Australian electrical certificates by state: what to lodge, where, and when

Every Australian state requires a certificate (or notice) after electrical work — but the name, the portal, and the deadline are different in every one of them. This is the current picture for the five mainland states, verified against the regulators' own guidance.

NSW — CCEW via the BCNSW eCert portal

Since 1 July 2026, the eCert portal is the only accepted path — handwritten CCEWs, the PDF form and the old DNSP book submissions are no longer accepted. The certificate must be submitted by the person who conducted the test, within 7 days of completing it, and the portal automatically distributes the network operator's copy. On-the-spot fines apply for failing to supply a CCEW.

VIC — COES via ESVConnect

Victoria's Certificate of Electrical Safety comes in non-prescribed (self-certified) and prescribed (independently inspected) forms, managed in Energy Safe Victoria's ESVConnect portal. The timing is tight and enforced: certify within 4 business days of completing the work, then register within 2 business days of certifying. Prescribed work adds a Licensed Electrical Inspector before the certificate can be finalised.

QLD — a certificate for the customer, not a portal

Queensland is the odd one out: there is no lodgement portal and no submission deadline. The Certificate of Testing & Compliance is given to the customer as soon as practicable after the work, and the contractor keeps a copy for 5 years. (Trade-blog claims of an “8-day lodgement” in QLD confuse it with other states.)

SA — eCoC via the Office of the Technical Regulator

South Australia's electronic Certificate of Compliance must be certified before the installation is energised, and submitted — with a copy to the owner or operator — within 30 days of completing the work. The portal assigns the official E-number and can email the owner their copy directly.

WA — three linked notices via eNotice

Western Australia threads notifiable work through three stages in the Building and Energy eNotice system: a Preliminary Notice before work starts, a Notice of Completion within 3 working days of finishing, and an Electrical Safety Certificate within 28 days. One eNotice number links all three, lodgement can only be done from an individual electrical worker's login, and amendments are only possible for 7 days — so the details need to be right the first time.

Where Field Efficient fits

Field Efficient doesn't lodge or issue any of these certificates — that stays with you, the licensed tester, in your state's own system. What it removes is the re-typing: when a job's results are approved, it assembles the exact fields your state's form asks for — site, customer, work description, test results, equipment details — into a copy-ready summary matched to your portal's order, for all five states above. The switchboard data you captured by voice, photo or instrument import becomes the certificate fields you paste in, and the deadline stops being a late-night data-entry job.