Free Online Support Record Keeping
PAT Testing Records & Results
There is no law which requires detailed records to be kept, although some system of recording what you have tested, and when, is certainly a good idea. Our advice is, as ever, to keep it simple! In many cases, depending on your business, an excercise book with hand written records is perfectly acceptable!
Many people use a simple Microsoft Excel Spreadheet to keep their PAT Testing Records - a sample you can use is here:-
PAT Testing Records Spreadsheet
You are welcome to download this spreadsheet and use it as you see fit. Obviously, you need to enter the data manually into the spreadsheet - you could record the results on paper as you go round doing the testing and then type them in later, or you could carry a laptop around with you, and enter the results as you go. We have, in the past, used a 'NETBOOK' which cost about £250.00 - a very small and portable laptop, which is perfectly adequate for using Excel. You can also buy a mobile 3G internet connection, so you can email the spreadsheet back to the office when you've finished!
You may also prefer to use these documents, which are in Microsoft Word format:-
PAT Equipment Register
PAT Faulty Equipment Register
PAT Repaired Equipment Register
PAT Testing Certificate - in most cases this last one will be all you need!
There's also a PAT Testing Certificate Template - which is useful if you want to give your customer a single page to certify that they've had their equipment PAT Tested. If you're lucky, your customer will display this in reception, next to the Fire Alarm certificate and their insurance certificates - that way you get some free advertising!
If you buy a 'downloading pat tester' you may prefer to buy the software that comes with it, although out advice is not usually to go down this route unless you have lots of time on your hands! The pat testers are usually slow to use, and the software can be quite cumbersome. In the past, the commercial PAT testing software packages were quite difficult to use, although they are getting better now. All of the commercial software packages will print our reports and certificates, and some will print our detailed inventories of your equipment.
If you come on one of our PAT testing courses, we will give you some sample forms / certificates etc you can use to record your pat test data. We'll publish more of the forms here in the near future.
