'Three hours to find a fault?'
The RCD keeps tripping, usually overnight. Your electrician spends the morning isolating circuits, testing insulation resistance, finally tracking it to a damp outdoor socket behind a shed. It's fixed. The invoice shows three hours. The customer rings, annoyed, because they thought it was a call-out fee.
You either argue or write some of it off, and the electrician feels his work was undervalued.
Why fault finding is hard to bill
Fault finding is open-ended by nature. Nobody knows how long it will take until it's found. Customers want a price, the office gives a rough idea on the phone, and that rough idea becomes the customer's expectation. On site, the electrician doesn't stop to ask whether to carry on, because he's close to finding it.
Then the invoice arrives with a number but not the story, and the customer can't see what they paid for.
| Moment | What usually happens |
|---|---|
| Booking call | Rough idea given, not written down |
| Arrival | Terms not repeated |
| Time limit reached | Electrician carries on without checking |
| Fault found | Fixed, not explained |
| Invoice | Hours only, no detail |
Intermittent faults are the hardest. The RCD trips at night, or only when it rains, or only when the washing machine and the immersion are on together. The electrician may need to come back, or leave a logger in place. Customers rarely realise that finding a fault can take longer than fixing it, and nothing in the booking prepares them for that.
The cost of disputed bills
Write-offs come straight off your margin. Disputes take office time and sometimes end in a bad review. Electricians become reluctant to take on fault finding, which is often skilled, useful work. And customers who felt surprised don't call you again.
Reviews are the other risk. A customer who feels overcharged for a fault find writes about the bill, not the skill it took to find a damp socket behind a shed, and the review stays online long after the dispute is forgotten.
The fault finding flow we build
- Booking terms: when a fault finding job is booked, the customer gets a message with your terms in your wording, such as how time is charged and when they'll be asked before carrying on, and confirms them.
- Symptom questions: the customer answers a short set of questions about what's happening, which the electrician sees before arriving.
- Time log: the electrician starts and stops the clock on their phone. When the limit the customer agreed is near, the phone prompts a check-in.
- Customer check-in: the customer gets a message saying what's been found so far and asking whether to continue, with a tap to approve.
- Plain report: the electrician records what the fault was and what was done, with a photo. It's written up in plain English for the customer.
- Invoice: the invoice includes the report and the approvals, so the customer can see exactly what the time was spent on.
Your terms can differ by job type. A landlord's agent booking fault finding might have an agreed rate and approval limit already, while a homeowner gets your standard wording. The booking flow picks the right version automatically.
Bills that make sense to the customer
Customers know what to expect before you arrive. They agree to extra time rather than discovering it. The invoice explains itself. Electricians can concentrate on the fault rather than worrying about the bill, and the office stops fielding angry calls.
It also protects your electricians. When a customer questions a bill, the office can point to the terms the customer agreed at booking and the check-ins they approved on the day, rather than relying on the electrician's memory of a conversation in a hallway.
Do fault finding jobs go like this for you?
- Customers are surprised by fault finding invoices.
- Your terms are given verbally on the phone.
- Electricians carry on without checking with the customer.
- Invoices show hours but not what was done.
- You write off time to avoid arguments.