Collecting test reports and certificates as the work proceeds
Occupancy preparations are under way when the coordinator notices a missing sprinkler test certificate. The trade says the test happened in March. The person who witnessed it has moved to another job, and the closeout folder contains only a calendar invitation.
Build a register of required test reports and certificates before the work starts, and request each record when its test takes place. Tie the document to the system, location and requirement it satisfies. A booking or a verbal report is not the finished test record. Chasing records during the job gives you time to resolve missing identifiers and unanswered results while the people involved still remember the work.
- Read the specification and inspection plan with the trade. List the required record, the relevant system or work area, who produces it, who reviews it and when it is needed.
- Give each register row a clear identifier. Keep separate dates for the planned test, actual test, report received and review completed; one tick cannot describe all four.
- Before the test, tell the producer which project, equipment or location identifiers must appear. Confirm who receives the report and how the signed or final version will be delivered.
- After the test, request the record and check that it identifies the work actually tested. Record an unresolved result separately from a missing document.
- Ask the designated reviewer to resolve incomplete or adverse results. Save the original report, later correspondence and any authorized retest record together without overwriting the first result.
- Review overdue rows with the trade each week. As systems finish, assemble their accepted records into the handover package instead of restarting a search at closeout.
Common mistakes
- Marking the register complete when a test is booked.
- Treating a report with the wrong system identifier as close enough.
- Deleting a failed result after a later test passes.
- Keeping certificates in a trade's email account without a project copy.
Checklist
Check the next test record
- Requirement and system identifier
- Producer and reviewer
- Actual test date
- Final record received
- Unresolved result visible
- Accepted record linked to its register row
Check your understanding
A trade sends a certificate for the right date but a different wing. Can you close the register row?
