The spreadsheet with a tab for every block
Somewhere in your office is a spreadsheet with a tab per block and a row per check. Fire alarm service, emergency lighting test, lift thorough examination, water risk assessment, dry riser test, fire risk assessment review. Some cells are green, some red, many blank because nobody has updated them.
When a director or an insurer asks for evidence that the checks are up to date, someone opens the spreadsheet, discovers it is out of date, and starts emailing contractors for certificates.
Why checks slip even when contractors turn up
Often the check has been done. The contractor visited, tested and left. What is missing is the evidence reaching you and the record being updated. Certificates arrive by email to whoever booked the job, sit in their inbox and never make it to the spreadsheet.
The schedule itself is also messy. Each block has different equipment, different contractors and different intervals, and those change when equipment is added or a contract is retendered. A spreadsheet has no way to notice that a check expected last month never happened.
The cost of not knowing
We will not advise on what each building needs; that belongs to your fire risk assessor, insurers and advisers. The practical cost of not knowing is clear enough: time spent reconstructing records, evidence that cannot be produced when asked, and checks that genuinely lapse because nobody noticed they were missed.
It also leaves your firm exposed when a property manager leaves, because the knowledge of what each block needs often goes with them.
The checks calendar we build
We build a calendar per block that knows what should happen, collects proof that it did, and chases when it has not.
- Check schedule: for each block, the checks and intervals are set up from your own policy and your assessors' recommendations. We do not decide them.
- Contractor links: each check is linked to the contractor responsible, who receives a reminder when it is due.
- Evidence capture: contractors upload certificates or reports through a link, or email them to a dedicated address. A document model reads the date and type and files it against the right check.
- Overdue alerts: if no evidence arrives by the due date, the property manager is alerted, then their manager if it stays open.
- Actions from reports: where a report lists remedial actions, these are extracted into a list for the property manager to review and raise as jobs.
- Evidence pack: a current record of every check per block, with documents attached, can be produced on request for directors or insurers.
| Example check | Usually evidenced by | Tracked as |
|---|---|---|
| Fire alarm service | Contractor's service report | Recurring, with evidence required |
| Emergency lighting test | Test log or report | Recurring, with evidence required |
| Lift inspection | Inspection report | Recurring, with actions extracted |
| Water hygiene | Assessment and monitoring records | Recurring, with actions extracted |
| Fire risk assessment review | Assessor's report | Review date, with actions extracted |
What your compliance picture looks like after
The spreadsheet disappears. Property managers see what is due at their blocks this month and what is overdue, and they spend their time on the exceptions. When evidence is asked for, it is already filed.
Your operations lead gets a portfolio view: which blocks are fully current, which have overdue checks and which have open actions from reports.
Is this your situation?
- Building checks are tracked in a spreadsheet that is often out of date.
- Certificates sit in whichever inbox the contractor sent them to.
- Producing evidence for a director or insurer takes days.
- Actions from assessment reports are not always followed up.
- Knowing what each block needs depends on one property manager.