The four stages
AutoRAMS works in four stages: Plan, Assess, Generate, Comply.
Step 1: Start your trial or choose a plan
Start with the free 14-day trial. It lets you look around the app and try RAMS creation, with trial documents marked as view-only so you can see exactly how they will look. When you are ready to download and issue RAMS under your own branding, choose the plan that fits your team.
Step 2: Set up your company
Add your company name, logo and colours, and your office number. These appear on every page of your RAMS. If you run more than one company name, set up a profile for each. Add the trade or trades you work in, and invite your team so they can sign in with their own logins.
Step 3: Plan the visit
Search your trade’s job list and tick everything that will happen on this visit. Each job comes with its own sequence of operation and risk assessment, so a roofer can choose strip and re-cover and leadwork, and a groundworker can choose excavation and drainage. If you also work in another trade, jobs from both can be combined in one document.
Next, add the site. This is the step that makes the RAMS specific:
- the address and dates of the work;
- the area type and property type, such as a school, a live road or a domestic property;
- access arrangements;
- your team on the job, and the nearest A&E.
Step 4: Choose the depth
Choose Basic, Balanced or High detail to match the work. Ticking confined space or work at height steps the depth up to suit the risk, and a confined space permit is added when needed.
Step 5: Generate and read it
AutoRAMS builds the document: introduction and job details, legislation, resources and key personnel, PPE, the sequence of operation for each job, emergency procedures, the risk assessment with before-and-after ratings, COSHH and environmental controls, a change control register, and a briefing and sign-off sheet. Each RAMS has its own reference, issue, revision and review date.
Do not skip reading it. The document is a thorough, well-structured starting point, not a replacement for your judgement.
Step 6: Have your competent person check it
A competent person in your company should check each RAMS against your trade standards and the site, add anything that only someone who has seen the site would know, and make sure all risks are assessed before work starts. The final say is always yours.
Step 7: Brief the team and sign
Print or share the RAMS, brief the team on site, and use the briefing and sign-off sheet to record that everyone has read and understood it.
Step 8: Amend as the job changes
If something changes, amend the RAMS rather than starting again. Each amendment becomes the next revision with a line in the change control register, and earlier revisions stay available. Amending an existing RAMS does not use up your monthly allowance; only new RAMS count towards it.
Finding old RAMS
Every RAMS your company produces is searchable by address, client or reference, so when a client asks what was issued for a job last year, you can find it in seconds.
Tips for getting the most from it
- Fill in the site details properly. They are what make the RAMS site-specific.
- Request jobs you do not see. The job library keeps growing, and you can ask for new jobs and features.
- Keep your staff logins up to date so the right people can see and use the RAMS.
Ready to try it? Start the free trial below and have your first RAMS in a few minutes.