ARBORICULTURE
Kit inspections for arboriculture teams
LOLER records for climbing equipment, rigging and chainsaws, vehicle checks and crew training records, in one system.
Trusted by
26M+ inspections, recorded by
Trusted by
Equipment, vehicles and crew, each on its own schedule
Checklist Editor
Manufacturer-approved checklists for climbing equipment, rigging and chainsaw equipment, drawn from the 120+ brands in the Papertrail Product Directory, including PPE inspection records for harnesses and helmets. Build your own for tree work practices with the Checklist Editor on Expert and Enterprise.
Schedule Manager
Training renewals, equipment inspections and vehicle checks each run on their own schedule, with their own checklist, certificate and list of who's authorised to sign it off. Nobody's chasing an expiry date in a spreadsheet.
Certificates
LOLER certificates generated from the record itself, not retyped from a spreadsheet one serial number at a time.
Vehicle checks
Walkaround checks and service dates for every vehicle, tracked alongside your climbing equipment and rigging.
Checklist Editor
Manufacturer-approved checklists for climbing equipment, rigging and chainsaw equipment, drawn from the 120+ brands in the Papertrail Product Directory, including PPE inspection records for harnesses and helmets. Build your own for tree work practices with the Checklist Editor on Expert and Enterprise.
Schedule Manager
Training renewals, equipment inspections and vehicle checks each run on their own schedule, with their own checklist, certificate and list of who's authorised to sign it off. Nobody's chasing an expiry date in a spreadsheet.
Certificates
LOLER certificates generated from the record itself, not retyped from a spreadsheet one serial number at a time.
Vehicle checks
Walkaround checks and service dates for every vehicle, tracked alongside your climbing equipment and rigging.
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Checklist Editor
Inspect
Use manufacturer-approved checklists for any equipment type, from lifting gear to PPE inspection records. Build your own with the Checklist Editor on Expert and Enterprise.
Every LOLER certificate generated from the record
“Papertrail has completely changed how we manage our LOLER inspections. Before, we were manually inputting serial numbers and dates into Excel, which was a nightmare. Now, everything is streamlined and much easier to track.”
Kerrie
Office Manager, Branching Out Tree Services
Related modules
Inspection Management
Climbing equipment, rigging and chainsaw equipment, each with its own inspection history.
Staff Competency
Training records with automated renewal reminders.
Fleet Services
Vehicle walkaround checks, defects and service dates, on the same system as your climbing equipment and crew training.
Share your LOLER certificates with clients, contractors and every site you run
PartnerHub connects your account to the organisations you work with, so they see the records you share, and every update to them, in their own workspace.
Invite
Invite a client, a subcontracted inspection contractor, or another site into a PartnerHub partnership
See
They see the live record in their own workspace, with its full inspection history, not a certificate emailed once and now out of date
Withdraw
Withdraw access and the record disappears from their view immediately
Built around the standards arboriculture teams answer to
LOLER covers the equipment: climbing equipment, rigging and lowering gear, examined and certified like any other lifting gear. BS 3998 covers the work itself, the British Standard for how tree work is planned and carried out. ArbAC is different again: an Arboricultural Association accreditation of the business as a whole, judged in part against that same BS 3998 standard. Papertrail keeps records for the equipment, the job and the business, each on its own schedule.
- ISO 27001, British Assessment Bureau (opens cvs.babcert.com)
- LEEA Associate Member
- IRATA International Associate Member
- GetApp Category Leaders 2025, GetApp User Reviews 4.7
- Capterra Shortlist 2025, Capterra 4.7 (opens www.capterra.co.uk)
- Software Advice Front Runners 2025, Software Advice 4.7
Frequently asked questions
Will my team actually adopt it?
Yes, after a short adjustment period. An inspection is a scan, a checklist and a save, and the automated renewal reminders mean nobody chases an expiry date in a spreadsheet.
How fast can we migrate from spreadsheets or another system?
You bring your climbing equipment, rigging and vehicle records across with our Import Tool: upload a CSV, match your columns, then check and correct the data in a grid before anything is created. Papertrail builds new accounts from industry-specific templates, so an arboriculture account opens with the folder structure, inspection frequencies, equipment states and record blueprint it needs, not a blank account you configure yourself. Branching Out Tree Services made exactly this move, away from Excel spreadsheets and manual serial-number entry.
Does Papertrail generate LOLER certificates automatically?
Yes, on every plan. The report of thorough examination is filled in from the equipment's record and the completed checklist, with the particulars LOLER Regulation 10 and Schedule 1 require, and exported as a PDF with your company logo. You can produce one for a single item, for several items or for a whole folder. Each certificate is kept with the item's inspection history, so you can show it whenever an auditor or client asks. If you need your own layout, we can build a custom certificate template for your account, for a one-off charge based on how complex it is.
What's the difference between ArbAC and LOLER?
They are different kinds of mark on different things. ArbAC, the Arboricultural Association Approved Contractor scheme, accredits your business as a whole: worksite safety, the quality of your work judged against BS 3998, customer care and health and safety management. LOLER is the regulation covering how your lifting equipment, climbing equipment, rigging and lowering gear, must be thoroughly examined, and it applies to the equipment rather than the business. Papertrail keeps your LOLER thorough examination records and certificates; the ArbAC assessment is a separate audit of how the business runs day to day.
What does BS 3998 cover?
BS 3998 is the British Standard for tree work practices: pruning, felling and the other operations arborists carry out. It is not a standard for inspecting climbing equipment or rigging. Papertrail's checklists and records sit alongside it as evidence of how your equipment is maintained and examined; BS 3998 itself governs how the tree work is done, not the equipment doing it.
Get your LOLER records off the spreadsheet
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Last reviewed on . MJB.