Build programme builder

How the build programme works

A traditional masonry house runs through a well-established stage sequence, and the value of a programme is not the list itself — it is knowing which plot is on which stage today, and what the knock-on effect is when one of them slips. Most small and mid-sized UK housebuilders still run this on a spreadsheet that is accurate on the Monday it was printed and wrong by Wednesday.

ProPlot builds the sequence once, applies it across every plot, and then lets the site manager update it from a phone while walking the site. The sandbox above is the genuine article: add a plot, run the auto-generate wizard, and the full stage sequence lays itself out across working days, skipping weekends and UK bank holidays.

The four statuses that matter

Complete means the stage is finished and, where evidence is required, photographed. In progress is work happening now. Waiting is the important one — the gang is ready but blocked by a delivery, a preceding trade or an inspection. Behind means the stage has passed its planned window, and ProPlot requires a reason and photographic evidence before it accepts that status, so the audit trail holds up months later when the delay is being argued about.

Worked example: a two-day masonry slip

Superstructure to eaves on plots 05 and 06 is planned for weeks 6 to 9. Two days are lost to wind — logged automatically against the weather record — so the stage is marked behind with the delay reason attached. Roof structure, planned for week 10, moves out by the same two days, and every stage downstream of it shifts with it. The CML date on the plot tracker updates from 09 November to 11 November, and the reason is still attached to it in December when the board report is produced. Try it in the sandbox: long-press or right-click a scheduled day and push the programme.

Why this beats a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet holds the plan. It does not hold the reason a stage moved, the photo proving the trench was correct before the pour, or the message sent to the bricklayer on the Tuesday. Because the programme, the diary, the snag list and the photographic evidence all sit against the same plot in ProPlot, the history of a plot is reconstructable in one click rather than assembled from three inboxes and a camera roll.

Editing the programme yourself

Auto-generate gives you a starting sequence, not a locked plan. Tap any scheduled stage in the board above to open it and change its dates or duration — the stages that follow re-space around the change rather than leaving a hole in the programme. Long-press a scheduled day on a phone, or right-click on a desktop, and the action sheet gives you the quick moves: mark the stage complete, set it waiting, push it out by a day, or split the day between two trades.

The stage list itself is yours to shape. Add a stage this site actually runs, rename one to match the words your trades use, drag it into the right position in the sequence, or delete the stages that never apply — a timber-frame site should not be carrying masonry stages it will never book. Durations are set per stage and per house type, so a four-bed detached and a two-bed terrace do not have to share a brickwork duration. Changes you make to the sequence become your template, so the next site starts from your programme rather than a generic one.

Weekends are non-working by default, and every UK bank holiday is already excluded from the working-day calculation. When you work a Saturday to claw back a delay, long-press that date to switch it on as a working day and the programme recalculates around it.

A typical masonry stage sequence

Where the programme connects

The programme is one view of the plot. The same dates drive the plot progress tracker, the day's work shows up in the daily site diary, and defects raised against a stage land on the snag list with the photo evidence attached. When you are ready to keep a programme, create a free account.