Licensed electricians and electrical contractors are in demand all across Australia, and so, as an electrician or contractor, your time is precious. Still, as with all regulated industries, you have strict responsibilities, including the lodging of completed certificates of compliance after each job is done. When there are only so many hours in a day, and you need to make the most of every second, how do you get through your filing requirements more quickly and with greater efficiency?
Below I’ve listed some of my favourite ideas that are bound to help you comply with your regulatory requirements faster and with more efficiency, so you can get on with your day in a fully compliant, effective manner.
Must I File Certificates of Electrical Compliance?
Yes, you must. Licensed electricians and contractors who work in Australia must file a certificate of compliance every time they complete a job. It’s the crucial last step in your sign-off process. A failure to file compliance certificates can cost an electrician up to $550,000 in fines and penalties.
What’s more, you need to hold onto these certificates for at least five years (seven in New Zealand) or you risk financial penalties. Professional tradesmen and commercial companies working across a range of industries, including mining and construction, are similarly affected.
If filing compliance certificates is mandatory, how do you make this administrative process as quick and painless as possible?
Time Management
Keeping on top of your schedule makes it easier to tackle your compliance filing. Make sure you know exactly what jobs you’re on each day and set aside time at the end of each one to tick off your filing requirements. Don’t let your filing build up to the end of the day—you’re more likely to unknowingly neglect it this way, or you might even miss the odd certificate if you’re tired and in a rush.
Get Organised
Make sure you’ve got all the details you need to complete your certificates quickly and painlessly, including a note of the work you’ve undertaken and the customer’s personal details. The less you need to hunt around for details, the quicker you can get your filing done. Being organised also allows you to determine faster what you need to do, the details and things you need, and what to prepare for.
Prepare in Advance
Think about the jobs you’re doing before you get there. Fill in whatever details you can before you start the work and set yourself reminders to complete the certificates. Most importantly, don’t move on to the next job until you’ve completely signed off on the previous one. This turns your full focus to the next job and lets you mentally prepare the proper way.
Use Digital Tools
With the importance of filing compliance certificates and the potential stress and headache that comes along with it, it makes perfect sense to use technology to make sure you’re up to the task.
You could opt for digital work management tools to help you organise and plan your tasks the right way. The good news is, when it comes to compliance, we’ve got such a tool in mind, one that helps you achieve the aforementioned things while making sure that you’re on top of your compliance certificates tasks: QuickSafety.
QuickSafety is an app that helps you file and lodge your certificates with ease and store them securely for the required number of years without having to deal with loads of paperwork. This helps you reduce clutter, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of an organised workspace.
We developed the app with your convenience, work efficiency, ease-of-use, and innovation in mind. This is why we made sure that it has features such as offline capability (it stores data which you can later upload when you’re within network range), 24/7 access for you and your team, and instant compliance lodging. It also syncs across different devices so all team members have all the needed details and lets you pre-plan jobs and log work progress and completion for better work management and work status visibility.
Last but not the least, QuickSafety allows for easy and organised inspections and testing, allowing you to input and validate test results to make sure that the work done is safe and complies with current standards.
So, if you want to accomplish all your compliance tasks without any problems and put more efficiency and better management into your work, we at QuickSafety can definitely help. You can download our app now via Google Play (for Android devices) and iTunes (for iOS devices). If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us; we’re more than willing to help you out.
