Case Study: How One LBP Stopped Taking His Paperwork Home

Mike has been a Licensed Building Practitioner for 11 years. Based in South Auckland, he runs a small residential building company with two other tradespeople. On any given week, Mike's team is across three or four jobs — foundations, framing, weathertightness, decks — the kind of work that generates a steady stream of producer statements for Auckland Council.

Until recently, those producer statements were Mike's least favourite part of the job.

"It was always the thing I left until last"

For most of Mike's career, producer statements meant paper forms, pens, and a lot of digging through emails for consent numbers. He'd leave site at the end of the day, and by the time dinner was done and the kids were in bed, there were often still one or two outstanding PS forms to fill in.

"I'd be sitting at the kitchen table at 9pm trying to remember the exact scope of what we'd done that day so I could fill in the form properly. Sometimes I'd have to text the client or dig through my emails to find the consent number. It sounds minor, but it happened three or four times a week and it just wore you down."

The problem wasn't that Mike didn't know what he was doing — after more than a decade in the trade, he knew the NZBC clauses that applied to his work. It was the friction of getting the right information onto a form correctly, in the right format, and submitted to council. Paper forms left room for missed fields. Scanned copies were fiddly to send. And keeping track of which statements had been submitted for which consent was a constant source of low-level stress.

Getting a query from council was the final straw

The turning point came when Auckland Council queried one of Mike's PS3 statements. He'd missed ticking a durability clause (B2) that Auckland Council requires on virtually all construction producer statements. It was an easy mistake — he'd been working from memory on a form he'd downloaded months earlier — but it held up the job and meant a phone call to the building officer to get it sorted.

"It wasn't a big deal in the end, but it cost me time I didn't have. And it made me realise I needed a better system."

A site manager on another job mentioned he'd been using PS Express. Mike downloaded it that week.

What changed

Mike's first impression was how little setup was required. He entered his LBP licence number, contact details, and licence class once — and those details pre-filled on every form from that point on. The app knew which NZBC clauses applied based on the form type he was completing, and flagged the ones Auckland Council consistently requires.

"The first time I used it on-site, I finished a framing inspection and filled in my PS3 before I'd even started packing up my tools. Took maybe four minutes. Then it emailed the PDF straight to me and the client."

The change that mattered most to Mike wasn't the speed — it was the shift in when paperwork happened. Instead of carrying the mental load of outstanding forms home at the end of the day, he now completes them on-site, in the moment, while the details are fresh.

The time savings add up

In his first month using PS Express, Mike estimated he was completing producer statements in around a quarter of the time it previously took him. Forms that previously took 15–20 minutes at home — hunting for the consent number, second-guessing clauses, scanning and emailing — were taking under five minutes on-site.

Across a typical week with four or five producer statements, that's the better part of an hour returned to him — every week.

"It doesn't sound like a lot, but that's an hour of my evenings back. I'm not a night owl — I want to be done with work when I leave site, not still thinking about it at home."

He's also had no council queries since switching. The structured NZBC clause guidance means he's not relying on memory, and the forms generated are consistent regardless of how tired or busy he is at the end of a day.

What Mike says to other LBPs

Mike's recommendation to other LBPs is straightforward:

"If you're still doing your producer statements at home, try doing one on-site with the app. Just one. You'll see immediately why you'd never go back."

He's since recommended PS Express to both of the other tradespeople in his team. All three now complete their producer statements before leaving site.

Try it for yourself

PS Express is designed for LBPs, plumbers, drainlayers, electricians, and engineers who complete producer statements as part of their regular building work. The app handles PS1 through PS4 forms and all specialist sub-forms, pre-fills your professional details, guides you through NZBC clause selection, and emails a signed PDF to you and your client instantly — all from your phone, on-site.

Try PS Express free for 28 days — no credit card required. Available on iOS and Android.