Construction management software: BuildCore, the digital core of construction
BuildCore is the platform for construction and renovation companies, built by KERN-IT. Take-offs and estimates, sites and schedules, crews and time tracking, orders, supplier invoices, subcontractors and stock live in a single tool. Every hour clocked and every invoice received is posted to the right site: the margin of each site shows during the work, while there is still time to act.
It is one of our business platforms: complete software, designed, hosted and maintained by our team in Brussels, and fitted to your company rather than the other way round. General contractor, renovation or specialist trade, BuildCore switches on the modules that match the way you work.
BuildCore comes with an AI assistant: it drafts the monthly progress claim, spots invoices without a purchase order and hours without a site, and answers your questions about your sites. It prepares, your team approves.
A construction company's daily life, between site and office
A margin known at the final account
The estimate lives in one tool, the hours in a spreadsheet, the invoices with the accountant. A site's real profitability only shows once the work is over.
Hours written on paper
Timesheets come back on Friday, sometimes later, and are typed in again at the office. Nobody knows day by day how many hours the structural work has taken.
Supplier invoices matched by hand
Each invoice is checked against the purchase order and the delivery note, then assigned to a site. With Peppol they arrive as a flow, and need handling at the same pace.
Extra work never invoiced
A client request on site, a verbal agreement, and the extra gets lost between the site manager and invoicing.
Subcontracting to check at every payment
Works declaration, certificates, insurance, withholding for social and tax debts, VAT reverse charge: every subcontractor invoice needs its checks.
Equipment people go looking for
What is at the depot, in the van or already on site is known from memory, and duplicate orders turn up on site.
The whole site, from take-off to final account
Sell
Take-offs and estimates by package and item, a library of work items with direct cost and sales coefficient, variants, VAT per item, quote follow-up, change orders signed online.
Build
Sites and schedules by trade, crews and subcontractors planned, mobile time tracking, site log with photos, reports, snags and acceptances.
Buy
Suppliers, purchase orders per site, receipts, Peppol supplier invoices matched, subcontractors checked, stock at the depot and in the vans.
Steer
Planned and actual budget per package, margin per site, progress claims, advances and retention, Peppol invoicing, client portal.
And everything that keeps the company running
Peppol e-invoicing
Invoices and progress claims sent via Peppol, supplier invoices received the same way and linked to their site. The Belgian obligation is handled in the flow.
Built for the field
Time, photos, reports and snags from the phone, even with a weak connection. The crew leader enters things once.
In French and Dutch
The platform, documents and client portal in each person's language, for crews and clients on both sides of the language border.
On-site attendance prepared
Time tracking per site prepares the attendance registration on the sites that require it. No more double entry in the morning.
Your accounting stays in place
Sales, purchases and cost postings export to your accountant or software (Odoo, WinBooks, Exact or another). BuildCore prepares, accounting stays where it is.
Set up for your trade
General contractor, renovation, roofing, building services, joinery: the platform keeps the modules you need and leaves the rest aside.
A look at the platform
A week with BuildCore looks like this. On Monday, the dashboard flags a site going over its structural work budget. Crews clock in from site: the hours reach the budget the same evening. A concrete invoice arrives via Peppol and matches itself to its order and delivery. The client asks for an extra socket: the change order goes out for signature before the work. On Friday, the month's progress claim is ready for review.
The company dashboard: sites, margins, delays and payments at a glance.
- Active sites, order book, sold margin and current margin
- Sites drifting off budget, with the package at fault
- Progress claims to issue and supplier invoices to approve
- The week's acceptances and reminders
Sites: each site with its client, progress and margin.
- Status, site manager, dates and progress
- Contract value and current margin per site
- Documents, permits, drawings and contacts attached
- Site map to organise the crews
The schedule: phases and trades, from start to acceptance.
- Gantt by package: demolition, structure, roofing, services, finishes
- In-house crews and subcontractors on each phase
- Milestones, deliveries and visits
- Delays visible, with their effect on the next phases
Take-off and estimate: a structured costing that becomes the site budget.
- Packages and items, quantities, units and unit prices
- Direct cost: labour, materials, subcontracting
- Sales coefficient and planned margin
- VAT per item, variants and options
Budget and margin: planned and actual, package by package, during the work.
- Hours, purchases and subcontracting posted as they happen
- Change orders added to the budget once signed
- Forecast at completion and drift alerts
- Current margin compared with the sold margin
Progress claims: invoice the real progress, item by item.
- Progress percentage per item, cumulative and monthly amount
- Advances deducted and retention tracked
- Change orders invoiced with the monthly claim
- Sent via Peppol, with payment follow-up
Time and crews: who works where, and how many hours per site.
- Week by worker and by site, clocked from the phone
- Hours approved by the crew leader, then by the office
- Absences, leave and bad weather
- Export to the payroll provider and on-site attendance prepared
Orders: every purchase linked to a site and a package.
- Purchase orders sent to the supplier
- Delivery on site or to the depot, partial receipts
- Price comparison between suppliers
- Commitments visible in the budget before the invoice
Supplier invoices: received via Peppol, matched and posted.
- Automatic matching with the order and the receipt
- Price or quantity differences flagged
- Posting to the site and the package
- Approval by the site manager, then accounting export
Stock: the depot, the vans and issues to sites.
- Items and quantities per depot and per vehicle
- Issues posted to the site and the package
- Reorder thresholds and suggested orders
- Stock counts from the phone
Subcontractors: contracts, certificates and payments checked.
- Contract and budget per site and per package
- Certificates and insurance with validity dates
- Withholding for social and tax debts checked before payment
- VAT reverse charge applied on the invoices concerned
The AI assistant: ask a question, get an answer from your sites.
- Queries estimates, hours, purchases and invoices
- Cites each source: budget by package, time, invoices
- Drafts the progress claim and reminders, you approve
- Read only on your data, hosted in Europe
On site and with the client
The field app. The crew leader clocks in the crew, takes the day's photos, records snags and has the report signed on the phone. Everything reaches the site record without going through the office.
The client portal. The client follows the progress of the work, sees the photos, finds documents and invoices, and signs change orders online before the work is done.
AI prepares, your team approves
In a construction company, every office hour saved is one more hour to follow the sites. BuildCore's AI assistant takes care of the repetitive checks and leaves every decision to the team.
Progress claim drafted
From the schedule, the hours and the acceptances, it proposes the progress of each item. The site manager reviews and adjusts it.
Purchase checks
Invoice without a purchase order, price different from the order, delivery not received: it flags what needs a look before approval.
Drift spotted early
A package using more hours than planned, a change order not invoiced, a phase running late: the alert comes during the work.
Questions in plain language
“What is the current margin on the Rixensart site?”, “How many tiling hours this month?”: the answer arrives in seconds, with its sources.
Safeguards: the assistant works read only and cites each source. It sends nothing without approval and takes no decision. Your company's data stays hosted in Europe and is never used to train a model.
Spreadsheets, paper and WhatsApp, or your digital core
Before
- Estimate, hours and invoices in three tools
- Timesheets typed in again on Friday
- Supplier invoices checked by hand against delivery notes
- Extras agreed on site and forgotten at invoicing
After
- One site, one budget, every cost posted to it
- Hours clocked on site reach the budget the same day
- Peppol invoices matched to their order and receipt
- Every change order signed, added to the budget and invoiced
What everyone gains
Management
The margin of each site during the work, the order book and upcoming cash, without waiting for year-end.
Site managers
Schedule, budget and purchases of their sites in one place, and the progress claim drafted every month.
Crew leaders
Time, photos and reports on the phone. No more paper sheets to bring back to the office.
Accounting and purchasing
Invoices matched, subcontractors checked, postings ready and exports to the accountant. Less retyping, fewer errors.
Who is it for?
General contractors
Several sites at once, subcontracting to manage and progress claims every month.
Renovation companies
Sites for private or business clients, frequent change orders and a portal to keep the client informed.
Specialist trades
Roofing, building services, joinery, electrical: mobile crews, stock in the vans and sites often subcontracted.
Developers and renovators
Buy, renovate, then let or sell: budget per property, contractors tracked, work accepted package by package.
What you are comparing
Estimate and invoice software
Quick to cost and invoice, but the site stops there: no hours, no purchases, no current margin.
International project management suites
Powerful on large projects, but built for other markets, without Peppol, without Belgian subcontracting rules and often in English only.
Spreadsheets, paper and messaging
Free in appearance, costly in time: every site is rebuilt at the end. BuildCore keeps your field habits and removes the double entry.
Designed and supported in Belgium by the KERN-IT team, hosted in Europe. Each access is limited to the right role: a crew leader sees their sites, a client sees only theirs. Exchanges are encrypted and every important action is logged. Your data belongs to you: exportable at any time, guaranteed reversibility, GDPR by design.
Support is local too: you talk to the people who build the platform, and your change requests feed the product roadmap directly.
Start without switching everything
A demo on one of your sites
Bring an estimate and a timesheet: we show them to you in BuildCore, with the budget and the margin.
Start module by module
Begin with sites, estimates and time tracking, add purchasing, stock or the client portal when the team is ready.
Your data migrated
Clients, suppliers, subcontractors, work item library and ongoing sites are imported from your files. You do not start from a blank page.
How does it work? Made-to-measure software
Fully custom software is expensive, and standard software forces the company to change the way it works. BuildCore sits in between: a complete base, fitted to your company.
1. A base already cut
Sites, estimates, schedule, time tracking, purchasing, stock, invoicing, client portal, AI assistant: the core relies on building blocks already in production in our other platforms.
2. Fitted to your company
Your trade, your work item library, your estimate and progress claim templates, your accounting: from configuration to custom-built modules.
3. Paid monthly, all included
Hosting, backups, updates and support included, with no upfront investment. The monthly fee depends on the amount of custom work and the pace you want, and a purchase option can be written into the contract.
Getting started
1
1. Demo on one of your sites
Your estimate, your hours, your purchases.
2
2. Configuration
Trade, packages and trades, work item library, document templates, roles and crews.
3
3. Data migration
Clients, suppliers, subcontractors, items and ongoing sites.
4
4. Launch & support
Training for the office and crew leaders, field app installed, ongoing support.
Frequently asked questions
Our business platforms are complete software products built and operated by KERN-IT, ready to use for a given sector. BuildCore for construction, FacilityCore for building operations, InspectCore for inspection and maintenance. You get a mature product without funding its development, and it stays customisable because we master all of its code. All platforms are presented on this page.
No. BuildCore handles estimates, sites, hours, purchasing and invoicing, and exports sales, purchases and cost postings to your accountant or software. Accounting stays where it is.
Yes. Invoices and progress claims are sent via Peppol, and supplier invoices received via Peppol are matched to their order and posted to the site.
Each worker or crew leader clocks in from their phone, by site and by task. Hours are approved, then posted to the budget, exported to the payroll provider, and prepare the attendance registration on the sites that require it.
Yes. Certificates and insurance are tracked with their validity dates, withholding for social and tax debts is checked before each payment, and VAT reverse charge applies to the invoices concerned. Rules change: they are kept up to date in the platform.
Yes. Each month, progress is entered item by item, advances are deducted, retention is tracked until acceptance, and signed change orders are added to the claim.
Yes. The field app keeps time, photos and snags on the phone and sends them as soon as the connection is back.
Yes. The client portal shows progress, photos, documents and invoices, and lets the client sign change orders online.
BuildCore runs as an all-inclusive monthly subscription with no upfront investment: like a lease, the monthly fee covers full use of the platform, and a purchase option can be added. It depends on the amount of custom work, the pace you want and the size of your company. We present a costed proposal during the demo.
On servers in Europe, in line with the GDPR. Daily backups, encrypted exchanges, log of important actions.
See BuildCore on one of your sites
Tell us about your company: your sites, your crews, your purchases. We show you the platform that connects them, from estimate to margin.