Contractor management is where compliance most often quietly fails. The site team is busy, the contractor turns up ready to work, the supervisor glances at a card and waves them on. Weeks later a client asks for the induction record, or an incident triggers an investigation, and the check that should have happened at the gate has left no trace. So the real question about a contractor compliance app is not how many document fields it stores. It is whether it makes the competence check and the induction get recorded at the gate, and whether the office can see, at any moment, who is cleared to work on which site.
Guide · Compliance
Contractor compliance and site induction audit app for the UK.
How to check contractor competence, run site inductions and hold supply-chain assurance evidence, from paper induction folders and spreadsheets to a WhatsApp workflow your site teams and contractors already know. For CDM 2015 client duties and supplier assurance.
14-day free trial. No card required.
The point
A signed induction folder does not prove a contractor is competent.
The competence checks and the induction actually happening do. Software makes the gate check easy to complete on site, harder to wave a contractor through unchecked, and faster to surface if a certificate has lapsed. A good tool means nobody finds the missing check after an incident, when it is too late to matter.
Assurance at the gate
What a contractor audit covers.
Competence
The CDM 2015 client duty
The client must take reasonable steps to satisfy itself a contractor is competent. Cards, tickets, insurance and method statements checked and recorded before work.
InductionSite rules and sign-on
Every worker inducted to the site rules, hazards and emergency arrangements, with the induction record held and attributable to the person.
Supply chainSSIP and scheme evidence
Supply-chain assurance through schemes like SSIP, CHAS, Constructionline and Achilles, with the certificate and its expiry held on file.
The friction
The check happens, but the record does not survive.
A supervisor checks a card at the gate and waves the contractor on, and the check leaves no trace. A paper induction folder in the cabin is not searchable and cannot be seen by the office. The record you capture at the gate beats the one you cannot produce when a client audit or an incident asks for it.
Run contractor checks on WhatsApp
No app install. No training.
Site teams and contractors use the phone they already have. Text, voice note or photo of the card. The induction and competence record generates itself and lands on a live dashboard. Setup to first live workflow usually takes under a week.
The short version
- Contractor assurance covers three things: competence checks, site induction records, and supply-chain scheme evidence.
- Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the client must take reasonable steps to satisfy itself that appointees are competent.
- Supply-chain assurance schemes such as SSIP, CHAS, Constructionline and Achilles are widely used to pre-qualify contractors, but the certificate still has to be checked and current at the point of work.
- The check often happens but leaves no record; paper induction folders are not searchable and are invisible to the office.
- Quickler captures the competence check and induction at the gate and holds a live, searchable record across sites. It does not decide competence; a competent person does.
The point
What a contractor compliance audit is for
A contractor compliance audit is the gate check: before a contractor or their workers start on a site, the organisation confirms they are competent, insured, inducted to the site rules, and cleared to do the specific work. It ties together three strands: the competence check, the site induction, and the supply-chain assurance evidence that pre-qualified the firm.
A signed induction folder does not prove any of this on its own. The checks actually happening, and being recorded so they can be produced later, is what proves it. Software makes the gate check easy to complete on site, harder to skip, and faster to surface when a certificate lapses. A good tool means the missing check is not discovered after an incident, when it is too late. This is not legal advice; check the current standards and take your own competent advice.
The client duty
Competence under CDM 2015
Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the client has a duty to take reasonable steps to satisfy itself that those it appoints have the skills, knowledge, experience and, where relevant, organisational capability to carry out the work safely. In practice that means checking cards and tickets, insurance, relevant qualifications and method statements before work starts, and keeping the evidence.
Quickler captures those checks at the gate, with a photo of the card or certificate, the person it belongs to, and the date, and holds them where the office and the auditor can find them. It does not decide whether a contractor is competent; a competent person makes that judgement. Quickler holds the evidence that the judgement was made and the check was done.
Supply-chain schemes
SSIP, CHAS, Constructionline and Achilles
Many organisations pre-qualify contractors through supply-chain assurance schemes. The Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) forum acts as an umbrella that lets member schemes recognise each other's assessments, reducing duplicate pre-qualification. CHAS, Constructionline and Achilles are widely used member or standalone schemes that assess a contractor's health and safety and wider compliance.
Scheme membership pre-qualifies the firm, but it does not remove the gate check. The certificate still has to be current at the point of work, and the individual worker on site still has to be inducted and competent for the task. Quickler records the scheme certificate and its expiry alongside the on-site checks, so the office can see at a glance whether the evidence is current. It does not run the scheme assessment; the scheme body does.
Induction
Site induction records that are attributable
A site induction covers the site rules, the specific hazards, the welfare and emergency arrangements, and any permits or exclusion zones. The record has to be attributable: it must show that this named person was inducted, when, and by whom. A tick on a sheet in a folder is easy to complete and impossible to rely on later.
Quickler captures the induction as it happens, tied to the individual, with the date and the inductor recorded, and holds it in a searchable record the office can pull up for a client audit or an investigation. The organisation still owns the content of the induction and the decision to clear the worker; Quickler holds the evidence that it was done.
Pricing
Per report, not per seat
Most contractor management platforms charge per seat, and some charge the contractors themselves. On a busy site with a rotating supply chain that is exactly the wrong shape: every contractor and subcontractor you onboard costs more, and the office staff who only review records pay the same as the field team.
Quickler charges per report, with unlimited users on every bundle. Bundles run from Quickler 50 at 50 pounds a month for 50 reports, up to Quickler 500 at 500 pounds a month for 500 reports. Add as many site staff, contractors, managers and admins as you like; you pay for the induction and competence records you file, not the people who could file them. Pricing is approximate and shifts, so check the current pricing page before you commit.
Questions, answered
What is a contractor compliance audit?
It is the gate check that confirms a contractor and their workers are competent, insured, inducted to the site rules and cleared for the specific work before they start. It ties together competence checks, the site induction record, and the supply-chain assurance evidence that pre-qualified the firm. Options for running it range from paper folders and spreadsheets to conversation-based tools like Quickler that capture the check at the gate over WhatsApp.
What does CDM 2015 require for contractor competence?
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 require the client to take reasonable steps to satisfy itself that those it appoints have the skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability to do the work safely. That means checking and keeping evidence of cards, insurance, qualifications and method statements before work starts. Check the current CDM guidance and take your own competent advice for your context; this is not legal advice.
Does SSIP or CHAS membership mean I do not need a gate check?
No. SSIP, CHAS, Constructionline and Achilles pre-qualify a contractor firm, which reduces duplicate assessment, but the certificate still has to be current at the point of work and the individual worker still has to be inducted and competent for the task. The scheme assesses the firm; the gate check confirms the person and the currency of the evidence on the day.
Can I run contractor inductions over WhatsApp?
Yes. Quickler's contractor workflow runs over the WhatsApp Business API. The site team or contractor receives each step in their existing WhatsApp chat, records the check and induction with text, a voice note or a photo of the card, and the record generates automatically and appears on the office dashboard. No separate app or login is required, and Quickler manages the WhatsApp Business API account on the firm's behalf.