Gas Safe engineers have more options than ever for producing CP12 records. from paper pads to dedicated certificate apps to WhatsApp-based workflows. This guide compares them honestly, for engineers and for firm directors running 3-15 engineers.
Most UK gas engineers carry out the check, make notes, and complete the certificate in the van afterwards. The readings. gas rate, operating pressure, flue gas analysis. are taken at the property and transferred to the form outside it.
This creates two problems. The first is accuracy. Readings transferred from memory 20 minutes after the job contain transcription errors. The engineer knows the readings were fine. The record may not reflect that precisely.
The second is volume. An engineer doing 6-8 properties a day has 6-8 certificates to complete. At 10-15 minutes each in the van, that is over an hour of admin at the end of a full day's work. off the engineer's personal time, not the job.
Landlords then chase for copies. Managing agents email asking for records from three months ago. The certificate exists somewhere. on paper, in a folder, photographed on the phone. but retrieving and resending a specific record is friction nobody planned for when the system was set up.
Most gas firms accept this as the cost of doing business. It is not.
Paper CP12 forms are available from Gas Safe Register and various suppliers. All required fields are present. They are legally valid. For a sole trader doing 2-3 landlord gas checks a week, paper works.
The problems arrive with scale. Paper records cannot be searched. When a letting agent asks for the gas safety record for a specific flat from 11 months ago, finding it means leafing through a folder or a box of forms. If the form was left with the landlord at the time, the engineer may have no copy at all.
Paper has no reminder system. The engineer doing annual checks for a portfolio of 40 properties needs to track manually when each property is due. Paper provides no dashboard, no overdue flag, no alert.
Paper suits low volume and absolute simplicity. It is the wrong answer for a firm managing a growing portfolio across multiple engineers.
Gas Engineer Software is the most widely used dedicated platform for UK gas engineers. It produces properly formatted CP12 records, handles EICR and boiler service records, and stores certificates in a searchable cloud archive. The interface was designed for gas engineers, not adapted from a generic inspection platform.
Per-engineer pricing runs at £20-40 per engineer per month depending on the tier. Manageable for a firm of 5-10 engineers. At 15+ engineers it becomes a meaningful monthly cost.
Corgi HomePlan offers digital certificate tools for its network members, tightly integrated with the Corgi accreditation scheme.
Both platforms work well for producing compliant gas safety records. The gap is integration. If the firm also runs van checks, site inspections, or risk assessments, GES and Corgi tools do not cover those. Each additional workflow type requires a separate system.
iAuditor can handle CP12 records. The template library includes gas safety forms. For a firm already using iAuditor for other compliance checks, adding CP12 to the same platform has appeal.
The limitation is specificity. iAuditor was not designed for gas certificate production. Features that GES handles natively. automatic certificate numbering, Gas Safe registration details, landlord reminder scheduling. require manual configuration or third-party integration in iAuditor.
Per-seat pricing climbs steeply. A 10-engineer gas firm on iAuditor's premium tier pays substantially more than on a dedicated gas platform. The crossover point where iAuditor's breadth justifies its cost typically sits around 40+ staff with diverse workflow types.
For a pure gas engineering firm, iAuditor is overspecified in some areas and underspecified in others.
Quickler runs the workflow through WhatsApp during the job, not a separate app afterwards.
The engineer arrives at the property. The workflow is triggered. by scheduled message or manually. Questions arrive in WhatsApp: appliance details, operating pressure, gas rate, flue gas readings, CO alarm presence, visual inspection findings. The engineer answers in the chat, by text or voice note.
Voice notes are transcribed automatically. An engineer who says "operating pressure 19 millibars, within tolerance" while standing at the boiler does not need to type the reading twice or remember it for the van. The transcript captures it in real time.
When the workflow completes, the certificate generates from the collected data. The PDF exports from the dashboard. One-click email sends it to the landlord or managing agent. Landlords can be given read-only dashboard access to check their own records without calling the engineer.
Pricing runs from £50 per month for a single engineer to £300 per month for 30 engineers. No per-seat billing. One price covers the whole firm. Setup takes under a week. Upload an existing CP12 form and Quickler builds the workflow from it.
For firms running van checks, site visits, and gas safety records across the same team, one WhatsApp-based system removes multiple logins, platforms, and billing relationships.
| Option | Best for | Pricing model | Engineer experience | Searchable archive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper forms | Sole traders, very low volume | ~£0.50/form | Familiar, no learning curve | No |
| Gas Engineer Software | Dedicated gas firms, 1-15 engineers | Per engineer/month | Purpose-built for gas | Yes |
| iAuditor | Large mixed-workflow teams | Per seat/month | Generic, requires setup | Yes |
| Quickler (WhatsApp) | Firms wanting one platform, low friction | Per firm/month | No new app, runs in WhatsApp | Yes |
UK gas engineers use paper forms, Gas Engineer Software (GES), Corgi HomePlan digital tools, iAuditor, and WhatsApp-based platforms like Quickler. Paper remains common for sole traders. GES and Corgi tools are the most widely used dedicated gas certificate software. iAuditor and WhatsApp-based tools appeal to firms who want one platform across multiple workflow types.
No. Gas Safe Register does not certify or approve software products. The legal requirement is that the record contains all required fields under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and that the engineer completing it is Gas Safe registered. The medium. paper, app, or WhatsApp. is irrelevant as long as the record is complete and retainable.
Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, a landlord must give a copy of the gas safety record to a new tenant before they occupy the property, and to existing tenants within 28 days of the check being carried out. The engineer must provide a copy to the landlord or their agent promptly after the check.
They are the same thing. CP12 is the Corgi-era trade term that persisted after Gas Safe Register replaced Corgi in 2009. The formal name under current regulations is the Gas Safety Record. Both refer to the annual landlord gas safety check certificate required under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
Engineers answer questions in WhatsApp as they work. The certificate generates automatically. One-click email to the landlord.