( 02 )Build log

Every release, on the record.

We ship in versions, and say what changed in each one.

AURA

Construction management for builders, developers and their trades. It started as a defect app on a phone and grew, one system at a time, into one platform.

Latest: v4.7.0
Releases: 15
First: v1.4, May 2025

Beyond the site

v4.7.0Latest

From enquiry to warranty

October 2026

AURA asks once how the business works: building for clients, its own developments to sell, or both; subcontractors, employees or both. It shows only the parts that fit.
Leads: an enquiry form for the website, follow-up reminders, the value in each stage, won and lost with the reason
Every job shows where it is from enquiry to warranty, the next thing to do, and anything holding it up
AURA Client: the client's own page for their build, opened from a branded email with the business's logo. Progress, updates, selections, variations to approve, invoices, documents and messages
Selections against allowances, tied to the programme; a choice over the allowance becomes a variation for the client to approve
Handover packs with warranties and care, and warranty requests from the client that become defects in one tap
Sales lists for a business's own developments, with expected sales in place of a contract value
Timesheets for employees, approved onto each job's costs at each person's rate, and out to payroll
Deliveries tracked on every order, with a warning before one is missed

Refining AURA

v4.6.0

Edits that never cross

October 2026

Every change to a defect, task, diary page, job or programme is checked against the latest saved version, so two people (or one person on two devices) never overwrite each other. AURA shows who changed it and both versions side by side.
2-step sign-in by authenticator app, email or text, with backup codes, and a business rule for who must use it
Leaked passwords refused, and alerts to the primary administrator for sign-ins from a new country
Money roles: none, expenses only, part of a job, or the whole job; the whole portfolio stays with administrators
A trade can pass a defect to the right trade on the job, with a suggestion from the wording
Programme templates rebuilt in the order trades really work, and recovery that never shortens curing, inspections or certificates
The programme updates live while it is open
Help and support inside the app, answered from the TracBuild console
First-use tips, install guidance for each phone and browser, and a refreshed colour palette

v4.3 to 4.5

AURA Intelligence, money and Xero

October 2026

AURA Intelligence beside the programme: why every date moved, what is blocked or ready in the next 15 working days, the cost and knock-on of a delay, and the fewest changes that win time back
What if: change a copy of the programme, then keep it or throw it away
Progress from site: four questions (started, done, days left, anything stopping it) that update the programme without moving planned dates
Estates: homes grouped together with a stage board and one combined programme
Budgets by trade, purchase orders, progress claims with retention, cost variance and cost to complete
Xero: invoices and bills sent with the receipt attached, and payments brought back
Invoices and metrics in the TracBuild console

One platform

v4.2

Many businesses, one platform

October 2026

Any number of businesses on one AURA, each completely separate and private
The TracBuild console: plans, businesses, usage and updates to every business, without ever opening their jobs or files
Plans decide what each business sees, and an administrator can ask for an upgrade from inside AURA
AURA, AURA Hub for trades and the console became three separate apps, each installed on its own
The AURA website

v4.1

The programme moves in

September 2026

The scheduler built in as the programme, with every feature it had: folders, links with lag, working days, calendars, baseline, critical path, lookaheads, undo, import, export and print
Calendar of programme items, tasks, diaries and defects due, by month, week or list
One search box for jobs, tasks, defects, programme items, diaries, documents, tenders, invoices, trades and clients
Takeoff from PDF plans: set the scale, then measure lengths, areas and counts by trade
Tender packages by trade, made from the takeoffs, with quotes received and award
Invoices with GST, numbering that never repeats and a tax invoice PDF
AURA Hub for trades: their own sites, tasks, defects and calendar, with licence and insurance checked once a year
Location kept only as inside or outside the site boundary at sign-in and sign-out, never tracked

v4.0

AURA

August 2026

Everything built so far brought together under one name, with one design across the whole platform
Light and dark themes, a menu rail on computers and tablets, and a floating tab bar with a Create button on phones
Job pages open on the job itself: stage, timeline, open tasks, who is on site and today's diary
Documents for every job, in folders, encrypted on the server
A notepad and site diary that open full screen, with Apple Pencil drawing and palm rejection
Task reminders at 6 am on the day unless another time is chosen, and importance from Urgent to Low

Building the systems

v3.3

Built to scale

July 2026

Jobs, trades and clients and each job's programme moved into the same database tables as the scheduler, ready for the two to become one
Times saved with the time zone of whoever did it, and shown in each person's own time
Every popup closes the same way: a close button, swipe down on a phone, or Esc
The app split into separate files, so it opens with far less to load

v3.2

Tasks and trades

June 2026

Tasks with team members, people to keep informed, and reminders that repeat until done
Defects with a team member to follow up as well as the trade to fix it
Trades see their tasks as well as their defects when they sign in
Insurance and licence asked for on a trade's first sign-in, and "Did you mean" when a company name is close to one already listed
A one-tap check that the database is reading and writing

v3.1

The site diary

April 2026

A site diary as a lined notebook: type on the lines, draw, highlight or circle, on the same page
Simpler menus: defects, diaries, sign-in and the programme live inside each job
The app always loads its newest version when online

v3.0

From a defect app to a hub

February 2026

Jobs, tasks, and lists of trades and clients alongside the defects
A dashboard for the day
The option to run on a MySQL database

Where it started: the defect app

v2.2

Every phone in sync

December 2025

Hosted on a server: sign in on any phone or computer and see the same jobs
A phone uploads everything it holds the first time it has reception, and the footer shows Syncing, then Synced
Animations, a faster start, and when each person was last active

v2.0

Shared lists and alerts

October 2025

Live, read-only defect lists to share with builders and trades by link
Evacuation alerts on trades' phones
Notifications with nothing to set up

v1.9

Encrypted

September 2025

Every data file, photo, card photo, signature and SWMS PDF encrypted on the server (AES-256-GCM)
Any file changed outside the app is detected and never overwritten
A recovery key to keep offline, and daily backups kept for 14 days

v1.8

Site sign-in

July 2025

Trades and visitors scan the site QR code and sign in on their own phone, with no account and no app
Site induction, SWMS acknowledgement, pre-start talks, hazard reports and evacuation roll calls
An A3 poster with the QR code for the gate

v1.4

The defect app

May 2025

Defects logged on a phone, job by job and unit by unit, with rooms and photos
Who logged each defect and who fixed it
Dated defect checks: start a new check and open defects carry over while fixed ones move into the history
Defect reports as PDFs

Scheduler

The programme at the heart of TracBuild. It began as PLAN // TRACK, a Gantt chart built from scratch for construction, and since AURA 4.1 it runs inside AURA as the programme.

Latest: v1.3.8
Releases: 9
First: v0.72, November 2025

Growing up

v1.3.8Latest

Connected, shared and on site

June 2026

Share a trade's part of the programme across several jobs at once
Assign a folder and everything inside it is shared with that person
Read-only trade views locked down at every level
Connection to a .NET and SQL Server backend, with field mapping so existing database columns did not need renaming, and an on-screen diagnostics panel
Site sign-in by QR code and dated defect checks added as modules
From AURA 4.1, the scheduler runs inside AURA as the programme

v1.3

Calendars, lookaheads and PDF

May 2026

Project calendars: 5, 6 and 7-day weeks and civil shifts
3-week and 6-week lookaheads
An A3 PDF of the programme, ready to print

v1.2

Baselines

May 2026

A baseline captured at contract, drawn as a ghost bar under the live one
Variance in days beside every task

v1.1

Critical path and float

May 2026

The critical path worked out through every kind of link, with lag
Float on every task, and critical tasks outlined in red

First release

v1.0.2

The first full release

May 2026

Estimated and actual bars on every task
Four kinds of link with lead and lag; dates follow when a task moves
Working days, exclusion days and shutdown periods
Late tasks flagged by themselves, and status worked out from the dates
A phone view for site with In progress, Done and Undo
A read-only view to share with suppliers
Undo up to 50 steps, and CSV import and export

The engine

v0.9

PLAN // TRACK beta

April 2026

Exclusion days saved with the programme
A searchable picker for who is on each task
Phones open the mobile view by themselves
CSV import with a preview, added to or replacing the programme
The scroll position kept while editing, and clearer empty states

v0.8

The full beta

April 2026

Drag a bar to move a task, keeping its length in working days
Drag to connect tasks, with all four kinds of link and circular links refused
Milestones, folders inside folders, and a drawer to edit every detail
Shift many tasks at once by a number of working days, and lock estimated dates
Light and dark modes, zoom, a live now line, fullscreen and CSV export
A phone companion with filters, search and a task sheet for site

v0.76

The working day engine

January 2026

Every task anchored to a project day, so the day count stays stable when working days change
Folder dates follow their tasks
Saturdays and Sundays skipped separately, with weekends, days off and both shaded differently

v0.72

The first engine

November 2025

A Gantt engine written from scratch: estimated and actual bars, dependencies and dragging
A phone view and exclusion days from the first build