Job management for Melbourne tradies

Built for how Melbourne tradies work#

• Basements, tunnels and towers. Melbourne loses signal underground more than most. Offline mode is in development; today Chippie needs a connection and is built to be fast enough that a minute of coverage does the job.
• City and regional in one list. Inner suburbs, the outer east, the Mornington Peninsula and further into regional Victoria are one job list with nothing extra to configure.
• Compliance paperwork lives elsewhere. Chippie does quotes, jobs and invoices. Certificates of Electrical Safety go through Energy Safe Victoria, and we would rather say that plainly than imply we replace it.

Who regulates building and plumbing work in Victoria now?#

The Building and Plumbing Commission, which took over from the Victorian Building Authority on 1 July 2025. It absorbed the VBA, Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria and the domestic building insurance arm of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority into a single regulator.

• Registrations and licences current at the changeover carried over and stay valid to their usual expiry.
• Dispute resolution and domestic building insurance now sit with the same body as registration, rather than across three.
• The new regulator can order rectification of defective work well after practical completion, which is a broader power than the VBA held.

Source: Building and Plumbing Commission Victoria

What happens in Victoria when an invoice is not paid?#

The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 gives you a statutory payment claim and an adjudication route. Victoria's version is not the New South Wales one with different dates on it: it draws a distinction between claimable and excluded amounts that changes what you can put in a claim.

• A payment claim under the Act is a formal step with its own timing and content requirements.
• Excluded amounts, such as certain damages claims, cannot be included, which catches people who assume the NSW rules apply.
• Adjudication runs through authorised nominating authorities rather than a court.

Source: Building and Plumbing Commission: security of payment adjudication

What is a Certificate of Electrical Safety?#

A legal record of electrical work, issued by the licensed electrician or registered electrical contractor who did it and lodged with Energy Safe Victoria. Victoria requires one for electrical installation work, and it is issued per job rather than per customer or per year.

• The obligation sits under the Electricity Safety Act 1998 and its regulations, so it is not negotiable with the client.
• Prescribed work carries an inspection requirement on top of the certificate.
• Energy Safe Victoria publishes the current categories and takes the certificates through its own system, not through job software.

Source: Energy Safe Victoria: certificates of electrical safety