Job completion and sign-off form, with a practical completion and defects page: signed before you leave, certificates listed.
A two-page completion form (work done, extras, testing and compliance certificates, site, customer sign-off, follow-up) and a one-page practical completion and defects form for staged jobs. PDF and editable Word. Free, no email required.
How do you get a customer to sign off a job?
Walk them through what was agreed, line by line, show it working, and put the form in front of them before you pack the van. The form lists the quoted work, the extras they already agreed to, the certificates you are handing over, and a short statement that the work was completed and explained. If they are not home, send it with the before-and-after photos the same day and ask for a reply; an email or text saying ‘all good’ is a sign-off. For prescribed electrical work the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 require a Certificate of Compliance and Electrical Safety Certificate; for restricted building work the Building Act 2004 (section 88) requires a record of work to the owner and the council. Across 20,286 publicly posted NZ trade reviews, tidiness is praised in about 15% of positive reviews and a follow-up after the job in only 2 to 3%. The signed form books the follow-up.
The job this document is doing.
- —The job is finished, the invoice goes out, and the first the customer hears of a ‘variation’ is on it
- —The electrical certificate is never sent and turns up as a problem at house sale time
- —A scratch that was already there becomes a dispute because nobody recorded it at the start
- —Practical completion was never defined, so the final payment is argued about for months
Open it and use it today.
- 01Section 1 and 2: agreed work done or not and why; extras agreed on site with price
- 02Section 3: testing and compliance checklist (electrical CoC and ESC, gas certification, record of work Form 6A, council inspections, warranties)
- 03Section 4 and 5: site left as found, customer statement and signature, what to do when the customer is out
- 04Section 6: invoice today, follow-up call in 1 to 2 weeks, review request after the follow-up
- 05Practical completion and defects form: defects list with owner and date, documents handed over, signatures
Free to use and adapt for your own business. Not legal advice: check contract terms against your own terms of trade and, where it matters, with a lawyer.
The law behind it. Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 (certification of prescribed electrical work); Building Act 2004, section 88 (record of work); Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (services guarantees). Checked on legislation.govt.nz and worksafe.govt.nz on 9 October 2026. Your trade’s certification rules take precedence.
Why this document, and not another one.
| Trade | Tidiness praised | Aftercare or follow-up praised | Quality score (of 4 dimensions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 15.3% of positive reviews | 2.5% | 98.2 / 100 |
| Electricians | 15.0% of positive reviews | 2.2% | 99.0 / 100 |
From 20,286 publicly posted reviews of 369 NZ electricians, plumbers and painters, collected August 2026. Positive reviews score 80 or more out of 100. Negative reviews score under 50 on any dimension; those samples are small (56 to 167 reviews), so negative-review figures are rounded and reported as rank order, not precision. Full corpus, method and thresholds: the trades methodology page. Full findings: the trades research study.
The questions this document answers, in full.
How to Reduce Callbacks as a Tradie: Where They Actually Come From
Read the answer →How to Get a Customer to Sign Off a Job (Trades, NZ)
Read the answer →Use it alongside
Customer feedback form and review request messages
A one-page feedback form, then the text, email, one reminder and the public reply to a bad review, with the rules that keep review requests legal.
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