“Testing the house takes a morning. Writing up the EICR and chasing the agent takes my whole evening.”
Electrician software, set up around your certificates. Evenings off the laptop.
Certificates filed, landlords recalled and invoices chased in the background, so the paperwork stops following you home.
I'm Daniel Andrews. By day I run a law firm in East Sussex, where I build the automations we rely on. I help self-employed electricians from Seaford to Crowborough take the write-ups, recalls and chasing off their evenings, and build a business that doesn't need them for every test.
A typical evening, after a day on the tools
- 7pmWriting up today's EICRReadings from the notebook, circuit by circuit
- 8pmSending certificatesOwner, agent and scheme, one email at a time
- 9pmPricing a rewireCable runs and days worked out from loft photos
- 10pmChasing the letting agentLast month's inspections, still "with accounts"
- 11pmBed, with the inbox still fullTwo tenants asking when you're back for the remedials
Plenty of work. Not enough evenings.
It's rarely the work itself.
“I can test all day. It's the write-up afterwards that finishes me off.”
“I told my partner I'd be done by eight. It was gone eleven, again.”
“Letting agents pay when they feel like it, and I'm always the one chasing.”
“Did that consumer unit swap get notified? I can't remember.”
Fully booked isn't the same as a business
Working for yourself was meant to mean choosing your jobs and your hours. For plenty of electricians it means testing by day and typing up readings by night. The calendar is full, and so is every evening. If nothing keeps moving when you stop for a fortnight, you've built a job, not a business.
I made the same mistake for years, working 60 to 70 hours a week and often until 2am. Putting my firm on systems changed that, and it's now four to five times the size it was when I started. As a dad of two who coaches football, I know what those evenings are worth.
The fix was a system, not more hours: see where the time goes, put the repeat work on systems, and spend the hours you win back on the business. For you, that means certificates, recalls, quotes and payments running on their own, with your figures on one screen. Write down how you run a job, and an improver could follow it. The thinking behind it is on my page for trades who want a business, not a job.
What should electrician software do for a one-person business?
Electrician software should turn test results into a finished BS 7671 certificate on site, send it to everyone who needs it, and remember when each installation is next due. Job management software for electricians should also quote for faults, book work, invoice from your phone and feed your accounts.
| Job | How it often works now | Set up properly |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries from landlords and homeowners | Phone, text and email, all over the place. | One form and one inbox, with each enquiry logged against the property. |
| Quotes for rewires and upgrades | Worked out at night from loft photos. | Built from saved templates, with materials priced from your list. |
| Inspection days | Booked by phone around tenants who don't answer. | Tenants pick a slot from a link and get a reminder the day before. |
| EIC, Minor Works and EICR | Typed up at home, then sent one PDF at a time. | Completed on a tablet on site, then sent to owner and agent automatically. |
| Five-year recalls | Nobody reminds the landlord, so the work goes elsewhere. | The next due date on the report triggers a reminder months ahead. |
| Invoices and chasing | Agents pay slowly, and chasing feels awkward. | The invoice travels with the certificate. Polite reminders run until it's paid. |
What records do electricians need for Part P and landlord EICRs?
Notifiable work under Part P must be certified, and an electrician registered with a competent person scheme can self-certify it. For rented homes in England, the installation must be inspected and tested at least every 5 years, and tenants get a copy of the report. Both create dates that software can track.
Approved Document P names three kinds of notifiable work in homes: a new circuit, a replacement consumer unit, and additions or alterations to circuits in a special location, such as around a bath or shower. Registered installers should complete a BS 7671 certificate for every job. The Building Regulations 2010 set a 30-day limit after completion for handing the occupier a compliance certificate and notifying building control.
Bathroom refits are where this meets plumbing, and my page for plumbers covers their notifications. Your landlord customers also need a yearly gas check, which my page for gas and heating engineers explains.
For landlords, the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 set the rhythm, and were extended to social landlords in 2025. Existing tenants get the report within 28 days of the test, and any remedial work must be done within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so. Written confirmation can be an Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC), a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate or a satisfactory EICR.
- The next inspection date on each EICR sets a reminder to the landlord or agent, well before it's due.
- C1, C2 and FI observations become a draft remedial quote by the next morning, with the 28-day clock in your diary.
- A notifiable job adds a task with its 30-day date, ticked off when your scheme confirms.
- Every certificate is filed against the property address, so an agent's request takes seconds.
Please note: this is general information from official sources, not legal advice. For advice on your own position, ask your competent person scheme, your accountant or a solicitor.
Tell me how long a write-up takes you now. I'll tell you honestly how much of it a system could do.
Book a free 30-minute callWhat I'd set up first for an electrician
Certificates first, because that's where the evenings go, then the recalls that bring in the next job.
Write up on site
Readings go straight into the certificate on a tablet, not a notebook, so nothing is typed twice.
Send once, file for good
The finished certificate goes to the customer, the agent and your records in one step, named by address and date.
Five-year recalls
Each EICR's next due date becomes a reminder to the landlord, with a link to book.
Remedials to quotes
Observations that need work become a draft quote by morning, so the landlord can approve it well inside 28 days.
How do I choose electrician software?
Choose around your certificates. The software should produce BS 7671 forms on site, work offline in a cellar, store every certificate against the property, remind you when EICRs fall due and connect to your accounts. Check that you can export everything if you leave. Then trial it on a real week of testing.
- Electrical certificate software built in, or properly linked, so certificates and jobs share one record.
- An electrician app that works with no signal and syncs when you're back in the van.
- Invoices flowing into your accounts. Since 6 April 2026, HMRC's Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has applied to self-employed people and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000. Ask your accountant where you stand.
- An easy way to export customers and certificates if you switch.
As examples of software for electricians, not recommendations: Powered Now and Tradify both describe digital electrical certificates on their UK pages, and Fergus describes certificate storage alongside job management. No software company pays me.
If it isn't written down, it didn't happen
Law and electrical work share that habit: a job isn't finished until the record is signed off. I'm Managing Partner of a two-office law firm in East Sussex, with around 30 people. What I've built there, from one-click sign-off to automatic checks before anything is published, gets the records right without extra evenings.
No electrician has been a client yet, because the consultancy is new. What I do have is 20 years in BNI, alongside local owners with the same paperwork. Read more about my background.
Other trades I help
PlumbingPlumbers
Call-outs answered, quotes built from your price list, parts matched to jobs and notifications tracked, so the van isn't your evening office.
For plumbers
BuildingBuilders
Quotes, variations, subbies and the monthly CIS return, set up so the office side of a building firm stops eating your evenings.
For builders
Gas and heatingGas and heating engineers
Every landlord check and boiler service on one due-date list, records sent from site, and boiler quotes followed up, so winter weekends stay yours.
For gas and heating engineers
LocksmithingLocksmiths
Lockouts caught while you're mid-job, key and job records kept straight, and the invoice sent before you've left the doorstep.
For locksmiths
GardeningLandscape gardeners
For gardeners and landscapers juggling a maintenance round, bigger landscaping quotes and green waste records through a long summer of late nights.
For landscape gardeners
RoofingRoofers
Rained-off jobs rebooked, quotes built from roof photos and CIS statements kept straight, without giving up your evenings to do it.
For roofersQuestions from electricians
Is there an electrician app that does certificates on site?
Yes. Several job management apps include BS 7671 forms, and stand-alone certificate apps exist too. What matters is that the certificate, the job and the invoice share one customer record, so nothing is copied between apps at night.
Can software remind landlords when their EICR is due?
Yes. Each report gives a date for the next inspection, so a reminder can go to the landlord or agent a few months before, with a link to book. You choose the wording and timing.
What's the difference between electrical contractor software and an app for a sole trader?
Electrical contractor software usually adds what bigger firms need, such as several engineers, stock and project costing. A one-person business mostly needs quotes, certificates, a diary and invoicing. Buy for the business you have, with room for the next hire.
Is this legal advice on Part P or the landlord rules?
No. I'm a practising solicitor, but this consultancy doesn't give legal advice. The rules here come from official sources. For your own position, ask your competent person scheme or a solicitor.
Let tonight's certificates file themselves
A free 30-minute call. No jargon and no hard sell. We'll walk through how a job goes from test to paid, and where your evenings disappear.