A week of 'can you send me the test sheet?'
The install finished on Tuesday. The homeowner is delighted and wants their certificate so they can apply for an export tariff. The office opens the job file to register the installation. The design and performance estimate are there. The commissioning test results are on the electrician's paper sheet in his van. The photos of the roof fixings are on the roofer's phone. The signed handover document is somewhere in the paperwork box. The inverter serial numbers were not written down.
A week of messages later, the file is complete. The homeowner has rung twice.
Why the job file is always late
- Items come from surveyor, designer, roofer, electrician and office, at different stages.
- Each person records their part in their own way, often on paper or their own phone.
- Nobody checks the file until the install is over.
- The list of what is needed lives in the office manager's head or a checklist that is not always used.
- Subcontract teams are harder to chase once they have moved on.
What belongs in the file is set by your certification body, the consumer code you belong to and your own quality procedures. We build around your list.
What a slow job file costs
Homeowners waiting for documents they need for their export payments and warranties. Office time spent chasing rather than scheduling. Risk at assessment time if files are incomplete. Serial numbers that are hard to recover later when a warranty claim needs them. And a final impression of your company that is worse than the install itself deserved.
A job file that fills in during the job
- Your job file checklist is set up once, with each item assigned to a stage and a role: survey, design, install, commissioning, handover.
- Each person sees their items on their phone for the job they are on: roofers get fixing and panel photos, electricians get test results and serial number capture, the lead gets the handover signature.
- Serial numbers are captured by scanning barcodes on panels, inverters and batteries rather than writing them.
- Test results can be entered in a form with sensible ranges, or uploaded from test equipment output where it can export, and are not interpreted by the system.
- The job cannot be marked complete on the phone until that stage's items are in, or a reason is recorded.
- The office sees a completeness view for every job, and the few items still missing, before starting registration.
- Once complete, the homeowner's handover pack is assembled from the same file.
Who provides what
| Item | Provided by | Captured when |
|---|---|---|
| Survey photos and notes | Surveyor | At survey |
| Design and performance estimate | Designer | Before quote |
| Roof fixing and array photos | Roofing team | During install |
| Test results and serial numbers | Electrician | At commissioning |
| Signed handover | Install lead and homeowner | At handover |
Illustrative. Your own list comes from your quality procedures.
Registration within days, not weeks
The office opens a job that is already complete, or close to it. Homeowners get their documents sooner. Serial numbers are there for warranty claims years later. Files are consistent across jobs and teams. And the office manager spends time on the next installs instead of the last ones.
Subcontract teams and the job file
Many installers use subcontract roofers or electricians for some or all installs. They are often the hardest people to get paperwork from, not because they are careless but because they work for several installers, each with a different process. A link per job, showing only the items that team owes for that job, with photo prompts and a scan button for serial numbers, is much easier for them than a set of emailed forms.
It also gives you a fair basis for conversations about paperwork. If a team's jobs are regularly incomplete at sign-off, the completeness view shows it, and payment can be tied to a complete stage if your agreements allow.
Is the job file your bottleneck?
- You chase install teams for photos and test results after the job.
- Homeowners ring asking for their certificate.
- Serial numbers are written on paper, or not at all.
- Job files look different depending on which team did the install.