A test & tag visit runs through a visual inspection, then electrical tests (earth continuity, insulation resistance, leakage current), tagging of passed items, and removal of faulty ones. RCD testing can run alongside it. At the end of it you’ll have a digital report covering every item checked.
Introduction
You’ve booked the visit, cleared access to your power points, and let your team know a technician’s coming through on Tuesday. The one thing you might not have a clear picture of is what happens once they walk in the door.
- Are they going to disconnect half your office for an hour?
- Will your receptionist’s desk lamp get flagged and confiscated?
- Is this going to be a quiet, unremarkable morning, or a chaotic one?
For most workplaces, it’s a methodical, low-key process that moves through your site item by item. Here’s what to expect, step by step, so nothing on the day catches you off guard.
1) Arrival and Walkthrough
Your Success Works technician will:
- check in with whoever’s been nominated as the on-site contact,
- confirm the scope of the job against your equipment list,
- get a sense of the layout before they start, and
- ask about known-faulty equipment, locked storerooms, and areas that need special access.
For a small office, this might take two minutes. For a warehouse or a multi-floor site, they’ll usually plan a route through the building so they’re working systematically rather than backtracking across the same area twice.
2) Visual Inspection
Every item gets checked with the naked eye before any equipment gets plugged into a tester. This step catches the kind of damage that’s obvious once someone’s looking for it, but easy to miss during a normal workday:
- a cracked plug casing,
- a cord with the outer sheath worn through,
- discolouration from heat exposure,
- a power board with a cracked switch, or
- a cord that’s been taped up rather than properly repaired.
A surprising number of faults get caught right here, before any electrical test is even run. If your technician spots something that’s clearly unsafe to use, like exposed wiring or a burnt plug, they’ll pull it from service on the spot rather than risk energising it for testing.
3) Electrical Tests
Once an item passes the visual check, it goes through three electrical tests using a portable appliance tester.
- Earth continuity: For equipment with a metal casing, this confirms there’s a solid, low-resistance path to earth, so if a fault occurs, the current has somewhere safe to go rather than through whoever’s holding the appliance.
- Insulation resistance: This measures how well the equipment’s internal insulation is holding up and identifies wear that could otherwise let current leak where it shouldn’t.
- Leakage current: A check of how much current, if any, is escaping the equipment during normal operation.
None of this needs to mean anything to you beyond knowing it’s happening. Your technician reads the results against the limits set out in AS/NZS 3760:2022 and makes the call on pass or fail based on the numbers, not a guess.
4) RCD Testing
If your visit includes RCD testing (checking the safety switches in your switchboard and any portable units on site), it happens alongside the appliance testing rather than in a separate visit. Your technician will run both a push-button check and a trip time test, using equipment that measures the exact speed your RCDs respond to a fault, rather than relying on the button alone to confirm they’re working.
5) Tagging
Every item that passes gets a durable tag showing
- who tested it,
- the date, and
- when it’s due for retest.
These tags prove the testing happened if anyone ever needs to check.
An item that fails gets labelled to warn against further use and should be withdrawn from service, meaning it shouldn’t be plugged back in until it’s repaired or replaced. Your technician will point out anything that’s failed before they leave, rather than leaving you to discover it later buried in a report.
Failed Items
Seeing a failed item on the list can feel alarming the first time it happens, but it’s a routine part of the process, not a sign your workplace is unsafe. Cords fray, insulation degrades, and power boards wear out. Testing exists to catch these things before they become a serious problem. Depending on the item and the fault, your options are usually
- repair,
- replacement, or
- disposal.
Your technician can tell you which category a failed item falls into and whether it’s worth fixing or better off in the bin.
Duration
How long it takes depends entirely on:
- the size of your site. and
- how much equipment you’ve got.
The process is structured to work around your day rather than interrupt it. Technicians move desk to desk, room to room, testing equipment without needing you to shut anything down or send staff home.
A small office might be done within an hour or two. A larger warehouse or multi-site business will take longer, and your provider should be able to give you an estimate when you book.
Report
Once the visit wraps up, you should receive a report covering
- every item tested,
- its location, and
- its result.
This is the document that matters most for WHS audits, insurance renewals, or ISO compliance requirements as it proves you met your duty of care under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 to keep electrical equipment safe for people to use. File it somewhere you can find it again, and keep an eye on the retest dates so the next visit doesn’t sneak up on you.
Book Your Next Test & Tag with Us
At Success Works, every visit ends with a digital report landing in your inbox straight away, so you’re never chasing paperwork after the fact. Our test and tag technicians work through your site with a disruption-free approach designed to keep your team working peacefully, and if anything fails, you’ll know exactly what it is and why before we leave.
Booking with us also means your compliance spend supports something beyond your own workplace. Our technicians are women who’ve faced real barriers to employment. They’ve been trained and given genuine, skilled work through Success Works. If you’re ready to book a visit, get in touch with our team and we’ll walk you through what to expect for your site.
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