A permit to work is a short safe system of work made specific to one occasion and authorised before it starts. Paper does that job adequately and has for decades, so software has to earn its place by doing something paper cannot. This page is about what that something actually is, written by people who build records software, and it is deliberately blunt about the features that demonstrate well and change nothing on site.
It has to enforce the order, not just record it
A paper permit can be signed before the isolation is confirmed, because paper cannot refuse. Software can: the authorisation is unavailable until the preconditions are recorded as met, with the readings, the isolation references and the names. That is the one structural advantage the category has, and a product that presents an editable form with signature fields has reproduced paper on glass and charged for it.
It has to make the open permit visible
The question a site manager needs answered at three in the afternoon is what is live right now and who is in it. On paper that is a board in an office somebody has to walk to. In software it is a screen, and it should be the default view rather than a report. Ask any vendor to show you the live permit board, on their own demo data, before you look at anything else.
It has to close permits deliberately, including the watch period
The value of a hot work permit is concentrated in the hour after the tools go down, and the value of a confined space permit in the hand-back that confirms nobody is still inside. Both are the steps most likely to be skipped under time pressure and both are enforceable in software: a permit that cannot be closed until the post-work check is recorded is a genuine improvement over one that can be filed on the way to the van.
Where chemical management software fits, and where it overlaps
Chemical management software keeps the substance inventory, the safety data sheets and the assessments against them; permit software authorises specific occasions of work. They meet where a permit depends on a substance's hazards, which is more often than either category admits. A firm buying both should check they share an inventory, because two lists of substances is how one of them goes stale. The free COSHH assessment worksheet on this site sizes that inventory before you commit to a system for it.
Questions people ask about permit to work software
Does permit to work software replace the paper permit?
It replaces the form, not the system. The competence, the isolations, the atmospheric testing and the person in charge are unchanged; what changes is whether the sequence can be short-circuited and whether the record is findable a year later.
What should I look for in a demo?
The live permit board as a default view. A permit that refuses authorisation with a precondition unrecorded. A close-out that requires the post-work check. And an export of the closed permits. Anything else is preference; those four are the product.
Do we need separate chemical management software?
If your substance inventory and its sheets already live somewhere current and findable, no. If they live in a folder nobody has opened this year, the problem is the inventory rather than the software, and it is worth sizing before buying anything.