Service and callback reports
The short answer
These are the two reports every trade needs regardless of what they do. A service report records an attendance: what you found, what you did, what it cost. A callback report is the same backbone plus the questions you only ask when you are going back to your own work.
A service report is an invoice you can defend
Findings, before photos, work performed, parts used, labour, after photos, outcome and next steps. The photos are what turn a line on an invoice into something a customer can see the value of, and they are what you reach for when somebody queries the bill three months later.
Callbacks are worth tracking as a category, not as jobs
The individual callback rarely matters. What matters is that at the end of the year you can see how many were workmanship, how many were a faulty part, how many were a recurring fault and how many were customer misuse. That split tells you whether you have a training problem, a supplier problem or a communication problem, and none of it is visible if callbacks are just filed as ordinary jobs.
Link the callback to the original job
A callback report should carry the original report reference and date. Without that link the two records sit unconnected in your history and the warranty question becomes a guess.
Warranty exposure is a number, not a feeling
Recording whether each callback was under warranty, and the reason, is what lets a business see what its warranty exposure actually costs. Most trades carry that number in their head and are wrong about it.
Who is responsible for what
The technician attending records the report. The business keeps it. Nothing goes to a regulator, so the only reason these are accurate is that the business decided they would be.
What the report should record
- Customer, site address, date and time of attendance
- Who attended, and their licence number where the work is licensed
- Reported fault or reason for attendance, in the customer's words
- Findings, with photos taken before work started
- Work performed, with photos after
- Parts used, with quantities
- Labour time
- Outcome and next steps, including anything left unresolved
- For a callback: the original report reference and date, the reason category, and whether it is under warranty
What commonly goes wrong
- No before photos, so there is no evidence of the condition you attended to
- Callbacks filed as ordinary service jobs, which makes warranty exposure invisible
- Reason for callback left blank or written as free text, so it cannot be counted
- Work performed described so briefly the customer cannot tell what they paid for
- Nothing recorded about what was left unresolved, which is where disputes start
Do the check on your phone, hand over the report before you leave
Safety Check Pro walks you through the checkpoints, records your test results and photos, and produces a branded PDF report with your own logo on it. Works offline, syncs when you have signal.
See how it works All report types
Free plan includes 4 reports a month. No card needed to start.
Common questions
What should a service report include?
The reported fault, what you found with before photos, the work performed with after photos, parts and labour, and the outcome including anything left unresolved.
What is the difference between a service report and a callback report?
A callback is a return visit to work you have already done. It carries the same content plus the original job reference, a reason category, and whether the visit is under warranty.
Why categorise the reason for a callback?
Because the pattern across a year is the useful part. Workmanship, faulty part, recurring fault and customer misuse point at completely different problems, and free text cannot be counted.
Do service reports have to be kept?
There is no regulator requiring it, but they are your evidence on billing disputes and warranty claims, and for licensed work they record who did it.
More Every Trade guides
Safety hazard and incident reports Maintenance visit and condition reports All trades
Last reviewed: September 2026. General information for tradespeople, not legal advice. Standards and regulations change. Governing references for this page: No governing standard. These are business records rather than compliance documents.. Confirm the current position with no regulator, these are your own records before you rely on it.