How to use Tradies Bureau

Electricians: what applies and how to set up

What an electrician in Victoria has to hold, how to set the app up for one, and a walk through the electrician demo.

What applies to an electrician

Start with what every business in the trade holds. Each question you answer yes to adds its own branch. This tree is drawn from the same rules the Compliance Checker and your compliance map use, so it changes when a rule does.

The full list is on What each trade needs, under Electrician.

These rules are a guide to what to hold, not legal advice. Check anything you're relying on with the regulator or your adviser.

Set it up for your own business

1. Run the Checker as an electrician. Tick Electrician and answer the questions. It lists your registration, licence, insurance and tickets, and what staff or apprentices add.
2. Add what you hold. Enter your contractor registration and licence with their numbers and expiry dates, and your public liability certificate of currency with the insured name and cover amount.
3. Add your people. Add each employee and apprentice. An apprentice's page tracks the training contract, registration and yearly progress, and who supervises them.
4. Log jobs as you book them. Each job picks up the certificate its work needs. Mark it complete when you finish and the deadlines start.
5. Add a contract when you work for a builder. Enter the subcontract and log each payment claim on the day you send it. The app counts the builder's deadlines for you.

See it working in the demo

The electrician demo is a made-up business, Brightwire Electrical Co., with Sam as its owner. A registered electrical contractor with a first-year apprentice, doing rewires for home owners and switchboard work for a builder.

1. Open the electrician tour at tour/electrician and choose Open the electrician demo. There's no sign-up and no email.
2. Dashboard. What needs Sam this week: Sam's contractor registration runs out in 3 days. The rewire starts in 4, and it can't start without a safe work method statement. Further up the page, the insurance check has spotted the kicker: an apprentice on the books and no WorkCover. Red means this week. Amber, this month. Green, leave it alone.
3. Jobs. A certificate on every job: Mark a job complete and the clock starts on its certificate of electrical safety. The switchboard upgrade? Done and delivered. The EV charger job is the one to watch: the certificate's issued, but the customer's copy is still sitting with Sam.
4. Jobs → Rewire, stage 1. Before the next job starts: Stage 1 of the rewire is right next to live parts. That makes it high risk construction work, so the job asks for a safe work method statement. And it keeps asking until there's one on file.
5. Contract Admin → Contracts → L14 Distribution Boards. Getting paid by the builder: Brightwire is the subbie on an apartment job, and claim 2 went in 4 days ago. The app counts the business days for you: when the builder's payment schedule is due, and when the money is. Miss either date and the claim gets flagged.
6. Dashboard → Share my credentials. Prove it in one link: A builder asks for Sam's licence and insurance. Sam sends one link, not a folder of PDFs. Whoever opens it sees what's current that day. When Sam pulls the link, it stops working.

Everyone trying the demo shares the one business, and it's rebuilt every night, so don't enter anything private and expect anything you add to be gone by morning. No emails or messages are sent. To see another trade, use the links in the yellow bar at the top.

Good to know

• A written contract with a home owner for electrical work only goes in as Single-trade work. It isn't a domestic building contract, so there's no cooling-off, home warranty, building permit or inspections to track. Variations, RFIs and delays are still counted.
• If the contract takes in another trade or other building work, choose Building work: then it is a domestic building contract. Small jobs with no written contract stay under Jobs.
• Use Contract Admin when you're the subcontractor on a builder's or a commercial job too. That's where payment claims, variations, RFIs and delays are counted.
• Mark a job complete on the day you finish. The certificate's deadlines count from that date, not from the day you get to the paperwork.
• Enter the insured name from your public liability certificate. The dashboard checks it against your registration and keeps asking until it's there.
• Once anyone is on the payroll, apprentices included, the insurance check asks for WorkCover.

Plumbers: what applies and how to set up

What a plumber in Victoria has to hold, how to set the app up for one, and a walk through the plumber demo.

What applies to a plumber

Start with what every business in the trade holds. Each question you answer yes to adds its own branch. This tree is drawn from the same rules the Compliance Checker and your compliance map use, so it changes when a rule does.

The full list is on What each trade needs, under Plumber.

These rules are a guide to what to hold, not legal advice. Check anything you're relying on with the regulator or your adviser.

Set it up for your own business

1. Run the Checker as a plumber. Tick Plumber and answer the questions. Say whether you do gas or backflow work: each adds its own licence or ticket.
2. Add what you hold. Enter your licence with its number and renewal date, and both insurance policies: public liability and warranty insurance, each with its cover amount.
3. Add your people. Add each employee and apprentice. Once you have staff, WorkCover joins your list.
4. Log jobs as you book them. Pick the kind of plumbing on each job and enter its value. The app works out whether it needs a compliance certificate, and counts the days once you mark it complete.
5. Add a contract when you work for a builder. Enter the subcontract with its notice period for delays, and log claims and delays as they happen.

See it working in the demo

The plumber demo is a made-up business, Tidewater Plumbing & Gas, with Mel as its owner. A licensed plumber and gasfitter with one apprentice, doing bathroom renovations for home owners and rough-in for a builder.

1. Open the plumber tour at tour/plumber and choose Open the plumber demo. There's no sign-up and no email.
2. Dashboard. What needs Mel this week: Mel's first aid lapsed 4 days ago. The warranty insurance runs out in 5 days, and the plumbing licence is up for renewal 19 days after that. Red means this week. Amber, this month. Green, leave it alone.
3. Jobs. A certificate on every job that needs one: The gas hot water job finished 3 days ago, so its compliance certificate has 2 days left to reach the customer and be lodged. The bathroom job's certificate is already lodged. And the $280 tap repair? No certificate needed: it's under $750, with no gas or drainage work.
4. Jobs → Sewer drain replacement. Before the trench is dug: The sewer job means a trench deeper than 1.5 metres. That makes it high risk construction work, so the job asks for a safe work method statement. And it keeps asking until there's one on file.
5. Contract Admin → Contracts → Townhouses 1 to 4. Rain, and the notice that goes with it: Tidewater is the subbie on four townhouses. Then it rained, and the trenches flooded for three days. The subcontract gives 5 days to give notice of a delay, so the app shows that notice due tomorrow. Right beside it: a payment claim the builder hasn't answered.
6. Dashboard → Share my credentials. Prove it in one link: A home owner asks for Mel's licence and insurance. Mel sends one link, not a folder of PDFs. Whoever opens it sees what's current that day. When Mel pulls the link, it stops working.

Everyone trying the demo shares the one business, and it's rebuilt every night, so don't enter anything private and expect anything you add to be gone by morning. No emails or messages are sent. To see another trade, use the links in the yellow bar at the top.

Good to know

• A written contract with a home owner for plumbing, gasfitting and draining only goes in as Single-trade work. It isn't a domestic building contract, so there's no cooling-off, home warranty, building permit or inspections to track. Variations, RFIs and delays are still counted.
• If the contract takes in another trade or other building work, choose Building work: then it is a domestic building contract. Small jobs with no written contract stay under Jobs.
• On each job, pick the kinds of plumbing and enter its value. Those two answers decide whether the job needs a compliance certificate, so a job with neither filled in can't be checked.
• Say yes to gas work in the Checker if you do any. The gasfitting licence only joins your list when you do.
• When you add a subcontract, enter its notice period for delays. The app counts each delay's notice from that, and has nothing to count from if it's blank.
• Use Contract Admin when you're the subcontractor on a builder's or a commercial job too. That's where payment claims, variations, RFIs and delays are counted.

Builders: what applies and how to set up

What a builder in Victoria has to hold, how to set the app up for one, and a walk through the builder demo.

What applies to a builder

Start with what every business in the trade holds. Each question you answer yes to adds its own branch. This tree is drawn from the same rules the Compliance Checker and your compliance map use, so it changes when a rule does.

The full list is on What each trade needs, under Builder.

These rules are a guide to what to hold, not legal advice. Check anything you're relying on with the regulator or your adviser.

Set it up for your own business

1. Run the Checker as a builder. Tick Builder and say whether you contract directly with home owners, and whether you do commercial work that needs a permit. Those two answers decide your registration and which contract rules apply.
2. Add what you hold. Enter your registration, public liability and WorkCover. Under Settings, enter your maximum construction capacity and net tangible assets.
3. Add your trades. Add each subcontractor and send them their link. They upload their own licence and insurance; you check and accept each one.
4. Add each project and its contract. Say what kind of work it is and who the client is. The contract then tracks its own deadlines: claims, variations, inspections, delays and handover.
5. Put packages out to quote. On a project, add a work package for a trade and invite who you like. Their quotes come back with what they hold beside the price.

See it working in the demo

The builder demo is a made-up business, Kiln & Oak Homes, with Ravi as its owner. A registered domestic builder running a new home and an extension, with the trades on each job put out to quote.

1. Open the builder tour at tour/builder and choose Open the builder demo. There's no sign-up and no email.
2. Dashboard. What needs Ravi this week: Notice of a delay on the new home is due in 2 days. WorkCover renews in 18. And further up the page, the plumber's renewed licence is waiting for Ravi to check it. Until he does, it doesn't count.
3. Contract Admin → Contracts → New home, 22 Example St. Stage claims inside the limits: The new home is a $612,000 contract through all stages. The deposit was 5%, base 10%, frame 15%. Try to claim over the limit for a stage and the app says no. And the frame claim couldn't be logged until the frame inspection was recorded.
4. Onboarding → Subcontractors → Priya. Who's cleared to be on site: Dev the electrician is in order. Priya isn't: her plumbing licence lapsed 5 days ago, so she shows as non-compliant on the new home until her renewal is checked. Hana the waterproofer has been asked, and hasn't sent a thing.
5. Contract Admin → Projects → 22 Example St → Waterproofing. A trade out to quote: Waterproofing for the new home is out to two trades. One quote is in, at $11,800. Each bidder's licence and insurance sits right beside their price, so nobody picks the cheapest quote blind.
6. Contract Admin → Contracts → Rear extension, 8 Sample Ct. Finishing properly: The extension is at practical completion. The certificate of final inspection is in, but the owner doesn't have their copy yet, and the final payment waits on that. The handover list shows what's gone over and what hasn't.

Everyone trying the demo shares the one business, and it's rebuilt every night, so don't enter anything private and expect anything you add to be gone by morning. No emails or messages are sent. To see another trade, use the links in the yellow bar at the top.

Good to know

• In the Checker, say whether you contract directly with home owners for jobs over $10,000, and whether you do commercial work that needs a permit. Your registration only joins your list when you say yes to one of them.
• On each domestic contract, say whether it builds a new home through all stages. The limit on each stage claim depends on that answer.
• Record each inspection as it passes. The frame claim can't be logged until the frame inspection is recorded, and the final claim waits until the owner has the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection.
• A contract checks each trade's main licence and insurance, and only those. Extra tickets, like a plumber's gasfitting licence, are checked on the Subcontractors screen, so look there before gas work starts.
• White Card is good practice on home jobs and mandatory on commercial sites. Extension of time notices and RFI responses are set by your contract, not by law, so the app counts them from the periods you enter.
• A document a trade uploads doesn't count until you've checked and accepted it. Anything waiting shows on your dashboard under Waiting for you to check.

FAQ

Quick answers about sign-in, contracts, signatures and storage.

Getting in

Contract Administration

Subcontractor agreements

Files