
- The Old Guard
- A late-1990s Excel workbook, a VB6 program written around 2003 by a contractor, the rates library in Access by 2010, on estimating PCs held on old Office.
- The New Legacy
- Replaced 2016 to 2022 by an agency or a freelancer with a browser system in PHP, .NET Core or React, or in Zoho Creator or Bubble by an estimator.
- Where AI helps
- Bill items matched to the rates library for the estimator to confirm: on a thousand-line bill, a day of matching typically becomes a morning.
The block management system behind your portfolio
- The Old Guard
- Access screens over SQL Server written around 2005 by a contractor who knew property, a Classic ASP portal added around 2008, all on the office server.
- The New Legacy
- Built 2016 to 2022 by an agency or a freelancer in PHP, .NET Core or React, or in Zoho Creator by an accounts manager, with the portal in the same system.
- Where AI helps
- Contractors' certificates read into the compliance register: typically the better part of an hour back between the property managers each day.
Questions
What people ask before they book.
Can we keep running the business on the old system while it's modernised?
Yes. The old screens keep running and each new piece is added beside them, on the same data. A site app, a customer view or a leaseholder portal can arrive without a single office screen changing, and the office moves a screen at a time once the new one is better than the old. Month end, the pay run and the quarter day never run on anything untested.
Our rules are in the code and our data is in an old file. Do we lose either?
No. The rules are found first and written down with the people who apply them: retention percentages, minimum hire periods, waste allowances, apportionment schedules. Then they come out of the code into tables the office can see and change. The data comes off the old file onto a supported database with the old screens still pointing at it, and the new figures are checked against last month's before anything goes live.
Can the sites, the drivers and the leaseholders use it from a phone?
Yes, and it is usually an early stage because it changes nothing in the office. A diary with photos, a delivery with a signature, an off-hire with a number or a repair report with a picture goes into the same system the office uses, and the office sees it on the screen it always used.
Is there anything AI could do for a system like ours?
Yes, in the paperwork that arrives every day rather than in the judgement calls. It reads the supplier invoice, the photographed timesheet, the repair report or the contractor's certificate, and drafts the entry for someone to check instead of type. It can also answer the questions no report covers, such as which contracts have retention due back this quarter. It comes after the first stage, once the system can be changed safely, and the assessment maps where it would pay back on the system as it stands.
What does it cost, and how soon is something working?
The assessment is from £395 + VAT, with an exact price before you commit, and it produces a report with costed options and a fixed price for each. The report is yours. Take it to us, another developer, or nobody. Each stage after that is priced on its own, and the first usually has something working within about six weeks.
Start with a free consultation
An hour on your system, online or by phone. From there we size the assessment, from £395 + VAT, and give you an exact price before you commit.
Want the numbers first? See how pricing works.
Written by Marc Allington, founder. .