How long a typical visit takes

For a small office, the honest answer is: it depends mostly on item count, not floor space. As a rough guide, one engineer can get through 60–100 typical office items in a working day — desk equipment, monitors, chargers, printers and kitchen appliances. A 20-person office with two people per desk plus a shared kitchen and print room usually sits somewhere around 80–120 items in total.

Where it takes longer is when equipment is spread across multiple floors, or when desks are heavily cluttered and cables need to be traced before testing can start. Letting your tester know the rough layout in advance helps them estimate accurately rather than guessing on the day.

How to prepare your team

Testing works best when desks are reasonably clear and equipment isn't buried under paperwork or bags. It doesn't need to be spotless — but if a laptop charger is tangled inside a drawer, it'll either get missed or take longer to reach. A short note to the team the day before, asking people to leave equipment accessible, makes a noticeable difference to how smoothly the visit runs.

  • Ask staff to leave chargers and small appliances visible, not packed away
  • Flag any equipment that's already known to be faulty in advance
  • Let the tester know if any areas are off-limits or need an escort

What happens if something fails on the day

A failed item gets labelled immediately and removed from service, with the reason noted in plain terms — frayed cable, damaged plug, insulation fault, and so on. It's flagged to whoever's managing the visit there and then, not left for the certificate to reveal later. Most offices simply swap the item or send it for repair; a tester who's doing their job well will tell you honestly whether that's worth it or whether it's cheaper to replace.

After the visit

You should receive a full asset register alongside the certificate — every item tested, its result, and the date of the next recommended test. Keep that on file; it's the document an insurer or fire risk assessor will actually want to see, not just a one-line confirmation that "testing was carried out."