Installation Checklist Generator: Every Job Signed Off the Same Way

How it is done today

Most installation businesses have a checklist. It is a printed sheet in the van, or a document somebody wrote three years ago that lives on one laptop. It gets completed in the last ten minutes of the job, in one pass, from memory. The photographs sit in a WhatsApp group, unlabelled, next to lunch orders.

The generator's purpose is not more paperwork. It is that the record exists at the moment the work happens, that the evidence attaches to the check it belongs to, and that a supervisor reviewing a job six months later can see what was actually done rather than what was later remembered.

Two layers: the job header, and the repeating check rows underneath it.

• Job reference and linked deal — so the crew can see what was sold.
• Site address and location pin — the pin matters more than the address on a rooftop job.
• Job type and template — residential, commercial or ground mount, each with its own list.
• Scheduled date and assigned crew — with a named lead who owns the sign-off.
• Equipment identity — module make, count and inverter serial, captured on site.
• Stage — pre-installation, structure, mounting and wiring, testing, handover.
• Check description — one verifiable statement per row, phrased so the answer is yes or no.
• Evidence type — photograph, meter reading, document reference or none.
• Blocking — whether the stage can close without this check.
• Completed by and at — recorded automatically at the moment of capture.
• Exception and reason — for anything skipped, with a mandatory explanation.
• Sign-offs — installer, supervisor and customer, each with name and time.

Illustrative example only. The rows below show the structure of a template rather than a complete specification for any particular installation.

With two crews, a supervisor can review every job. With ten, review becomes sampling, and sampling only works if the records are comparable. That is the real argument for a template rather than a form each crew has adapted.

Held in a CRM, the checklist is part of the job record that already carries the customer, the sale and the survey. Scheduling assigns it, the phone completes it, the handover pack comes out of it, and the whole thing stays attached to the customer for the service life of the system.

Writing checks as topics. Earthing is not a check. Earthing continuity tested and reading recorded is.

Making everything blocking. Crews then find a way around the whole system. Block only what matters.

Collecting photographs without context. An image that is not attached to a specific check is decoration.

Never revising the template. The list should change when a new failure mode appears, and not otherwise.

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