Fire Door Software, Task by Task: The Industry Today vs The Automate Way
Most fire door software solves one stage of the job - an inspection app here, a quoting spreadsheet there - and the records drift apart in between. The comparison below walks through the everyday tasks of a fire door business across its whole lifecycle, from the first enquiry through specification, procurement, production and field work to compliance and running the business, and shows how each one is done the traditional way versus inside Automate Fire Door OS: one connected platform where every stage writes to the same door record and the Golden Thread builds itself as the work happens.
1. Winning & Setting Up Work
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Interpreting a door schedule | How the industry works todaySomeone manually reads each line, guesses the intent behind abbreviations, and re-keys it - a 200-door job can take days and errors surface weeks later in production. | The Automate wayUpload the schedule and AI Schedule Ingestion reads every format (PDF, Excel, Word, even photos of drawings), structures the doors, flags its assumptions and confidence per row, and waits for your approval before anything is created. |
| Extracting a job from an enquiry email | How the industry works todayThe quote lives in an email thread; the spec lives in someone's head; nothing connects the two. | The Automate wayThe AI Core quote consultation turns a plain-English enquiry ("60 FD30S doors, painted frames, Site B") into a structured specification, creating customer, site, project and doors as one connected chain as it goes. |
| Sizing doors from survey openings | How the industry works todayFabricators reverse-engineer leaf and frame sizes from masonry openings with a calculator and tribal knowledge. | The Automate wayEnter the structural opening and the sizing engine derives leaf, frame, undercut and ironmongery positions to your organisation's rules - every door, every time, the same maths. |
| Quoting from live specification | How the industry works todayEstimators rebuild the door data into a separate quote document, so the price and the spec drift apart the moment a change happens. | The Automate wayThe Quote Centre prices the live door specification directly - one change to a door updates the quote, and an accepted quote converts into live operational work with no re-entry. |
| Remembering what was quoted last time | How the industry works todayOld quotes get resurrected from email archives and rebuilt from scratch. | The Automate wayQuote Memory keeps your commercial history, so repeat customers are re-quoted consistently from what you actually charged - not what someone remembers. |
2. Specification & Design
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Specifying a door | How the industry works todayA spec sheet is written per job, largely from memory, and every writer does it slightly differently. | The Automate wayDoor Builder turns specification into a structured workflow - configuration, rating, ironmongery, glazing and finishes - validated against the rules as it's built, so nothing is forgotten on door 57. |
| Reusing proven door types | How the industry works todayTeams rebuild the same FD60 half-hour door from a previous job's paperwork. | The Automate wayDoor Library stores your proven door types as version-controlled templates; apply one to any project and it brings its whole validated configuration with it. |
| Applying your standard specification | How the industry works todayThe same leaf construction, frame section, tolerances and finish details are re-typed on every job - differently each time. | The Automate wayFire Rating Defaults hold your organisation's standard FD30/FD60 spec; new doors inherit it automatically and only deviate where you deliberately choose to. |
| Designing glazing | How the industry works todayGlazed apertures are drawn in CAD, sized by hand, and the glass is ordered from a separate supplier conversation. | The Automate wayGlass Factory designs apertures on the live leaf, validates them against fire-resistance compliance rules, prices the glass per m² and rolls the requirement straight into procurement. |
| Working out ironmongery per door | How the industry works todayHardware schedules are assembled per door from catalogues and experience - latches forgotten, hinge counts wrong. | The Automate wayPart Kits package a complete, tested ironmongery set per rating and configuration; apply them door-by-door or across an entire project in one action. |
| Preparing assembly information | How the industry works todayAssembly sheets are drawn after the fact, from a spec that may already have changed. | The Automate wayAssembly Sheets generate themselves from the live door - elevations, dimensions, glazing, ironmongery positions and CNC-ready geometry - the moment you need them. |
3. Buying & Supply Chain
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcing products | How the industry works todayBuyers leave their workflow to hunt supplier websites and phone around for availability. | The Automate wayThe Supply Network brings strategic partner catalogues, published net pricing, technical data and certifications inside the app - browse, and add straight to My Parts with full provenance. |
| Trusting a price | How the industry works todayPrices arrive by PDF, differ between departments, and are stale by the time the PO is raised. | The Automate wayOne centrally published net price flows from the network into My Parts, project procurement and the PO snapshot - estimating, buying and invoicing all see the same number. |
| Knowing where a part came from | How the industry works todayOnce copied into a buying system, a product loses its supplier identity, SKU and certification trail. | The Automate wayEvery Supply Network part keeps its partner, supplier SKU, catalogue source and technical fingerprint - visible forever, and flagged if the published data drifts. |
| Turning doors into a parts list | How the industry works todaySomeone manually lists every hinge, closer, seal and leaf across the whole project - door by door. | The Automate wayMaterial Requirements derive themselves from the structured doors: quantities aggregate across the project, identical items consolidate, and each requirement carries its supplier and price status. |
| Raising purchase orders | How the industry works todayPOs are typed per supplier, prices pasted by hand, duplicates go unnoticed. | The Automate wayDraft purchase orders generate per supplier straight from the requirement - with idempotent creation so re-running can never double-order, and full status tracking from draft to delivery. |
| Managing stock | How the industry works todaySpreadsheets of stock counts that nobody trusts, discovered wrong at the worst moment. | The Automate wayLive stock levels, reorder thresholds and movement history on every part, with replenishment POs raised before you run out - not after. |
| Checking a supplier's credentials | How the industry works todayA supplier's certifications are requested by email and filed somewhere unfindable. | The Automate waySupplier profiles carry their certification evidence with expiry tracking, so you're warned before an approval lapses - not when a job is questioned. |
4. Production & Workshop
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Issuing work to the workshop | How the industry works todayProduction receives printed or re-keyed job sheets that have drifted from the original spec. | The Automate wayWorkshop works from the same live door record everyone else sees - build stages track progress per door, and the spec can't diverge because there's only one spec. |
| Proving quality | How the industry works todayQA is a tick on a paper traveller, and evidence of testing is scattered or absent. | The Automate wayTest Centre records density, moisture, adhesive and bonding tests against the door, with QA pass/fail, NCRs and CAPA workflows that close the loop when something fails. |
| Making doors machine-ready | How the industry works todayGeometry is redrawn in CAD from paper dimensions before CNC cutting. | The Automate wayOne-click CNC export generates DXF/DWG files with layered vectors in millimetres straight from the door data - no redrawing, no transcription errors. |
| Tracking what's actually built | How the industry works todayProgress is gathered by walking the floor and asking. | The Automate wayBuild progress is derived from completed stages per door, so the Workshop view always shows true position - nothing is 80% done because someone said so. |
| Shipping the right doors | How the industry works todayPicking relies on handwritten notes; wrong doors get delivered. | The Automate wayPacked status and shipping labels generate from the door records themselves, so the delivery note, the van and the project all agree. |
5. Installation & Field Work
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Handing work to installers | How the industry works todayJob packs are printed, evidence comes back by WhatsApp photo, and someone reconciles it later. | The Automate wayThe Installer Portal gives each installer controlled access to exactly their doors, with the evidence they must capture defined in advance - photos, positions and sign-offs land directly on the right door. |
| Managing subcontractors | How the industry works todayExternal fitters get static PDFs and return evidence through email threads that never reach the record. | The Automate waySubcontractors get project-only accounts scoped to their assignment; their evidence is captured in context and appears on the door's timeline instantly. |
| Proving installation happened | How the industry works todayCompletion is evidenced by a paper sign-off sheet, if it survives. | The Automate wayInstallation stages, photos and client sign-off are captured per door - with a legally attributable record of who signed, when, and against which version. |
| Coordinating the day's work | How the industry works todayJobs are allocated on a whiteboard and communicated by phone call. | The Automate wayThe Work Centre and Calendar hold every task, inspection and delivery with assignments and reminders - the whole team sees the same day. |
6. Compliance, Inspection & Lifecycle
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Inspecting existing doors | How the industry works todayInspection apps run as a standalone exercise, disconnected from the door's original spec and install history. | The Automate wayInspections happen against the same persistent door record - the surveyor sees the specification, past evidence and maintenance history while they inspect. |
| Running an inspection efficiently | How the industry works todayPaper forms on clipboards, transcribed in the office, illegible half the time. | The Automate wayAI Inspection Mode walks the inspector through structured checks with photo capture and offline queuing - findings land as structured data, not handwriting. |
| Turning defects into work | How the industry works todayDefects sit in a report until someone extracts them into a separate remedial quote. | The Automate wayA defect raises a remedial opportunity directly against the door - priced, quotable and trackable, with the door's whole history already attached to justify the work. |
| Maintaining doors over decades | How the industry works todayMaintenance records live with whoever did the work; the next contractor starts blind. | The Automate wayEvery inspection, remedial and maintenance event joins one continuous lifecycle on the door - the next person, in ten years, sees everything. |
| Building the Golden Thread | How the industry works todayEvidence is retrospectively assembled from a dozen systems when someone asks for it. | The Automate wayThe Golden Thread builds itself continuously - spec, manufacture, test, installation, inspection and maintenance all land on the door as they happen. |
| Accessing a door's history | How the industry works todayFinding a full record means emailing several departments and piecing together PDFs. | The Automate wayScan the door's QR code and the complete connected history - evidence, documents, photos, certifications - opens from the physical asset itself. |
| Identifying doors in the field | How the industry works todayPaper labels peel off; door references get confused between floors and phases. | The Automate wayEvery door carries a permanent QR identity that can't be separated from its record - label printing, scan tracking and access control included. |
| Preparing for an audit | How the industry works todayAudit prep is a scramble of collecting and validating evidence from everywhere. | The Automate wayBecause every piece of evidence has been captured against the live door all along, audit preparation becomes retrieval - filter, export, done. |
7. Running the Business
| Task | How the Industry Works Today | The Automate Way |
|---|---|---|
| Seeing the whole estate | How the industry works todayManagers piece together a view from project spreadsheets and site visits. | The Automate wayThe Estate Command Centre gives one live operational map of every site, project, door and compliance status across the entire estate. |
| Knowing what needs attention | How the industry works todayProblems surface when a customer phones or a deadline blows. | The Automate wayLive dashboards, expiry warnings and AI intelligence surface due work, expiring certifications and at-risk doors before they become incidents. |
| Asking a question about your own operation | How the industry works todayYou ask three people and wait, because each holds part of the picture. | The Automate wayArcher and the AI Core answer operational questions from the live data - "what's outstanding on Site A?" - because the context is already in the platform. |
| Getting impartial intelligence | How the industry works todayReviews of performance happen annually, from incomplete records, if at all. | The Automate wayDoor, Site and Project Intelligence continuously assess your own data - confidence, risks and next milestones - advisory, evidence-based, always current. |
| Finding technical guidance | How the industry works todayStaff must know which manufacturer or certification body to search, and whether it's current. | The Automate wayThe Knowledge Centre holds your technical and regulatory documents with an AI assistant that answers from your own curated library. |
| Training the team | How the industry works todayInduction is a USB stick of PDFs and a shadow day. | The Automate wayAcademy delivers role-relevant video training inside the platform staff already use daily, with ratings and progress tracking. |
| Producing project documents | How the industry works todayRAMS, delivery notes and certificates are rebuilt in Word for every job. | The Automate wayBranded documents - RAMS, delivery notes, test records, survey reports, schedules - generate from the structured project data with your logo, colours and disclaimers. |
| Keeping teams in step | How the industry works todaySales, estimating, production and installation each hold their own version of the job. | The Automate wayOne connected project record carries the same door data from first enquiry through to the compliance certificate - a handover is a click, not a re-typing exercise. |
Golden Thread Records
Connect the available specifications, site evidence and inspection history to each door
Automated Documentation
Generate RAMS, assembly sheets, quotes and purchase orders in one click
Lifecycle Management
Track every door from specification through installation, maintenance and recertification
Team Collaboration
Connect manufacturers, installers, inspectors and clients in one secure platform
All core features
The connected platform. One clear licence.
- Unlimited door records
- Unlimited projects & sites
- QR Golden Thread records
Platform licence
£29.99/month
Per organisation · plus team seats
Primary administrator included. Additional team seats: £19.99/user/month for 1–5 users, with volume discounts for larger teams.
Save 20% on the licence annuallyWhat Work Does Your Fire Door Software Need to Cover?
Start with your team's tasks: importing door schedules, preparing a pre-installation survey, recording an inspection, issuing a report or organising remedial work. A single-task tool may fit one discipline; a connected platform can help when several teams need to reuse the same door information. Automate connects those workflows, with the specialist pages below explaining each one.
Compare how each option captures evidence, generates documents and hands information to the next team. A connected Golden Thread record helps organise what has been recorded; its quality still depends on the evidence supplied.
Manufacture → Installation → Inspection → Maintenance → Compliance
Each stage below is introduced briefly here and covered in depth on its own page.
Manufacture
Door Builder, parts catalogue, supplier certification, workshop controller and QA. The manufacturing record is the first layer of every door's history.
Fire door manufacturing softwareInstallation
RAMS, assembly sheets, site photos, measurements and client sign-off captured on the phone, against the door that was made.
Fire door installation softwareInspection
Component-based digital inspections, pass / minor / major flags, photo evidence, instant reports and defects tracked to closure.
Fire door inspection softwareMaintenance
Remedials, repairs and recertification logged against the door so the register never drifts from reality.
Fire door maintenanceGolden Thread
Connect specifications, recorded evidence, inspections and history to the door for review.
Fire door Golden ThreadRegulations
The legislation, guidance, standards and certification schemes that shape what a compliant door and a compliant record look like.
Fire door regulations & requirementsWhat Makes This Platform Different
Unlike traditional inspection tools, Automate connects manufacturing and specification, installation and on-site evidence, and inspection and compliance reporting - all linked through a QR-coded record that gives complete visibility across every door.
- Manufacturing and specification records - the door as it was designed and built
- Installation and on-site evidence - the door as it was fitted
- Inspection, remedials and compliance reporting - the door as it is today
The Fire Door App
The same platform in your pocket - QR scanning, inspections, site evidence, signatures and reports on mobile, with the full picture on desktop.
Explore the fire door appFor Contractors
Quotes, purchase orders, live job costing, team scheduling and client documents - the business layer that sits on top of the door records.
Explore contractor softwareCompliance in the Building Safety Act Era
The Building Safety Act and the guidance around it place a growing emphasis on retaining accurate, accessible information about safety-critical elements - fire doors included. Automate supports that record-keeping by building one connected, QR-linked record per door as the work happens. For what the legislation, Approved Document B and the certification schemes actually require, see fire door regulations and requirements.
UK Fire Door Software Company
Built by the Trade, for the Trade
Automate was founded by fire door manufacturers and installers. Its tools connect specification, workshop, site and inspection information so teams can reuse what is recorded. Review the workflow, evidence requirements and commercial controls you need before choosing software.
Design Captured at Source
Constructions, components, ironmongery and certification requirements are specified once and flow straight into manufacturing records - the first layer of the door's Golden Thread. See manufacturing software.
Evidence Needs Review
Recorded documents and history support information management. Teams still need to check accuracy, applicable requirements and missing evidence; software does not certify fire performance or regulatory compliance.
One Platform, Every Discipline
Dedicated installation software, a full inspection app and workshop tooling all share one door record.
Choose for Your Workflow
Check the tasks your team performs, the evidence you need to share and the systems you already use. Connected door records can reduce repeated entry across those tasks.
In short, if you need a UK platform that covers design, manufacture, installation, inspection and compliance in one operating system - Automate was built precisely for you.
Start your free trial todayPlatform Features for Every Professional
Review the tools below against your team's work. The availability of a digital record is not a guarantee that the door, documents or completed work meet every applicable requirement.
- Quotes & purchase orders: Generate professional quotes and supplier POs in seconds
- QR door tracking: Every door receives a unique QR code linking to its complete history and public compliance record
- Team collaboration: Teams, timesheets, project communications and role-based access across the whole workflow
- Safety documentation: RAMS, assembly sheets, inspection reports and handover packs generated automatically
- Job costing & profitability: Live job costs, invoices and margins with automated invoice capture
- Golden Thread evidence: Recorded documents and history linked to the door, with QR visibility controlled through sharing settings
Explore the Platform
Get Started Today
Join fire door professionals across the UK who trust Automate for complete lifecycle compliance.