Fill in a certificate by talking

Your hands are full and your knees are on a kitchen floor. Instead of stopping to type every reading, you can say it. Open the certificate, tap Start listening, put the phone down face up, and carry on working. Each thing you say lands in its box as you say it, and the box lights up so you can see where it went.

It's being tried out with a few firms first. If you don't see Fill it in by talking at the top of a draft certificate, it isn't switched on for your business yet. Ask us and we can turn it on.

It works on:

• Gas: the CP12, the LPG and non-domestic gas safety records, the installation / commissioning / decommissioning record, the boiler service record, the gas breakdown / service record, the service & maintenance record, the gas testing and purging record, the central heating commissioning checklist and the commercial catering inspection.
• Oil (OFTEC): the CD/11 oil service record, the CD/12 landlord oil safety check, the CD/10 oil installation completion report and the TI/133D oil tank risk assessment.
• Water: the unvented hot water (G3) record, the legionella risk assessment and the chlorination certificate.
• Heat pumps: the maintenance checklist, the performance service and commissioning.
• Air conditioning and F-gas: commissioning, service, the pressure and tightness test, evacuation, and the F-gas leak check.
• Warning notices: the gas warning notice and the OFTEC CD/14 oil warning and advice notice.

What to say

Say the box, then what it says. You don't need special words: say it the way you'd say it to a mate.

• Adding an appliance: "Add a combi boiler in the kitchen". The new appliance opens and what you say next goes on it. On a cylinder record: "Add a cylinder in the airing cupboard".
• Moving on: "Next appliance", or "onto the fire in the lounge".
• Readings: "CO2 nine point two", "CO forty-five on the low", "third reading, CO twelve, CO2 nine point three" (say "as found", "mid rate" or "after service" instead and the third reading is named that too), "heat input twenty four", "working pressure nineteen", "system pressure three bar", "T&P valve ninety degrees", "D1 length six hundred" (D1 is in millimetres, and "one point two metres" goes in as 1200). On an oil service: "smoke number nought", "pump pressure ten bar" (or "a hundred and forty psi"), "flue gas one ninety". On a gas breakdown / service record, "working pressure" is the fuel pressure, "gas rate" is in cubic metres an hour (say "kilowatts" for the heat input), and "O2" is the flue gas oxygen.
• Checks: "Spillage pass", "ECV's fine", "the vents are all good", "heat exchanger checked and cleaned", "case seals pass", "flue performance pass", "tundish air gap pass", "fire valve tested and working", "closure plate pass", "no leaks". Work you did counts as the tick: "burner washed and cleaned", "fan cleaned".
• When something fails: "Spillage failed, flue blocked at the terminal". The check is marked Fail and the reason goes in as the defect note.
• The details: "Make Worcester Bosch", "room sealed", "GC number four seven three one one six nine", "tenant is…", "next inspection due the fourteenth of October". On oil: "burner make Riello", "nozzle nought point six oh", "tank's bunded plastic".
• On an LPG or non-domestic record: "landlord's appliance, yes", "it's the tenant's own", "appliance serviced", "flue condition good". On LPG the CO alarm goes on the appliance you're on: "CO alarm fitted and in date", "no CO alarm", "regulator thirty seven", "lock-up thirty eight", "hoses pass". On non-domestic: "emergency control accessible", "meter inlet pressure twenty one".
• On an installation, commissioning or decommissioning record: "job type commissioning", "natural gas", "use class domestic", "safe to use", "warning labels fitted", "work carried out, capped the old fire supply", "further work, new flue liner". The next inspection date only goes in if you say one.
• Spares and notes on a breakdown record: "Spares required, new ignition lead", "additional notes, customer to clear the plant room".
• Advice on an oil service: start with "Advised…" and it goes in the Important comments box, the one OFTEC prints for remedial work.
• On a CD/12 landlord oil check: "CO alarm tested and working", "oil storage pass", "safety controls fine", "tenant is…", "the agent is…", "owned by the landlord", "it was serviced in March by another firm". For anything that needs putting right: "Observation, tank base cracked, grade two". The words go in straight away; the grade always waits for your tap, because how serious it is stays your call.
• On a CD/10 installation report: the questions take a yes or no: "fire valve fitted", "inhibitor added, yes", "no chimney liner", "extractor fan N/A", "programmer, room stat and TRVs fitted", "all equipment commissioned, yes". And the sizes: "tank capacity twelve hundred litres", "supply line ten mil", "system pressure one and a half". A CD/10 has no pass or fail, so Mucka never offers one.
• Notes: "Comments, advised the customer to fit a CO alarm". A second comment goes under the first, it never replaces it.
• The result: "The boiler is a pass", "certificate result pass".

On a legionella risk assessment

Say the section, then the row and its answer. What you say next stays on that section until you name another.

• Sections: "Kitchen", "now the bathroom", "calorifier", "the tank", "exposure", or an outlet by where it is: "utility room".
• Rows: "Kitchen is mains fed", "dead legs, no", "cold water under twenty, yes", "hot water over fifty, yes".
• Not assessed: say "not assessed" and it's recorded as exactly that, which is different from a No.
• A finding: "Scale yes, action required yes, risk medium, comment heavy scale on the element". Action, risk and comment go on the row you just named.
• Other outlets: "Add the en-suite", "add an outlet in the utility room".
• The result: "Property risk classification low". A Low is held if a row is rated High.

On a chlorination certificate

• The yes/no questions: "Flushed before disinfection, yes", "flushed back to background, yes", "sample taken".
• Readings: "Dosed at fifty", "contact time sixty minutes", "residual after contact forty five".
• Free and total chlorine: name the stage first, so they go in the right pair: "After flushing, free nought point two, total nought point three", "after standing, free nought point one".
• The rest: "Solution used sodium hypochlorite", "condition, light sediment in the base", "sample ID…", "lab result satisfactory".

On a gas testing and purging record

• Tests: "Add a tightness test" ticks it. Say a test's name to move onto it: "strength test", "purge".
• Readings: "Tightness test pressure twenty mbar", "test duration two minutes", "actual drop nought", "strength test pressure one point five bar". Saying bar switches the box to bar.
• Checks: "Natural gas, existing installation", "no smoking signs displayed", "valves labelled".
• The result: "Tightness test pass". The readings never decide the result for you: it's your call, as it is on the form.

On a central heating commissioning checklist

• The boiler: use its card's words: "Make Worcester Bosch", "heat input twenty four kilowatts", "CO eight, CO2 nine point two", "the boiler's a pass".
• The system: "System type sealed", "room stat fitted and working", "TRVs fitted", "boiler interlock provided", "filling loop disconnected", "primary flow seventy five, return fifty five", "expansion vessel charge one bar", "inhibitor Sentinel X100".
• The open-vented or sealed checks take what you say once the system type is set, and the cylinder boxes aren't there on a combi.

On a commercial catering inspection

• Name the appliance, then the box: "Fryer, flue flow pass", "range spillage fail, the flue's blocked with grease".
• The kitchen: "ECV in the catering area, pass", then its follow-ups such as "ECV accessible" and "handle secure". The same works for "gas proving system fitted", "canopy installed", "mechanical ventilation pass" and "ventilation interlock pass, interlock working". A follow-up needs its parent marked first, so say both.
• Air samples: "First CO2 reading eight hundred", or all three: "CO2 readings were six fifty, seven twenty and eight hundred".
• The rest: "Air quality satisfactory", "risk assessment carried out", "additional works, clean the grease filters". "Raise a warning notice" offers the draft.

On an oil tank risk assessment (TI/133D)

• Say the question, then yes or no: "Within ten metres of controlled water, no", "hard ground, yes", "eaves no, flue termination no, boundary yes". Yes always means the hazard is there.
• The two questions worded the other way round take their own wording: "vent not visible from the fill point, no", "base does not extend three hundred mil, yes".
• The tank: "Bunded plastic tank, twelve hundred litres, serial…".
• The recommendations are yours: "Fire protection required", "secondary containment required, no". If you don't say no in so many words, Mucka won't put No for you.

On a heat pump record

• Maintenance checklist: say the good answer: "no damage", "free of leaves", "coils cleaned", "defrost cycle pass", "no fault codes". A fail has to be said: "anode rod fail, it's corroded". "Flow forty five, return forty" works out the difference for you. Say "there's a cylinder" to open the cylinder checks, or "no cylinder". On a rented property, "landlord is…" issues it to them. "Heat pump make Daikin", "model Altherma three", "serial number…".
• Performance service: name the band, then list it: "SCOP heating three point eight, hot water two point nine, overall three point four", "flow rate heating eighteen, delta T five". Settings take as found and as left: "hot water temperature as found forty eight, as left fifty", "weather comp as found, high forty five, low thirty, curve four". Condition is good, fair or poor: "casing good, outside lagging poor". The questions keep the sheet's own meaning, so "no refrigerant leaks" and "no air in the system" answer No. "Glycol twenty five percent, pH eight point two", "twelve thousand run hours, three thousand four hundred starts". This record has no pass or fail.
• Commissioning: "It's a monoblock on R32" sets the type and the refrigerant. "DNO notified, yes", "complies with Building Regulations, yes". Valves and sensors are pre-existing, fitted or none: "TRVs pre-existing, outdoor sensor fitted, no automatic bypass". "Frost protected yes, fan clear, condensate drain installed". "Unvented cylinder, stored at fifty". "Controls demonstrated, literature left".

On an air conditioning or F-gas record

• The refrigerant: said the way you'd say it: "R32", "four ten A", "R290", with the charge: "total charge one point two kilos". Topping up and recovery: "topped up point two five kilos, virgin", "recovered one kilo, into the recovery cylinder".
• F-gas leak check: "Hermetically sealed, no", "leak detection fitted, no", "scheduled leak check, direct method", "instrument Testo 316". Then the result: "no leak found", or "found a leak on the flare at the indoor unit, remade the flare", and the location and repair go on the leak. Mucka works out the next check date from the charge.
• Commissioning: "Add an outdoor unit", or "add an indoor unit for the bedroom", then what's on it: "make Daikin, serial…", "isolator fitted", "wall split". "Brazed under nitrogen, meggered, condensate drain tested". "Cooling mode, return air twenty four, supply air twelve": say "heating mode" first for heating readings. Superheat and subcooling are worked out from the line and saturation temperatures.
• Service: "Routine service" (or "breakdown", "callback"), then the grid as you go: "filters cleaned, indoor coil cleaned, condensate cleared". "Faults found…" and "recommend…" add to the findings.
• Pressure and tightness test: "Strength test carried out" (or "did a strength test and a tightness test") ticks the work undertaken. "Strength test, nitrogen to forty one bar, held for thirty minutes", "pressure at start forty one point five, at end forty one point four", "strength test pass". "Add a tightness test", then "electronic leak detector, twelve joints tested", "tightness test pass".
• Evacuation: "Triple evacuation", "pulled down to two fifty microns", "held for ten minutes, start two fifty, end four hundred", "manufacturer's target five hundred microns", "evacuation result pass". Mucka works out the rise and never judges the microns: the pass or fail is your call.

On a warning notice

• Gas warning notice: drafted from the certificate, the appliances are already on it, so it's mostly what you did. "Actions taken, turned off and capped at the meter", "labelled it, told the tenant not to use it": each action goes on its own line. "RIDDOR reportable, no", or "it's RIDDOR reportable, the landlord reported it on the twentieth". "Warning label serial on the fire is…", "GC number four seven four zero six seven nine". On an Immediately Dangerous appliance, "permission refused" or "I've disconnected it" records what was done about it.
• Oil warning notice (CD/14): "Add a risk, oil weeping from the filter housing", then "issued at quarter past two", "warning labels affixed", "recipient is the site owner". Name a risk by its number: "risk two, potential risk".
• The classification is always yours. Say "the fire's immediately dangerous" or "that's an immediate risk" and Mucka offers it, but it only goes on the notice when you tap it.

Got one wrong? Say "undo that", or "actually, CO2 nine point four" to correct it.

Mucka only listens. It never talks back, so you can chat to the customer as normal and it'll leave the small talk alone.

Anything odd waits for a tap

A certificate is a legal record, so Mucka won't guess. These are held for you instead of filled in:

• A reading outside the usual range. "CO2 ninety two" is far more likely to be 9.2 misheard, so it asks: Use 9.2?
• A box that already says something different, unless you said "actually".
• A Pass when one of that appliance's checks has failed. On a gas testing record, a test's Pass when one of its own checks has failed.
• A Fail you didn't actually say. If you describe a problem without saying it failed, Mucka writes the reason down and leaves the check for you to mark.
• Taking an appliance, cylinder, outlet or test off the certificate.
• A box that isn't on the form yet, like the tank details before you've said it was a tank, or a strength test reading when the strength test isn't ticked.
• A follow-up said before its parent on a catering inspection ("handle secure" before the ECV is marked).
• A Pass said over a No or a failed check already on a heat pump, central heating or catering record.
• A TI/133D recommendation said to be not required while a question in its group is Yes.
• The grade of an observation on a CD/12, every time.
• The classification on a warning notice (Immediately Dangerous, At Risk, Not to Current Standards) and the category of a risk on a CD/14, every time, even when you say "actually".
• A "no" you didn't say. On a CD/10, "the liner's going in tomorrow" leaves the liner question for you.
• Marking an appliance as not tested. If you only skipped one check, say that check is N/A instead.

Tap the pill at the bottom of the screen to open What it heard. Held items have a button to accept them or leave the box as it was. The Still to say tab lists every box that's still empty.

Signing it off

Signing is always by hand. Saying "sign it off" just shows you what's still empty.

When you tap Approve, any result, CD/12 observation grade or warning notice classification you said out loud is listed with the words Mucka heard, so you can check them before the certificate is issued.

Good to know

• It needs signal. The words are turned into text as you speak. If you lose signal briefly it says Reconnecting and picks up again. If you're in a cellar with nothing, type the readings in as usual. The rest of the certificate still works offline.
• Keep the certificate open. Leaving the page stops listening. The screen stays on while it's listening.
• It stops on its own after two minutes of quiet, and tells you what's still empty.
• Nothing is recorded. No audio is kept, only the words, and only for as long as the page is open.