Notes for owners · Sales management
Test certificates and documents a buyer's engineer asks for: how to keep them ready
Electrical buyers approve papers before they approve a price. Keep one folder per product and rating, with an index of what each paper covers, and ask the buyer's engineer which papers they accept before you send.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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The order is close. Then the contractor's electrical engineer writes: "Please submit type test report for 1600 A rating, routine test format, and calibration certificates of test instruments." Your office spends two days in old emails, sends a report for a 2000 A design from an older drawing, and the engineer rejects it. Buyers of electrical equipment approve the papers before they approve the price. Keep one folder per product and rating, with an index sheet saying what each paper covers. And before you send anything, ask the engineer which papers are acceptable.
What the engineer is checking
The engineer is matching, line by line. Does this report cover the exact rating and design you are offering? Is it current? Who carried out the test? Were the instruments in calibration on the day? Does the drawing in the report match the drawing in your offer?
The engineer is also covering their own signature. The consultant or the client may check the approval later, and a paper that does not match lands on the engineer's desk, not yours.
Two kinds of report come up again and again. One records tests done once on a design, which many buyers call type tests. The other records tests done on each unit before dispatch, called routine tests. Which a buyer needs, and whether your own test bay or an outside lab is acceptable, depends on the specification and the rules for that product. Rules differ by body and change, so check with your own adviser and with the buyer's engineer rather than assuming.
One folder per product and rating
Company papers such as GST, PAN and bank details belong in a separate pack; the vendor registration pack covers that. This folder is technical, and it is built around the product. A layout that works for a busduct range looks like this.
LT-Busduct/
00-Index what is here, what it covers, valid until
01-Datasheets one per rating
02-Type-tests report, lab, design revision it covers
03-Routine-tests blank format + two filled examples
04-Drawings GA per rating, with revision letter
05-Materials conductor and insulation certificates
06-Bought-out certificates from component makers
07-Instruments calibration certificates, with due dates
08-Quality-plan your standard QAP
09-Sent what went to whom, which version
Name every file the same way: product, rating, document, revision, date. "Busduct-1600A-GA-RevC-2024-03" can be found by anyone. "final final new.pdf" cannot.
The index sheet does the real work
The folder holds files. The index tells you, in ten seconds, whether a file answers the request in front of you. Keep one row per document.
| File | Covers | Issued | Next due | Issued by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Busduct-1600A-TypeTest-RevB | 1600 A, joint design Rev B only | Date of test | Ask buyer | Outside lab |
| TestBay-Meter-Calibration | Test bay meter, serial no. | Date | Due date | Calibration lab |
The "Covers" column stops the mistake in the opening. The "Next due" column stops the other one: a calibration certificate that lapsed last month, sent with a report that is otherwise fine.
Ask what is acceptable before you send
One short message saves a rejected submission. Ask three things.
- Which reports do you need for approval, and for which ratings?
- For routine tests, do you accept our own test bay, or only an outside lab?
- Is there a limit on how old a type test report may be, or a format you want?
Then send a covering note that maps each line of the request to a file name from your folder. If something does not exist, the note says so in one line, and says what you have instead. A working line from the busduct example below reads: "Type test, 1600 A: not held for the current joint design; we hold 2000 A on Rev A (attached, index row 2). Please confirm whether this is acceptable or whether you want a fresh test." Two sentences, no argument, and the engineer knows exactly what is missing.
Imagine a busduct maker in Naroda
Imagine a maker of LT busducts in Naroda GIDC, Ahmedabad, offering a 1600 A run to a contractor building a hospital block in Surat. The details are illustrative. The engineer asked for the type test report, the routine test format and calibration certificates.
The office found a type test report for the 2000 A design and sent it, with a calibration certificate from the test bay. Both were wrong. The 1600 A range had been redesigned with a different joint since that test, and the meter's calibration had lapsed. The engineer rejected the submission. The contractor asked a second maker to submit papers in parallel.
The owner had the quality in-charge build the folder and the index that week. The second submission mapped each request to a file. It carried a current calibration certificate and the 1600 A routine test format with two filled examples. On type tests, the covering note said plainly which ratings and joint revisions had been tested. Then it asked whether the engineer would accept the nearest one or wanted a fresh test. The engineer asked for a fresh test on the 1600 A joint, which cost the maker an outside lab fee and several weeks of waiting. The contractor held the order for that long, and the second maker stayed on the bid list as a spare. The approval moved forward once the report arrived.
Where a folder will not save you
A folder cannot create a test you have not done. If there is no report for the rating on offer, say so, and ask what the engineer will accept. Never send a report for a different rating as though it covers this one. Never edit a report, not even a date. An honest gap can be worked around; a doctored paper ends the relationship with that contractor, and the story travels.
A small maker selling through traders needs far less. A datasheet per product, a routine test format and the approval papers your product carries are enough until project buyers start asking.
Start with the last submission that was rejected: open the folder for that rating, fill the index row for each paper, and write down which paper was missing or wrong. That row is the first line of your index. Making the papers look the same every time is sales collateral development, and the wider trade is on the electrical equipment manufacturing page. If the last rejected submission is still on your desk, tell us what you need.
