Building Safety Act 2022 document workflows: Golden Thread, gateways, accountable person packs
The Building Safety Act 2022 changed everything for principal contractors and principal designers working on higher-risk buildings: a Golden Thread of Information must be maintained, Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 packs must be defensible, and accountable persons must produce a Building Safety Case Report. Zeroflowers builds the end-to-end document workflow - ingestion of site evidence, extraction of competence and design data, validation against duty-holder rules, multilingual generation of gateway packs, and a single audit dashboard - so compliance stops being a fire drill.
Where the Golden Thread starts to fray
- Golden Thread evidence is spread across SharePoint, email, site notebooks and WhatsApp - no single source of truth.
- Gateway 2 / Gateway 3 packs are assembled by hand from dozens of design documents, RAMS and competence records.
- Principal Designer / Principal Contractor competence records exist as scanned PDFs nobody can search.
- Sub-contractor insurance, training and competence are tracked in spreadsheets that go stale between site visits.
- When the BSR (Building Safety Regulator) asks for evidence, it takes a week to assemble - and there's no clear audit trail of what was sent.
What an end-to-end Building Safety Act workflow looks like
- Ingestion of site evidence (RAMS, design documents, competence records, change notices) from email, SharePoint, Procore or Asite into one Golden Thread store.
- Document assistance agents that read 500-page design packs, extract competence data and answer 'is this RAMS up to date for plot 12' with citations.
- Validation against duty-holder rules: Gateway 2 readiness, Principal Designer / Principal Contractor competence, sub-contractor insurance + training expiry.
- Paperless generates gateway packs, O&M manuals, Building Safety Case Reports and multilingual sub-contractor briefs from one source of truth.
- Immutable audit dashboard feeding the Golden Thread - every document version, every change, every recipient logged for the statutory period.
How we build a Building Safety Act compliance pipeline
Same 5-stage pattern, applied to the Building Safety Act 2022 duty-holder regime. Stage 2 - document assistance agents - reads your design packs and competence records; the rest of the workflow keeps the Golden Thread defensible.
1. Ingestion
Site evidence (RAMS, design changes, competence certs, sub-contractor docs) flows in from email, SharePoint, Procore, Asite, Fieldwire or your CDE - one Golden Thread store, not seven.
2. Extraction
Document assistance agents read design packs, sub-contractor compliance bundles and CPD records - returning structured fields with page-level citations. Searchable, audit-traceable.
3. Validation
Duty-holder rules run automatically: Gateway 2 readiness, Principal Designer competence, sub-contractor insurance expiry, ISO 19650 information requirements - flagged before the BSR notices.
4. Generation
Paperless generates Gateway 2/3 packs, O&M manuals, Building Safety Case Reports and multilingual sub-contractor briefs from one source of truth - branded, on-design, ready to submit.
5. Audit & Governance
An immutable per-document audit log feeds the Golden Thread for the statutory period. When the BSR asks, you produce the pack in minutes - with full provenance.
Every document automation we ship runs on Paperless - our in-house engine, also available as a standalone product. Build templates with AI assistance, generate branded PDFs from CSV or your REST API, and scale monthly output based on your plan. Free to start.
- AI template builder that turns sample documents into editable starting layouts
- Visual no-code template editor your team can edit without a developer
- REST API for on-demand generation from any system
- CSV batch generation within your plan's monthly document limit
- Free tier - no credit card required
Common questions
Does this only apply to higher-risk buildings (HRBs)?
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The strict Gateway and Building Safety Case Report regime applies to higher-risk buildings (18m+ or 7+ storeys with two residential units). But the Golden Thread principles, competence requirements and document workflow we build are equally valuable for any complex project where defensible evidence matters.
Can it integrate with Procore, Asite, Fieldwire or our CDE?
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Yes - we routinely integrate with Procore, Asite, Fieldwire, Buildertrend, Aconex and most ISO 19650-aligned Common Data Environments. If your tool exposes a REST API or webhook, we can pull evidence into the workflow and push generated packs back.
Is the workflow ISO 19650-compatible?
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Yes - we structure information requirements, naming and metadata to align with ISO 19650 information management. Our generated packs and audit logs sit alongside your CDE rather than replacing it.
Will it handle Principal Designer / Principal Contractor competence records?
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Yes - competence evidence (qualifications, CPD, role experience) is one of the highest-value extraction targets. Document assistance agents read scanned certs and CV-style competence records and return structured, searchable, citable data.
Can you generate sub-contractor briefs in multiple languages?
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Yes - one source of truth, EN/PL/RO/LT (or your locales) generated automatically. We've shipped multilingual compliance briefs for clients with Polish, Lithuanian and Russian-speaking site workforces.
How fast can you ship the first usable workflow?
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An MVP that ingests evidence and generates a defensible Gateway 2 pack typically ships in 6-8 weeks. Full builds covering the Golden Thread, sub-contractor compliance and the audit dashboard usually run 10-14 weeks.
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