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Best Retention Tracking Software UK: 2026 Guide

Retention is money you have already earned, and it goes uncollected because nobody owns the dates. This guide compares the retention specialists, the commercial platforms and the Xero add-ons, and is clear about which of them will still be chasing a job that finished two years ago.

TL;DR

If retention is the only thing you need to fix and you run Xero, Retention Track is the specialist: it is built for construction subcontractors, lists on the Xero App Store with two-way sync of invoices, credit notes and retention amounts, and does nothing else. If you want retention to reconcile with the valuations, variations and final account that produced it, Site Samurai holds a retention ledger per contract with both moieties and both release dates derived from practical completion and the defects liability period, published at £99, £199 and £699 per month with unlimited users. Payapps automates retention calculations and the release process inside the claim workflow, which suits main contractors already collecting claims through it. TrakPro tracks retention alongside applications, variations and contra charges for UK and Ireland contractors, and Access Coins Evo puts it in the ledger.

Last reviewed: 2 September 2026. Data confidence: Vendor claims verified against the public pages cited on 2 September 2026. Where a vendor does not publish a retention capability, this guide says so rather than assuming one. Competitor source.

Weighted evaluation framework

Criterion

Weight

What good looks like

Red flag

Active criterion focus

One running total per contract showing what has been retained to date, split into first and second moiety, without a spreadsheet in the middle.

Tools compared

Retention Track

The retention specialist. A retention management system for construction subcontractors whose whole purpose is knowing what is owed and getting it paid, with a native two-way Xero sync.

Strengths

+Purpose-built for retention rather than a module inside something larger.
+Project dates, invoices and variations are uploaded and the system shows what is owed.
+Listed on the Xero App Store with two-way sync of invoices, credit notes and retention amounts.
+Aimed squarely at subcontractors, bookkeepers and contract managers — the people who actually chase retention.

Limitations

-Claims are built to match local legislation in Australia and New Zealand and what the vendor describes as developing UK legislation, so a UK buyer should test the wording against their own contracts.
-No public price.
-Retention only: the valuation, the variation account and the final account live in another system.

Best for Subcontractors who already run Xero and want one tool that does nothing but recover retention, properly.

Pricing: No public price published on the product site.

Site Samurai

UK construction operations platform whose retention tracker sits on the same contract record as the valuations and variations that created the retention in the first place.

Strengths

+A retention ledger per contract holding the total retained, the first and second moiety, and a release status.
+Both release dates derived from the practical completion date and the defects liability period, rather than typed in by hand.
+Retention read from the same contract record as the valuations, variations and applications, so the numbers reconcile by construction.
+Free retention statement and retention tracker templates published for the contracts you have not moved across.
+Unlimited users on every plan, published pricing, Xero or Sage sync.

Limitations

-The product does not generate a retention statement: that is a downloadable template rather than a system output.
-Not a ledger — one accounting connection is active per organisation, Xero or Sage, never both.
-Retention is one workflow inside a wider platform, so a business that only wants retention is buying more than it needs.

Best for UK contractors who want retention, valuations and the final account on one record instead of reconciled across three.

Pricing: Published: £99, £199 and £699 per month with unlimited users and a 14-day trial. You add a card at signup but are not charged until the trial ends.

Payapps

Claim collaboration between main contractors and subcontractors, with retention money tracking and release published as a feature of the same workflow the claims run through.

Strengths

+Retention money tracking and release is a named feature, not an afterthought: it automates retention calculations, provides full transparency and simplifies the release process.
+Handles defect liability periods, which is the half of retention most claim tools ignore.
+One consistent way for subcontractors to submit claims and one workflow for the main contractor to assess, approve and track them.
+Issues payment schedules back to the claimant, and is explicitly aimed at reducing payment disputes.

Limitations

-The retention feature page describes calculations and release but not release dates derived from practical completion, the split into first and second moiety, or a retention statement.
-Terminology is written for several markets at once — retention moneys and progress claims alongside retention — so check the wording against a UK subcontract.
-Publishes subcontractor pricing in Australian dollars only; no GBP price is published.
-The final account sits outside the claim exchange.

Best for Main contractors who want retention calculated and released inside the same workflow their subcontractors already claim through.

Pricing: Publishes subcontractor plans in Australian dollars only, from A$49 a month plus a pay-as-you-go rate per claim. Main-contractor pricing is custom. No GBP price is published.

TrakPro

UK and Ireland commercial-tracking platform that names retentions alongside payment applications, variations, contra charges and compliance.

Strengths

+Tracks payment applications, variations, retentions, contra charges and compliance in one central platform.
+Built for the UK and Ireland market rather than localised into it.
+Contra charges are named explicitly, which few products in this bracket do.

Limitations

-No rates are published: the pricing page offers a demo booking rather than figures.
-The public site gives little detail on how release dates and moieties are handled, so that needs testing in a demo.
-Smaller vendor footprint than the ERPs on this list.

Best for UK and Ireland contractors who want commercial tracking across applications, variations and retention without an ERP.

Pricing: No public price. The site offers a demo booking rather than rates.

Access Coins Evo

Construction ERP from The Access Group. Retention sits inside a full construction ledger with applications for payment and subcontractor valuation.

Strengths

+Applications for payment and subcontractor valuation workflows published as part of the product.
+Automated CIS verification and deduction calculations, HMRC-recognised returns and MTD compliance.
+Multi-company financial governance for groups.
+Retention that reconciles to the accounts without an export, because it is in the accounts.

Limitations

-Retention handling is not described on the public product page, so it has to be confirmed in a demo.
-Per-user pricing, quoted rather than published.
-ERP implementation timelines and consultancy cost.

Best for Finance-led contractors who want retention inside the same ledger as the cost report.

Pricing: Quote only. Pricing is stated as per user with annual, quarterly or monthly billing.

Xero app marketplace add-ons

A category rather than a product: retention tools that install against Xero and sync back to it. Retention Track is the listing this guide verified on the UK marketplace.

Strengths

+Retention stays reconciled with the ledger because the sync is the point of the product.
+Cheap to trial and cheap to abandon compared with an ERP module.
+Sensible for a business whose only unsolved problem is retention visibility.

Limitations

-This guide verified one retention listing on the UK marketplace, Retention Track; treat the category as wider than that and search it yourself before deciding.
-An add-on knows about invoices, not about your subcontract, so the link to the valuation and final account is weak.
-Add-on quality and support vary far more than a marketplace listing suggests.

Best for Xero-first subcontractors who want retention visibility without changing how anything else is run.

Pricing: Varies by add-on. Retention Track publishes no price on its own site.

Pricing side by side

Item	Site Samurai	Other tools
Headline price	£99, £199 and £699 per month, published, with 17% off annually.	Retention Track and TrakPro publish no price, Access Coins Evo is quote only, and Payapps publishes subcontractor pricing in Australian dollars only. Xero add-on pricing varies by listing.
User / seat model	Unlimited users, so the QS, the bookkeeper and the director all see the same retention position.	Access Coins Evo prices per user. Payapps prices subcontractor plans in tiers and quotes main contractors. Retention Track and TrakPro do not publish a seat model.
Free trial	14-day trial. You add a card at signup but are not charged until it ends, and you can cancel anytime.	No public self-serve trial across the compared vendors; evaluation is demo-led.
Pricing transparency	All three plan prices published in sterling, no discovery call required.	TrakPro offers a demo booking in place of rates, Access Coins Evo asks prospects to request a quote, and Payapps publishes no GBP price for a UK buyer to budget against.
Retention statements	A free retention statement template and a retention tracker template published on the resource hub. The product tracks the position; the statement is the template.	None of the compared vendors publishes a retention statement output on its public site.

Competitor pricing claims sourced from public documentation.

See the full breakdown on Site Samurai pricing.

Feature comparison with sources

Feature	Other tools	Site Samurai
Purpose-built retention management	Retention Track publishes a retention management system for construction subcontractors: upload project dates, invoices and variations, and see what is owed. source On retention alone, Retention Track is the specialist and this is its strongest ground.	A retention ledger per contract with total retained, first and second moiety and a release status, on the same record as the valuations.
Jurisdiction of the claim wording	Retention Track states its claims are built to match local legislation in Australia and New Zealand and developing UK legislation. source UK buyers should read the claim wording against their own subcontract before committing.	Built for UK contract forms throughout, with release dates derived from practical completion and the defects liability period.
Two-way accounting sync for retention	Retention Track is listed on the Xero App Store with two-way sync of invoices, credit notes and retention amounts. source On raw Xero integration depth for retention specifically, the specialist add-on wins.	Syncs to Xero or Sage, with one accounting connection active per organisation.
Automated retention calculation and release	Payapps publishes retention money tracking and release: it automates retention calculations, provides full transparency and simplifies the release process, accounting for defect liability periods. source Payapps is a genuine contender here, and the better fit if your subcontractors already claim through it.	Retention deducted on each certified cycle at the contract percentage, with the running balance and both release dates held per contract.
Release dates, moieties and statements	The Payapps retention feature page describes calculations, transparency and release, and does not describe release dates derived from practical completion, the first and second moiety, or a retention statement. source	Both moieties and both release dates are derived from the practical completion date and the defects liability period, with a release status per contract.
Published pricing in sterling	Payapps publishes subcontractor pricing in Australian dollars only, with custom main-contractor pricing; no GBP price is published. source	£99, £199 and £699 per month published in sterling, with the retention tracker on every plan.
Retention alongside variations and contra charges	TrakPro publishes tracking of payment applications, variations, retentions, contra charges and compliance in one central platform, for contractors in Ireland and the UK. source	Retention reads from the same contract record as the valuations, variations and applications for payment.
Rates you can budget against	TrakPro carries a pricing link but publishes no rates, offering a demo booking instead. source	£99, £199 and £699 per month published, with the retention tracker included on every plan.
Retention inside the construction ledger	Access Coins Evo publishes applications for payment and subcontractor valuation workflows as part of its construction ERP, with automated CIS calculations and HMRC-recognised returns. source Access Coins Evo does not describe retention handling on its public product page, so confirm it in a demo.	Not a ledger: the retention position syncs to Xero or Sage rather than being held in the accounts.
Per-user cost as the team grows	Access Coins Evo states pricing is per user with annual, quarterly or monthly billing, and asks prospects to request a quote. source	Unlimited users on every published plan, so adding the bookkeeper costs nothing.

How UK retention actually works

Retention is a percentage of each certified sum withheld by the payer as security, typically three or five per cent, and released in two moieties: half at practical completion and the balance on certification of making good at the end of the defects liability period. It is not a separate debt with its own timetable — it sits inside the Construction Act payment regime, so a release is claimed through the same application, payment notice and pay-less notice machinery under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 as amended in 2009. Two consequences follow for software. First, release dates are derived from the practical completion date and the defects liability period on the contract, so a tool that cannot hold those dates cannot tell you when to chase. Second, retention and the final account interact: the final account fixes the value retention was calculated on, but agreeing it does not by itself release the second moiety.

first moietysecond moietypractical completiondefects liability periodcertificate of making goodHGCRA 1996Construction Act 1996 s.111final account

Choose another tool if

Retention is your only unsolved problem and Xero is your ledger.

Retention Track is built for exactly that, and its Xero App Store listing syncs invoices, credit notes and retention amounts both ways. Buying a platform to solve one workflow is the wrong shape of spend.

Your subcontractors already submit their claims through Payapps.

Payapps automates retention calculations and the release process inside that same workflow. Adding a second system to hold retention would split the record for no gain.

You need contra charges tracked alongside retention and variations.

TrakPro names contra charges explicitly, which is unusual in this bracket, and is built for UK and Ireland contractors.

Retention must sit on the balance sheet in the same system that produces the cost report.

Access Coins Evo puts applications, valuations and CIS in one construction ledger. A separate retention tool would be a second source of truth.

Choose Site Samurai if

Your retention position and your valuation position disagree.

Retention reads from the same contract record as the valuations and variations, so a variation agreed after the last valuation does not silently invalidate the retention figure.

You have lost a second moiety on a job that finished more than a year ago.

Both release dates are derived from the practical completion date and the defects liability period, and the release status is held per contract rather than in somebody's memory.

You hold retention from subcontractors as well as having it held against you.

Both directions sit on the same platform as the applications and notices they arise from, rather than in a tool built only for the payee side.

You want retention, valuations and the final account to be one system rather than three.

Retention is a workflow inside the commercial record, so the final account is assembled from the same figures rather than reconciled against them.

Priorities by role

Subcontractor chasing retention priorities

• Know the total retained across every contract without opening a spreadsheet.
• Be reminded when the second moiety falls due on a job that finished last year.
• Send a release request that names the contract, the moiety and the date.

See how Site Samurai handles retention tracking — start a free 14-day trial

Red flags when evaluating retention tracking software

!Retention tracked as a percentage on invoices with no cumulative position per contract.
!Release dates entered manually rather than derived from practical completion and the defects liability period.
!No distinction between the first and second moiety, so half the money is invisible.
!A tool that tracks retention but has no link to the valuations and variations that produced it.
!Retention software whose claim wording is written for a different jurisdiction than the one you contract in.
!A vendor who will not show you a contract that finished two years ago still being chased.

Recommended selection process

1Total the retention currently outstanding across every contract, including jobs that finished over a year ago.
2Ask each vendor to show both moieties on one contract, with the release dates derived rather than typed.
3Test a contract whose practical completion date moved, and check both release dates moved with it.
4Check what the tool produces when you need to ask for a release, and whether it names the contract and the moiety.
5Confirm how retention reconciles to your ledger, and in which direction the data moves.
6Ask what happens to the retention figure when a variation is agreed after the last valuation.

Retention Tracking and Valuation Software

See how Site Samurai handles this workflow

Retention Statement Template

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Retention Explained

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Final Account vs Final Certificate

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Retention tracking software holds the cash retained under each construction contract as a running position: the total retained to date, the split between the first and second moiety, the dates each falls due, and whether it has been released. The point is that retention is money already earned and not yet paid, and it goes uncollected mainly because nobody is holding the dates.

The industry norm is that half the retention is released at practical completion and the balance on certification of making good, at the end of the defects liability period. The contract governs the actual dates, which is why software should derive both release dates from the practical completion date and the defects liability period rather than asking someone to type them in.

No, and that distinction matters. The retention tracker holds the total retained, the first and second moiety, both release dates derived from practical completion and the defects liability period, and a release status per contract. The retention statement itself is a free downloadable template on the resource hub, not a system output.

Yes. Payapps publishes retention money tracking and release as a feature: it automates retention calculations, provides transparency over what is held, simplifies the release process and accounts for defect liability periods. What its retention page does not describe is release dates derived from practical completion, the split into first and second moiety, or a retention statement, so confirm those directly if they matter to you.

For a Xero-first subcontractor whose only unsolved problem is retention visibility, often yes. Retention Track is listed on the Xero App Store with two-way sync of invoices, credit notes and retention amounts. The limit is that an add-on knows about invoices rather than about your subcontract, so it will not reconcile retention against the variation account or the final account.

Retention is cash withheld from sums already certified, released in two moieties. The final account is the agreed total value of the works, settled once variations, loss and expense and any deductions are resolved. They interact — the final account fixes the figure retention was calculated on — but agreeing a final account does not by itself release retention.

Very few vendors publish a UK price. Retention Track and TrakPro publish none, Access Coins Evo is quote only with per-user pricing, and Payapps publishes subcontractor plans in Australian dollars only with custom main-contractor pricing. Site Samurai publishes £99, £199 and £699 per month with unlimited users. Weigh that against the retention currently sitting uncollected, which for most subcontractors is the larger number.

Know what retention you are owed

Site Samurai holds a retention ledger per contract with both moieties and both release dates derived from practical completion and the defects liability period, alongside the valuations that produced them.