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Structural Engineers

Inspection and record software for structural engineers

You sign for stability. That signature needs evidence, not recollection.

You set the design; somebody else builds it. The work you most need to see — reinforcement, cover, laps, anchorage — is visible for a few hours and then concealed for the life of the building. The certificate outlasts everyone’s memory of the day, so what matters is whether the inspection was recorded at the time, not whether it was carried out.

Structural EngineersHow a day runs on buildcontrol
1
The drawing goes out with the instruction
The sheet the site is working to sits with the task it belongs to.
2
The contractor records the day
Site teams log progress, labour and material from the app.
3
A hold point stops the pour
Work cannot pass a critical stage until the inspection has been signed off.
4
You inspect and sign
Your engineer records the check on site, with dated photographs attached.
5
The evidence is already assembled
Inspections, approvals and photos sit on the project, ready to export.
The problem

What actually goes wrong

These are the four things that come up in almost every conversation with a structural consultancy.

The site builds from a superseded drawingRevisions travel by email and chat. By the time a discrepancy is spotted, the question is not which sheet is current but what has already been built from the old one.
You are called after the pourReinforcement is open for a few hours. When the visit is arranged over the phone, you arrive to concrete and have to take somebody’s word for what is underneath it.
Instructions are given verballyA decision made on a call is acted on immediately and recorded nowhere. Months later there is no way to show what you approved, or on what basis.
The evidence is scattered when you need itCube results, inspection notes and site photographs sit across inboxes and phones. Assembling them starts only when a certificate or a dispute demands it.
Modules that matter most

Start with these four

buildcontrol has eleven modules, but you do not need all of them on day one. For a structural consultancy, these carry the weight.

Quality Control

Hold points that stop work before a pour, reusable inspection checklists, and dated photographic proof. Cube tests, inspections and approvals are recorded against the site.

Explore module

Daily Worksheet

A dated record of what actually happened each day, so the sequence of work is observed rather than reconstructed afterwards.

Explore module

Task Management

Site queries and instructions carrying an owner and a date, with the drawing they relate to kept alongside the task.

Explore module

Reports & Dashboards

Inspections, approvals and photographs assembled per project, exportable when a certificate, an audit or a dispute needs them.

Explore module
Add later, once the first four are running
  • Material Management, where steel and cement received are checked against specification
  • Equipment, where batching or testing plant is part of your scope
Probably not for you: CRM, HRMS and Petty Cash rarely apply to a design consultancy, since you are not selling units, running site payroll or handling cash on site.
How it runs

One day, end to end

1

The drawing goes out with the instruction

The current sheet is attached to the task it belongs to, so the site is working from the same revision you issued.

2

The contractor records the day

Progress, labour and material are logged from site as the work happens, not written up later.

3

A hold point stops work before the pour

Concreting cannot proceed past a critical stage until the required inspection has been signed off.

4

You inspect and sign on site

The check is recorded against the same job, with dated photographs of cover, laps and anchorage attached.

5

The record is already assembled

When the certificate is due, the inspections, approvals and photographs are on the project rather than in an inbox.

Who uses it

Every role, one system

Access is controlled by role, so people see what they need and nothing else.

RoleWhat they do in buildcontrol
Principal / Signing EngineerPortfolio across projects, sign-off and the evidence behind it
Design EngineerIssues drawings, answers site queries against the record
Site / Resident EngineerInspections, hold point release, photographic proof
Contractor’s EngineerRecords the day and raises queries against the drawing
Client / OwnerRead-only progress and quality visibility
Questions

Questions we get from structural engineers

No, and it is not meant to. Your design work stays in whatever analysis and detailing software you already use. buildcontrol records what happened on site against that design — inspections, approvals, instructions and photographs — so the evidence behind your sign-off is in one place.
Yes. That is what hold points are for. Work cannot be recorded as progressing past a critical stage until the required inspection has been signed off, so the pour waits for the check rather than the check chasing the pour.
Alongside the task or instruction they relate to, in Task Management. The point is not a drawing archive but that the sheet the site is working from is attached to the instruction it belongs to.
Yes. Contractor teams record site activity and your engineers verify it on the same record, so you are checking source data rather than a summary someone has retyped for you. Access is by role, so each side sees what it should.
Yes. Reporting runs across every project you are engaged on, so you can see which sites have inspections outstanding without opening them one at a time.
Other solutions

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