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Best Subcontractor Management Software UK: 2026 Guide

Most tools sold as subcontractor management do one third of the job well. This guide separates the compliance-document specialists, the field-service platforms and the construction ERPs, and says plainly which one wins on each criterion.

TL;DR

If you manage UK subcontractors and need onboarding evidence, CIS deduction rates, RAMS sign-off by the subcontractor's own operatives and applications for payment in one record, Site Samurai is the closest fit, published at £99, £199 and £699 per month with unlimited users. If your hard requirement is HMRC-recognised CIS return filing and full construction accounting, Access Coins Evo is the stronger choice and publishes automated CIS verification and MTD compliance. Joblogic is the better answer for reactive maintenance dispatch; Procore for large supply chains where users are never charged for; PlanRadar and Fieldwire for defect and drawing work rather than commercial control; HS Direct for health and safety documentation alone.

Last reviewed: 2 September 2026. Data confidence: Vendor claims verified against the public pages cited on 2 September 2026. Unsourced claims were dropped rather than hedged. Competitor source.

Weighted evaluation framework

Criterion

Weight

What good looks like

Red flag

Active criterion focus

One record per subcontractor holding insurance, qualifications and right-to-work documents against expiry dates, with the gap visible before the operative reaches site.

Tools compared

Site Samurai

UK construction operations platform built around the subcontractor lifecycle: onboarding evidence, CIS rates, RAMS sign-off, applications for payment and Construction Act notices in one place.

Strengths

+Onboarding pack per subcontractor with insurance, qualification and right-to-work documents held against expiry dates.
+CIS verification numbers and 0%, 20% or 30% deduction rates recorded per subcontractor and applied to every payment, with a re-verification cascade.
+RAMS and toolbox talks issued to the subcontractor's own operatives, who sign on their phones; the signature register is the compliance evidence.
+Applications for payment, payment notices and pay-less notices with statutory deadline tracking.
+Unlimited users on every plan, so adding subcontractor submitters costs nothing.

Limitations

-No live HMRC verification: rates are recorded and applied, and re-verification is prompted, but the check itself is made in HMRC systems.
-Not a construction ERP or ledger; it syncs to Xero or Sage rather than replacing accounts.
-One accounting connection is active per organisation, so it is Xero or Sage, never both.
-Built for UK contract forms; overseas contract structures are not modelled.

Best for UK main contractors and subcontractors who want onboarding evidence, CIS deductions and payment applications to be one workflow rather than three systems.

Pricing: Published: £99, £199 and £699 per month with unlimited users, 17% off annually, and a 14-day trial. You add a card at signup but are not charged until it ends.

Access Coins Evo

The Access Group's construction ERP. The deepest CIS and subcontractor-accounting engine of anything on this list, sold and implemented as an enterprise finance system.

Strengths

+Automated CIS verification and deduction calculations across all subcontractor payments, with HMRC-recognised CIS returns and Making Tax Digital compliance.
+Subcontractor management with Constructionline and CQMS integrations for pre-qualification data.
+Applications for payment and subcontractor valuation workflows inside the same ledger as the cost reports.
+Multi-company financial governance for groups running several trading entities.

Limitations

-Priced per user and quoted, so seat count is a live cost as the subcontractor base grows.
-ERP implementation is a project measured in months, not an afternoon.
-Site-side evidence capture — RAMS sign-off by a subcontractor's operatives — is not what the product is built around.

Best for Finance-led contractors who need HMRC-recognised CIS returns and full construction accounting, and have the budget and appetite for an ERP rollout.

Pricing: Quote only. The product page states pricing is per user with annual, quarterly or monthly billing, and asks prospects to request a quote.

Joblogic

UK-built field service management software with a subcontractor portal, aimed principally at maintenance and facilities work rather than principal-contractor site delivery.

Strengths

+UK company with 24/7, 365-day support included on every plan.
+Subcontractor portal where subcontractors, customers and suppliers do not consume a paid licence.
+Strong job, engineer and reactive-maintenance scheduling.

Limitations

-Pricing is per internal user, so office headcount drives cost.
-Subcontractor management is framed around facilities-management job dispatch, not construction onboarding evidence.
-The pricing page does not present CIS deduction handling or Construction Act notices as features.

Best for Maintenance and FM contractors dispatching work to subcontracted engineers who need scheduling first and commercial control second.

Pricing: Published: Standard from £45 per user per month billed annually. Premium is priced on request and Enterprise is custom.

Archdesk

Configurable construction management platform with a named subcontractor-relationship module covering records, bidding and pay applications.

Strengths

+Subcontractor Management (SRM) keeps subcontractor records, insurance and compliance current.
+Subcontractor bidding and subcontractor pay applications are named parts of the product.
+External collaborators, including subcontractors, are free — only internal seats are charged.
+An alternative pricing model based on annual construction volume gives unlimited users.

Limitations

-No published price: the pricing page routes to a quote wizard.
-Office and field users are counted separately, so the seat model needs modelling before you commit.
-CIS deduction handling and UK Construction Act notice automation are not published features.

Best for Contractors who want a highly configurable workflow platform and are willing to build the UK-specific compliance layer into it.

Pricing: Quote only, via a configuration wizard. No public list price.

HS Direct

UK health and safety documentation specialist, with a template library and a separate contractor-management product rather than an operations platform.

Strengths

+Over 500 templates covering risk assessments, method statements and COSHH, with RAMS as its own product category.
+A subcontractor competence form is part of the published document set.
+"First for Contractors" is sold specifically as subcontractor management.
+UK health and safety focus throughout, rather than a localised global product.

Limitations

-Documentation and compliance only: no applications for payment, CIS deductions or valuations.
-No software subscription price is published on the site; documents are priced individually.
-Running it alongside a commercial system means subcontractor records live in two places.

Best for Contractors whose immediate gap is health and safety paperwork quality, not commercial or payment workflow.

Pricing: Individual documents are priced on the site, several at £0.00 and others up to around £10. No published software subscription price.

Procore

Enterprise construction management platform. Broad, mature and genuinely unlimited on users, with subcontractor invoicing inside its financial suite.

Strengths

+Users are never charged for: the UK pricing page states clients, subcontractors and vendors can all be added at no extra cost.
+Subcontractor Invoicing is a named product, aimed at getting the trades ahead of their monthly invoices.
+Resource Planning is a centralised scheduling and communication hub for subcontractors and head contractors, with real-time visibility of workforce availability, skill sets and equipment.
+Very large integration ecosystem.

Limitations

-Priced on annual construction volume as an upfront annual fee, so cost tracks turnover rather than usage.
-Procore's public UK product pages do not describe subcontractor pre-qualification.
-UK CIS deduction handling and Construction Act notices are not published platform features.

Best for Larger contractors who want one platform across a big supply chain and are comfortable with volume-based pricing.

Pricing: Quote only. The UK pricing page describes an upfront annual fee by product based on annual turnover, and confirms users are never charged for.

PlanRadar

Site documentation and defect-management tool. Excellent at capturing what happened on site; not a commercial or compliance system.

Strengths

+Published GBP pricing per user per month, which is rare in this market.
+Subcontractors are included free on paid plans.
+Fast ticket-based defect capture against plans, photos and BIM models, with offline use.
+30-day trial with no card required.

Limitations

-No onboarding evidence, CIS or payment application workflow.
-Priced per user per month, so cost grows with the office and site team.
-You will still need a commercial system alongside it.

Best for Teams whose subcontractor problem is quality and defects evidence rather than money and compliance.

Pricing: Published in GBP: Basic £23 per month for one user, Starter £80, Pro £119, Enterprise by quote — all per user per month.

Fieldwire

Plan-and-task field tool, strong on getting the right drawing and the right task list to the right operative, with commercial features only on upper tiers.

Strengths

+Free Basic tier makes it easy to get a subcontractor crew onto plans and tasks.
+Plan viewing, task management, specifications, files, photos and checklists in a well-liked mobile app.
+RFIs, submittals, change orders and budget management on higher tiers.

Limitations

-Priced per user per month, and published in US dollars rather than sterling.
-No subcontractor onboarding, CIS or Construction Act functionality.
-The commercial features that exist are US contract-administration shaped.

Best for Site teams who want subcontractor operatives working from current drawings and task lists, with the commercial workflow handled elsewhere.

Pricing: Published per user per month in US dollars: Basic free, Pro $39, Business $64, Business Plus $89, billed annually. No GBP price was published on the pricing page.

Pricing side by side

Item	Site Samurai	Other tools
Headline price	£99, £199 and £699 per month, published, with 17% off annually.	Joblogic publishes Standard from £45 per user per month billed annually; PlanRadar publishes £23, £80 and £119 per user per month. Access Coins Evo, Archdesk and Procore are quote only.
User / seat model	Unlimited users on every plan, including QSs, site managers and subcontractor submitters.	Joblogic and PlanRadar charge per internal user; Archdesk charges internal seats and makes external collaborators free; Procore states it never charges for adding users.
Cost of adding a subcontractor	No change to the invoice — subcontractor logins are inside the unlimited-user model.	Joblogic excludes subcontractors, customers and suppliers from per-user pricing; PlanRadar includes subcontractors free on paid plans; Archdesk makes external collaborators free.
Free trial	14-day trial, long enough to onboard a real subcontractor. You add a card at signup but are not charged until it ends, and you can cancel anytime.	PlanRadar publishes a 30-day trial with no card required. The quote-only vendors are demo-led.
Pricing transparency	Every plan price is on the pricing page with no discovery call required.	Access Coins Evo asks prospects to request a quote; Archdesk routes to a quote wizard; Procore charges an upfront annual fee based on annual turnover.

Competitor pricing claims sourced from public documentation.

See the full breakdown on Site Samurai pricing.

Feature comparison with sources

Feature	Other tools	Site Samurai
HMRC-recognised CIS returns	Access Coins Evo publishes automated CIS verification and deduction calculations for all subcontractor payments, HMRC-recognised CIS returns and Making Tax Digital compliance. source This criterion goes to Access Coins Evo. If HMRC-recognised return filing is non-negotiable, an ERP is the honest answer.	Verification numbers and 0%, 20% or 30% rates are recorded per subcontractor and applied to every payment, with a re-verification cascade. Site Samurai does not verify with HMRC or file the return.
Pre-qualification data sources	Access Coins Evo publishes subcontractor management with Constructionline and CQMS integrations. source	Pre-qualification evidence is held as documents against the subcontractor record with expiry tracking, rather than pulled from a third-party register.
Subcontractor pay applications	Archdesk names Subcontractor Management (SRM), Subcontractor Bidding and Subcontractor Pay Applications as parts of the product. source	Subcontractors submit applications with evidence, the QS assesses in-platform, and payment and pay-less notices carry statutory deadline tracking.
Cost of external collaborators	Archdesk states external collaborators including subcontractors are free and only internal team seats are charged, with an annual-construction-volume model that gives unlimited users. source	Unlimited users on all three published plans, internal and external alike.
Users never charged for	Procore states it will never charge for adding more users, including clients, subcontractors and vendors, and prices on annual construction volume as an upfront annual fee based on annual turnover. source Procore genuinely wins the seat argument. The trade-off is that the annual fee tracks your turnover rather than your usage.	Unlimited users on a published monthly price that does not move with turnover.
Subcontractor invoicing and supply-chain scheduling	Procore publishes Subcontractor Invoicing, which empowers the trades to be proactive about monthly invoices, and Resource Planning, a centralised scheduling and communication hub for subcontractors and head contractors. source Procore is the stronger answer once the supply chain is large enough to need its own scheduling hub.	Subcontractor applications, notices and the compliance record sit on one subcontractor record rather than in separate product modules.
Per-user pricing for the office	Joblogic publishes Standard from £45 per user per month billed annually, with Premium priced on request; subcontractors, customers and suppliers using the portal do not count towards per-user pricing. source	No per-user component at all, so office headcount does not change the price.
UK support hours	Joblogic publishes 24/7, 365-day support included on all plans and describes itself as UK-built. source Joblogic wins on support coverage. If out-of-hours cover is a hard requirement, weigh that.	UK-based support during UK working hours, from a team that works the same contract forms.
RAMS and method statement library	HS Direct publishes over 500 templates covering risk assessments, method statements and COSHH, a dedicated RAMS category, a subcontractor competence form, and a separate product, First for Contractors, described as subcontractor management. source HS Direct is the stronger template library. The gap it leaves is the signature and the link to the payment record.	RAMS are issued to the subcontractor's named operatives, who sign on their phones; the signature register is the compliance evidence.
Published GBP pricing	PlanRadar publishes GBP pricing per user per month: Basic £23 for one user, Starter £80, Pro £119, Enterprise by quote, with a 30-day trial and no card required. source	£99, £199 and £699 per month published, with unlimited users on every plan.
Field tooling versus commercial control	Fieldwire publishes per-user pricing in US dollars — Basic free, Pro $39, Business $64, Business Plus $89 billed annually — covering plans, tasks, specifications, photos and checklists. source No GBP price is published on the Fieldwire pricing page, so budget in dollars.	Site evidence is captured against the subcontract it belongs to, so it lands on the application rather than in a separate task tool.

The UK obligations this decision turns on

Two UK regimes decide whether a subcontractor tool is fit for purpose. The Construction Industry Scheme under Finance Act 2004 Chapter 3 sets the 0%, 20% and 30% deduction rates, requires a payment and deduction statement for each subcontractor, and requires monthly returns to HMRC — so a buyer has to know whether a product records rates or actually files. The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, as amended by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, sets the payment and pay-less notice regime that governs what you owe a subcontractor and when; miss a valid pay-less notice and the applied-for sum becomes the notified sum. CDM 2015 then puts the duty on the principal contractor to show that the operatives on site — including subcontracted labour — were briefed on the method statement. Global platforms model none of this natively.

CISFinance Act 2004 Ch 3HMRCHGCRA 1996LDEDCA 2009Construction Act 1996 s.111CDM 2015Constructionline

Choose another tool if

You must file HMRC-recognised CIS returns from the same system that pays the subcontractor.

Access Coins Evo publishes automated CIS verification, HMRC-recognised returns and MTD compliance. Site Samurai records and applies rates but does not file.

Your subcontractors are maintenance engineers on reactive jobs, not packages on a project.

Joblogic is built for field service dispatch and includes 24/7 support. Construction subcontract commercial workflow is not the problem you have.

You run a very large supply chain and want one platform across all of it.

Procore never charges for adding users, including subcontractors and vendors, and has the deepest integration ecosystem. Volume-based pricing suits turnover-heavy businesses.

Your only gap is the quality of your health and safety documents.

HS Direct publishes over 500 RAMS, risk assessment and COSHH templates. Buying an operations platform to solve a template problem is the wrong shape of spend.

Choose Site Samurai if

Onboarding evidence and the payment application currently live in different systems.

One subcontractor record carries the insurance expiry, the CIS rate, the signed RAMS and the monthly application, so the compliance record and the money record cannot disagree.

You need the subcontractor's own operatives to sign RAMS and toolbox talks.

Sign-off is captured per named operative on their own phone, which is the evidence CDM 2015 actually asks a principal contractor to hold.

Per-seat pricing is stopping people who should be in the system from having a login.

Unlimited users on every published plan removes the "who really needs access" conversation from the procurement decision.

You want to budget from a published price and trial against a real subcontract first.

£99, £199 and £699 per month are published, and the 14-day trial is long enough to onboard a subcontractor and run one application cycle.

Priorities by role

Commercial Manager / QS priorities

• Subcontractor applications assessed in one place, with the notice deadlines tracked.
• CIS deductions applied consistently so payments do not need reworking.
• Retention and variations visible against the subcontract, not in a side spreadsheet.

See how Site Samurai handles subcontractor management — start a free 14-day trial

Red flags when evaluating subcontractor management software

!Software that claims to "verify subcontractors with HMRC" without explaining what it actually submits.
!Subcontractor management framed entirely as job dispatch, with no compliance-document lifecycle.
!Per-user pricing that quietly discourages putting site managers and QSs in the same system.
!RAMS sign-off captured only from the subcontractor's office, never from the operatives on site.
!No published price and no way to trial the product against a real subcontract before committing.
!Onboarding evidence and payment applications living in two products that do not share a subcontractor record.

Recommended selection process

1Score each tool against the weighted criteria with your commercial and health and safety leads in the same room.
2Ask every vendor precisely what their CIS claim means: does it record the rate, or file the return?
3Onboard one real subcontractor end to end, including an insurance document that is about to expire.
4Have that subcontractor's operatives sign a RAMS on their own phones, not on a demo account.
5Run one full application-to-notice cycle and check the deadline the system calculated against your subcontract.
6Price the seat model at the headcount you will have in two years, not the one you have today.

Subcontractor Management Software

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CIS Management Software

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Subcontractor Onboarding Process

Free guides, templates, and tools

Approved Subcontractor List

Free guides, templates, and tools

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Subcontractor management software holds one record per subcontractor covering onboarding evidence (insurance, qualifications, right to work), the CIS deduction rate that applies to their payments, the RAMS and toolbox talks their operatives have signed, and the applications for payment and notices exchanged with them. The point of a single system is that the compliance record and the money record describe the same subcontractor.

Be careful with this claim. Access Coins Evo publishes automated CIS verification and HMRC-recognised CIS returns as part of its construction ERP. Site Samurai does not verify with HMRC: it records the verification number and the resulting 0%, 20% or 30% rate against the subcontractor, applies that rate to every payment, and prompts re-verification when it lapses. If HMRC-recognised return filing is a hard requirement, that points at an ERP.

It depends on how many people need to touch the record. Joblogic publishes Standard from £45 per user per month billed annually, and PlanRadar publishes £23 to £119 per user per month, so an office of ten is a material line either way. Archdesk charges internal seats only and makes external collaborators free, Procore states it never charges for adding users including subcontractors, and Site Samurai includes unlimited users on all three published plans.

They should be able to. A method statement signed only by the subcontractor's office proves nothing about the operative who did the work. Site Samurai issues RAMS and toolbox talks to the subcontractor's named operatives, who sign on their own devices, and the signature register is what you hand a principal contractor. Documentation specialists such as HS Direct supply strong RAMS templates but are not the system that captures the signature against the payment record.

Field service software, such as Joblogic, is built to dispatch reactive jobs to engineers and close them out. Subcontractor management for construction is built around a subcontract: onboarding evidence, a CIS rate, monthly applications, retention and a final account. They overlap on scheduling and diverge everywhere the money and the compliance obligations live.

Only some vendors publish a price. Joblogic publishes Standard from £45 per user per month billed annually and PlanRadar publishes £23, £80 and £119 per user per month; Fieldwire publishes per-user pricing in US dollars. Access Coins Evo, Archdesk and Procore are quote only, with Procore charging an upfront annual fee based on annual turnover. Site Samurai publishes £99, £199 and £699 per month with unlimited users.

Ready to run subcontractors from one record?

Site Samurai holds onboarding evidence, CIS deduction rates, RAMS sign-off and applications for payment against the same subcontractor, with unlimited users on every plan.