How the plate is read
Three readers, one answer
Three independent readers look at the same photograph, and each is trusted only for what it's actually good at. That's why the serial number in the panel above is marked exact rather than 98%.
Reads the plate as a whole. Its real strength isn't character accuracy — it's knowing which string on a crowded plate is the serial and which is a conformity mark, a part number or a pressure rating.
Decides the layout
Reads the same photo on the device. Literal and strong on individual characters, so it corroborates digits the model is unsure of — and it explicitly can't override what the model can see, because the device read is often partial.
Advisory only
Where the plate has one, this isn't a reading at all — it's a decode, with a check digit. Where a barcode encodes the serial, that string is simply correct, so OnPoint uses it verbatim rather than re-reading those characters off a photograph.
Exact · wins outright
- 21045103100241N4barcode · verbatim
- Serial, not the part numbermodel · which is which
- Digit 8 confirmed, not an “S”device OCR · agreed
- Year 2021 is plausible for this rangenumeric sanity pass
Anything still unresolved after all three arrives on screen as a low confidence score — visibly flagged on regulated paperwork rather than quietly accepted.
Confidence, per field
A score you can act on, not a green tick
Every extracted field carries its own score, so “mostly right” never hides inside an overall pass. You confirm the record before the certificate is issued — the AI fills fields, the engineer signs.
On a regulated document that distinction is the point: 67 validation rules then check the record itself before it can be issued.
- Manufacturer98%
- Model96%
- Serial numberexact
- GC number68% · confirm
Third character partly obscured. Shown to you rather than rounded up to a certainty it hasn't got.
- Year of manufacture97%
The analyser
Photograph the screen, or the printout
CO/CO₂ ratio, oxygen percentage and CO in ppm go onto the certificate. Three modes, because engineers work three ways.
One photo of the screen at low rate. The three figures land in the low-rate columns.
The same again at high rate. Tell it which rate you're photographing and it files them accordingly.
One strip showing both. OnPoint works out which figures belong to which rate and fills both sides of the certificate.
Talking instead of typing
Ten minutes in a plant room, with the boiler running
Describe the job out loud and a clean structured written report comes back. The same rule applies as everywhere else here: it works from what was actually said, and adds no parts, measurements or recommendations that weren't in the recording.
- Typed rough notes and shorthand go through the same structuring, so the report reads the same whether it was spoken or typed.
- It reads back aloud, for checking the report in the van without reading a screen.
- Parts used are suggested from what the report actually says, rather than typed again from memory.
Work carried out
Expansion vessel found to have lost its charge. Recharged to 1 bar, tested cold and confirmed holding pressure.
Advised the customer
Circulating pump is noisy in operation but running correctly. No immediate action required; monitor.
Parts suggested
None used
No flue readings appear here, because none were spoken. It would rather hand you a shorter report than a fuller-looking one you'd have to fact-check.
GC numbers and fault codes
Digits three to five tell you the make. No signal required.
A Gas Council number carries the manufacturer inside it. OnPoint holds that mapping on the device, so an engineer in a plant room with no bars can type a GC number the system has never seen and still be told the make.
Digits 3–5 · the manufacturer block
Resolves to
Vaillant
Across the reference set every code resolved to exactly one brand, with no collisions between makes.
When there is signal, the full lookup runs against a reference table built from manufacturer literature and cross-checked.
Code alone
EA
Refused. Won't look up.
Code + GC number
EA · 47-044-38
Answered, for that appliance.
OnPoint will not look up a fault code without the GC number, and that's deliberate: “EA” on its own is meaningless, and the same code means different things on different makes. Looking one up without knowing the appliance is how an engineer gets sent to check the wrong thing.
Once one engineer has met a code on an appliance, the next one gets the answer instantly.
The manufacturer decode is the one part that works with no connection. It's arithmetic on the number you typed, not a request to anywhere.
Reading a plate, reading an analyser and dictating a report all need signal. A page this precise about everything else shouldn't fudge that.
The rest of the job — the certificate, the photos, the signature — is fully offline on a real sync queue.
What it will not do
Five things, said plainly
The boundaries are the product. An assistant that will attempt anything is an assistant you have to check everywhere.
- 01
It is not a chatbot
There's no assistant to converse with. Every one of these features is attached to a specific field, document or recording, and does one job.
- 02
It does not decide whether an appliance is safe
That judgement is the engineer's. OnPoint's certificate validation checks the record — that what's been written down is internally consistent and complies — not the appliance.
- 03
It does not sign anything
The engineer signs, and remains responsible for the work. Nothing on this page shifts that, and nothing is meant to.
- 04
It does not invent
Every extraction and every report is built to leave a field empty rather than fill it with something plausible. That's the instruction quoted at the top of this page, and it's why the serial row can read “left blank”.
- 05
The image and voice features need a connection
The GC manufacturer decode works with no signal. Reading a plate does not, nor does reading an analyser or dictating a report. We'd rather say so than let you find out in a basement.
We don't name the model or the provider. It would date the page, and it isn't what makes any of this work.
There are no accuracy percentages here either. The confidence score on your own plate photo is the honest version of that number.
And it doesn't read every plate or every make. It refuses when it can't see clearly — which is the feature, not the caveat.
The paperwork side
Small, and noticeable every weekInvoices in the past tense
A quote says “we will install the cylinder”. The invoice for the same job should say “installed”. OnPoint does that conversion rather than leaving a customer reading a bill written as a promise.
“We will install the cylinder…”
“Installed the cylinder…”
It calibrates to how you write
From your own documents, so what it drafts sounds like your business rather than like software. A one-van firm and a twenty-engineer contractor don't write the same way, and shouldn't.
Project costs get suggested
From the work actually recorded on the job, so the costing starts from what happened rather than from a blank field at the end of a long week.
Straight answers
Nine, including where it doesn't work.
01What does the AI actually do?
The data entry between an engineer at an appliance and a valid certificate: reads appliance details from a photo of the data plate, reads combustion figures from an analyser screen or printout, turns a spoken or roughly typed job description into a structured written report, suggests the parts used from what the report says, decodes the manufacturer from a GC number, looks up fault codes for a known appliance, rewrites quote wording into past tense on the invoice, and suggests project costs from the work recorded.
02Will it guess a serial number?
No. If a field isn't clearly visible it's left blank and flagged, with the reason. One wrong digit invalidates a certificate; a blank field costs ten seconds.
03How accurate is the plate reading?
It combines a vision model, the phone's own OCR and the barcode where the plate has one, then shows a confidence score for each field. Where a barcode encodes the serial, that value is a decode with a check digit rather than a reading. You confirm the record before the certificate is issued.
04Can it read my flue analyser?
Yes — photograph the screen or the printout strip. Three modes: the reading is low rate, or high rate, or a printout showing both, in which case OnPoint works out which figures belong to which rate and fills both sides.
05Does the voice report make things up?
No. It works only from what was actually said, and doesn't add parts, measurements or recommendations that weren't in the recording. If you didn't mention flue readings, the report won't contain any.
06Does it work offline?
The GC manufacturer decode does — it's arithmetic on the number you typed, so it works in a plant room with no bars. Plate reading, analyser reading and voice reports all need a connection. The rest of the job — certificate, photos, signature — works fully offline on a sync queue.
07Is it a chatbot?
No. There's nothing to converse with. Each feature is attached to a field, a document or a recording and does one specific job.
08Does it decide if an appliance is safe?
No — that's the engineer's judgement, and the engineer signs. OnPoint's validation checks the record for internal consistency and compliance, not the appliance in front of you.
09Do I pay extra for AI?
No. £19 for the first seat, £9 for each after, with all of this included on every plan — there's no higher tier to move up to. See pricing.
Photograph the worst plate in your van.
14 days free, no card. Find a plate that's scratched, greasy and badly lit — that's the honest test, and what it leaves blank tells you more than what it fills in.
Email us
support@onpointbusiness.co.ukCall us
+44 7884 697405Included
£19 + £9 a seat · AI on every plan