MCS Digital Evidence: The Photos and Documents Your Submission Needs
Certification bodies and insurance-backed guarantee providers are moving to digital evidence: a defined set of photos and documents, before and after the install, without which the job cannot complete. Here is the working shot list.
Every MCS installation is backed by an insurance-backed guarantee (IBG), and the providers issuing those guarantees — along with certification bodies — increasingly require digital evidence before they will proceed: photographs from before the install, the supporting documents, and a defined shot list from after commissioning. No evidence pack, no IBG; no IBG, no completed submission. The requirement has real teeth.
The lists below are based on a current evidence requirement for air source heat pump installations. The exact wording varies by provider and will keep evolving, but the shape is consistent — photograph the property before, evidence the paperwork, photograph the finished install in detail — and an installer who captures this set by default will satisfy any of them. Treat it as a working checklist, and your own scheme's current list as the authority.
Key takeaways
- IBG providers and certification bodies now ask for a defined digital evidence pack — photos plus documents — and can refuse to proceed without it.
- Pre-assessment photos cover the property as found: the elevation, the install location, the existing radiators and pipework, and the proposed cylinder position.
- The document set is the paperwork you already produce — signed declaration, commissioning documentation and checklist, electrical certification and test records — submitted digitally.
- The post-installation shot list is detailed: siting, anti-vibration mounts, pipe sizing and G3 termination, insulation, condensate drain, isolators, and system cleaning evidence.
- Some shots cannot be taken retrospectively — pre-assessment views, pipework before it's boxed in, cleaning and flushing evidence — so capture has to happen during the job.
Why the evidence went digital
An insurance-backed guarantee protects the customer if your business isn't around to honour the workmanship warranty, and it is a standing requirement on MCS installations. The provider underwriting that guarantee is insuring the quality of your install — so it has started asking for the same thing an auditor asks for: dated evidence that the job was done as designed, not a promise that it was.
Digital submission changes the failure mode. Under paper processes, thin evidence surfaced months later at audit. Under digital evidence requirements, a missing photo blocks the IBG — and therefore the job's completion — immediately. The practical consequence for installers is blunt: photography is no longer good practice, it is a deliverable, and it belongs in the job plan the same way commissioning does.
Pre-assessment photos: the property as found
Before the install, the evidence pack wants the property as it exists: a photograph of the elevation where the unit will be installed; the specific location it will occupy; the existing radiators and pipework; and the proposed location of the new cylinder.
These shots do two jobs. They anchor the design — the post-install photos will be compared against them to show the unit went where the design said, on the elevation the noise assessment assumed. And they protect you: the state of the existing emitters and pipework, on record before you touched anything, is the answer to a surprising number of later disputes. Take them at survey, when you're standing in front of everything anyway.
Survey day is evidence day
All four pre-assessment shots are available on the day you survey. Capture them against the job then — a photo you have to go back for costs more than the visit; a photo of a wall that's since been rendered can't be taken at all.
Doing this on a job? Heat Pump Commissioning (Benchmark) — part of TradePlanr. Free to start, no card needed.
The document evidence
Alongside the photos, the pack asks for digital copies of the paperwork: the signed declaration; the commissioning documentation; the commissioning checklist; the electrical condition report; and the appropriate testing documentation for the work.
Nothing in that list is new — it's the Benchmark and MCS commissioning records, the electrical certification for the supply and controls, and the test results you already produce on a compliant job. What's changed is the format and the timing: they're wanted as digital documents, attached to the submission, not sat in a van folder. If your certificates are issued as PDFs from the job in the first place, this part of the pack assembles itself.
Post-installation photos: the shot list
The post-install list is where providers are most specific, because it maps to the defects IBG claims actually come from — noise, poor pipework, missing insulation, condensate problems. Work through it as a walk around the finished install, outside first, then in.
Two of these deserve emphasis. The anti-vibration evidence matters because noise is the complaint that reaches neighbours and environmental health, and the mounts are invisible once the unit is sitting on them unless you photographed the detail. And the G3 discharge termination matters because it's a safety control on the unvented cylinder — a shot of where that pipework terminates is evidence a building inspector, as well as the IBG provider, cares about.
| Shot | What it proves |
|---|---|
| Elevation with unit installed | The install matches the pre-assessment elevation and the design |
| Heat pump in its location | Unit correctly sited as designed — clearances, orientation, noise assessment position |
| Anti-vibration pads, mats or mounts | Vibration and noise transmission controlled at the unit |
| Primary and secondary pipework, including G3 discharge termination | Pipes correctly sized and the unvented discharge terminates safely |
| Pipework insulation, internal and external | Heat loss and freeze protection as the design and standards require |
| Condensate and designated drain | Condensate discharges to a proper termination, not a path or a wall |
| External isolators — valve and switch | The unit can be safely isolated for service and emergency |
| System cleaning and filter fitted | System flushed and protected per the manufacturer's requirements — the warranty hinges on it |
Capturing it without slowing the job
The list looks long; in practice it's two photo passes of a few minutes each. Pass one is survey day: the four pre-assessment shots, taken while you're measuring up. Pass two is the commissioning walk-round: start at the unit, work along the pipework to the cylinder, and end at the filter — the shot list above is roughly the route your eyes take anyway. The only shots that need forethought are the ones that get covered up: pipework before it's insulated or boxed in, the cleaner going into the system, the mounts before the unit sits on them.
The organisational half matters as much as the camera half. Thirty photos in a camera roll with two other jobs' photos between them is how evidence goes missing. Photos taken against the job record, on the day, in order, are an evidence pack the moment the provider asks — and the same pack serves the MCS audit sample and any warranty dispute afterwards.
The job record is the evidence pack
TradePlanr attaches photos to the job alongside the Benchmark, F26B and electrical certificates — so when the IBG provider asks for the digital evidence, you're exporting a job, not reconstructing one.
From guidance to action
Frequently asked questions
What is an insurance-backed guarantee and why does it need photos?
An IBG protects the customer's workmanship guarantee if your business ceases trading, and it is a standing requirement on MCS installations. The provider is underwriting your workmanship, so it increasingly requires photographic and documentary evidence that the install was completed as designed before it will issue the guarantee.
What happens if a required photo is missing?
The provider can decline to proceed with the IBG until the evidence is supplied, which stalls the job's completion. Some shots can be taken on a revisit; others — pre-assessment views, pipework that's since been insulated or boxed in, cleaning evidence — cannot be recreated, which is why capture has to happen during the job.
Do the photos need timestamps or location data?
Requirements vary by provider, but dated photos attached to the specific job are the safe default — and most phone cameras record the timestamp automatically. Evidence that is traceable to the job and the day is the point; photos that could be from any install, any time, defend nothing.
Is this the same evidence MCS audits look at?
It overlaps heavily. The audit sample checks the same chain — design, siting, commissioning, handover — so a job photographed for the IBG evidence pack is largely audit-ready too. Capturing the set once, against the job, serves the IBG, the audit and any future warranty question.
Does this apply to solar PV as well as heat pumps?
The checklist here is for air source heat pump installations, where the requirements are currently most detailed. Expect the same direction of travel across technologies — photographic evidence of the as-found property and the finished install — with the shot list adapted to the technology. Your scheme and IBG provider's current list is the authority.
Related guides
MCS Submissions: Registering an Installation Step by Step
How an MCS submission works — the data the registration asks for, where it comes from on the job, and how to make every submission a copy-across rather than a dig-around.
MCS Audit Preparation: What Assessors Check
What an MCS surveillance audit actually samples — design evidence, commissioning records, handover packs and the QMS — and how to keep every job audit-ready by default.
The MCS Handover Pack: Complete Document Checklist
What goes in the MCS handover pack for solar PV and heat pump installs, who sends what, and how to hand it over cleanly.
Heat Pump Commissioning Checklist (Benchmark and MCS)
A working heat pump commissioning checklist — system prep, settings, balancing and the Benchmark and MCS F26B records that prove it.
Air Source Heat Pump Installation Guide
System design, siting, commissioning and the Benchmark and MCS paperwork for an ASHP install.
