Industries: roofers
Roofing software for UK roofers, built round how you quote
50%
Quotes from four photos, job sheets with the wind forecast, and a file per roof your customer can follow.
Roofing software for a firm that checks the forecast first
Much of the roofing software sold in the UK is a package built for many trades at once: plumbers, electricians, heating engineers and roofers alike. It handles job sheets and invoices. What it does not know is how your firm surveys a roof, prices a re-roof against a repair, waits out a windy week and closes a job with the certificates the customer needs.
A roofer's day starts with the sky. Felt and EPDM on a garage in Horsforth at half seven, tiles off a terrace in Headingley at ten, a survey for a leak in Otley after lunch. If the gusts pick up, the whole week shifts. Below is what we would build for a roofing firm: software shaped by the way you already work, from the first photo of a leak to the Building Regs certificate.
The job sheet on the scaffold, with the gusts per hour
- The weather sits with the jobRain and wind per hour for every address, so you decide in the morning which gang goes up and which works inside.
- Photos before and afterThe felt and battens are on record before the tiles go back. If the customer asks later what is under there, you have the proof.
- Extra work, signed offRotten timbers or a bad chimney? The customer signs on the phone, the office sees it straight away and adds it to the invoice.
An example with made-up roofs and addresses; you choose what a roofing job sheet asks for.
Off-the-shelf package or a system shaped by your firm
A package suits many roofers, and it is quicker to start. Software built round your firm pays off when the way you survey and quote is what wins you work.
- Quotes
- A package for all tradesA quote form with lines and a total
- Built round your roofing firmYour survey, your price list and your options, such as repair against full re-roof, in one quote
- Weather
- A package for all tradesA calendar that does not know it rained
- Built round your roofing firmWind and rain per roof on the board, so a lost day moves the scaffold and the customer too
- Documents
- A package for all tradesAttachments per job
- Built round your roofing firmA file per roof with the asbestos survey, photos before covering and the Building Regs certificate
- Customers
- A package for all tradesAn email when the job is booked
- Built round your roofing firmA link where the customer follows the stages and sees the photos
- Changes
- A package for all tradesYou wait for the vendor's roadmap
- Built round your roofing firmYou change it when your way of working changes
If a package fits nine tenths of your week, keep it and fill the gap. If you bend your work round it every day, building is worth a conversation.
A re-roof as a file the customer can follow
Customer link: stages, photos and documents, no login needed
An example of what we can build, with made-up names and amounts. You choose the stages and the documents.
Surveys, certificates and photos in one file per roof
A re-roof carries more paper than a repair. The customer asks for it, the Building Regs sign-off needs part of it, and on an older house the asbestos rules ask for more. A file per roof keeps it together from the first visit, and a work order app fills it from the scaffold.
| Document | When it is made | Why it belongs in the file |
|---|---|---|
| Survey with photos | First visit | The base of the quote and of any later question |
| Asbestos survey | Before work on a roof from before 2000 | You assume asbestos is present until a survey shows otherwise |
| Scaffold handover certificate | When the scaffold goes up | Shows the scaffold was checked before your gang went up |
| Photos before covering | Membrane, battens, insulation, lead | Proof of what is under the tiles once they are back |
| Waste transfer notes | Each skip or load | Shows where the old roof went |
| Building Regs certificate | At completion | Through a competent person scheme or Building Control |
The file also answers the customer's two questions before they ring: when are you coming, and what is left to pay. A link to the stages and photos saves calls, and a client portal does the same for a letting agent or a management company with forty roofs on its books.
A leak in Headingley that becomes an enquiry
New request
Slipped tiles and a damp patch, 1930s semi, four photos attached
Sarah, Horsforth, today 19:52
- A page per job: re-roofing, flat roofs, guttering, chimneys
- Before and after photos of your jobs on your Google profile
- A form that asks for roof type, age and photos
An example with made-up roofing firms and reviews.
Roofers found before the rain gets in
Most roofing enquiries start with a leak or a slipped tile, and most homeowners search in their own town. Whoever shows under the map, with recent photos and good reviews, gets the call. A complete Google Business Profile is the start; a review link sent with the final invoice keeps the reviews coming, and more Google reviews explains how to ask without sounding needy.
The site does the rest. A form that asks for the postcode, the roof type and photos turns a vague phone call into an enquiry you can price. Pages per service, such as flat roofs, re-roofs and chimney work, rank for what people type. What such a site needs is on roofing website design, and local SEO covers the towns you actually work in. Enquiries then land in one list with their status, the start of a simple custom CRM for a roofing firm, so no survey request gets lost in a van.
Four photos of a leak as a first estimate
An example: the AI works from your own prices per m2 of roof, you decide.
Estimates from photos, prices from your list
AI does not climb a roof. What it can do: turn four photos, the age of the house and three lines from the customer into the items of a first estimate, using your own price list. Scaffold, strip and relay, membrane, lead flashing round the chimney, and an option for a full re-roof when the photos show more than one problem. It marks what it cannot see, such as the state of the battens or a valley out of shot.
The roofer then checks the items, adds what only a survey shows, sets the final prices and decides whether to send it before or after a visit. Nothing reaches a customer unchecked. A first draft in the evening means the quote goes out the next morning, while the customer is still waiting for the first roofer to call back. The AI quote generator page shows how such a draft is built; what AI does elsewhere on site is on AI for construction.
A roofer who applies from the scaffold
An example with made-up names; you choose what the form asks a roofer, from slating experience to working at height.
Good roofers look at your scaffold first
Skilled roofers are scarce, and the good ones choose. They look at your jobs, your equipment and how safely you work. An advert on your own site that says what they want to know, such as slate, tile or flat roofing, fixed gang or not, and how far the jobs are, gets replies from people who are not scrolling job boards. That is employer branding in roofing terms.
Since 1 October 2026 right to work checks also reach individual subcontractors, and the civil penalty is up to £60,000 per illegal worker. A self-employed roofer who joins for a busy month needs the check on file like an employee. Once hired, the same record feeds the board and staff scheduling, with the cards and training each person holds.
A sole trader roofer or four gangs
A sole trader roofer does not need an ERP. A firm with four gangs, its own scaffold and a flat roofing team needs more than a diary. This is what we would build at each size.
| Size | What you need | What we would build |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | Quotes from photos, job sheets, invoices, quarterly updates for MTD | A phone app for surveys, quotes and job sheets, with invoices from the same record |
| Two to four gangs | A board with the weather, scaffold bookings, a file per roof, CIS for subbies | Board, job sheets, files per roof and CIS statements, linked to your accounts package |
| Larger, with flat roofing and commercial work | Tenders, RAMS per site, guarantees, documents for main contractors | A tender register, guarantee records per roof, and a portal for clients |
Tiles, slates, membrane and lead in the yard can sit in inventory management, and invoices can follow the job sheets through invoice automation. Whether to build or buy is a fair question; we lay out both sides on build versus buy.
Building Regs, CIS and asbestos: the rules on a roof
The rules that most often end up in a roofer's file, as they stand on 31 October 2026, for England.
| Rule | What it asks | What the software does |
|---|---|---|
| Building Regs for re-roofing | In most cases a re-roof needs approval; a roof is a thermal element, so insulation should improve | Asks per job whether it is a repair or a re-roof, and plans the sign-off |
| Regulation 23 | Renewing more than 50 percent of a thermal element, or more than 25 percent of the whole building envelope, brings the whole element under Part L where feasible | Records the share of the roof renewed on the survey |
| Competent person schemes | NAPIT and CompetentRoofer cover replacement roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs | Stores the notification and the certificate in the file |
| Work at Height Regulations 2005 | No minimum height; avoid, then prevent, then limit a fall; collective protection before personal; ladders are allowed for short, low-risk work | Puts the access plan and scaffold handover on the job sheet |
| Asbestos, regulation 5 | Assume asbestos in buildings built or refurbished before 2000 unless a survey shows otherwise; the duty applies on domestic jobs too | Asks for the survey before the gang is planned |
| CDM 2015 | A construction phase plan on every job; on a domestic job with one contractor, the client duties pass to that contractor | Starts the plan from your template per roof |
| Building Safety Act, Part 2A | Since 1 October 2023 for all building work, re-roofing included: work within your competence | Keeps cards and training per person |
| CIS | 20 percent off registered subcontractors, 30 percent off unregistered ones; return by the 19th; nil returns back since 6 April 2026 | Prepares the return and statements from the job sheets |
| Making Tax Digital | Income over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027 | Keeps income and costs per job ready for your MTD software |
| Waste carrier registration | Upper tier £191.02, renewal every 3 years at £130.25 | Stores the number and the renewal date |
| Right to work | Up to £60,000 per illegal worker, individual subcontractors included since 1 October 2026 | Stores the check per person |
For a re-roof inside a larger renovation, the schedule of works guide shows where roofing sits among the other trades.
Twelve surveys a week, in hours
| Task | Now, per week | With the system | Saved per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quotes after 12 surveys | 9 hours | 4 hours, checking a first draft | 5 hours |
| Job sheets and photos sorted per roof | 3 hours | 0.5 hours | 2.5 hours |
| Rebooking for weather, calls and texts | 2.5 hours | 1 hour | 1.5 hours |
| Certificates and documents chased at completion | 1.5 hours | 0.5 hours | 1 hour |
| Total | 16 hours | 6 hours | 10 hours |
Over 46 weeks that is 460 hours, worth £20,700 at the assumed £45 an hour. It leaves out the quotes that now go out the next morning instead of next week, and the variations that get signed on the roof instead of argued over later.
Roofing firms begin with one dry week and one wet one
- A conversation about your weekHow do enquiries arrive, how do you survey, who writes the quote, where are the photos? We look at a dry week and a wet one.
- One part first, at a fixed priceUsually the quote from the survey or the file per roof. You get a fixed price per project before we build.
- One gang uses it firstOne gang works with it on real roofs. What they skip or find slow, we change before the rest start.
- Then the board, CIS and the websiteThe next parts use the same data: weather planning, CIS statements and enquiries from your own site.
On a building site a roofer rarely works alone. The groundworks were done before you, joinery fits the roof windows and fascias, and in renovation a main contractor plans all trades together. What we build for building firms in general is on software for construction companies; how we build is on custom software, and you can get in touch for a first conversation. For a construction company in Ghent we built a site where clients cost their own project step by step: SN Group.
Roofers ask us
Can roofing software write a quote from the customer's photos?
A first draft, yes. AI sets out the items from the photos, the age of the house and the customer's message, with your own prices. You check it, add what only a survey shows and decide what goes out.
Why not just buy a roofing package?
For many roofers a package is the right answer. Building makes sense when your way of surveying and quoting is what wins you work, or when you spend hours a week working round the package.
Can the planning take the weather into account?
Yes. The board shows wind and rain per roof for the coming days, so you see which jobs are at risk and can tell the customer and the scaffolder in time.
Does it handle the Building Regs certificate?
It keeps track of whether a job is a repair or a re-roof, reminds you of the notification through your competent person scheme, and stores the certificate in the file for the customer.
Can my customers follow the job?
With a link they see the stages, the photos and what is left to pay. It saves calls and makes the final invoice less of a surprise.
What does roofing software cost?
We start with a conversation about your week and then give a fixed price per project. A sole trader and a firm with four gangs need very different systems, so there is no list price.
Custom software
How VBS helps you with this
We build the platform your business runs on every day: your spreadsheets, emails and paperwork in one system that does what you do.
- Your workflow mapped first, then a fixed price
- Screens for the office, the client and the road
- Hosting, backups and security managed by us on AWS
How we approach it is on our page about Custom software.
Surveys, quotes and roofs in one place?
Tell us how a week runs in your firm, a windy one included. We show where we would start and what it would save you.
Rather get in touch right away?