The customer asks for the paperwork
The bathroom was finished a month ago. The customer is selling the house and their solicitor wants the electrical certificate for the new shower circuit and the notification for the work. Your electrician, who is self-employed, did the work and says he sent it. Nobody can find it. He resends it a fortnight later after three texts.
On a kitchen job it might be the gas engineer's record for moving the hob, or the building control notice for knocking through a wall.
Why the paperwork arrives late
Certificates are produced by the people who did the regulated part of the work, usually on their own software and often in the evening once they are home. You depend on them, but they are working for several businesses at once.
- Nobody lists, per job, which certificates or notifications are expected.
- Requests are made by text and not tracked.
- Documents arrive by email to whoever is handy and are not filed on the job.
- Handover happens before paperwork is complete, and chasing afterwards has less urgency.
- Different subcontractors send documents in different formats and names.
Which certificates or notifications a job needs is for your qualified trades and the relevant schemes to confirm. The system tracks what they tell you is required.
The cost of missing certificates
Customers need these documents, and they usually need them at an awkward moment, such as a sale or an insurance claim. When you cannot produce them, it reflects on you, not the subcontractor. The office spends time chasing that could be spent on live jobs. And a handover pack with gaps undermines an otherwise good job.
Certificate tracking we build per job
- Each job lists expected documents based on its scope, such as new circuits, gas work, structural changes or ventilation, as your team defines the rules.
- Each document is assigned to the subcontractor who did that part of the work.
- When their stage is marked complete, they receive a request by email or text with an upload link specific to that job.
- Reminders follow on a schedule you set, and the office sees who has been asked, when, and how many times.
- Uploaded documents are checked for the right job address and stored on the job, and the office confirms each one.
- The handover pack will not be issued until required documents are in, unless a manager chooses to issue it with a note.
| Document | From | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical certificate | Electrician | Requested, reminded |
| Gas work record | Gas engineer | Received, confirmed |
| Building control notice | Contractor or inspector | Awaiting |
| Product guarantees | Office | Filed |
What the office stops doing
Nobody keeps a mental list of whose paperwork is missing. Subcontractors get a clear request with a link, not a vague text. Documents land on the right job. And when a customer rings a year later for a certificate, it takes seconds to send.
Subcontractors often prefer it as well. A clear request, with the job address and a link, is easier to deal with than a string of texts from different people in your office. They upload once and are not chased again for the same document. And because the request arrives when their stage is marked complete, it reaches them while the job is still fresh in their mind, rather than weeks later when they have to dig the details out.
Is your certificate chasing like this?
- Customers have asked for a certificate you could not find.
- Certificates arrive by text or personal email.
- Handover packs regularly go out incomplete.
- You chase the same subcontractor for paperwork several times per job.