Electrical (Elektro)
The job is not done when the light comes on — it is done when the test record exists. Without it the inspection counts as never carried out, and you are personally liable.
How it is billed
A new installation goes as a lump sum or by line items, a fault call by the hour, the periodic inspection at your own rate — per point or per appliance. On top of that the trip out and the material: cable by the metre, boxes and breakers by the piece, and the measurements themselves. Every line has its own unit, so your quote and invoice read the way you calculate on site, not the way an office spreadsheet does. Areas and volumes are worked out in the program itself: you enter the dimensions run lengths and room areas, name every measurement your own way, and the total goes into the quote as a finished item with the breakdown — you can see where the figure came from.
What gets lost in the paperwork
On your jobs no metre and no hour goes missing — the paper does. The test record is mandatory and has to carry everything: inspection, testing, measurement, readings against their limits, the standard it was done to and your qualification. Miss one of those and there is no proof. Without the record the inspection counts as never carried out for the authority, the insurer and the court — even if the installation is faultless. The second thing is deadlines: the periodic inspection comes round again, and with it revenue somebody has to remember.
Do the math yourself
How many of last year’s test records can you find in five minutes? Not „they are somewhere" — find them and show them. How many of them did the client get in writing? Now count the installations from a year ago waiting for their periodic inspection that nobody reminded anyone about. Each of those is a job that comes back on its own — provided somebody keeps the calendar.
Five minutes a day
Hours onto the job, material out of the store onto the same job, and the test record and photos you upload as files against that job — ticked so the client can see them in their own portal. Then the paper is not in the van and not in a mailbox, but with the work it belongs to. In two years, when somebody asks, you open the job, not the filing cabinet.
What it watches for you
You run the service contract on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly cycle — paid per visit or as an annual flat rate, with an agreed response time for breakdowns and signatures from both sides. Working for a main contractor, the program sets the reverse charge under §13b itself and watches your §48b certificate: without it your client must withhold 15 percent and pay it to the tax office.
At the end of the year
Invoices issued, receipts collected and material booked out feed into the annual accounts and the VAT return without retyping. Reverse-charge invoices land in the right boxes on their own — the exact place where most mistakes happen.
The key is entering your data consistently — a test report attached to the job right after the measurement counts for more than the best program.
