Facility Management ERP Consultant, UK

TUPE transfers and the first month of a contract

When a facilities contract changes hands in the UK, the employees assigned to it usually transfer to the incoming provider under TUPE, keeping their existing terms. For the ERP and payroll team, that means a batch of new starters whose pay rates, contracted hours, shift patterns, holiday entitlement and pension arrangements may differ from your standard terms and from each other. The information often arrives late and incomplete, through the employee liability information supplied by the outgoing employer.

I treat this as a design requirement, not an HR afterthought. The system needs to hold terms per employee rather than assuming one pay policy, carry the contract and site each person is assigned to, and keep the inherited data distinct from later changes. I also map how workforce cost is forecast at bid stage and then compared with the real cost once the transfer is complete, because that gap is where many contracts lose money early. Employment law questions stay with your HR and legal advisors; my job is to ensure the systems can carry what they decide without workarounds. Mobilization is also when asset and PPM data is loaded, which I plan through data migration work.

Compliance certificates tracked per site and asset

UK clients expect their FM provider to prove that statutory and best-practice inspections happen on time: gas safety checks, electrical installation condition reports, fire alarm and emergency lighting tests, water hygiene risk assessments and lift inspections, among others. Each has its own frequency, competent person and evidence format, and an overdue certificate can matter more to a client than a late invoice.

This is usually CAFM territory, but the ERP still needs to know about it. Subcontracted inspections generate purchase orders and invoices; remedial work identified by an inspection may be chargeable outside the fixed fee; and contract reviews often weigh compliance performance alongside cost. I define which system owns the compliance schedule and certificates, how remedial quotes flow into sales orders and how completion status reaches the contract dashboard. Where you already run a specialist CAFM, I specify the integration so that each certificate is recorded once and referenced elsewhere. The goal is one reliable answer to the question every client asks: which sites are compliant today, and which are not.

Public sector frameworks, CIS and VAT

A large part of UK FM work comes through public sector frameworks and the call-off contracts awarded under them. These bring pricing schedules, schedules of rates for reactive work, performance reporting and, increasingly, social value commitments that must be evidenced. Public bodies may also require invoices through particular electronic routes and expect purchase order numbers to be quoted precisely. I map each framework's commercial rules into the contract record so pricing, variations and invoice references stay consistent across call-offs.

On the subcontract side, some maintenance and building works fall within the Construction Industry Scheme, which affects how subcontractors are verified and paid, and the VAT domestic reverse charge may apply to certain construction services. Whether a given service is in scope is a question for your accountant, but the ERP must apply the answer reliably per supplier and service type. VAT records and returns also need to follow Making Tax Digital, so I test that route end to end. For British businesses more generally, see ERP consulting in Britain and my United Kingdom overview.

Moving off Sage, spreadsheets and disconnected CAFM data

Many UK FM businesses run Sage or another established accounting package, a CAFM or helpdesk tool chosen by operations, a payroll bureau and spreadsheets for contract profitability and compliance tracking. Each acquisition or contract win adds another variation. A new ERP is a chance to agree one contract structure across all of it, but only if the structure is decided before data moves.

I recommend migrating live contracts, sites, current assets, open work and open ledger balances, with compliance certificates linked to their sites, while closed history stays accessible in the old systems. I then test a full month: a mobilization, reactive jobs, a compliance failure with a remedial quote, subcontractor payments and the framework invoice. As an independent advisor I have no product to sell, so the recommendation can include keeping your CAFM. For the functional view of FM systems, see ERP for facility management and the service management problem page; the requirements work itself is covered under ERP business analysis.