9.3 Job Planning and Record Keeping
Key Takeaways
- Module 2.II of the 81-hour course is 1 hour of job planning: site survey, drawings, device counts, cable fills, AHJ submittals, and as-builts.
- 19 NYCRR 195.10 requires transaction records to be kept three years at a central location in New York State.
- The consumer must receive a written statement of services performed and charges, and the record must identify the employees who worked the job.
- Programming access codes, protocol, bypass, and hours of operation is licensed work under 19 NYCRR 195.1 and belongs in the job documentation, not on an unmarked sticky note.
- AHJ submittals and as-built drawings are how the authority having jurisdiction and the next technician see battery calculations, circuit class, and device locations after the walls close.
Why one hour of planning is on a closed-book exam
19 NYCRR 196.8 Module 2 is 15 hours of control panels and alarm transmissions. Module 2.II Job Planning is 1 hour of that block. Independent OpenExamPrep teaching treats that hour as exam content, not as office busywork. The DOS bulletin names job planning among the written-exam topics. A candidate who can size a NAC and still cannot say what belongs in the job folder misses the license-practice half of the same module.
Job planning is also how 19 NYCRR 195.10 becomes a field file instead of an abstract three-year rule from Chapter 3. The same folder that holds the battery calculation from Section 9.2 should hold the consumer statement, the names of the technicians, the programmed hours and bypass, and the as-built riser.
This section is study material for the statewide Security or Fire Alarm Installer sitting. It is not an FDNY Certificate of Fitness course. Local fire-alarm inspection still exists (GBL §69-z for New York City fire-marshal inspection; other AHJs statewide). Plan the job so the AHJ you actually have can review it.
Site survey — before you order cable
Walk the building with the owner’s drawings and with your eyes. A survey that only copies a PDF will miss plenum ceilings, existing abandoned cable, a sprinkler riser that needs a waterflow switch, and a closet that cannot hold batteries.
Record at least:
- Occupancy and use (assembly, residential, mercantile, mixed) and whether voice evacuation is expected, because Section 9.2’s 15-minute alarm term depends on it.
- Existing fire alarm, security, or sprinkler equipment you must tie to or abandon.
- Ceiling types, mounting heights, and ambient conditions that affect detector and strobe listing (later fire-technology chapters cover spacing; the planner still counts rooms).
- Primary-power location and whether a dedicated branch exists or must be coordinated with an electrician (19 NYCRR 195.2 line-voltage boundary).
- Battery location: ventilation, temperature, and access for replacement.
- Pathways: which risers can be Class B, which the AHJ or the design already calls Class A, and where 2-hour survivability will matter later.
- Security scope on the same license: motion, contacts, keypads, communicators — device counts for those circuits belong on the same takeoff if you are selling a combined job.
- Who the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) is, and whether a central-station or remote-station connection is required.
Photograph electric rooms, above-ceiling conditions, and existing FACU nameplates. Those photos support the cut-sheet package.
Drawings and device counts
A constructible job has more than a sales floor plan.
| Drawing | What the installer and the AHJ need |
|---|---|
| Floor plans | Device symbols, circuit IDs, candela or wattage tap, mounting height notes |
| Riser | FACU, NAC/IDC/SLC/speaker homeruns, communicator, annunciator, power supplies |
| Sequence of operations | What happens on alarm, supervisory, and trouble (HVAC shutdown and recall appear in a later chapter; the sequence still belongs in the submittal) |
| Calculations | Battery AH worksheet, NAC voltage drop, speaker-tap total |
| Cut sheets | Listed appliances, detectors, cable, batteries |
Device counts start on the drawing and are verified in the field. Count initiating devices, notification appliances by candela (current depends on candela), speakers by tap, modules, door holders, and security devices separately. The NAC current in Section 9.2 is only as good as this count. If the salesperson counted 12 horn-strobes and the ceiling grid hides 16, the battery and the drop study are both wrong.
Mark circuit class on the riser (Class A return pairs consume copper and panel terminals). Mark EOL locations on Class B runs so they are not “TBD at trim.”
Cable fills and pathway planning
Chapter 5 covered FPL / FPLR / FPLP and power-limited versus non-power-limited fire alarm. Planning turns those types into a pull list:
- Choose jacket type for plenum, riser, or general spaces.
- Size conduit and boxes using NEC fill rules (more than two conductors in a raceway is a fill problem, not an “it fit yesterday” problem).
- Do not mix electric light and power conductors with power-limited fire alarm conductors except where Article 760 allows it.
- Plan removal or listing of abandoned fire alarm cable so the next inspection does not treat leftovers as live.
- Leave slack and a documented homerun path for Class A returns; a Class A NAC that was estimated as Class B copper will run short.
Cable fill is how a legal circuit becomes an illegal jam of jackets in a ½-inch EMT. The exam can describe an overfilled raceway or abandoned cable as a planning failure, not only as a wiring-method failure.
AHJ submittals
The authority having jurisdiction is the official who can accept or reject the installation — often the building or fire official, sometimes a third-party reviewer. Submit before you bury boxes:
- Floor plans and riser
- Battery calculation (Section 9.2 numbers, with the 1.20 factor shown)
- Voltage-drop study that keeps appliances inside the listed window (typical manufacturer window near 16–33 VDC on many 24 V devices)
- Cut sheets and compatibility statements for two-wire or SLC devices
- Sequence of operations
- Communicator path (Chapter 10) if required for the system type
Do not invent an FDNY form number on this statewide DOS exam. Do know that local review can be stricter than a minimum code package, especially in New York City. Statewide, the planner’s duty is the same: the AHJ sees the design on paper before concealment.
As-builts — the drawing after the job is true
Field changes happen: a strobe moves around a soffit, an SLC address changes, a NAC is split to fix drop. As-built (record) drawings capture the installed locations, addresses, circuit numbers, EOL locations, battery size, and programmed features. The next service technician and the AHJ witnessing a test should not have to reverse-engineer the ceiling.
As-builts are part of job planning, not a marketing extra. A folder with only the original bid plan after a remodel is an incomplete job.
19 NYCRR 195.10 on the job file
Chapter 3 taught the regulation as a business-practice duty. Apply it to this job:
| 195.10 rule | Job-planning meaning |
|---|---|
| Transaction records kept three years | Keep the contract, change orders, battery calc, as-builts, test sheets, and invoices for the work |
| Central location in New York State | New York jobs are not archived only at an out-of-state headquarters |
| Written statement of services and charges to the consumer | The customer gets a written description of what you did and what it cost, not only a card-machine receipt |
| Identify employees who worked the job | Names and employment identification numbers of the technicians on that site, matching 195.11 cards |
| Employee personnel files | Statement, application, ID number, length of employment, payroll — until three full years after employment ends; longer if litigation or a DOS investigation is open |
“Someone from our company was there Tuesday” is not identification of employees. Sequential employment IDs from 19 NYCRR 195.15 are how a 195.10 job record stays auditable. Three years for transactions is a running business clock; do not purge a 2024 fire-alarm file in 2026 because the warranty was 90 days.
Programming documentation is licensed work
19 NYCRR 195.1 includes, in installation, programming of access codes, protocol, bypass, and hours of operation. Assisting includes knowledge of those same items. Maintaining includes programming performed to prevent problems. Chapter 2 defined the words. Module 2.II puts them in the job package.
Record:
- Who programmed the panel (employee identification)
- Default installer codes changed off factory defaults
- User access codes issued (handled as confidential — 19 NYCRR 195.12)
- Bypass schedules and hours of operation for security or combination systems
- Fire-alarm software features that affect occupancy (manual-only, city-tie, NAC silence inhibit) at the level the panel actually allows
A laptop session that changes hours of operation from the shop is still licensed work. Leaving factory codes in a panel, or writing the bypass code on the FACU door, is both a 195.12 confidentiality problem and a false-alarm problem. Programming documentation belongs in the restricted job file, not on social media and not on an unmarked sticky note in the electrical room.
Walk-through: one small commercial fire job
You survey a two-story mercantile occupancy, count 12, 10, and 8 notification appliances on three NACs, confirm a digital communicator, and note the AHJ wants paper submittals before concealment. You draw a Class B NAC riser with EOLs at the last appliances, run the Section 9.2 worksheet (0.250 A standby, 2.400 A alarm, 24 h + 5 min, ×1.20 → 7.44 AH, select 8 AH), and attach a drop study that keeps the last strobes inside their listed window. After install, you redline the as-built, list Dana (employment ID 118) and Luis (ID 121) as the employees on the job, and give the owner a written statement of services and charges. You file the packet at the New York shop for three years. You log the programmed user codes and opening hours in that file because 195.1 treats that programming as licensed work.
Exam traps
- Calling Module 2.II optional because “the electrician will figure it out.”
- Keeping New York transaction records only in another state.
- A verbal quote with no written statement of services and charges.
- Job records that name the company but not the employees.
- Treating as-builts as optional artwork.
- Treating remote programming of bypass or hours as unlicensed “customer support.”
- Purging files when the one-year warranty ends instead of at three years.
- Submitting no battery calculation because “we always use 7 AH.”
Planning is the hour that ties NAC class, battery ampere-hours, cable, the AHJ, and 195.10 into one job. The next chapter leaves the panel on a communications path to a supervising station.
Under 19 NYCRR 195.10, how long must a licensed security or fire alarm installer keep transaction records of a job?
Besides retaining the file, which consumer-and-crew documentation does 19 NYCRR 195.10 require for the work?
A technician changes a customer's access codes, bypass schedule, and hours of operation from a laptop and files nothing. Which statement is correct for this license?