Certificate Software. What do you use?

[Ponty Massive]

I used national certs for 5 years, drove me insane!! misaligned, tedious and time consuming crap, two weeks ago i bought pirform.
Pirform is 100000000% better to use, I installed it and gave them a call, 'Rob' the man behind pirform called me straight back and spent a good 30-45 mins demonstrating its features and many usefull shortcuts, the end results are superb!! I highly recommend pirform and the customer support shown to me, i just wish id paid for 'professional' software years ago!!

How much did you pay for the pirform package. I have heard there is a discounted rate through elecsa. Anyone know if this is true?

Scrub that, just found it here http://www.pirform.co.uk/products/eca-elecsa-pirform

 

[nikmet]

i bought through elecsa £82.80, worth every penny in my opinion, if you call them they will remotely demo it to you, makes filling in certificates enjoyable

 

[Ponty Massive]

I'm gonna give it a go I think. The ebay one's are getting on my nerves now!

 

[IQ Electrical]

i bought through elecsa £82.80, worth every penny in my opinion, if you call them they will remotely demo it to you, makes filling in certificates enjoyable

I'll send you the 350+ circuit middle school that I've got to input this weekend!

 

[nikmet]

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr think im busy this weekend lolol, but your welcome to my old national certs disc :-D

 

[Voltimax]

PIR form is rubbish, I have it but will never use it again. An EIC works out to be at least 7 pages long, that's too much ink. It's also a little buggy from time to time and you have to buy a license every year for £65 or the software becomes redundant.
If you're only a one man band, you really don't need such software, by buying it, you're just making someone else richer and increasing your overheads, which at the moment is suicide. If you insist on using software, then buy easy cert.

 

[nikmet]

PIR form is rubbish, I have it but will never use it again. An EIC works out to be at least 7 pages long, that's too much ink. It's also a little buggy from time to time and you have to buy a license every year for £65 or the software becomes redundant.
If you're only a one man band, you really don't need such software, by buying it, you're just making someone else richer and increasing your overheads, which at the moment is suicide. If you insist on using software, then buy easy cert.[/QUO

Any decent software will not be cheap, and if you expect it to be kept up to date with continuous improvement it costs a LOT of money for the software development. I am a one man band, I have no problem with paying for a software licence and my experiance with PIRFORM and the one to one tuition I recieved was Superb, very pleased, just my honest opinion.

 

[Voltimax]

Well you have your opinion and I have mine and the other good folks here will have theirs. To be honest, do you really need software to do your thinking for you? We shouldn't rely on such things, we should be using our own knowledge of the regs.

 

[skirby]

I've been following this thread with interest and am going to try PIRform. I think the price is ok and good value it if it saves me time and looks good to the client. I've spent too many hours of my life going boggle eyed filling in boxes and will try anything that will make the job easier. I have ued Amtech since the 17th came in and will be glad of change.
By the way does PIR form do 3 phase boards as Amtech Domestic doesn't?

 

[davetherave1979]

we bought castline and i have to say im very very impresed with it

 

[nikmet]

I've been following this thread with interest and am going to try PIRform. I think the price is ok and good value it if it saves me time and looks good to the client. I've spent too many hours of my life going boggle eyed filling in boxes and will try anything that will make the job easier. I have ued Amtech since the 17th came in and will be glad of change.
By the way does PIR form do 3 phase boards as Amtech Domestic doesn't?

i bought pir form few weeks ago now, just downloaded latest update and 3 phase boards included now, I bought it for exactly the reasons you mentioned and i find it excellent. hope this helps.

 

[paturback]

Looks like they will all need updating soon with new regs as Amendment number one introduces an electrical installation condition report (EICR) that replaces the periodic inspection report.

 

[paturback]

BTW anyone using Powersuit?

 

[skirby]

Thanks nikmet. I have now got the PIRform software and all looks good. I contacted them by email with a few queries last night (Saturday) and received a prompt reply! Rob emailed me some useful links and I'm booking a personal online run thru next week. Nice to know there is some top notch backup. Unlike my experiences with Amtech.

 

[nikmet]

I founnd the one to one online very good and the time saving shortcuts I was shown were the icing on the cake, I like to support the independant companies that are still interested in helping you after youve paid them and Rob deserves credit where its due.

 

[Voltimax]

I've just had an email to say there's a new download at their site. I read their list of improvements, just proves I was right, buggy as hell! Well, let's hope they've got it right this time eh? Looks like you may have purchased it at the right time Skirby. However I still won't be renewing my license in December.
A word of warning, some people who use that kind of software rely too much on the "Intelligence". Often the software will bug out and not perform, but their trust is so, that they don't bother to check it with their own intelligence. I have seen this many times with my copy and I've seen certs by other people using the same software and it's obvious they didn't check it through after they printed it.

Too many folks after an easy life eh?