Electrical dispatch software: certificates, test results and the paperwork after the job

Electrical dispatch software schedules electricians and captures what the law requires them to record. The trade differs from other field work in one important way: the job is not finished when the fault is fixed, it is finished when the certificate is issued. Installation certificates, minor works certificates, periodic inspection reports and test results are the deliverable, and a dispatch tool that treats them as an afterthought creates a backlog of unbilled, uncertified work.

What electrical dispatch software must handle

• Qualification and scheme membership per engineer, checked at assignment rather than at audit.
• Certificate types matched to the work: installation, minor works, periodic inspection and testing.
• Test result capture on site — readings per circuit, with instrument and calibration reference.
• Instrument calibration dates, because results recorded on an out-of-calibration tester are worthless.
• Installation history per property, including circuit schedules and previous remedial items.
• Remedial items raised as their own jobs, so C1 and C2 observations are not lost in a report.
• Job completion that produces the certificate, rather than requiring it to be typed up later.

The certificate is the job

A repair without its paperwork cannot be invoiced in most commercial work and leaves the client non-compliant. The practical consequence for scheduling is that certificate time has to be inside the job slot: an hour of testing and fifteen minutes of recording is a 75-minute job, not an hour. Operations that schedule only the physical work end up with engineers writing up certificates unpaid in the evening, and with clients chasing documents weeks after the visit.

Record the instrument serial and its calibration date on every test result. It is the first thing a competent auditor checks, and the detail most often missing when results are transcribed from paper later.

Scheduling the visit is one half; the certificate it produces is the other. An EICR records the condition of fixed wiring and the remedial work required, and rented property generally has to hold a current one.

Before buying software

1. List the certificate types you actually issue and how long each takes to complete properly.
2. Check qualifications and scheme membership dates today, and set a renewal reminder for each.
3. Track instrument calibration expiry alongside the engineers who use them.
4. Convert every C1 and C2 observation into a scheduled remedial job rather than a line in a report.
5. Measure how many completed jobs are waiting for paperwork — that backlog is the number software should shrink.

Ettex Records holds this structure well: engineers with qualifications and expiry dates, instruments with calibration dates, properties with circuit history, and jobs that carry their certificate status through to invoicing. The scheduling mechanics themselves are the same as in any service dispatch software; what is specific here is that the record produced on site is the product.