Sectors: groundworks
Removing the paperwork from groundworks contractors whose directors do it after dark
You price the job, run the gangs and chase the money. Then the RAMS, the prequalification forms and the daywork sheets wait for you at the kitchen table. Our proprietary system and process takes that load off, with AI applied inside the way your firm already works, and without taking the judgement out of your hands.
The documentation reality
The paperwork behind every dig
Groundworks paperwork and compliance follows the job from the first survey to the final account. Most of it is necessary. Very little of it needs to be typed from scratch by a director at ten at night.
01
Before you break ground
The information that keeps people away from live services and gets you permission to start.
- RAMS for each package and each site, not a generic set
- Permits to dig, issued under the main contractor's or your own system
- Utility records and survey information, including PAS 128 surveys where they have been commissioned
- Records of cable avoidance tool checks before and during excavation, in line with HSE guidance HSG47
02
While the work is open
The records that prove the work was done safely and as planned.
- Excavation inspections, which CDM 2015 requires, including at the start of each shift
- Temporary works inspections for trench support and other temporary works
- Plant pre-use checks for excavators, dumpers, rollers and attachments
- Site diaries and photos, often the only evidence of what was actually found in the ground
03
When it needs paying for
The records that turn work done into money received.
- Daywork sheets, signed and matched to the instruction
- Variation records for unforeseen ground, obstructions and design changes
- Supporting information for valuations and applications for payment
- Waste transfer notes, part of your duty of care for waste leaving site
04
Keeping on the approved list
The compliance you have to keep proving to every main contractor.
- Prequalification questionnaires and supplier portals
- Insurances, SSIP, CHAS or Constructionline accreditations
- CSCS cards, CPCS or NPORS plant cards and training records
- RAMS resubmissions when comments come back
Your position in the chain
You are usually the subcontractor, so the compliance flows downhill
A main contractor carries Principal Contractor duties and has to be satisfied your work is planned, competent and recorded. The result lands on you as documentation requests.
None of that is unreasonable on its own. The problem is that every main contractor asks for it differently. The same insurance certificate, the same training matrix and the same excavation method statement get reformatted, re-uploaded and re-answered for each one. For a firm with a small office, that repetition is where the evenings go.
- Different forms for the same factsEvery PQQ and portal asks the same questions in its own format.
- RAMS sent back with commentsEach round of comments means another rewrite before the gang can start.
- Monthly compliance returnsLabour returns, training updates and safety statistics on the main contractor's template.
- Evidence for every changeWithout a clear record, a variation or a daywork claim is hard to get paid.
Why it keeps getting heavier
The lean office meets growing demands
Groundworks firms tend to run tight overheads. A director, an estimator, perhaps one or two people in the office. The documentation load has grown; the office has not.
- Main contractors are expected to show that they manage and monitor their supply chain, so they ask subcontractors for more, and more consistent, evidence.
- Clients and main contractors expect utility strikes to be designed out, which means more survey information, more permit to dig controls and more records of checks.
- Payment depends on records. Disputed dayworks and variations without contemporaneous evidence are easy for a quantity surveyor to reject.
- Waste has to be properly described, carried and documented, and main contractors increasingly ask to see the records.
- Site teams are stretched, so diaries and inspection records are often completed late and in shorthand, then need tidying before anyone else can use them.
- Growth brings more sites and more main contractors at once, and each new one adds its own set of templates.
The usual response is to hire another administrator or push more onto supervisors. Both add cost. Neither fixes the repetition. A system built for the repetition does.
Where AI sits in the system
What our system takes on, and what stays with your competent people
Within our system, AI does the drafting, reformatting, extracting and checking. It is not qualified to decide whether an excavation is safe. The line between those two is where we set every workflow.
Within our system, AI takes on
- Drafting site-specific RAMS from your approved library, the drawings and the site information
- Reworking RAMS to answer a main contractor's comments, showing exactly what changed
- Filling prequalification questionnaires and portal answers from a single, maintained set of company information
- Flagging insurances, accreditations and cards that are approaching expiry
- Turning voice notes and photos from site into a structured site diary entry
- Extracting the key facts from survey information into a briefing sheet for the gang
- Cross-checking waste transfer notes against loads recorded on site
Stays with your people
- Approving the method statement and briefing it to the operatives
- Issuing and signing permits to dig
- Carrying out cable avoidance checks and deciding how to excavate near services
- Inspecting excavations and temporary works, and deciding whether work can continue
- Carrying out plant pre-use checks and taking defective plant out of use
- Agreeing dayworks and variations with the main contractor
- Signing off anything submitted in your company's name
Getting paid
The records that get groundworks firms paid
Groundworks is where the unknowns live. Soft spots, obstructions, uncharted services and redesigns all turn into extra work, and extra work only turns into money if the record is clear.
Most firms have the evidence. It is just scattered across supervisors' phones, paper daywork sheets, WhatsApp groups and diaries written days later.
Within our system, AI gathers those records by date, location and instruction, matches photos and diary entries to each daywork sheet, and flags sheets that are unsigned or have no instruction behind them. It then drafts the supporting narrative for a variation or an application for payment.
Your quantity surveyor or director still decides what to claim, checks the quantities and rates, and agrees the account. What changes is that they start from an organised file instead of a shoebox.
Worth knowing: AI works from the records you give it. It will not create evidence that does not exist, and it should never be used to reconstruct records after the event. Its value is making sure what you did record is complete and easy to find.
How we work with groundworks firms
A route that suits a lean business
You do not need a big IT project. You need the evenings back and fewer rejected submissions. This is the process most groundworks contractors follow with us.
Start with the audit
The AI Opportunity Audit looks at where your office and supervisors spend their time, and which main contractor demands repeat most. You get a prioritised roadmap for a fixed £1,500.
Train the people who write the paperwork
AI Training for directors, office staff and supervisors, using your own RAMS, diaries and prequalification forms. Half or full-day, on site or remote, so it fits around the work.
Build the repeat jobs into our system
AI Implementation puts our system to work on the tasks that come round every week: RAMS generation, prequalification answers and compliance expiry tracking. Fixed-fee setup, with an optional monthly retainer.
Hand over the peaks
When several new sites start at once, Managed AI Services can produce the RAMS drafts, compliance packs and diary summaries for your team to review, without you taking on another salary.
Want a quick number before you talk to anyone? The free Construction Admin Cost Calculator estimates what admin is costing your business.
Groundworks questions
We are a small firm. Is this worth it for us?
Smaller firms often feel the benefit most, because the admin falls on the people who should be pricing and running jobs. The audit is designed to show whether the opportunity is worth acting on before you commit to anything further, and the roadmap is yours to keep either way.
Will main contractors accept RAMS drafted with AI?
Main contractors assess whether a method statement is specific, accurate and approved by a competent person. How the first draft was typed is not the test. The RAMS still has to reflect the real task and site, and your competent person still reviews, amends and approves it before it is submitted.
Our supervisors are not keen on technology. Will they use it?
We design our system around the way they already work. If a supervisor can send a voice note and a few photos, AI can turn that into a diary entry or inspection record for them to check. Training is practical and built on their own jobs, not software theory.
Does AI replace a permit to dig system or a CAT operator?
No. Permits, service location and excavation decisions stay with trained, competent people. AI can help organise the survey information and keep the records complete, but it never tells anyone it is safe to dig.
Next step
Get the paperwork done before you get home.
A short call about the documents your firm produces each week and where our system would take the most off your office and supervisors.
Or try the free Construction Admin Cost Calculator.