“The certificates look more much more professional and they also make it a lot easier to see if there is a problem with anything..."

John Manlow is a self-employed plumbing and heating engineer who has been working in the industry for 20 years. Fed up of piles of certification paperwork, he invested in Amtech’s GasCert software to automate the process and ease the burden of the job. He explained why he chose to do so.

John’s company, Manlow and Hampton, of Chatham, is responsible for the gas Test & Inspection for 35 landlords in the town, which involves issuing hundreds of certificates every year. He explained that before he bought GasCert in June, he was doing things the old-fashioned way and that was a messy business. 

“I used to do all of the certificates by hand”, he said. “But it meant that I had lots of bits of paper that I had to take to jobs. You have to keep a record of your work for two years so I ended up with a filing cabinet full of paperwork. I had masses of it, but I don’t need it any more.

“I hadn’t used the computer for my certificates before because although there were bits of software out there, they had far more functions than I actually needed so they were not worth buying. What attracted me to GasCert was its simplicity. All I wanted to do was create a client and invoice database and create certificates and that is exactly what it does.”

He said that the software made the whole process a lot simpler. “I don’t have to take any paperwork with me any more,” he said. “All I do is go to the site, do the survey, put the information straight onto the PDA and then I just come back and download the information to the PC and print out master copy.”

“The certificates look more much more professional and they also make it a lot easier to see if there is a problem with anything so that you can let the landlords know.”

He said that he has made good use of his PDA, from which he said he had become virtually inseparable.

“I have to carry a tool bag anyway and having the information on the PDA means that I don’t have to cart so much around. I keep in my pocket all the time. As well as using it for GasCert, I also use you sat nav feature and in my spare time I go paragliding and orienteering so I use it for that.

“I have had a few problems getting used to the software but the programme is very easy to use and I am starting to get to know what I am doing.”

“I have also phoned technical support a number of times. They always add my queries to the wish list if it is not possible to sort it out. They’re very good - we’re on first name terms!”

John Manlow
Manlow and Hampton

View more case studies and customer comments