EICR software for commercial and non-domestic installations

What a commercial EICR is, and how it differs from the domestic case

An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) on a commercial or non-domestic installation is the same kind of document as a domestic EICR — a periodic assessment of a fixed installation against BS 7671, recording what was tested, what was found, and whether the installation is safe to continue in use — but the installations it covers are typically larger, often three-phase, and not bound by the domestic form's "up to 100 A supply" scope. Larger or more complex commercial installations may need the inspection scheduled and reported in sections, and the schedule of test results reflects whatever circuits and distribution boards the premises actually has, which on a commercial site can run to many pages.

Findings use the same standard observation codes as the domestic report:

• C1 — danger present, risk of injury, immediate action required
• C2 — potentially dangerous, urgent remedial action required
• C3 — improvement recommended (not a failure code)
• FI — further investigation required without delay
• plus N/V (not verified), LIM (limitation) and N/A where a section does not apply

An EICR with any C1 or C2 observation is recorded as unsatisfactory, on commercial and domestic reports alike.

Who has to have one, and how often

There is no single statutory interval that fixes how often a commercial EICR must be carried out, unlike the private rented sector's fixed five-year cycle for domestic tenancies. The underlying duty on a commercial premises comes from the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 — the duty holder must maintain the electrical system in a condition that prevents danger — and from the general duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. In practice, insurers, landlords and lease terms commonly set their own inspection interval, and BS 7671 guidance is often used to inform how frequently different types of premises are inspected. A qualified person's recommendation, recorded on the report itself, is the authoritative answer for a specific premises — not a fixed number this page can state as law.

This section describes the regulatory position in general terms. It is not advice on the correct inspection interval for a specific premises — that is a decision for the qualified person carrying out the inspection, informed by the type of premises, its use, and its condition.

How NexCert issues a commercial EICR

NexCert issues EICR — commercial alongside EICR — domestic, from the same workspace as the rest of your certificate types. The engineer completes the schedule and records observations against the standard codes on a phone or tablet, on site, with the form working offline and resuming if signal drops. Where a supervisor needs to sign off the report before it goes out, that sign-off happens remotely, from a desktop, without waiting for the supervisor to travel to the site. The finished report is delivered with an evidence trail: what was inspected, by whom, what was found, and when it was signed off — the same workflow as the domestic report, built to handle a larger schedule.

There are fields for your own NICEIC, NAPIT, SELECT or Gas Safe registration number, at both company and individual engineer level, on every certificate NexCert issues.

Commercial EICR and the rest of the electrical family

Commercial EICR is one of six electrical certificate types NexCert ships under BS 7671:2018+A4:2026: EIC (full form), EIC-D (domestic short form), EICR domestic, EICR commercial, Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, and the Domestic Visual Condition Report. If the premises is a domestic tenancy rather than a commercial one, see EICR for that case, including the private rented sector's five-year statutory cycle.

Running commercial EICRs across a portfolio of sites

A single commercial EICR is one report on one premises. A contractor or facilities client running periodic inspection across many commercial sites has a different problem: knowing what's due, what's done, what access was refused, and what's outstanding, with evidence for all of it. See Portfolio compliance — built for that audience specifically rather than folded into this one.